The
ISSUE 7
JUNE 2014
WOKING
Journal
Lady Killer WHY ARE WOMEN BEING LAUGHED OUT OF COMEDY?
FOOD & DRINK
WHAT’S ON?
Game. Set. Match OUR TENNIS SPECIAL
Summer Brides
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
J U2 0N E 14
REGULAR FEATURES
SPECIAL FEATURES
5 LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
BRIDAL
19 USEFUL NUMBERS
EVENTS
6 What’s On? The Woking Journal brings you its roving round-up of the best in local events this month
8 The W Word Our new columnist and author Emma C Williams tackles wedding fever
SPORT
The
WOKING Journa l NEWS EDIT
15 Going Up Going Down Find out what’s hot and what’s not in our monthly edit of the news 10 Racquets At The Ready! Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for tennis
FOOD
COMMENT
16 Steakout We review the new local hotspot 12 Lady Killer What’s happened to women in comedy? By Sophie Thrower
17 Who’s Hungry? Jacqueline Wise serves up her perfect summer dish
THE WAIT IS OVER!
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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS While it’s true to say that for most of us (and for most of the year), the phrase ‘outdoor living’ has little meaning, the short spell of summer months leaves us giddy with a sense of carpe diem. It can’t be helped. The anticipation is infectious. We grasp glorious days with childlike enthusiasm – savour the slow release of congeniality in the promise of balmy evenings, the smell of sun block and warm grass. There is a mania for ball games, a ritual dusting-off of our sunstarved barbeques, and endless invitations to once again embrace the great outdoors. So since we’ve caught the summer bug, we might as well wallow in it. In this issue, we’re celebrating the season with a nod to the greatest symbol of the British summertime: tennis. We welcome on board our columnist and author Emma Williams, who muses about the unsurpressably infectious nature of wedding fever. Plus: enjoy culinary creations courtesy of our resident food writer Jacqueline Wise, who’s cooking up a delicious honey and mustard glazed ham, just in time for picnic season. Enormous thanks as ever to our lovely local advertisers.
We’d love to hear your comments and responses to our issue: editorial@wokingjournal.co.uk TO ADVERTISE IN THE WOKING JOURNAL, PLEASE CALL NILE ON 07507 645757
OUT & ABOUT
June
BANK GALLERY:
BORDERLANDS 3-29 JUNE This exciting exhibition at The Lightbox features diverse work from the Borderlands group, a collective of artists who live and make art on the borders of Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire. Works on show include a range of mediums, from paintings and photography to prints, with everything available for purchase. The Lightbox, The Art Fund Prize Gallery, Free Admission, Donations Welcome; thelightbox.org.uk
WORLD CUP 2014: ENGLAND VS ITALY 14 JUNE
England’s very first group match against Cesare Prandelli’s side kicks off in the Amazonian city of Manaus. Catch it on the BBC, who have live coverage and commentary from 11PM.
OUT & ABOUT
HORSELL GARDEN SAFARI 14-15 JUNE
REAL ALE AND CIDER WEEKEND 7-8 JUNE A celebration of real ales and ciders from near and far, this weekend of alcohol appreciation showcases the best of local brews from the makers themselves. Find your new favourite tipple in the leafy surrounds of Wisley, or take home a crate or two to sip in your own garden.
Pruning shears at the ready for the 12th Annual Horsell Garden Safari! Dozens of stunning local gardens open up to the public for one weekend, giving budding horticulturalists plenty of green-fingered inspiration. Enjoy refreshments of tea and cakes alongside the plants and preserves on sale, with funds raised going towards the refurbishment of the Horsell Village Hall.
11am-6pm (12 noon on Sunday). Schedules ÂŁ7 from Needle and Thread or Spar on Horsell High Street. Children go free. Call 01483 761455 / 764521 for details.
10am-5pm, RHS Garden Wisley, Wisley Lane, GU23 6QB, 0845 260 9000; rhs.org.uk/wisley
With loads of stalls and fun stuff to do for the whole family, don’t miss the St Johns Village Fete at St Johns Lye this month! Every sold programme helps raise funds for Woking Hospice. 12:30-4:30pm, St Johns Lye, Woking, Surrey, GU21 7SF
St Johns Village Fete
21 JUNE
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EMMA C WILLIAMS
The
I
W
t’s amazing the effect that it has on people. Previously sane, rational members of your family will suddenly start talking taffeta and reciting a list of Wedding Rules and mandatory family customs. It truly is remarkable.
Personally, I’ve never accepted the idea that tradition is a good thing per se, and there were numerous aspects of the conventional nuptials that my partner and I were both keen to avoid. How naïve we were. Little by little, we discovered just how anxious the rest of the people in your life can become when your plans don’t meet their expectations. One of our biggest mistakes was to announce that there wasn’t a gift list. Having met relatively late in life, we thought it churlish and grasping to ask for household items and money – a convention which stems from the days when a young couple would have been leaving home and setting up together for the first time. Despite our generous intentions, many people were frankly horrified. We received numerous anxious messages demanding to know what we wanted; we also received a toaster and a cheese knife.
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Wo r d
There is something fundamental about a wedding, something that makes people crave the familiar. A wedding marks a turning point in life and a commitment to a new set of priorities. Perhaps people feel that a wedding may be the last chance they have to influence that particular member of their family, before they are consigned to another; alternatively, it could be that there are a significant number of people in the world who are a little bit bonkers – I’m not entirely sure. Whatever the case, there are certainly those who believe in their heart and soul that you must receive a kitchen utensil before your new life can begin. Who am I to judge them? Like most people, I think my husband and I had underestimated the enormity of what we were doing until the moment came. Both of us were surprised by just how significant it felt to state in public the vows that we’d rehearsed, and it was astonishing to look round the room and consider the fact that every single person was there to wish us well in our life together. Their presence on the day is what made it special; the toaster and the cheese knife were just a bonus.
Emma C Williams is a teacher, freelance writer and the author of World Enough and Time, a contemporary novel for teenagers. Visit her website at emmacwilliams.com or follow her on Twitter @emma_c_williams
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SPORTS
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SPORT
Anyone for
TENNIS?
T
hey say the grass is always greener on the other side, and thirty minutes up the mainline, it might well be. The immaculately manicured lawns that form the hallowed grounds of SW19 play host to a truly national treasure. For a fortnight in June we become a nation transfixed by our TV sets; all eyes on the venue that has earned its elegant, world-class status through over a century of battle. Within the pristine white lines of the All England Club in Wimbledon, public struggles and immense triumphs have given us high stakes, low volleys and hero-worship.
There’s something about the tournament that captures the hearts of even the most intrepid sports-goers. This is undoubtedly in part due to the lavish hats, ever-flowing Pimms and sumptuous strawberries and cream. But there’s something so innately energising and, well, British, about the whole affair, that we can’t help but want to pick up a racquet and give it a go ourselves. So if the closest you’ll get to Centre Court this summer is at the end of your remote, the good news is that there’s plenty of tennis-playing potential closer to home, with two lawn tennis clubs with over 200 years of history between them. Woking Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club boasts a whopping 17 tennis courts (ten floodlit, three of them grass) with a team of professional coaches for all ages to whip you into shape from dusk till dawn. And even if the English weather disappoints, rest assured. West Byfleet’s Lawn Tennis Club has a duo of indoor courts and an extensive junior coaching programme for those fledgling Federers. New balls please.
WOKING LAWN TENNIS & CROQUET CLUB Be inspired by the LTA Great British Tennis Weekend at our
OPEN DAY • SUNDAY 22ND JUNE • 10AM-2PM • Up to 30% OFF Joining Fees* • Coaching Team comprises 7 fully qualified LTA Tennis Professionals • Complimentary Coaching for all aspiring players • All ages catered from 3yrs-Adult • Surrey's premier outdoor tennis facility, in the beautiful Hook Heath surroundings • Woking's top Performance Tennis and Croquet players in action • Join our Bowls, Chess and Bridge sections • Club Bar and Catering facilities available
Pine Road Hook Heath Woking Surrey GU22 0DX For more information please visit our website: www.wltcc.org.uk, email tennis@wltcc.org.uk or call 01483 730104
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*Offer available 9th-22nd June only. See website for full details.
L A DY
Killer
By Sophie Thrower
D
ebates about sexism are, historically, rather boring. They tend to drag on a bit, be rather preachy, and each party thinks they’re more hard-done-by than the other, so it goes round in circles. But recently, the issue of the lack of women in comedy has received rather a lot of airtime, and I’m quite pleased it has. Sure, women aren’t always as scathing as men in their approach to comedy. Male performers like Sean Lock and Frankie Boyle have a certain dark shrewdness that is rarely mirrored amongst their female counterparts. Their jokes are so piercingly sharp and incisively withering, that they simply lend themselves more naturally to a male voice. The power and directness of their humour are, frankly, more masculine. One of the other popular routes of the male comedian is the embodiment of some sort of dishevelled troglodyte; an approach embraced by the likes of Joe Wilkinson, Milton Jones and Bill Bailey. They project an unshaven image of having rolled hopelessly out of bed, having found themselves wholly by accident in front of a camera. It’s hard not to assume that by making such a limited effort with their physical appearance, they are somehow lowering the bar of public expectation.
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If they don’t outwardly convey a sense of being proud to be there, then why should we expect them to be any good? Female presenters on the other hand, tend to make a concerted effort to appear well groomed on the box. Hair is shiny, makeup is laboriously applied, and clothes are chosen with more than a moment’s consideration. Christ, even Jo Brand wears lipstick. And so, because women deign to appear as though they have made some sort of effort, they become victims of their own hype. If dolling yourself up translates into thinking you are worthwhile, then the female sex have tragically set themselves up for a fall. Sarah Millican felt said wrath after her BAFTA nomination a couple of weeks ago, where she wore a floral dress on the red carpet. Preened and primped far beyond the modicum of effort many male comedians bother to exert, she described afterwards how “Twitter was a pin to my excitable BAFTA balloon.” She was ridiculed for deigning to wear a dress from John Lewis, and for bothering to show up when her size is above an 8. Millican noted in an open letter that no one bothered to ask her husband who he was wearing. Incidentally, it was Asda.
COMMENT
Last month, Dawn O’Porter suffered similar fate on BBC 1’s ‘Mock The Week’. She was bright and funny as ever; her naturally quick, gracious and sunny character would leave one believing that she’d fulfilled her brief rather well. But when the programme aired, her Twitter feed was flooded with complaints. About her comedy? No. Was she dull? Not at all. Was she unintelligent, boring, or abrasive? Absolutely not. It was about her hair. Her hair. This follows the BBC’s announcement in February that at least one woman will be present on their panel shows. A token lady will grace the stage, presumably to put a stop to sexism complaints rather than because they actually merit any screen time.
“the female sex have tragically set themselves up for a fall”
Which leaves me asking: why on earth would you only want one woman per show? Some of my favourite guests include Sarah Silverman, Katherine Ryan, and Kristen Schaal. They’re softly spoken and dynamic; witty, self-deprecating and incredibly charismatic. I’ve never watched one of them and thought, “Gosh, if only they were replaced by another chestbeating male trying to one-up his teammate, then this really would be a show worth watching.” It seems that a client attending an event at Hemingways of Haslemere somewhat disagrees with me, after comedian Jenny Collier’s performance was cancelled in March because they “don’t want too many women on the bill.” I guess the fact that it happened on International Women’s Day means at least someone has a sense of humour. So it leaves me with this conundrum: if a panel show that is 85% men is acceptable, why are women being wiped off the bill for being too present? Why are unkempt neander-men allowed to host without so much as whisper about their appearance, whilst immaculately groomed women are ridiculed? And if a man can wear a suit from Asda, why on earth can’t a woman wear a dress from John Lewis? 13
NEWS EDIT
@haykirstin
TOP
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Labour have just won a seat in Woking council (in Surrey). First Labour councillor here in 10 years.
@carpe_cheese
@wokingjournal thrilled with the article - thank you!
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Passionate about gardening? @The_RHS is looking for a Courses Coordinator to join their team in Woking!
Calling all #acoustic #musicians #woking. We want to create Fete de la Musique on Sat 21st June anyone want to come and play? Drink on us!
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Tue 10 June sees @TourSeries return to the streets of #Woking. There’ll be road closures on the day, so plan ahead.
@McLarenF1
#socialfriday @Courtney3579: “What’s @KevinMagnussen’s favourite food?” Well, he’s known to be partial to the odd curry in Woking...! 14
NEWS EDIT
NIGEL FARAGE To quote the unflappable Mr Farage, ‘the UKIP fox is in the Westminster hen-house.’
CONCHITA WURST The Eurovision takeover of the bearded Austrian songstress is only the beginning. We’re predicting a Gaga collaboration.
KENDALL JENNER The Kardashian Klan aren’t known for their brains, but Kendall took it to a new level when she fluffed her lines at the Blillboard Music Awards.
THE ISLAND
With imported crocodiles, man-made water reserves and reality show contestants, Bear Grylls’ Channel 4 survival show has come under fire.
GOING UP
June 15th: the day to celebrate the number one man in your life. Put it in your diary.
GOING DOWN
DADS
Every month we take a peek at what’s climbing the ranks and who’s taking a tumble, in our essential guide of what’s hot and what’s not...
SOLANGE KNOWLES The world’s most historic lift fight. Ever.
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FOOD & DRINK
I STEAKOUT 21 HIGH STREET, WOKING, GU21 6BW 2 COKES 1 OREO MILKSHAKE 1 MOZZARELLA STICKS 1 ONION RINGS 1 T-BONE 1 SIRLOIN 1 TOMATO & ROCKET SALAD 1 SWEET POTATO FRIES
£3.50 £3.50 £3.95 £2.95 £16.95 £14.95 £6.95 £1.95
TOTAL (2 PEOPLE)
£54.70
t takes rather a lot for a vegetarian to enjoy a meal in a steak restaurant, which made reviewing Woking’s latest foodie hangout, Steakout, something of a challenge. The premises have just thrown open their doors to the public and, located conveniently by the station, they’re the perfect stop-off for a tasty takeout burger on the way home from work. But I recommend dining-in, because the stylish décor and friendly service are worth sticking around for. Inside, the restaurant exceeds already high expectations, with plenty of dark wood, low lighting and Americana style booths. The staff are also delightful, knowledgeable about their produce, and provide super-slick service thanks to hand-held iPads. The food is pretty great too. As my beef-eating cohorts will confirm, the choice of steaks is enough to satisfy any meat-lover. Juicy and tender cuts are grilled perfectly to order, served simply on wooden boards or a sizzling hot skillet with a great range of sauces to boot. I hugely recommend the sweet potato wedges on the side and a milkshake to finish – the Oreo concoction was sublime. Happy eating.
The
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FOOD & DRINK
Honey and Mustard Glazed Ham JACQUELINE WISE
Local Cordon Bleu chef and events caterer shares her recipe of the month... A delicious roast ham makes the perfect centrepiece for any summer buffet or Sunday lunch. Serve with watercress, salads and fresh bread for a simple and impressive crowd pleaser, and recycle leftovers to create delicious sandwiches, pastas or pies.
INGREDIENTS 2.5kg Gammon joint 2 tbsp Olive oil 100g Honey 25ml Sherry vinegar 100g Wholegrain mustard 6 Peppercorns 2 Onions, peeled and halved 2 Bay leaves, torn 1 Carrot 1 Celery stick 1 Bulb of garlic, cut in half WWW.JACQUELINEWISECHEF.CO.UK Follow Jacqueline on Twitter @Jacquelinewise1 or Facebook Jacqueline Wise Chef
1 Cover ham with water in a large pan, bring to
boil and discard water. Then re-fill with fresh water, adding the peppercorns, onion, celery, carrot and garlic.
2 Simmer for 2.5 hours. Top up with boiling
water if needed. Skim any excess off the top during cooking.
3 Leave ham to cool in water for 1 hour, then
place in a roasting tray. Remove the skin, ensuring you leave a thin layer of fat, then score in a criss-cross pattern. Set the oven to 180ÂşC/Gas mark 4.
4 To make the glaze, mix the oil, honey, mustard
and sherry vinegar together in a mixing bowl. With a spoon smear some of the glaze over the ham and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
5 After 10 minutes baste with more of the
glaze and juices that have dripped off the ham. Repeat the basting process again every 10 minutes for the next 30 minutes.
6 Make sure the ham is golden all over. Once golden rest for 10 minutes and then it’s ready to carve. 17
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