The Transmitter Issue 16

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ISSUE 16 FEB 2011

A SOUTH EAST LONDON MAGAZINE www.thetransmitter.co.uk

LEAN this Way

YOUR

The Diary of a

low-cal

Gymnophobe

MAGAZINE

RACHEL DE THAMPLE IS MAINLY EATING VEG

Plus

NEWS

FASHION

MUSIC

BOOKS

GARDENING

WELCOME

TO THE LEAN ISSUE

Editor Andy Pontin

Words Justine Crow Michael Eyre Hannah McEwen Jonathan Main Howard Male Annette Prosser Andrew Rumsey Janette Scott Mary Stamm-Clarke

W

ith Xmas excess in the dim and distant, we’re going lean and mean for this issue – starting with the magazine itself! We sent our February edition off on a healthy new year regime and, hey presto, it got a bit thinner.

To keep the mag company we also set the gym-shy Susie Doyle a fitness challenge: read how much it hurt on page 12.

Images

For our Valentine’s fashion shoot on page 24 the lean and lovely Ella agreed to model some locally-sourced outfits in a cold and wet Crystal Palace Park. We love the park, we love Ella for braving the elements (sans umbrella, poor Ella), and we hope YOU love the pictures. OK love stuff out of the way … what else is going on?

Louise Haywood-Schiefer Viveca Koh Andy Pontin Simon Sharville

Well, if you look Caerphilly you’ll see a new cheese shop in SE19.

The Transmitter team were offered a sneak preview tasting session and it was almost too Gouda be believed. Our passion for it was completely unFeta’d and we think you’ll feel the same*. Whet your appetite on page 10.

Printing The Marstan Press Ltd

Contact editor@thetransmitter.co.uk 020 8771 5543 The Transmitter is published by Transmission Publications Ltd

Speaking of appetites, our new recipe queen (and this month’s cover girl), Rachel De Thample, should get your mouth watering with her Tuscan Rabbit dish. We talk to her on page 18 about her brand new book Less Meat, More Veg which offers a healthy eating philosophy that for once doesn’t involve tofu.

In addition, local photographer Viveca Koh has beguiled us with her mesmeric arthouse pictures (read Mary’s interview with Viveca on page 28), whilst the Reverend Rumsey shares his reflections on a short but exquisite poem on page 37.

So, yes. A lean issue. Or is it...what about Norman Rockwell in Dulwich, top-notch recommendations for newly-released books and world music, a masterclass in the joys of vodka, gastronomic delights Ganapati-style, not to mention our esteemed gardening correspondent pleaching to the converted. Hang on, this isn't a lean issue at all, it's got more rabbit than Sainsbury's!

And finally...I really would like to thank, once again, all the local businesses who support The Transmitter with their advertising.

We definitely would not be here without your help.

Enjoy the issue!

Cover Local author Rachel De Thample shot by local photographer Louise Haywood-Schiefer.

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*cheesy puns by @jacques_aih (Follow @jacques_aih on Twitter for an endless stream of great puns)

CONTENTS 18

FEATURES 10 A KIND OF BLUE Hannah has been mainly eating British cheese with beer

12 LEAN THIS WAY - DIARY OF A GYMNOPHOBE Susie has been mainly eating tofu and doing kick boxing

18 LESS MEAT MORE VEG Janette has been mainly talking to Rachel De Thample

24

22 ROCKWELL AT THE DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY Howard has been mainly looking at Norman Rockwell pictures

24 MY FUNNY VALENTINE Andy has been mainly shooting Ella in the park

28 VIVA VIVECA Mary has been mainly talking to local photographers

regulars 34 GARDENING: PALACE PATCH Sue has been mainly pleaching

28

37 POEMS FOR THE POEMLESS Andrew has been mainly contemplating the fleeting nature of life

38 BOOZE Michael has been mainly drinking vodka with fruit juice

45 MUSIC: THERE’S A WORLD OUT THERE! Howard has been mainly listening to world music

40 RESTAURANT REVIEW Justine has been mainly eating indian food in Peckham

42 BOOKS: THE BOOKSELLER Jonathan has been mainly reading lots of new books

48 WHAT'S ON But not what's not

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EMAIL US: community@thetransmitter.Co.Uk

NEWS AND EVENTS

BIKES? BEER? BOOKS? You DECIDE...

London Classic Aficionados of continental bikeracing will already have Sunday 10 April highlighted in their Cycling Weekly diaries, as it’s the day of the legendary Hell-of-the-North Paris-Roubaix race. On the same day you can take part in your own hilly challenge by participating in the second London Classic, an annual charity bike event which starts and finishes at The Alma pub in Church Road, SE19. The race covers around 38 miles, taking in the bone-breaking cobbled streets of the East End and occasionally lung-busting cols de Sarf London. Once you’ve completed that final sprint up to the Palace, you’ll be able to settle back with an Alma beer, some tasty tucker and (oh yes) the proboys race up there on the big screen.

If this sounds like your perfect day, go to www.thelondonclassic.org to register and for all details including how to make your fundraising donation to The Evelina Children’s Hospital.

Masterpieces on your doorstep On 9 January 2011 Dulwich Picture Gallery, England's first purpose-built public art gallery, turned 200 years old. To mark this milestone birthday, the gallery will be celebrating with an impressive international loan collection. Throughout the year Masterpiece a Month: Presiding Genius will display, in pride of place, one work by artists including Vermeer and Velazquez. To find out about the magnificent works of art that are about to turn up in our local neighbourhood see www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk for the full list.

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Upper Norwood Joint Library

Antiques Discovery Day

The Upper Norwood Joint Library is hosting a reading group that takes place on the third Thursday of each month at 2pm. If you've recently read a book that you think others would enjoy, or wish to hear about books that others have read, simply turn up and take part in the group.

Membership is free for members of the library except for a small contribution towards the cost of a cup of tea.

And if you enjoy writing (or wish to get started) then you could join the writing group on the first Friday of each month at 2pm. It is a chance to present and comment on all types of work, from poems and short stories to articles about subjects of interest.

For both groups contact Brian Dann on 020 8653 6460 or email brian2dann@yahoo.co.uk

Calling all antiques enthusiasts.

If you have an item that you are curious about — ceramics, jewellery, glass, paintings, silver or furniture — Rosebery’s Auctioneers will be on hand to give you some guidance at their Antiques Discovery Day, Saturday 19 March, where you can have your items valued by an expert.

There will also be an arts and crafts sale if you fancy browsing for some more collectables.

10.30am to 2.30pm, Herne Hill Baptist Church, Half Moon Lane, SE24. Admission is £5 (free for under16s) and this includes a valuation of one item. Additional items can be valued at £1 each. Admission to the arts and crafts sale only is £2.50.

All proceeds will go to the Dulwich Helpline, a local charity that provides support for isolated older people.

Sydenham Wells Park committee Although it is hard to imagine now, Sydenham Wells Park is the only remaining fragment of Westwood Common which orginally covered 500 acres of heath and grazing land.

The park still takes its name from the medicinal springs that were used in the 17th century, and was even used for a time as a spa resort.

This historical park – although now rather smaller than its original site – is still well worth a visit, attracting wildlife including woodpeckers, herons, tufted ducks, wrens, parakeets, bats and owls.

If you would like to become more involved in Sydenham Wells Park, there is a committee that meets four times a year, and new members are always welcome. The meetings for 2011 will be on 8 February, 10 May, 6 September and 22 November, from 6pm in the Maintenance Hut at the Wells Park Road entrance.

Garden skills at Spa Hill Are you are inspired to follow in the self-sufficiency footsteps of Tom and Barbara in The Good Life?

If you would like to know more about growing your own produce, but don’t feel as confident as you should when wielding a pair of secateurs, then the Garden Skills Days at the the Spa Hill Allotments on Sunday 20 February and Sunday 17 April could be just the ticket.

The Spa Hill Allotments are a tree-rich green space, forming a haven for city wildlife (including woodpeckers and kestrels). The site even has its own wind turbine, creating an eco-friendly power source. The site is co-operatively run by allotment holders, who will be organising the days. You can benefit from the knowledge and expertise of experienced growers, and learn lots about producing healthy homegrown food – straight from the radish’s mouth!

Anyone can join in and you don’t have to have an allotment to participate, but you do need to book a place by calling 07879 007156 or by emailing training@spahill.org.uk

Award for Crystal Palace Triathlon Crystal Palace’s reputation as a centre for sporting excellence received a further boost when its Triathlon was awarded the Triathlete’s World British Triathlon Event of the Year. The event – given the award at the end of last year – was praised as ‘one of the most sustainable and environmentally friendly events in the UK’.

The award was collected on behalf of the club by Karen Ayers, John Petrides, Bruce Ayers and junior member Adam Efrat. John commented, ‘It’s fantastic, I had no idea. It goes to show that all the hard work put into organising the event has now been rewarded.’

Online entry is now open for the 2011 Crystal Palace Triathlon, taking place on Sunday 22 May 2011. If you are inspired to swim for 750m, cycle for 20km and run for 5km – all within the lovely Crystal Palace Park – then now is the time to register.

There will also be novice training sessions for those new to Triathlon taking place in April and May. More info www.crystalpalace-tri.co.uk

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Read-in

The great library Read-in on 5th February.

gcSE21.com

10.30am - 4.00pm

SE21

Come and read excerpts from your favourite books to protest against the proposed closure of local libraries at Sydenham, Crofton Park, New Cross, Blackheath & Grove Park Libraries. designedbygoodpeople.com

Sunday 3rd April

11.30 to 1PM.

DULWICH COLLEGE

LONDON

SE21 7LD

Glass & Ceramics Fair

Save Sydenham Library

pARK LIFE?

SE21 will be taking place on Sunday 3 April at Dulwich College. The fair will have a mix of collectable contemporary and antique glass and ceramics. There will also be an opportunity to see demonstrations by glass makers and pottery artists.

Sydenham Library is under threat of closure and Transmitter readers are invited to go along to a fun Read-In event day on 5 February (for times and details see advert on this page).

The wonderful (and reassuringly ubiquitous) Crystal Palace Park Rangers may be a thing of the past soon. All park ranger jobs are under review as Bromley decide where to make the 25% cuts required by the coalition government's 'no pain no gain' public spending policy.

The day will host superb displays from top exhibitors, including South London ceramics dealer Mark Hitching; Nigel Benson, dealer in quality 20th-century glass; Sarah Cox, who will be exhibiting her quirky contemporary ceramic designs; and Vic Bamforth who will be showing his highly collectable glass art. If you fancy finding some unusual or collectable glass or ceramics, then be sure to put the date in your diary.

10.30am-4pm, Christison Hall, Dulwich College, Dulwich Common, London SE21 7LD. Admission is £5, with free entry for accompanied children under-16 plus free parking.

Visit www.gcse21.com for further information or call 07887 762872.

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Among supporters of the library expected to attend the event are life peer and respected philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock, local poet and children’s author Chrissie Gittins, children’s writer and TV Producer Gareth Jones, and author Julie Day. Highlights of the day will include readings from each of the authors and a balloon release.

The popular historic library opened in September 1904 and is thought to be the first Carnegie library in the UK. Sydenham Library is one of five libraries targeted for closure in a list of cuts by the Mayor of Lewisham.

The decision on the future of the library has been postponed until 17 February. The council are currently considering a number of bids by community groups to run the library.

According to sources, the cut could be as high as 50% of park ranger staff across the Borough — with parks being seen as a 'soft' target for axe-wielding beaurocrats.

Aspects of the rangers' work — such as helping to organise and supervise public activites and the day-to-day monitoring of park security — will no doubt be flagged up as ideal candidates for jobs to either be done by 'Big Society' volunteers or to be farmed out to private companies. Let's start writing those letters to our councillors right now!

l

Winner S.E. London branch New Star Award 2010

l

Good Beer Guide 2011

The Grape & Grain Spring Beer Festival 4th - 7th March 2011

30+ ales and ciders from the very best micros in the UK Food available all weekend, hog roast Saturday.

Discount for CAMRA members on food and 40p per pint discount on ales Live music on Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings and Sunday lunch 2 Anerley Hill, Crystal Palace, SE19 2AA Tel: 020 8778 4109 www.thegrapeandgrainse19.co.uk

Mainline/Overground station 3 mins Bus station 1 min

Look out for our own festival ale especially brewed for us by Kent Brewery

Grape & Grain Beer festival The inestimably good and gracious Rick at The Grape & Grain is holding another beer festival the weekend of 4 March. As well as the obvious attraction of beer, there will be music from the likes of The Sax Pastilles (Friday 4), Frank Sinatra tribute act Jack Valentine (Saturday 5), Charlotte James (Sunday 6 lunchtime), and The Big Beer Band (Monday 7).

Not satisfied with the mere 20 ales he made available last time, Rick will be offering up 30 beers from micro breweries all over the UK. Kent Brewery is also creating a beer especially for the festival: 'It's going to be called something like Pride of Palace or Crystal Gold,' says Rick 'I haven't made my mind up yet'.

Now there's a challenge readers!

Send your festival beer name ideas to info@thegrapeandgrainse19.co.uk

DON'T MISS OUT!

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CINEMA NEWS!

GREEN LIGHT FOR CRYSTAL PALACE CINEMA PLANS

UPDATE FROM THE Picture Palace Campaign

Bromley Council has granted planning permission to local company Future Projections to convert The Grape & Grain public house and former SG Smith car showroom at the top of Anerley Hill into a two-screen cinema.

There are now three possible cinema venues in the district centre: the 2/2A Anerley Hill conversion, restoration of the purpose-built cinema at 25 Church Road, and wholesale redevelopment of the Victory Place/Carberry Road site on Westow Street.

'We are absolutely delighted to be the first company to be granted planning permission for a cinema in the area for 30 years.' said Future Projections Director Peter Hall An ancillary foyer and café bar would be in the building that is now the ground floor of The Grape & Grain, with a 51-seat bijou cinema in the lounge area closest to the Church Road junction.

Peter Hall told The Transmitter that he was looking forward to talking to Rick, the landlord of the Grape & Grain, about the plans and to look at ways in which they may be able to work together and also with representatives from the local cinema campaign group, the Picture Palace Campaign 'I am very aware of the efforts of all the campaign supporters who have done so much to bring the need for a cinema in the area to the forefront of the local community's agenda.'

Future Projections develops and installs cinemas for a range of clients including Everyman, Working Title, Curzon and City Screen. Its architects, Burrell Foley Fischer, are leaders in the field of cinema design.

The Anerley Hill site is the most recent of these proposals, but the quickest off the mark. Future Projections’ planning application assures that there would be no increase in height or footprint either of the pub or the showroom.

The Picture Palace Campaign (PPC) is about bringing a cinema back to Crystal Palace, recognising that 25 Church Road as a purpose built cinema is the best location for the economic, social and cultural regeneration of Church Road and Crystal Palace. We look forward to Future Projections making public further details of its proposals, so that everyone interested in having the best possible cinema in Crystal Palace can come to an informed view.

and Church Road. The issues which 3,500 local residents and traders raised in our objections to Kingsway International Christian Centre’s (KICC) application for change of use to a church are still very relevant.

Despite the ongoing efforts of the PPC, 18 months after buying 25 Church Road, KICC, which was denied change of use in December 2009, is still refusing to meet MPs and locals to explain its intentions for the former cinema and bingo hall, which remains empty and unused.

In the coming months, as we see how alternative cinema proposals play out and what KICC plans for Church Road, we shall be asking you how you want the campaign to go forward.

If you wish to discuss any of these points further, or have other comments, please contact us at admin@picture-palace.org or take part in the discussion on the Virtual Norwood forum.

How you can help the campaign

We have asked Future Projections to meet with the Picture Palace Campaign committee to discuss its plans.

We shall continue to campaign for an inclusive leisure and entertainment use at 25 Church Road. We want this significant building to reflect the needs of local people and contribute to the regeneration of the Triangle

•

Sign up for the monthly newsletter at: www.picture-palace.org

•

Join our facebook page: Picture Palace Campaign (return a cinema to Crystal Palace)

•

follow us on twitter: @picturepalace

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A KIND OF BLUE Hannah McEwen AT the NEW CHEESE SHOP

I

f you don’t really do New Year’s resolutions, then you may find yourself in need of something a little bit special to get you through these early winter months. Bodyblitzing and health regimes are all well and good, but sometimes don’t you just need something a bit more, well, enjoyable?

To ease my transition from the festive season, I was treated to a cheese tour of the British Isles. My genial host for the evening was Manish Utton-Mishra, proprietor of Good Taste Food and Drink, opening soon in Crystal Palace.

The advance preview covered a dozen of the cheese delights that will be on offer. When Manish opens his shop, his selection will focus on around 50 artisan cheeses, mainly from the British Isles.

As we start tasting, Manish reveals a side to cheese that had never crossed my mind, ‘something that people don’t often think about is that cheese is seasonal. Cheese that has been made from the milk

of animals that have been eating winter feed may impart more of a rich, earthy flavour to the cheese.

Creamy cheeses, such as Brie, may often be better when made with late spring or early summer milk, when the feed is rich and nutritious.’

And when it comes to artisan cheeses, made by hand rather than machine, there will also be natural variances. ‘Cheeses have vintages,’ explains Manish, ‘the cheesemaker may vary the amount of salt he adds, or the time that the cheese has to mature.’

Good Taste Food and Drink 28 Westow Hill, SE19 1RX www.goodtaste-fd.co.uk © Transmission Publications Ltd

Cheese tasting notes Swaledale Goat’s from North Yorkshire, England. Matured for six weeks, during which time it is brushed and turned. The one we tried had been made from autumn milk, and had a lovely sweet but salty, fresh, creamy taste.

I am surprised at first when we crack open a bottle of beer as an accompaniment. It is, after all, ‘cheese and wine’ that seems to be a pairing that people gravitate towards.

However Manish is the first to admit that it is not an easy partnership, ‘it can be hard to find the right combination, especially for red wine. I find that a good India Pale Ale will go well with most cheeses.

And some of the Porters and darker stouts tend to go particularly well with goat’s cheese and blue cheese.’

And he’s certainly got a point.

The cheeses that we nibble our way through are all delicious in different ways. They vary between those made from pasteurised milk and those made using unpasteurised (or ‘raw’) milk; there are cheeses from cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk, and the creamy cheeses made using the milk of Jersey cows, which has a naturally higher fat content.

When it comes to keeping cheese at home, it is best kept at cellar temperature (around 12-degrees) if you can; although shops are required to keep it refrigerated to a colder temperature than this. When it comes to serving, it should be room temperature to appreciate the full flavour, and to allow some of the softer cheeses to get that lovely running-off-the-plate consistency.

Montgomery’s Cheddar PDO from Somerset, England. This is certainly a cheddar for adults. Beautifully rich and savoury, with a touch of the cellar coming through – the taste lasts forever. PDO means ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ and it guarantees that the Cheddar has been made in Somerset using raw milk and animal rennet. This is a cheese that makes me want to shout ‘I shall never again buy bad Cheddar from the supermarket!’

Saval from Ceredigion, Wales. This beauty is ‘washed’ twice a week, creating a pungent orange rind with a soft and strong inside that fizzes on your tongue.

Wealden from East Sussex, England. Made from pasteurised goat’s milk, the one sampled was almost liquid ripe and powerful. A great choice for those who like goat’s cheese with character.

Dunsyre Blue from Lanarkshire, Scotland. Very blue and very creamy, with a sweetness in the afterwards. Its sister cheese is Lanark Blue, made from sheep’s milk – recommended as an exceptional alternative to Roquefort.

And to accompany…

The Kernel IPA (7.2%) with a long-lasting hoppy flavour and refreshing lemony tang, it goes exceptionally well with all the cheeses we tasted.

The Kernel A LONDON PORTER (5.5%) deep chocolate and coffee notes, this Porter is certainly more that a match for the strong blues and goat’s cheeses.

After a dozen different types I have certainly satisfied my cheese desire for a little while at least. So all local cheese-lovers be warned – you’ll soon have no excuse to settle for something second-rate. Head to Westow Hill and ask Manish to show you round.

Manish’s emporium of cheese, charcuterie, beer, wine, coffee and tea will be opening in February.

There will be space to sit and enjoy a cheese or charcuterie board and a glass of something good, or plenty to take home with you if you prefer.

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Diary of a

Gymnophobe

SUSIE DOYLE TAKES THE TRANSMITTER CHALLENGE

T

here’s an incredulous silence in the room. My boss has just told us his New Year resolution: to run the London Marathon and raise £2.5million in sponsorship for our charity – breaking a world record. I was so overcome with inadequacy that I don’t remember the others (yes, he had others!) Mine are always things like taking the recycling out regularly, or remembering to pair my socks. Thrilling, life-changing.

Almost certainly doomed to fail.

So this year I’m doing things differently. I’ve signed up for a 10day programme at Training Points on Church Road, which is practically in my front garden (no excuse there then).

I am both lazy and shy, which means that going to the gym has never been easy – it takes me forever to gather enough guts to go, I hate the mirrors and then I’m too lethargic to ever go again.

The day before I start, Mathilde, who runs the centre with Taylor, sends me an email with my training schedule. I read it to my husband, who looks alarmed and says anxiously, ‘Honey, are you going to be OK?!’ Comforting.

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Monday:

Tuesday:

Personal Training Session No.1

Yoga and a Full Body Massage

I often walk past Training Points and never fail to be awed by the aura of fitness emulating from it. But Mathilde and Taylor are warm, softly spoken and very encouraging. We discuss my health and eating habits (post baby, Christmas and flu it’s all poor) and measure my weight, height, body fat and blood pressure.

By 10am I’m feeling the absence of my usual triple shot Americano and looking dolefully at a pack of green tea.

Although my sinuses are blocked, my feet ache and all I want to do is collapse in front of the TV, I start an hour-long workout with Taylor, beginning with three minutes of skipping. Somewhere between primary school and my 30s, I’ve forgotten how to do it. Very embarrassing. It’s tiring but Taylor changes exercises quickly so the different muscle groups get a break in between gruelling push-ups, star jumps and kettlebell lifts.

Amazingly I feel livelier by the end of the session. Taylor stretches out my muscles and I leave armed with my diet for the week, supplements and herbal teas, feeling two inches taller inside and out.

I was concerned about the lack of aching, assuming that Taylor had been too gentle with me yesterday, until the yoga session with Amy. In the middle of (attempting) the Cobra pose, I realise that my stomach muscles have the strength and consistency of spam.

Yoga is tough, and not what I expected. There’s no meditation, but a series of stretches, poses and holds, beginning and ending with chants. It’s challenging, and wonderful for stretching out those pesky hard to reach muscles between my shoulder blades.

Mathilde’s massage in the evening is amazing. No other word for it.

Wednesday:

Friday:

Sunday:

Day off. Hurrah!!

Personal Training Session No.2

Stretching and a sports massage

At 7am I meet Mathilde for a personal training session before I head into work. We start with a 3-minute skip, which I’m still shockingly bad at. Then we move on to a series of cardio exercises – lunges and squats – and in no time at all my heart is racing. Having someone to correct my posture (a full-time occupation) and highlight weaker muscle groups is invaluable.

It turns out that the left side of my body is stronger than the right, despite being right-handed – useful to know.

The stretches in the session are similar to those in Pilates, so I relax; everything feels familiar.

Thursday: Pilates

Training Points is now my second home. Some of the girls from yoga are in the Pilates class, which is really nice, but makes me feel rather incredulous – other (ie normal) people really work out every day?!

Two others come in having first been on a run – this is getting worse and worse.

I’ve done Pilates before, so everything feels familiar, but I’m beginning to realise how much I usually ignore my body. Jennifer, the Pilates instructor, points out that by standing with my weight on one leg I’m lengthening one muscle set and shortening the opposite one. Concentrating on muscles, trying to balance during the exercises, standing up straight and not look like the hunchback of Crystal Palace all make for a tiring and challenging hour.

I head off to work, where everyone is shovelling Celebrations down their throats like they’re going out fashion. Seems like keeping up a strict diet here is going to be tough.

Saturday: Day Off.

At Sainsbury’s I have a sudden craving for a cinnamon swirl, but the great thing about local trainers as opposed to joining a faceless gym is the fear of being seen eating naughty food.

No sitting in Domali sipping a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream for me then. And no cinnamon swirls.

After only four sessions I can already feel that my core muscles are stronger and my balance is better.

Looking at myself sitting up straight in the mirrors I realise that doing so doesn’t make me look like an overexcited meerkat (a belief I’ve always harboured); it actually makes me look better.

As the week progresses I’m seeing that there are no quick fixes – changing your body properly and safely takes time. I’m also noticing that there’s a lot more about my body that needs improving. The class is small, just two of us, which means we practically get one-to-one care.

Not bad for a tenner!

Then I have a sports massage with Taylor, which several people have warned me is going to be painful. I lie face down on the bed, clenching my jaw, determined not to wince, but I’m pleasantly surprised. The massage is heavenly; very relaxing and only hurts a tiny bit around my calves. Ah, if only I could get one every day…

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Crystal Palace Acupuncture Friendly and effective treatment for a vast range of ailments.

JH Skincare Clinic are delighted to Invite you to our

AFTERNOON TEA EVENT

From fertility and gynaecological issues, through stress, skin problems and facial revitalisation, digestive problems, migraines and headaches, anxiety and insomnia, to aches, pains and arthritis, and (almost) everything inbetween.

Home made scones, cupcakes and cucumber sandwiches!

Winter Skin Boost Facial & Gel Nails Have your skin hydrated and protected from the harsh drying effects of winter and have your Gel Nails looking gorgeous in time for Valentines Day To reserve your treatment time, a £25.00* booking fee will be taken at the time of planning your treatments.

Purchase 2 or more Gatineau products on the day and receive 10% off! Purchase 2 or more Jessica products on the day and receive 10% off!

Do get in touch to book an appointment or for more information.

Lilja Katanka, BSc, MBAcC* www.lifeisforlivingwell.co.uk acupuncture@lifeisforlivingwell.co.uk 0773 910 5885

r& che Vou ag to Giftodie B me!

Go ke ho ta

*£25.00 is non refundable and non redeemable RSVP. Wednesday 9th February 2011

* fully accredited and insured member of the British Acupuncture Council

JH Skincare Clinic 137 Kirkdale, Sydenham SE26 4QJ E: info@jhskincareclinic.co.uk • T: 020 8699 1998

Crystal Palace Osteopaths & Natural Health Therapies for people of all ages

FITNESS BOOTCAMPS

Beckenham - Brockley - Canary Wharf Crystal Palace - Herne Hill

email us at info@miraclefitness.co.uk or text your email address and preferred location to 07905 982 342

10 Westow St, Upper Norwood SE19 3AH www.crystalpalaceosteopaths.co.uk 14

www.miraclefitness.co.uk

Monday:

Wednesday:

Core Strength

Thai Kick Boxing

Today is the first day that I feel great, truly full of energy, still all relaxed and stretchy after my sports massage. My concentration levels are up at work, and I’m used to the lack of caffeine by now.

This is the day I’ve been dreading. I really didn’t want to do kick boxing, mainly because I thought it would be a class full of men and weedy little me. But when I get there, I’m wrong on both counts. There are (to my relief) more women than men, and I myself am no longer so weedy. I actually – no word of a lie – have proper arm muscles. And by proper, I mean bulging. Yes, bulging.

I am so amazed at what 10 days has done to my body.

It’s Core Strength in the evening.

We do the plank (rest your elbows on the floor then lift yourself up on your toes and hold) for a minute, and I feel like I’ve come a long way from my first session where I could barely manage 20 seconds.

The great thing about coming here is that there’s a real mixture of ability. At the gym, I always feel like people are silently criticising my wide thighs and weedy arms, but I never feel that here.

I run home too tired to cook anything, so I improvise, frying some brown rice leftovers with egg. I munch my tofu and banana mash contentedly afterwards. Yum.

Tuesday: Body Conditioning

Getting changed for Body Conditioning I look at myself in the mirror and realise I can actually see a satisfying double line of muscle running down my stomach, which makes me really want to carry on with exercising.

The Body Conditioning class is cheerful and fast-paced. During the routines my muscles burn and the entire class groans with relief as we end each repetition. By the time we get to stretching I’m ready to curl up and stay there. I come across as a total loony afterwards when I proudly show Mathilde (and, what’s worse, demand that she touches) my newly-developed stomach muscles. Very sweetly she takes it all in her stride.

I really love this class. In fact, I’m going to sign up for another block of sessions. The warm up exercises are all different punches and kicks, and then the main workout is circuit training and boxing.

Mathilde

Further information can be found at www.trainingpoints.co.uk

And Finally!

It’s now Thursday, and I’m at the end of the programme. Mathilde and Taylor have been unceasingly kind, and I feel incredibly grateful for their encouragement. I would willingly go to Training Points every day.

The changes I’ve seen in myself – higher energy levels, less gloomy thoughts, greater flexibility, actual muscles (hurray!) and never feeling bloated or addicted to chocolate thanks to the low GI diet – are all things that will make a huge difference to the new year. And to testify, I’m off for a swim this evening, then a run tomorrow. And maybe skipping the next day…

Taylor

Susie's Stats

Before

After

Weight

50.5kg

49.5Kg

Blood pressure

93/72 (low)

101/65

Heart rate

94

90

Chest measurement

76cm

78cm

Waist/abdominals

67cm

64cm

Hips

85cm slimmest, 95cm widest

85cm, 94cm

Body fat

19.16% (healthy/ average)

15.68% (very fit)

15

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e are all faced with stress at some point in our lives. Whether this is due to pressure at work, relationship problems, moving house or dealing with grief the body responds to stress in the same way.

Short term stress can be a positive thing, focusing the mind in order to meet a deadline for example. But if we are under stress constantly for a prolonged period of time it can be devastating, lowering our resistance to illness and infection, raising blood pressure and potentially leading to insomnia, anxiety and even depression.

There are several ways to combat stress and one effective option is aromatherapy, the use of essential oils to reduce physical and emotional ailments.

Aromatherapy works in two ways to relieve stress.

Essential oils have a pharmacological effect on the body and when used with massage can relax tense muscles, reduce aches and pains and bring about physical and mental relaxation. Secondly, through our sense of smell essential oils activate the limbic system of the brain that controls emotions which is why on simply smelling certain oils we can instantly feel calmer and more relaxed. Try putting a few drops of essential oil on a tissue and inhaling deeply for a minute.

There are dozens of essential oils which are excellent stress relievers and the most well known is probably Lavender. A balancing and revitalising oil, Lavender has calming and sedating properties and can help with insomnia and anxiety.

Suzanne Goggin practices aromatherapy at Cocoon Aromatherapy, Crystal Palace Osteopathic Practice, 10 Westow Street, London SE19 3AH. For appointments call 07779 122 427 or visit www.cocoonaromatherapy.com.

aromatherapy for stress relief Back at work and already totally stressed out?

Suzanne Goggin has some ideas to help you

Fresh and spicy Frankincense is uplifting to the senses and deepens the breath helping with mental and emotional exhaustion. Its ability to uplift and calm without sedation makes it particularly useful for chronic depletion.

Ylang Ylang is a deliciously sweet oil with powerful calming properties. It is excellent in the treatment of panic attacks and anxiety.

The citrus oils are also beautifully effective in the treatment of stress. Sweet Orange has a soft, smooth aroma and helps with nervous tension and stress especially where this impacts digestion and appetite. Lemon is a fresh cleansing oil and a powerful immune stimulant.

Try the following aromatherapy blend to relieve mental fatigue and encourage restful sleep after a long day at work: • • •

2 drops Lavender 2 drops Frankincense 1 drop Ylang Ylang

Mix with a tablespoon of sweet almond oil and stir into a warm bath, lie back, relax and inhale the gorgeous aroma.

Also makes a great massage blend to sooth tense muscles.

Safety Information Consult an Aromatherapist before using essential oils if you are pregnant. Never use essential oils neat on skin

17

LESS IS MORE Interview by Janette Scott Photo by Louise Haywood-Schiefer

R

achel De Thample is the perfect embodiment of 'you are what you eat'.

Her healthy good looks and energising enthusiasm well reflect her diet of fresh, wholesome, good quality meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. And what she eats (and doesn't eat) is the subject of her latest book, less meat, more veg.

Less meat, more veg is based on the premise that in Britain we eat twice the amount of meat we need and only half the vegetables.

De Thample ably demonstrates – through a mouth-watering, globallyinspired selection of 150 recipes – that you can eat sustainably, healthily and economically, all at the same time. She says, ‘Food has so many elements to it – political social, environmental – that I don't think people appreciate. It's the greatest thing to write about because it's serious but it also gives people pleasure and that's the lovely thing about doing this book…’

Having already read masses of reports by health and environmental experts, De Thample saw the potential of creating a book, but it was watching a BBC documentary, Future of Food, that focused her mind. ‘One of the stats struck me – we eat twice as much meat as we need to and only half the vegetables. I just started to see the imbalance on our plates so I thought how can I change this?’

De Thample changed it by developing recipes – based on traditional favourites as well as more unusual dishes — that each contain a maximum of 50g of animal protein, and not just meat but eggs, dairy and fish. "The idea is that you eat two meals with that portion in them if you can", she says. 90g of protein is the average amount that

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nutritional guidelines say we should consume on a daily basis.

Another innovation that De Thample introduces is a simple roast dinner recipe – beef, lamb, pork or poultry – which is followed with ideas for a tasty range of meals using up what’s left of the roast meal. ‘Roast dinner is a big part of my weekly routine and I have a son so have to feed him something healthy when he comes in from nursery. It's really quick to make a meal with those leftovers and you stretch that through the week.’

Although De Thample has lived in the UK for fourteen years she originally comes from Texas, not exactly known for its low protein diets. She comes from a family of food lovers: a chef sister, a brother in the restaurant industry and a granny with a famous bread recipe.

Trained as a journalist, De Thample hasn't always been a food writer.

Her first writing job was for an internet property company where her boss loved eating. ‘He was really into food and I was really into food … and he said why don’t you write about food. He gave me lots of contacts, I started working for a PR agency and met lots of chefs.’

After asking one of these chefs if she could do an apprenticeship in his kitchen, De Thample went to work in Marco Pierre White's Quo Vadis. ‘It was very much a Kitchen Confidential type of kitchen’, she remembers, ‘I was there for nine months and I broke and I thought, I can't do it. I was going in at seven in the morning, peeling potatoes every day and scrubbing ovens at one in the morning.’

Shortly after turning down a job as demi-chef at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck (almost regrettably

as it was just before it got its 3rd Michelin star), De Thample squeezed in a stint at Peter Gordon's Providores and landed a job at a magazine she loves, Waitrose Food Illustrated, where her interest in food production and related health issues really took off.

Jump to five years later, there’s a new baby son Rory, and De Thample has become resident foodie at organic fruit and veg box delivery company Abel and Cole. She now writes weekly seasonal recipes for the company and explores the ethical aspects of sourcing food.

And her next project? De Thample doesn't hesitate: ‘Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle has inspired me to grow my own Christmas dinner this year – I don't have a garden and that's the more interesting element of it.’

She's also working on a book about food waste aimed at helping move people away from reliance on sellby dates by using their instincts to decide when food has gone off.

It was food that brought De Thample to Crystal Palace; ‘I came to review Joanna's and loved it and loved the Victorian properties and the view from here. I'm also absolutely obsessed with the Blackbird Bakery’. She has her own local food ambitions too, setting up a bread circle, community composting and food growing, and much, much more.

Janette Scott www.lessmeatmoreveg.com Less Meat, More Veg by Rachel De Thample is available from Bookseller Crow and, of course, all good bookshops at £16.99.

Š Louise Haywood-Schiefer www.lhschiefer.com

a RECIPE from Rachel de Thample

Tuscan rabbit with balsamic tomatoes and thyme

Rabbit is an extremely popular meat throughout Italy. There’s a rabbit dish for nearly every Italian region. I tried a good few when trying to lay my hands on a really simple, tasty rabbit dish that anyone can whip up, especially if you’ve never cooked with rabbit before.

The best place to source rabbit is from a farmer’s market or a good local butcher.

It’s not always on display, though. If you don’t see it, ask – noting that you’re after wild rabbit. Good butchers (like William Rose on Lordship Lane) normally have some to hand, or they can get some for you. It’s well worth seeking out.

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

Serves 4 2.5 of your 5 A Day •

2 rabbit portions (see below)

•

plain white flour, for dusting

•

olive oil

•

2 onions, chopped

•

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

•

sea salt and black pepper

•

650g tomatoes, roughly chopped

•

½ teaspoon turmeric (optional)

•

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

•

a sprig of rosemary, leaves finely chopped

•

6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

•

a few sprigs of thyme

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/gas mark 4.

Season the rabbit and dust with flour, just enough to lightly coat.

Place a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add a splash of olive oil. When hot, carefully add the rabbit. Cook until golden, 5–8 minutes on each side.

Once browned, place them snugly in a baking dish.

Clean your frying pan then place back on the heat. Add a splash of oil. When hot, toss the onion and garlic in the pan and fry with a pinch of salt until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, turmeric, fennel seeds and rosemary. Cook until the tomatoes start to soften up. Add half the balsamic vinegar and let it bubble and reduce into the tomatoes for a few minutes.

Pour over the rabbit. Tuck a few sprigs of thyme on the top. Cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Splash the remaining balsamic on top.

Continue cooking for 15–20 minutes, until the tomato sauce looks rich and thick. Let it cool for a moment. Remove the rabbit. Carefully shred the meat, removing it from the bone, and fold through the sauce.

Serve with hunks of bread and a crisp salad — and a nice glass of wine.

using the whole rabbit

Ask your butcher to cut the rabbit for you — you should get six pieces: two hind legs, the front legs, and two central pieces. The larger, hind legs are ideal for this dish.

Use the meatier central piece for kebabs — freeze the hunks of meat and skewer as part of a mixed grill; rabbit is delicious when rubbed with a mix of honey, mustard and thyme. Use a smaller central piece and the smaller front leg pieces to make soup and stock - think chicken noodle but with rabbit instead.

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photograph by Peter Cassidy from Rachel’s book, Less Meat More Veg, published by Kyle Cathie

Norman Rockwell’s America An exhibition justified by one modest but nevertheless great painting, says Howard Male

R

ather interestingly, Norman Rockwell only gets half a page devoted to him in Robert Hughes’s 600-page history of American art, American Visions. I suspect this is because Hughes saw Rockwell as more of a commercial illustrator than a painter – a view the artist himself would have been perfectly happy to concur with were it not for the fact that the label ‘illustrator’ doesn’t have the kudos of the label ‘painter’. But Hughes and many other critics have a point. Rockwell didn’t contribute anything to the formal development of 20th-century painting. Instead he concentrated on perfecting an immaculate academic style which owes more to Rembrandt and Vermeer than it does to Picasso and Warhol. Although, having said that, he was way ahead of Warhol in the sense that his work was mass reproduced to a degree that would have made the New York pop artist swoon with envy.

Along one long wall of the Dulwich Picture Gallery are massed more than 300 covers he produced for The Saturday Evening Post between 1916 and 1963, the last of which was, tellingly, a portrait of J.F.Kennedy. I say ‘tellingly’ because – for America as well as for much of the rest of the world – an age of dizzy optimism and prosperity ended with the assassination of the 35th President of the USA in 1963. The portrait was reproduced twice as a cover, once when it was created in 1960, and then again on Kennedy’s death. Perhaps following that event, a nation in shock could no longer believe in the idealised version of 'the American dream' that Rockwell had held up to them as a mirror for nearly half a century.

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Rockwell’s skill was to cleverly combine detail-absorbed realism with rosy-cheeked fantasy so that it became impossible to separate these two seemingly disparate perspectives: school children sit uncannily attentive at their desks, Father Christmas lovingly crafts wooden toys for kids, Dickensian-looking street folk laugh off their poverty, and a father, son and the dog risk life and limb as volunteers for the fire brigade (Volunteer Firemen, 1931 - see right).

But the best works in this show give us a more contemplative, even socially aware angle on the man. There’s no proselytising or preaching in Charwomen in Theatre – Study (1946) (see below), just a gentle invitation to have a bit of a think about something he has observed. We see two cleaners taking a well-earned sit-down on the plush red seats of the theatre they are employed by. But the implicit message is that the abandoned programme they have picked up to study is of a show that they will never get to see due to their inescapable position in society.

But the most striking and most starkly daring of Rockwell’s pictures is saved up until last, although unfortunately the gallery don’t have permission to offer it to The Transmitter for reproduction (but please do google it!) The Problem We All Live With – Study is a deceptively simple image of the young black girl, Ruby Bridges, walking to school led by a couple of US Marshals, on 14 November, 1960; the first day of race desegregation.

The composition is atypically daring – both structurally and politically – for the normally conservative Rockwell. Structurally, in that at least half of the image is taken up by the red splatter a hurled piece of rotten fruit has made on the white wall behind the girl, yet she bravely walks on without a backwards glance. And politically – well, it hardly needs to be said does it? Black faces are very few and far between in Rockwell’s work, so it’s very exciting to see him tackling race head-on so late in his career. In the finished version of the picture Rockwell added a further two marshals behind Ruby, but I feel the version in the Dulwich Picture Gallery’s exhibition is far more effective in its simplicity and the way it isolates this innocent child at the centre of a social revolution.

This beautifully rendered picture (almost Degas-like in its line and use of paint) is alone worth the price of admission, as I doubt you’ll ever get to see it in any other context.

But its existence does rather bring into sharp relief how unappealing and dated most of Rockwell’s output now seems. One can still take pleasure in all of the closely observed period details, but the presumably commercial necessity to give characters exaggerated,

almost cartoon-like expressions of glee, surprise, or just plain daftness, tends to detract from Rockwell’s considerable technical mastery making many of his images trite when they could so easily have been timeless.

But America got the artist it deserved, and so who can blame Rockwell if he just took the money and did the best job he could within the confines of the brief. Until his conscience got the better of him, and he produced

The Problem We All Live With, Rockwell’s America was a wholly white, rosy-cheeked America. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a great deal of pleasure to be had from walking around this exhibition marvelling at an era when lightbulbs called for full-page colour ads that looked like cut-price Rembrandts (The Party After The Party, 1922 ), tramps wore smiles on their faces and daisies in their lapels (Time to Retire – Sleeping Tramp, 1923) and a painting of a sinister rather

grubby-looking clown embracing a small boy (The Runaway, 1922) didn’t immediately conjure urgent thoughts of calling the police.

The Dulwich Picture Gallery are celebrating their 200th anniversary with Masterpiece A Month: Presiding Genius. The gallery will have on loan paintings by twelve of the greats. For more details visit www. dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Howard Male 23

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Viva Viveca

E

xuding powerful emotion, thought and passion, Viveca Koh’s unique photography is far from ordinary. Drawn to unusual subject matter and putting to use inventive, atypical techniques, Koh pushes the boundaries of photography to the point where her photos are no longer just photos, but works of art as well.

And having really only turned professional in late 2008, it’s not taken her long to gain recognition amongst her peers; with five exhibitions already under her belt, she is excelling in her field.

Viveca’s fondness for cameras goes way back and first became apparent when her mother let her ‘have a go’

28

Mary Stamm-Clarke TALKS TO LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHER VIVECA KOH ABOUT HER ART

with her Box Brownie at the age of seven. ‘I was soon allowed to take snaps with her Kodak and at some point I was given my own camera, but it wasn’t really until I was about seventeen that I realised this was my passion.

‘I got a second-hand Pentax K1000 SLR and spent one week at an adult education centre in the summer that I left school, taking photos and slides and learning how to develop both myself, then dabbled very briefly with photography whilst at college taking Foundation and A-level in Art. Apart from this I am entirely self taught and never studied the subject further…’

with her former pastime. ‘As I think happens to so many people, life just got in the way and I was only really taking photos on holidays and during occasional visits to places in this country. However, during the summer of 2008 several work colleagues saw my photos from a company trip to Cologne, said that they were excellent and that I really should be “doing more” with my photography. It was through this encouragement that I purchased my DSLR and started wandering off around London at weekends, usually in the City or East, where I photographed buildings, people and graffiti as I learned how my new camera worked.’

Viveca stopped taking ‘serious’ photos for a number of years, and it wasn’t until three years ago that she bought her first proper digital camera and rekindled a romance

With a prior knowledge of the craft, Koh slipped right into the world of digital imaging and picked it up fast.

‘Having used a film SLR for years helped enormously as I already

Bath Time ŠViveca Koh

understood aperture and shutter speed, depth of field, light metering and how to control it so the rest came easy. My early photos from two years ago are very different from what I'm producing now, but they do show the beginnings of the detail work that I pride myself on. Photographic friends have said that I have special “Spotter's Glasses” that help me to see things that others miss!’

Viveca’s own personal style is often quite dark, with abandoned buildings and graveyards featuring highly. A strong eye for detail is also apparent, extending the depth of her work.

‘I like to think that I see and photograph subjects that many others would simply not notice and pass by. For me there is beauty in everything, even the grubby corners of London or in the delicate wings of a dead insect.

30

“I also love to add texture layers to my work in Photoshop, and will always look out for suitable subjects such as peeling paint, stone, material, rusty metal, handwriting, vintage postcards and the like, which I photograph and have in a special folder on my computer.

Her current and on-going project, which she says has become her favourite, is one themed around derelict mental institutions.

‘There is something really compelling about exploring an abandoned asylum which is awaiting demolition, seeing rooms which housed real lives and finding personal possessions that give a sense of the people that resided there.

‘I also take enormous pleasure from the fact that I am documenting a building which will

soon be gone forever. I am quite simply fascinated by decay, of nature reclaiming what was always hers in the first place and the fact that everything eventually reverts back to the land, which makes me acutely aware of my own mortality.”

Some of these fascinating photos can be found in a book, Lost Asylum Sonnets, in which the writer Catherine Lupton has assigned verse to Koh’s work.

The compilation is comprised of meaningful interpretations, taking the reader on a journey of imagination into the lives of those that once resided within the institution walls.

‘This book is a collaboration with Catherine, who was inspired by the ten photographs of an abandoned asylum that I submitted for my Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society distinction, and unbeknownst to me at

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ©Viveca Koh

the time she wrote a sonnet to accompany each image. When I first read her words I was, to quote a common phrase, blown away, not only by her imagination and the sheer power of the sonnets, but in the way that she had really got inside every photograph and expressed something beyond the visual in a way that I never could.

I felt honoured that she had not only seen so much within my photographs but also that she felt sufficiently moved to write a sonnet for each one.’

Talking to Viveca, it’s clear just how passionate she is about her craft. A unique intuition, so alive in her work, is down to the deep sensitivity and acute awareness she has for the world around her.

It is this insight that makes her photography truly beautiful and will carry her along her path as a successful photographer.

And her ultimate dream? ‘I hope that one day I will reach the standard required to become a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. To quote from the RPS website: Fellowship is the highest Distinction of the RPS and recognises original work and outstanding ability in a specialist field. That would make me pretty happy!’

I think it’s fair to say that she’s well on her way.

Mary Stamm-Clarke

WHAT'S IN VIVECA'S BAG? Nikon D700 AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 AF Nikkor Fisheye 16mm f2.8 Nikon SB 900 Speedlight Hoya Pro Digital Circular Polariser Tiffen ND 0.6 filter Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Manfrotto 190X PROB tripod Manfrotto 804RC2 head Gorillapod Adobe Bridge/Camera Raw Adobe Photoshop CS3

www.vivecakohphotography.co.uk Lost Asylum Sonnets by Viveca Koh LRPS and Catherine Lupton is available to buy online at blurb. com for £18.95.

31

32

Guardians of the Forest ŠViveca Koh 2011

33

Espaliers, Cordons.....and even Pleaching, in Dulwich!

BY SUE WILLIAMS

'Walking in a thick pleached alley in mine orchard’ William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)

F

ebruary is the ideal month to sort out changes to the framework of your garden.

Unless your patch is an oasis of evergreen shrubs, most gardens are at their barest at this time of year. A perfect opportunity for a spot of structural planting.

One of my favourite forms of structure is the use of cordoned or espaliered fruit trees to create a living wall in the garden. Spring blossom stretched out in formal lines, to be followed by green foliage in the summer and then the autumn bounty of apples or pears.

Marvellous. However the training of fruit trees into these formal patterns is imbued with a certain mystery, the dark arts of pruning and long forgotten Victorian practices no longer commonly used today. Fear not ... a bit of patience, some stout posts, a quantity of galvanised wire and away you go.

34

Espaliered trees are formed from a central vertical stem from which rise horizontal branches 15-18 inches apart. These are supported on galvanised wires strained between strong posts. As most gardens are no longer bounded by a warm London stock wall against which these fruits can be grown, the posts can be positioned anywhere in the garden and work really well as a living screen. I sited four espaliered fruit trees between a perennial bed and a lawned area and it works a treat. Very effective.

First things first. Place stout posts in the ground approximately three to four feet apart. Roger at the Secret Garden can supply all the necessaries – including very good fruit stock. He ordered in for me three types of apple grafted on to one root stock – Cox's Orange Pippin, the leather jacketed Russet and Discovery – and they have

been really successful. Secure the wire as tightly as possible at 18-inch intervals; mine are three wires tall but you can go as high as you like.

If you purchase the fruit already fan trained then it is far more expensive than training the trees yourself. Let's have a look at starting from scratch.

Plant the apple or pear tree close to each post. Cut back the stem to the first healthy bud just above the bottom wire, ensuring that there are two healthy buds positioned below this. During the summer these buds will grow long vertical shoots.

Loosely but firmly tie the top shoot to the post and the two side shoots to the bottom wire. This process is repeated the following winter but on the next wire up: cut off the leading shoot and then in the summer secure the shoots to the post and the wire. It is important to shorten the side shoots by about a third to strengthen the plant and to remove

it's high time that we introduced this ancient form to the fresh air suburb

any shoots growing between the tiers to three leaves long – this allows the fruiting spurs to form.

I've found that, when established, the espaliered trees can be pruned at pretty much any time of the year as straggly spurs grow from the lateral stems pretty frequently and it is the very defined form of these trees which makes them so dramatic.

Don't hold back with the secateurs.

During the first spring make sure that the blossom is carefully removed and in the summer cut back all the lateral shoots to one leaf above the base cluster. This form needs to be stringently pruned and when it reaches maturity the shoots should be kept to within nine inches of the main stem. The cordon creates a dramatic and beautiful screen and is well worth a place in the garden.

Cordons are also ideal for small gardens and for creating stylish boundaries. With these the fruit is trained in a single stem at a 45-degree angle. Again these can be grown against a wall or in the open. For this form plant the maiden trees two-anda-half feet apart and tie them into supporting wires which should be spaced at two feet intervals. Do not prune the leading shoot but cut back all lateral shoots to within three or four buds of the base.

I've noted on my many dog walks that pleaching has arrived in Dulwich. Not to be outdone – and there may well be hidden bits of pleaching that I've missed in Norwood – I think it's high time that we introduced this ancient form to the fresh air suburb. A row of pleached trees in a front garden looks stylish and unusual but is not hard to achieve. Pleaching means literally ‘to braid’ and that about sums it up. I discovered this technique by

accident. On a trip down South my stepmother began fiddling with a row of small bay trees which I had planted along the side of a lawn.

She twisted the straggly side shoots and fixed them with bits of wire to the neighbouring plant. As the bay grew it knitted together and is now a nine-foot raised screen. Obviously there's been a fair bit of pruning in the meantime.

Deciduous trees work very well when pleached; hornbeam, apple, beech and linden all create an effective screen. The trees need siting four to five feet apart and as the branches grow they need to be woven and tied in to the next plant. Remove all branches from the lower part of the trunk and prune as necessary. Again trees can be purchased already pleached on to wooden frames but they're prohibitively expensive and don't really look very attractive.

Happy Gardening

35

SINGING CLASSES In Crystal Palace

7:00pm Beginners A fun class for anyone wishing to improve their voice.

62_sue@live.co.uk 07403 620856 62_sue@live.co.uk 07403 620856

8:15pm Improvers Group and solo work for those with a little experience.

Classes take place on Wednesday evenings at The Salvation Army Halls, Westow Street Upper Norwood To find out more or to book a place visit www.kateproudlove.co.uk email kate@kateproudlove.co.uk or telephone 07931 543650

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poems for the poemless Andrew rumsey PRISES PARTICULARITY APART FROM MERE MUNDANITY

I

n the film Blade Runner, when the Tyrell Corporation want to turn their flesh and blood robots into authentic human replicants, what do they choose to give them - a taste for Mantovani? A morbid fear of traffic wardens? Not quite. They give them instead snatches of early childhood memory; brief glimpses of meaning half-held in the mind.

Williams was driven to examine the things which 'lie close to the nose' as he put it - to regard the ordinary details of life and feel their extraordinary significance.

Using just sixteen words, Williams carefully dissects the lines of this poem in order to separate out each component of the scene – it feels as if he’s writing it with tweezers.

Perhaps the most poignant moment in that film is when one of these replicants is told that her two such memories - a spider’s web outside her window as a girl, and crawling through a basement window with her brother - are not authentic, but have been implanted from someone and somewhere else. It’s a crucial moment because her whole humanity balances on them: without such fragments she cannot be real.

What absorbs him is this: that never again will these chickens, this wheelbarrow, that rainwater, be grouped together at this time in this place. It’s just a moment, but so much depends upon it.

It is this significant detail of life which is the subject of this pocket-sized poem by twentieth century American poet and physician, William Carlos Williams:

Poetry is fascinated by what you might call the more-than-just of life.

It homes in on mundane details - a street, a leaf, a face - and realises that it is more than just a leaf, more than just a face. You only have to waft a grecian urn or a nightingale in front of Keats, for example, and he’s off dreaming of love and eternity and goodness knows what else.

Yet it’s the fleeting, blink-and-you’llmiss-it nature of life which prompts this poetic yearning. It is because death intrudes on life; because life does fade, decay and flash past, that its small glories are so precious. Rarity gives things value.

One of the less positive spin-offs of consumer society is that it tries to make everywhere look the same – the same brands on every street, the same retail barns blocking every bypass. Resisting this involves turning again to the particularity of our life, for Crystal Palace is not just anywhere – it is somewhere: the components of our scene are unique. Things will happen here and now that can never be repeated anywhere else – so much depends on these accidental details.

It’s the easiest thing in the world to overlook what lies under our nose – in the year ahead, may it not be so here.

Andrew Rumsey

The Red Wheelbarrow so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.

'The Red Wheelbarrow' from William Carlos Williams: Selected poems Penguin (£12.99)

37

THE WHITE

MiCHAEL eyre ON A NEW HEALTH DRINK. vODKA.

‘And remember, keep it clean kids. Keep it clean’. (Cheech & Chong).

T

he new year swings round pretty damn fast and before you know it endless ‘resolutions’ and the like have formed in your mind and some may have foolishly been actively voiced. Doh! If we are indeed intent on regaining a modicum of what we might call a healthy lifestyle/regime, I can think of far worse ways of starting the year than by mixing a whole series of drinks with a healthy, clean, refreshing, well built vodka base. If there is one thing that will clear out one’s system faster than a very fast system clearer outer it is a solid dose of tip top vodka. This can be done in a number of ways and by dint of some intensive and meticulous research on my part, here are some of those very ways.

Note that this can also be an integral part of one’s ‘five a day’ intake, what with the likes of various juices and fruits etc.

Anyway, as the Chemical Brothers would say, here we go.

Snow Queen. Kasakhstan 70cl. 40% vol.

Ranging from £26 to £36 depending on where purchased.

Waitrose. Horrids. Magma wines.

Mckinleyvintners.co.uk As a shot, a potent little number with an earthy, minerally nose dropping into a surprisingly sweet palate with a lovely spicy, peppery finish. Made with organic wheat from Kasakhstan and spring water from the foothills of the Himalayas and distilled five times: one can feel the natural goodness coursing through one.

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With tonic (Fever Tree, natch.) The underlying notes of dried fruits and toasted nuts are picked out with delicate finesse (see? Fruit and nuts.

What’s to ponder?)

Apple juice (the choice, as they say, is yours) turns it into a long, delightful midday muddler. With both refreshing vibrant fruit and a dash of spice.

As a Bloody Mary (cheating this time, sorry, Big Tom.) This can only be called a light salad. What with an added stick of celery, a slice of lemon and – if you needed to up the blood sugar levels – a small ‘floating’ of Amontillado sherry on the top. Ok, possibly not so light, but totally body building and everything.

You can kick the sand right back in their faces. Ha kick!

Sipsmith. London Hammersmith 70cl. 40%vol.

Waitrose. Oddbins. Magma Wines.

Harvey Nicks. Sipsmith.com.

Ranging from £26 to £30 All by its little lonesome this is a smooth, rounded, warming piece of work. With aromas of white pepper spice and nuts on the nose and a level of restrained robustness on the palate, edging ever onward to a long and satisfyingly moreish finish.

Made by three very nice young men in the back of Hammersmith, they use the finest barley spirit and the purest of spring waters from Lydwell and run it through one of the most beautiful things I have seen for a long time – a brand new copper still (the first to be built in London for 200 years). Both form and function, stunning! It needs no filtration or arsing about with whatsoever, and produces a deep, characterful and fulfilling drink.

STUFF Made to be drunk with Fever Tree.

A fabulous refreshing V&T. Vodka from the deep freeze, tonic from the fridge. No ice or bits of fruit (unless on sizeable health jag) in order to pick through the piquant notes of the tonic rounded out by the depth, warmth and butteryness of the vodka. Mmmm.

Funny old combo with apple juice.

Almost like baked apples, with a cinnamon edge to it, both warming and refreshing. Bizarre but fun.

Big Bloody Buggering Mary, more like. Wonderfully huge. Fat, rounded, warm, all embracing meal of a drink.

Should be called a Waterloo Lily (Caravan c1972) instead. Normally I go with the sherry topping but in this case very much in the ‘optional’ camp, unless it’s a ‘three courser’ you’re after.

Zubrowka. Poland/Belarus 70cl. 40%vol.

Magma wines. All supermarkets. £16 upwards.

Quite probably the one to have as a shot, with a very distinctive floral, green apple and vanilla nose leading effortlessly into a pool of creamy, nutty, almondy richness making one think of marzipan. A rather individual number but would work (on our healthy lifestyle analogy) as a pudding.

Made from the finest rye grain it is infused with a tincture of buffalo grass giving it the colour and flavour that is its trademark. This is personified by the single blade of grass in each bottle.

Popping a spot of tonic into this produces a funny old thing. It brings the whole marzipan feel to the fore.

Have to say not quite sure. Possibly get some lime or lemon slices in there, cut through the sweetness a bit. Jury’s out on this one.

Right, going totally off piste with the Bloody Mary. Spookily intriguing.

The spice of the ‘blood’, however you build it, somehow counteracts and enhances the ‘sweetness’ of the vodka. Making the sum of its parts a perfectly well rounded drink that is neither too spicy nor too sweet. By the glass as opposed to by the jug though, I think.

Just as I thought. Apple juice has finally come into its own. Spiralling out like a Coltrane sax solo this has to be the ‘healthy fruit drink’ for you. The sharpness of the juice combines, lifts, and propels the intricate nuances of the vodka right into the ocean. This shall, from hereon in be known as the San Andreas Fault. I’ve started the day in many ways and this has now just joined the canon.

Have a happy and healthy new year type thingy.

Be seeing you.

M

39

Ganapati JUSTINE CROW DINES DEEP BEHIND ENEMY LINES

T

here was shameless selfinterest in my choice of a review that goes beyond the boundaries of the Norwoods.

Much lauded, we’ve sold Ganapati’s recipe cards and, to the bafflement of some customers but to our own huge satisfaction, their chutneys.

Now it was time to taste what all the fuss was about.

This tiny corner of our big town with its florist, poodle parlour and Zandra Rhodes street furniture is more ‘Peckenham’ than Del Boy’s backyard, where ferocious daytime on-street parking conditions make a mockery of our own perceived triangular problems. However, in the evening, with a stoic railway bridge and elegant Georgian terraces as a backdrop it takes on a luminosity all its own. And parking was a cinch.

The restaurant itself was as modest as we’d been warned and the bookseller and I chuckled as we listened to the cheery staff refer to ‘table 43’ as if there was some kind of Harry Potteresque Platform 9¾ arrangement and if you were a

40

mere Muggle you couldn’t see it, let alone sit there. The place is serenely decorated in pink, turquoise and gold with mirrored art at the front and plain walls at the back so that one doesn’t feel too boxed in and the lad in braids behind the bar was kept busy with orders and phonecalls. It really is wise to book first, the fat little Ganesh seemed to be saying from his prime seat by the till.

Our chilled amber Meantime beers arrived and to avoid hyperventilation a little yogic breathing was required to keep our excitement in check.

And poppadums. They helped.

In halves, served with the familiar beetroot and garlic chutneys from the bookshop, plus a smooth tomato coulis and a delicious minty, coconutty, coriandery saucy thingy.

I ordered Kallume Kaya Roti: wheat flour twin purses arrived on the signature banana leaf, generously filled with chopped mussels and spices with more than a hint of the sea. The bookseller’s spiced mash and carrot Mini Masala Dosa was

surprisingly bold served with a zippy lentil broth, and we had to force decorum upon ourselves (not easy) and resist wolfing the lot down instantly. Would you mind keeping your cutlery? asked the girl looking after us. So long as you don’t mind me licking my knife, I replied.

Heck, sometimes I just so badly want to trough and this was just such an occasion. With a second beer, our mains arrived looking more gorgeous in the flesh than on the laminated gallery of recipe cards. As well as a choice of thalis, vegetarian included, we could have had lamb or salmon or even Brussel sprout and chestnut Kofta curry (the friend of the loudly spoken American med student next to us had that and evidently enjoyed it).

The menu reflects its environment – not vast, quietly colourful, a little bit hippy. In the event served with unpretentious steamed basmati, my Malabar prawn curry, a pretty wheel of tiger prawns in a masala of coconut and fennel, was juicy

Ganapati

and shimmered with heat and every so often I found a sliver of coconut flesh that packed a contrasting velvety crunch within the luxury soup and I realised I was producing miniature orgasmic gulps. How excruciating. Do look away.

The bookseller, accustomed to fading me out at mealtimes, was intent on his Kerala Kozhi – the pale chicken was reassuringly dowsed in a dark, muddy masala of roasted coconut, garlic & coriander seed which, he gasped with nonplussed delight, was perfect. Patiently awaiting his attention meanwhile, was a beautiful paratha, ribboned like a collapsed paper lantern. But we cruelly ripped it apart anyway and dunked the divine dough, until our plates were mopped clean.

Ears flapping like an elephant, I overheard another table asking what the sorbet was and I just had to have it too – teeth-achingly tangy mandarin, refreshing in its silver bowl like a confectionery goldfish. The braided guy brought

spoons and asked if we were sharing. Not bloomin’ likely, came my reply. I suppose it is recumbent on me to have the ice-cream then, commented the bookseller politely, to balance the ol’ chakras.

And balanced they were, with creamy plum and cinnamon, until his appetite was indeed finally recumbent.

Ganapati 38 Holly Grove London SE15 5DF 020 7277 2928 www.ganapatirestaurant.com

Now, I happen to think our lofty quarter in Crystal Palace has God’s own postcode and I absolutely rate several of our local restaurants believing that we are so very blessed to have such good dinners, and dare I say it, talent in our midst, but I am telling you now, our neighbourhood Indian genre eateries have got a whole bunch of game-raising to do before they even come close to the experience we met down in SE15. From the moment the silver water tumblers were filled on our arrival, it was simple yet imaginative, accomplished, tasteful. And not an After Eight in sight.

Justine Crow 41

The Bookseller

Jonathan main FINDS LOCAL AUTHORS GALORE Amongst THE new year's RELEASES

If you are commuting to central London by bus and you happen to sit next to a chap intently tapping away on his laptop, then chances are that it could well be local author of young adult fiction Phil Earle who tells me that he has recently finished the first draft of his second novel in exactly this fashion. I tried it myself with pen and paper - I wasn’t going to risk a laptop up Anerley Hill. As the rear axle of the bus went over the fifth rain and snow induced pothole in less than a mile and I was bumped six inches out of my seat, I was reminded of the punch line to the old joke about the father of seven who liked to do things the hard way; standing up in a hammock.

In Being Billy (Penguin £6.99) Billy is fourteen and has lived in a children’s home for the past eight, angry, disruptive years. The only thing that has kept him sane has been looking after his twin step brother and sister, shielding them from the rigours of the home and watching over them at night as they sleep.

Now however, there are plans to split the family up and return the younger twins to their mother. It’s like Ken Loach for fourteen year olds, with all the heart and humour and compassion that that implies. Highly recommended whether you are a teenager or just still feel like one.

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If you came to our Christmas Party at the end of December, and you really should have done, then you will know what a top chap Phill Jupitus is. And if, like me, you spent a lot of time in the late 80s and 90s listening to GLR (Greater London Radio) as BBC London was then called; when incredibly Danny Baker, Chris Evans, Chris Morris, Mark Lamarr and Phill himself would often follow each other in the playlistings, then Good Morning Nantwich (Harpercollins £12.99) Phill’s story of his time as a radio presenter, including 5 years doing the breakfast show at 6 music,will raise a wry, nostalgic smile whilst reminding you quite how bad most radio is today.

These days of course the kids don’t need no radio, because these days the kids listen to them podcasts innit.

And one of the most popular and funny of these - over two million downloads a year and the 2010 Sony Radio Academy Award for Best Internet Program - is, Answer Me This! written and performed by Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann.

Really, it’s an astounding production for something recorded in a bedroom in Anerley. The book of the series ( Faber £9.99) in which the pair answer questions posed to them by their listenership - questions such as ‘Who do you think created God?’ and ‘Can you knob someone in space?’ is bright yellow and we have signed copies. Oh yes we do.

This morning as I started to write this somebody bought a copy of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (Pan £11.99) telling me that they had bought an imported copy from us at Christmas for a friend who had since enthused so fulsomely about it that they had to buy a copy for themselves. I’m not surprised - it was one of my favourite novels of last year and is the first official Bookseller Crow Book of the Month. Set in rural Mississippi Crooked Letter is both a murder mystery and the story of a friendship between two boys, one black, one white. Think Cormac McCarthy with some light let in, or Annie Proulx.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (Quercus £16.99) is excellent too. A wry first novel of linked short stories centred around a group of disparate characters who work for a long established but now, due to the bloody Internet, inevitably failing, English language newspaper in Rome. It is a clever, deceptively easy read that by all accounts presents an authentic picture of a vanishing newspaper world, and we will make it our second official Book of the Month.

No wonder Brad Pitt has bought the film rights.

A new book by Tessa Hadley is always a pleasure too. The London Train (Jonathan Cape £12.99)

breaks no new ground, but is an impeccably told story of fractured middle-class lives - a literary journalist and his partner living in Wales, a pregnant errant daughter hiding in Kings Cross. Sometimes it is enough of a reading pleasure to see the right words placed in the right order. It has a lovely cover too, or it did until some publishing types had a meeting and decided to place a bright yellow £12.99 sticker in the middle of it.

Meanwhile, to kick-start the new year a raft of new paperbacks hit the shelves, including Trespass (Vintage £7.99) by the ever popular Rose Tremain, The Long Song by Andrea Levy ( headline (£7.99) author of Small Island, and shop favourite and now Mystery Writers of America Edgar-nominated The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn (Penguin £7.99) not bad for a book set in Birmingham West Midlands rather than Alabama. Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter is also nominated for best novel.

Also out in paperback this month is the compelling Booker Prizenominated Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador £7.99) and the American National Book Award winner Just Kids by Patti Smith (Bloomsbury £8.99) her moving story of New York in the early 70s and her relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Finally, before you know it, it will be Valentine’s Day. Might I suggest The Picador Book of Love Poems edited by John Stammers (Picador £12.99) a clever selection pairing some of the finest love poems from centuries past with their modern counterparts. It would make an ideal gift. Myself however, I'm hoping for The New Yorker Stories by Ann Beattie (Scribner US import £18.99) one of the finest short story writers in America and absolutely essential if you like, for example, Lorrie Moore.

I wonder if Justine reads this column?

Jonathan Main 43

THE GREAT ESCAPE

by economycustard.co.uk

Š simon sharville 2011

A shop full of books that you might want to read

44

THERE’S A WORLD OUT THERE! IT's THIN PICKINGS in NEW YEAR, BUT Howard Male finds us some gems

N

ew releases in most genres are always thin on the ground at the beginning of the year, and in 2011 more so than ever. While the recession was still big news at the beginning of 2010 its impact is finally being well and truly felt by the music industry – particularly the marginal genres – this year. The increasing trend for fans to download individual songs rather than have any interest in albums as a whole, hasn’t helped. But fear not, Transmitter music lovers – I’ve still managed to scramble around to offer you news of a few new CDs to get your ears tingling and your feet tapping.

First up, there’s my favourite Swiss Cajun band, Mama Rosin. During 2010 I saw these three guys live two or three times, and each time they completely won over their audience with what was, in essence, a punk rock take on a traditional form that purists would probably feel should be left well alone: how dare Swiss musicians tackle

hardcore American roots music! But on Black Robert (Gut Feeling Records) – just as on their previous two albums – their youthful passion bubbles over. The rough edges and loose playing just add to the album’s energy and charm.

Then there’s the American collective Arthur’s Landing (Strut Records).

The pedant in me couldn’t help noticing that the apostrophe in the band’s name is not only present but also in the right place for once – unlike the apostrophe-free signage above Bettys Bakery on Westow Hill. You may feel this to be a minor crime against the English language, but it’s just plain wrong. It suggests that this establishment is either run by a collective of Bettys or it only produces breads and cakes for women called Betty. But I digress.

The Arthur in question is the late, great New York musician Arthur Russell, and his Landing consists of a dozen musicians who played with him at various times during his career.

Essentially what you get

is new arrangements of a dozen classics from Russell’s back catalogue.

The sound is sleekly, coolly contemporary while also being steeped in that unmistakeable vibe of laidback late-sixties psychedelia.

The clumsily and misleadingly titled Tradi-Mods vs Rockers (Crammed Discs) came out in late November last year, but as it was a favourite of last year I felt I should fill you in. It’s a double CD of reworkings of tracks by Congolese bands who make an exciting rolling racket with distorted thumb pianos, guitars and a plethora of percussion instruments.

And these aren’t just remixes: each contributor has taken as much or as little of the source material as they like in order to built whole new tracks inspired by their raw energy and polyrhythmic sophistication. For example, Seattle’s Jherek Bischoff has transcribed every buzz, clunk, rattle and twang of a Konono No 1 tune into a piece for orchestra strings: if Philip

Glass wrote a march it’d sound something like this.

And there are 25 other groups and individuals who have each produced fresh cutting-edge tracks from this fertile traditional source.

Finally, out in midFebruary, is Laru Beya

by Aurelio (Real World Records). If you like quality roots reggae you might find this Garifuna musician from the Atlantic coast of Central America particularly intriguing. Although primarily acoustic in its instrumentation, the feel is electric and the arrangements invitingly intricate. Full of textures and noises you may not have heard before, this is the perfect example of the kind of world music that comes in particularly useful this time of year to bring some necessary sunshine into our snow and rain abused city.

Order a copy now and bathe in the virtual heat emanating from your hi-fi.

Howard Male 45

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WHAt's ON

No Pressure to be Funny A New Topical Panel show on Wednesdays at The HOB An evening of satirical comedy and topical debate.

LBC's James O'Brien and top stand ups Nick Revell and Alistair Barrie present a brand new weekly panel show with special guests.

Comedians, journalists, campaigners, and politicians.

James O'Brien, Nick Revell and Alistair Barrie will be under no pressure to be funny at The Hob

WALKS, TALKS & LECTURES Friends of Beaulieu Heights friends@beaulieuheights.org www.beaulieuheights.org

Saturday 29 January 10-12.noon Guided bird walk Join the Friends and Scouts on a Guided bird walk . Fresh air, talk about wildlife, and resident Birds in Beaulieu Heights.

Saturday 5 February Saturday 5 March Working with the BTCV Start 10 am Meet at Auckland Road entrance at the bottom of the woods. Finish 3.00 pm This year we are creating a clear circular walk round the park- Let us know what else you would like us to be doing.

COMEDY The HOB Comedy 7 Devonshire Road Forest Hill, SE23 3HE 020 8855 0496 www.edcomedy.com

Wednesday 2 February No Pressure to be Funny 8pm £5

Thursday 3 February Celebrity Pub Quiz Comic/actor/writer Phil Nice is your guest quizmaster 9pm £2

Thursday 3 February Work in Progress Matt Green & Tom Price 8pm £5

Saturday 5 February Stand Up Comedy Holly Walsh, Norman Lovett, Nick Wilty & Guest mc 9pm £9/£6concs Late bar

Monday 7 February The All New Stand Up Show New act open mic night- 8pm £3

Wednesday 9 February No Pressure to be Funny 8pm £5

Thursday 10 February Celebrity Pub Quiz Comedian Danny Buckler 9pm £2

48

Saturday 12 February Stand Up Comedy Rosie Wilby mc, James Sherwood, Josh Howie and Andrew Lawrence 9pm £9/£6concs Late bar

Monday 14 February The All New Stand Up Show Headline acts with brand new material 8pm £3

Wednesday 16 February No Pressure to be Funny 8pm £5

Thursday 17 February Celebrity Pub Quiz Comedian David Whitney host 9pm £2

Saturday 19 February Stand Up Comedy Charmain Hughes mc Helen Arney plus 2 guests 9pm £9/£6concs Late bar

Mon 21 February The All New Stand Up Show New act open mic night -8pm £3

Thursday 24 February Celebrity Pub Quiz 9pm £2

Saturday 26 February Stand Up Comedy

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Sunday 13 March TENNIS OPEN DAY • • • •

free tennis coaching on the day all abilities welcome adults Juniors & mini tennis light refreshments

GAELIC GATHERINGS Cèilidh evening: A cèilidh or céilí is a traditional Gaelic social gathering of poems, stories and music (not dancing).

Come along to experience a magical and inspiring evening. Be among local musicians and artists and feel moved by the ambience to share something special to you.

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WHAt's ON

Send listings information to: EDITOR@thetransmitter.co.uk

MUSIC Dulwich Picture Gallery Gallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD

Friday 11 February Musicians Company concert Recital in association with The Worshipful Company of Musicians 7.30pm – 10pm Winner of the 2008 Prince’s Prize awarded by The Musician’s Company, cellist Brian O’Kane is joined by pianist Alasdair Beatson, who has many prizes and awards to his credit. The programme will include sonatas by Beethoven and Faure and works by Schumann and Manuel de Falla

Bicycle Thieves

FILM Crystal Palace Pictures Gypsy Hill Tavern 79 Gipsy Hill, SE19 1QH

Thursday 17 February Bicycle Thieves Director: Vittorio De Seca Cert U, 93 mins 1948 7:30 pm - £5 on the door A young father (Lamberto Maggiorani) is desperate for work in post-war ravaged Rome and finally manages to find work putting up film posters around the city.

On his first day of work, the bicycle he needs to do his job is stolen and he is forced to scour the city with his nine-year old son (Enzo Staiola) in search of it. If he fails, he will lose his job.

Bicycle Thieves is widely regarded as a masterpiece and routinely voted one of the greatest ever films. Shot on the streets of Rome using non-professional actors, the film is a cornerstone of the Italian neo-realist cinema. The story itself is simple, almost a fable and combines powerful social criticism with a sincere belief in the decency of ordinary people.

But at its core is the moving, heartbreaking relationship between a father and son. A timeless film and genuinely affecting cinema experience.

Gallery Film Dulwich Picture Gallery Gallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD All films begin 7.45pm Bar from 7.15pm £8, £6 Friends All tickets available from the Friends 020 8299 8750 or e-mail friendsticketing@ dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

21 Februaryruary Once (2006) Cert 15, 87 minutes Directed by John Carney 'beautifully made...tender, funny and almost unbearably moving' Two kindred spirits find each other on the bustling streets of Dublin in this inspirational and endearing tale of love, friendship and music. Free wine.

The HOB Film Club 7 Devonshire Road Forest Hill, SE23 3HE 020 8855 0496

£20 (£18 Friends) Includes glass of wine Booking: By credit card: 020 8299 8750 Or visit the Friends’ Desk in the Gallery Booking enquiries: friendsticketing@ dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

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Saturday 26 March Crystal Palace Soul @ The Alma The only northern soul and funk night in Crystal Palace. With DJs playing uptempo soul and funk for your dancing pleasure ‘til the early hours. Free entry.

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Friday 4 March Sax Pastilles

Saturday 5 March Frank Sinatra tribute act Jack Valentine

Sunday 6 March Charlotte James lunchtime

Wednesday 23 February

Monday 7 March

Film Club (last Weds of the Month)

The Big Beer Band

8pm £4 Mr Brooks starring Kevin Costner, Demi Moore and William Hurt

2nd Wednesday every month Crystal Palace Green Drinks

Screamers Club Films shown exclusively for Mums & Babies 1pm £2

49

PROPERTY STREETS AHEAD WIN 'OSCAR'

MIRROR MIRROR Acorn estate agents, also on Westow Street, SE19, have 'upped their game' decorwise with a rather impressive new interior including a mirror man statue and seating area with chandelier lighting. Radical!

Maybe they are the fairest agents of them all? There's only one way to find out....FIGHT!

W

e were very pleased to hear that our favourite local estate agents Streets Ahead scooped Gold and Silver awards at the National Estate Agency Awards sponsored by The Times and The Sunday Times — which is, basically, the UK estate agents equivalent of the Oscars.

Streets Ahead were also shortlisted for Best Small Estate Agency, Best New Homes and Best Customer Service at the awards held at London’s Lancaster Hotel and

presented by two times Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell.

Gary O’Hare from Streets ahead commented 'We were thrilled to win Gold and Silver awards and to be nominated in three further categories.

It will confirm to our clients that Streets Ahead is a brand that they can trust, having been recognised by the industries best as one of the top estate agents in the country’.

Central Hill, Crystal Palace, SE19 Six Bedroom Detached Victorian House An interesting and unique house offering very substantial accommodation with six bedrooms, three reception rooms, dual kitchen areas, a substantial conservatory, utility room and three bathrooms. The house has a wealth of original period features, including two staircases, marble surround open fireplaces, sash windows and panelled doors.

The house has been sympathetically modernised and improved with great attention to detail by discerning owners.

At the heart of the house is a well layout kitchen leading into to a wonderful custom made conservatory, fully glazed in a sympathetic design to the period style of the house and leading out on sumptuous mature gardens.

The house is situated in a sheltered location within a short walking distance for Crystal Palace Triangle with it’s wealth of unique shops and a multitude of restaurants, Gipsy Hill Station and Crystal Palace overground Station.

If you are looking for something unique with a wow factor, then an internal viewing should be strongly considered.

www.coopergiles.co.uk

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020 8653 4444

Cooper Giles 12 Westow Street Crystal Palace SE19 3AH

N. T. Williams Building Services Brickwork

HEATING AND PLUMBING

extensions period property restoration 25 years experience

Zurich Guarantee 020 8771 4112

07539 845837

Call us now on 020 8768 1878 or visit www.montroseltd.co.uk and email sales@montroseltd.co.uk 51

streets ahead

Nesbitt Square, Crystal Palace, SE19 ÂŁ550,000 Freehold

Rarely available and forming part of a grand executive development is this charming 5 bedroom semidetached home. Nesbitt Square is a private gated development of 8 premier homes, located off the famous Crystal Palace Triangle just a few steps from its magical array of restaurants, bars and boutiques.

Seeing is Believing. Contact Us To Make Your Dreams Come True!!.

020 8653 9222

People not Property www.streetsahead.info