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The Pukka Palace, 174 Tower Bridge Road, London SE1 (0171-234 0000)

What it is: A must-go shop for anyone who has ever been to India/made any curtains. A converted red-brick warehouse with three floors of antiques, modern decorative goods and fabrics - all from India - it is an offshoot of Crucial Trading, the coir matting people.

Atmosphere: Anglo-India meets The Conran Shop. The floor is coir, the walls red and covered with comical 1819 prints called things like "A Tiger Prowling Through a Village" and "Hoghunters Meeting by Surprise a Tiger and Her Cubs" (all pounds 195). Topees and turbans sit among the merchandise.

Stock: Go for the soft-coloured hand-woven cottons in checks and stripes, most priced at a reasonable pounds 9.95 a metre. Check out the ornate carved wood chairs, tables and mirrors, pigskin cases, ironwork candelabras.

What to buy: Check cushion covers with bows, pounds 6.95; chunky jute curtain tassels, pounds 4.95; ironwork chair with wooden seat, pounds 39.95; curly-wurly wooden mirrors, pounds 39.95; genuine Anglo-Indian planter's chair, reduced from pounds 440 to pounds 370; woven metal soap dish, pounds 4.95, waist-high carved candlestick, pounds 42.50.

Disappointing feature: The cafe upstairs, which has an identity crisis. It sells American-style Maple Walnut coffee, Welsh ice cream, Italian pasta and "Mexican Quorn" sandwiches, but nothing Anglo-Indian unless you count the pot of Darjeeling tea (pounds 1.50) or Chicken Tikka sandwich (pounds 2.20).

Where it is: Ten minutes' fumey walk (or a "short elephant ride", as their blurb says) south from Tower Hill Tube.

Good thing

British Museum wall plaques, from pounds 24.95

The British Museum's new range of deeply desirable plaster plaques includes shells, fruit, fish (right) and Michelangelo's David's nose, lips, eye and ear. They can be propped on the mantelpiece, or hung on the wall. From the British Museum Company (0171-323 1234) or the British Museum shop in Russell Street, London WC1 (saving you pounds 4.50 p&p).

Bestsellers Top 10 at Kellogg's

Did you have breakfast today? Then you are likely to be slimmer, work faster, feel better, and make fewer mistakes in maths than your friend who didn't. Or so say Kellogg's, who next week are sponsoring National Breakfast Week, when we will be bombarded with scary facts about why we should eat breakfast. And fry-ups or croissants don't count

1 Corn Flakes.....................................................................

2 Frosties ...........................................................................

3 Rice Krispies ........................................................................

4 Bran Flakes .....................................................................

5 Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes.....................................................

6 All-Bran .......................................................................

7 Fruit n' Fibre .................................................................

8 Special K......................................................................

9 Coco Pops.....................................................................

10 Variety..............................................................

Mad thing

Gothic chocolates, from pounds 4.95

These give a fresh meaning to death by chocolate: chocolates stamped with a skull-and-crossbones motif. There are 16 squares of high-quality Swiss chocolate - plain, milk or mixed - to a box. Get them for someone you love - or someone you don't. From Stephen Einhorn, 210 Upper Street, London N1 (0171-359 4977; mail-order available).

What kind of ... hairstyle should I have?

Expert's view: We asked Daniel Field, pioneer of hairdressing using organic and mineral products, what look women should be wearing this autumn.

On colour: "This year hair has gone the blondest I have seen it since the summer of 1976. I have also seen the best tans this year. People like blond but it looks crap in the autumn.

"A colour I am using at the moment is very, very popular. It is a golden red (light copper but not orange and not strawberry blond). The natural colour is low-lighted in chunks to break up the parting and we paint on this very, very light copper blond. It is an autumn blond that looks great with green or brown eyes but terrible with blue eyes.

"For brown hair, darker low lights look good. Nearly black and strong vibrant copper (on the red side of copper) accentuates flatter hair styles. This colouring looks particularly good with blue eyes."

On cut: "Hair is still quite short. It should be in very good condition, very soft around the face providing a frame - people in this country tend to have square faces and need slightly longer hair around the neck and ears.

"Height is in. The look is more Liza Minnelli than waif. It is quite pointed but not too wispy. The ear is visible but a narrow piece of hair lays in front.

"Eyebrows are in. They should be slightly darker than the hair colour (try a little gel mascara on them), arch shaped and thicker near the middle.

"Fringes should not be long - long is well out. You have to show off your eyebrows. It should fall just above the eyebrows."

Daniel Field Salon, 8-12 Berwick St, London W1 (0171-439 8223). Cut pounds 32-40, colour pounds 30-35, highlights pounds 50-70