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2010 GETFITTERWITH THE TRANSMITTER

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WELCOMEEditorAndy Pontin

EditorialJonathan Main Annette Prosser

RegularsLiz ClampJustine CrowMichael EyreHoward MaleNadia SawalhaSue Williams

Printing The Marstan Press Ltd

Contacteditor@thetransmitter.co.uk020 8771 5543

The Transmitter is published byTransmission Publications Ltd Registered in England 6594132PO Box 53556, London SE19 2TL

TO ISSUE 10

CoverMathilde Theill from Training Points

Inside CoverMathilde Theill and Taylor Battery from Training Points

PhotographyAndy Pontin

5

TRANSMITTER TRAINING

FEATURES

CONTENTS

New year workout courtesy of local fitness experts

REGULARS

COOKING

GARDENING

MUSIC

BOOKS

WHAT'S ON

OF CAPPUCCINO AND CAGE FIGHTING14Local cafe owners come out fighting

A MOTHER OF NATUREThe woman behind Mother Earth Beauty Salon

HOWARDS WAYHoward Male shares his 'fitness' regime with us

22

24

36

33

42

44

46

Nadia Sawalha cooks up some Persian perfection

Sue tells of bastard trenching and the perils of a splintered shaft

Howard Male keeps his finger on the pulse of world music

Jonathan Main on the first wave of Dinosaurmania

Our pathetic attempt to capture some of the available local activites....26

8

FASHION26Fashionable fur for freezing fillies

38

RESTAURANTS38Transmitter foodies go to The Park

14

6

Like a good climb? Time to polish your derailleur for The London Classic

Sunday 11 April 2010 will see 200 cyclists taking part in a brand new cycling event, which starts and ends at The Alma in Church Road. The route covers approximately 40 miles and will take a clockwise loop through London (descending first towards the West End then to Clerkenwell, the City, the East End and Docklands) before returning via the Woolwich Ferry to the infamous South London Alps otherwise known as Forest Hill, Sydenham Hill and Gipsy Hill.

The aim of the ride is to reflect the Spring Classic bike races of Northern France and Flanders, most notably The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, which are universally acknowledged to be the two toughest one-day bike races in the world. These races feature vicious climbs (often on cobblestones) and the London Classic organisers have intentionally attempted to emulate these conditions by sending the riders over as many navigable cobbled streets as possible and taking in some of the fantastic climbs that South London has to offer.

The event is intended to be fun but also a challenge. Organiser David Mullarkey explains: ‘A lot of cycling events are very serious but not necessarily much

NEWS AND EVENTSWHAT L'ENFER IS GOING ON AROUND HERE?

of a laugh. We welcome lycra warriors but also cyclists of all persuasions – commuters, mountain bikers, urban fixie hipsters’. It is free to enter although it is hoped that all participants may consider donating £15 to the event’s nominated charity, The Evelina Children’s Hospital (part of Guys and St Thomas NHS Trust).

For those taking part it will be a grand day out, especially as once you’ve successfully conquered your own climbs, you can sit back and marvel at the big boys conquering theirs: The Alma will

STOP PRESS

Allbone and Trimit are very excited to announce that they are one of the 6 finalists in the ‘Best Cultural and Creative Business’ category of the Lambeth Business Awards 2010. The award ceremony takes place on 23rd February 2010 at the Brit Oval in Kennington……..scissors, fabric and needles are working their magic for the ‘red carpet’ dress!

Allbone and Trimit The Overspill 4 Coopers Yard, Crystal Palace SE19 1TN 07764 196 284 www.allboneandtrimit.co.uk

CALLING ALL PALACE CYCLISTS

the foreign version

be screening live coverage of Paris-Roubaix on their big screen from around 2pm. (In other words if you don’t fancy the ride you can always skip that bit and just settle yourself with a beer to watch how it should be done.)

Bonne Chance to all rouleurs!

For all other details, including how to register for the event go to:www.thelondonclassic.org.

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TRADING PLACES

This year the coveted Transmitter Award for Best Christmas Window goes to Plumbase, (58-60, Westow Hill, Crystal Palace) and their fabulous, mad, snow panorama. Their window, which has been bringing delight to both adults and kids, is the work of Plumbase driver, Joe Field, who is due for retirement this year. The display is comprised of things Joe himself has collected over the years and took two days to complete.

ALL THE PRECIOUS THINGS OF THE LOCAL SHOPS FOR LOCAL PEOPLE

FESTIVE WINDOWS

Honourable mentions go to Dawn and Annette at Vintagehart and Liz at Smash Bang Wallop who at least made a bit of an effort...come on retailers, next year make Crystal Palace a fantabulous imaginarium of festive magic!.

Joe in his window (he's not always there)

Also rans, Vintagehart & Smash Bang Wallop

First across the line, Plumbase

BRAZILIANA BACK

Plumbase Manager John Fisher told us that "he asked to do a window this year and so I said Ok, so long as you make the bathroom suite look good; but in the end you couldn't even see the suite!" Well, we here at The Transmitter would rather look at Joe's panorama than a toilet any day, and in case you haven't seen it yet, we asked Mr Fisher nicely if he would leave it up until the end of the month - so pop along quick!

Good news for cafe lovers, The Braziliana has finally begun refurbishment following the tragic accident that forced them to close a while back, when a van drove into the busy cafe through the front window,.

They expect to be up and running some time in February and I am sure all Transmitter readers will join us in wishing them good luck - remember to go and spend a few quid in there too!

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FITFOR THE

TRANSMITTER GUIDE TO

GETTING IN SHAPE FOR

2010

Tradition has it that the New Year is

the time to GET FIT. With the added incentive of a new decade, there’s even more reason to have a grown-up go at sorting out our physical and emotional well-being. But we’re all different and need the right fitness regime: rushing full pelt at unrealistic goals never works, better to start carefully. Maybe walking up Gipsy Hill every day instead of taking the bus? Or

PURPOSE

swimming for 15 minutes twice a week? Or simply cutting back on the Blackbird Bakery’s chocolate brownies (hey, they are delicious).

If we aim for something achievable, we’re likely to stick with it. In time we can raise our stakes, increase the challenge, and before you know it, we’ll notice a real difference. So, Transmitter readers, let’s do it, let’s really do it, let’s make 2010 the year we feel proud!

You’re in? Great stuff! Luckily for us, we already have hills and green spaces available to us in our fresh air suburb: if you’re completely new to all this, just go for a walk (check out Howard’s Way on page xxx to get you started). If you’re after more of a challenge, we’ve got top notch advice on diet and general exercise, how to get holistic, and for those who prefer to get with the gadgets we have some recommended fitness kit you can use at home. Go for it!

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DIETBREAKFAST

• Alternate between Quinoa porridge with cinnamon or natural yoghurt with fruit

• Hot water with mint, lemon or ginger

• 1 apple

LUNCH• Italian-style salad with boiled egg,

raw mixed sprouts, tomato, grated carrots, and beetroot. Sprinkle with mixed seeds and seaweed. For variety try adding smoked mackerel, salmon, prawns or organic chicken

• Fruit salad (try blueberries, melon and plums)

DINNER• Soup (especially good is potato &

onion with the addition of celery, leek, sweet potato, peas, broccoli or cauliflower)

• Boil red quinoa and add as a topping (a healthy alternative to bread)

• Add a mixed salad on the side (try to use a variety of fresh vegetables like asparagus, mixed sprouts, raw celery)

SNACKS BETWEEN MEALS

• Almonds, Goji berries, mix seeds, raw celery, carrots and cucumber.

• Or try this very simple aubergine dip with spring onion and garlic: first grill the aubergine in the oven with olive oil. Mix fried spring onion and garlic, then simply blend it all together in a food processor.

THE TRAINING POINTS THREE WEEK HEALTHY EATING PLAN

GENERAL EVERY DAY ADVICE

• Drink a minimum of 1.5 litres of water or herbal tea

• Try to keep all your food organic where possible

• Eat 5 smaller meals a day (a snack can count as a meal!)

• Buy fresh juices from cafes, or make your own. Try adding Pukka Spirulina or Wheat Grass for more energy and protein

THE GREEN AND THE RED

• Kiwi fruit are great because they have a higher vitamin C content than any other fruit. Why not try a kiwi smoothie!

• Goji berries provide you with antioxidants to improve your immune system and almonds can assist with weight loss.

Curious Chocolate Dark Bar with 70% cocoa (hmm, now who sells that? - Ed)

TREATSA piece of dark chocolate (70-80% cocoa) is good for you. It contains antioxidants that reduce blood pressure.

SPELT FLOURHealthy doesn’t have to mean tasteless! Bake your own cake using spelt flour, brown sugar and organic ingredients.

Why choose spelt? Spelt releases energy slowly by taking longer to digest through your system and thus improving the energy supply to your muscles.

Homemade bread tastes much better. Spelt bread is very easy to make taking only 10 minutes to mix together.

PLANT YOUR OWN HERBSGet a selection of herbs for your window, garden or courtyard. Not only do they look nice, you can use your own fresh mint for your tea in the morning!

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BEGINNERS

WOOD CHOP WITH MEDICINE BALL

(A) Start/Finish position (B) Left (C) Right

A B C

PUSH UPS ON KNEES

(A) Start/Finish position (B) Mid position

A B

THE TRAINING POINTS 2010 WORKOUT

EXERCISE

SUMO SQUAT & SHOULDER PRESS

A B C

5ideas to kickstart your healthier

lifestyle

Here's some fun and enjoyable ideas to help you get started.

1. SKIPPING is great for toning, general fitness and not half as gay as it sounds (and looks) - boxers do this! - try 5-10 minutes skipping every other day.

2. RUNNING AND JUMPING sounds a bit silly, but really great for building general fitness and stamina..

3. DANCING swing those hips! have fun, burn calories and tone your body.

4. PERSONAL TRAINERS may cost a few quid, but if you need a helping hand with the willpower, these people make you do it and you will soon start looking and feeling great (albeit poorer).

5. PILATES builds posture and core strength and offers a more spititual angle for those of you who don't fancy shouty bootcamps and running around the park.

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SIDE PLANK

CHEST PRESS AND CRUNCHES ON TRANSFORMER WITH ELASTIC BAND

(A) Start/Finish position (B) Mid position (3) Third position

A B C

INTERMEDIATE

LUNGES WITH TRANSFORMER OR BALL

(A) Start/Finish position (B) Mid position

A B

1. Lie face down on mat resting on the forearms.2. Push off the floor, raising up onto toes and resting on the elbows.3. Keep your back flat, in a straight line from head to heels.4. Tilt your pelvis and contract your abdominals to prevent your rear end from sticking up in the air. 5. Hold for 20 to 60 seconds, lower and repeat for 3-5 reps.

THE PLANK

EQUIPMENTFor good and effective home training you don’t need much: a skipping rope, an elastic exercise band, a set of dumbbells and/or a medicine ball and your own body weight.

Training Points are Mathilde Theill and Taylor Battery, local fitness experts with a studio at85 Church Road, Crystal Palace SE19 2TA 07986 764553 www.trainingpoints.co.uk

Book your free 30 minute Personal Training Session anytime!

Anaerobic training including drills and games. The key to its success is that your heart rate stays up for much longer burning more calories throughout the day - www.miraclefitness.co.uk

(A) Start/Finish Position (B) Mid position (C) Third position

A B C

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CLIMBING PUSH UPS

(A) Start/Finish position (B) Mid position

A B

ADVANCED

SIDE PLANK

REVERSE PLANK

SIDE PLANK WITH TWIST

A B

(A) Start/Finish position (B) Mid position

5bits of kit you have to try in 2010

If the idea of going to the Gym is just not motivating you, here are 5 new things that to try in 2010. One of them might get you hooked and all of them will give you great results.

Local fitness guru Jayne Nicholls with some ideas for you fitaholic types

PLANK SPIDERMAN

13

A More Holistic ApproachBut it’s not all medicine balls and cold mornings in the park in a tracksuit. It’s important to reward all your efforts and take care of your body and mind with relaxing moments too. Mathilde and her team advocate more than healthy-eating and exercise plans, they also recommend skipping the swift

shower every so often and indulging instead in a nice long bath to nourish and replenish your skin (especially during these cold winter months). Try slathering on some Pukka

Neem & Sesame Oil before you get in for the full moisturising treatment.

Another recommended treat is the occasional Sports Massage which will help to revitalise the body

and improve blood circulation. This in

turn will enhance your performance at work and

when exercising. The benefit of a Sports Massage is to

improve the tissue condition and reduce muscle stiffness,

pain and fatigue. It also increases flexibility, range of movement and balance between the muscle groups, which create greater postural awareness. Or you could try a Shiatsu-style Relaxing Massage, which includes those all important acupuncture pressure points and some stretching.

Osteopathy and Aromatherapy also take an holistic approach to health and fitness and you can read more about Crystal Palace Osteopathy and some winter TLC with local aromatherapist Suzanne Goggin in the next few pages...

Thai BoxingThai Boxing is a really popular way of getting into better physical shape and improving your fitness. It is fun, effective, brings mental and physical stimulation and it gives great results.

GYMSTICKS this stylish piece of kit offers great resistance for the entire body. It is extremely simple to use and amazingly effective due to its industrial rubber tubing – lots of free workouts and advice at www.gymstick.net

GLIDERS These discs offer great ranges of motion which guarantees results, especially for women interested in the thigh and buttock areas. They're also fun! www.glidingdiscs.com

VIPR is the latest trend to hit the fitness industry and is perfect for the more hardcore. Just this one piece of equipment promotes functional results in and out doors. www.vipr-fit.com

KETTLEBELL Another hardcore piece of equipment designed for functional strength training. Designed to be flung around and assist other exercise this is a great piece of kit for anyone wanting results.www.londonkettlebells.com

GRAVITY if you want a bit of high end home equipment that you will definitely use then look no further. Its not cheap but it is the best piece of kit that I have ever seen. www.gravityuk.net

Jayne Nicholls is a UK Fitness Leader and teaches regular classes in Dulwich Village www.jaynenicholls.com

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OF CAppuccino & cage fighting La Bruschetta owners Claudio and 'Carla mix cage

fighting with running a destination cafe in crystal palace

To many of us the genial Claudio Ricotta and his wife Carla are the couple

that first introduced the panini to Crystal Palace.

Claudio, who comes from Sicilly had previously been a business partner at another popular local Italian restaurant, Ferraris, before he set up the excellent and very welcoming La Bruschetta on Westow Street.

But as well as running one of the best cafes on the triangle, a natural magnet for mothers with buggies and breakfasting comedians, who may or may not be quietly sitting in the corner writing their next TV series, Claudio has also been busy gaining a reputation as a succesful MMA (mixed marshal arts) cage fighter; a serious full contact combat sport that requires a fantastic level of fitness. MMA fighters combine elements of Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) with grappling, wrestling, Judo and Jiu-Jitsu.

Claudio’s last big fight was in November last year when, inspired by his father's illness, he decided to fight to raise money for Charity.

Carla's background as a personal trainer, boxercise intructor and certified kick boxing coach came in rather handy as Caludio prepared for the fight.

Over a five month period, Carla oversaw his diet, physical training and carefully co-ordinated the input of a team of skills specialists. Carla's watchful eye paid off with a victory which, through the generosity of their loyal customers, raised more than £1,000 for Cancer Research.

Having watched the fight on DVD in the back room at La Bruschetta, I couldn't help thinking that one of Carla's other enthusiasms, street dancing, might have been useful training for Claudio's opponent.

Photographs by Andy PontinCarla's Hair by Willie Smarts

By Jonathan Main

THE WINNER!

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A BIG thank you to all who contributed to cancer research, to everyone at Semtex Gym, especially Dan Harris - and above all to my wife Carla for all the support, knowledge and love.

Claudio

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18

a SANCTUARY IN SE19JUSTINE CROW VISITS CRYSTAL PALACE OSTEOPATHIC PRACTICE

‘So,’ I began, having removed my ice-encrusted walking boots and two pairs of thermals to

reveal my chilblained toes as snow blotted out the Emerald City at the foot of Gipsy Hill, ‘what made you decide to become an osteopath?’

‘Well,’ Charlie Santiago replied matter-of-factly, ‘I used to be a clown…’

As career swerves go, this sounds like a screeching off-piste skid but actually, it makes sense. No really. Stick with me. I met Charlie through a mutual friend, a comedienne and performer: the pair augmented their acrobatic skills with the ballet class that I too attend. Charlie says that years back she suffered a ghastly leg injury that led her to the wonderful new world of assessing the bio-mechanics (it says here in the leaflet) of the whole body, using a variety of techniques to improve the function and mobility of the musculoskeletal system. Phew. It’s a long way from falling over on purpose in big trousers. Which, incidentally, isn’t how she sustained the leg injury.

After qualifying and then travelling the breadth of the country fixing people’s unbendy bits, Charlie took over this established practice and set about modernising and broadening its appeal. Situated above the grind of the triangle, in hues of mauve, it is a veritable island of calm, fragranced with a hint of a playfulness. Not unlike Ms Santiago herself.

Biro poised, she begins with some formal questions but finally, I confess: I have form. ‘Ah,’ she says, trusting the admin completely and returning with my file recorded a decade ago when I was absolutely desperate, having put

my neck out so shamefully that I was walking round with my beak cocked sideways like Rod Hull’s Emu.

Charlie says that this is typical, that people often only book a treatment out of utter despair, broken by pain. But others do come for routine maintenance, sometimes once a month, determined to stay fit and healthy therefore enhancing mental elasticity too: for instance, those who work in stressful jobs like driving. ‘After all,’ she remarks, ‘commuting is stressful. Living in London is stressful!’

Ten years ago, the lady that straightened me out commented that it was simple to ascertain a person’s body fitness by the speed at which they get undressed: those who exercise regularly waste no time because they are accustomed to

stripping their gear off around other people. I am a dead giveaway as a swimming teacher – I was down to my undercrackers and on that table faster than a tuck-bomb in the deep end. Actually, I lie. First, Charlie stood me up and regarded me from behind, saying that she thought I had an ever so slightly out of kilter pelvis and one leg a tad longer than the other.

Then I got to lie down. Bliss. Generally, the first treatment takes between thirty and forty minutes with follow-ups of half an hour. This time I was going to have an MOT and Charlie got to work on the dashboard instantly by doing that neck-cracky thing that both appals and fascinates as you actually commune with your own bones in a primal physical language. After that, she worked on the chassis, smoothing, pushing,

The irresistible Charlie Santiago

19

turning, tuning as she loosened up my lower back and my ribcage, patiently lifting her fingers when I let out an involuntary ‘Ow!’ that wasn’t down to pain, rather it was an expression of release as knots were untied.

She turned me over and with deft fingers that spoke to my neck, spine, hips and arms, coaxed me into a place of equanimity, of symmetry. To resort to the garage analogy, she sorted-out-me-tracking-mate, after all those blasted speed bumps. I felt aired and loosened, buffed up and race-fit and as I reluctantly reapplied my layers of clothing, my swollen toes tingled in grateful acknowledgement of increased circulation. What a relief. The livid things had stopped itching.

It costs about forty quid for an osteopathy treatment (about as much

as you’ll spend in the boozer at the weekend) and instead of slumping into a deeper sense of physical failure, a helpless mire of apathy, for your money you receive a positive dividend, the idea that anything is possible. That you can be lifted. Charlie says that it is an experience that is ‘redeemable’. It sets you up. For next week. For next year. For old age.

As well as treating stress and fatigue, trapped nerves and discs, RSI, whiplash, sciatic pain, sports injuries and a raft of other traumas including ear infections, chest complaints and childhood disorders, the practice also provides acupuncture, with a specialisation in fertility and ante and post natal care, reflexology and aromatherapy message. The latter was an irresistible proposition. Reader, I went back..

The sublime Suzanne Goggin, barefoot and as soothing as the deliciously unchallenging

warble in the background – I am a sucker for Tibetan-whale song fusion – plucked out warming essences to apply all over my body in a rolling motion so incredibly smooth it was hard to discern where one wave finished and another began. And where with Charlie we chatted as she fine-tuned, with Suzanne my silent thoughts eddied and drifted, swimming to the surface only after she’d finished off with a shoulder and facial massage. ‘How d’you feel now?’ she asked with a gentle lilt from over the sea. ‘Starving!’ I replied. ‘That’s good because the spicy aromas I chose to help improve your circulation also act as an appetite enhancer.’ I was so hungry, I could have eaten all that snow off the pavement.

Now I’ve had a few back rubs in my time but I can honestly say that the two treatments I received here right here on the doorstep of the triangle easily trounce the posh jobs I’ve forked out for elsewhere. What a luxury to have such a sensible, vital and exquisite resource so close-by; what a testament to the variety of our beloved suburb; who needs Covent Garden when we have sanctuary next door? Affordably priced too, treatment vouchers are also available as gifts to use as an insurance policy against the insanity of London life.

Get your engine revving. Go for that MOT.

Justine Crow

The sublime Suzanne Goggin

Our New Years resolution is to relax and not to be broken through our wonderful

Winter Warmer which includes:

• The Radiance Resurface Facial• Hand treatment with heated mitts• Eyebrow Shape and • A relaxing soothing foot massage

Normally retails for £116.00

Present The Transmitter magazine to receive 10% off all other treatments during February 2010 please email janis@jhskincareclinic.co.uk to receive a treatment list

UK Gatineau Elite Therapist Award 2008 - FinalistAward 2007 - FinalistAward 2006 - Finalist

020 8699 1998137 Kirkdale, Sydenham, London, SE26 4QJ

Facials Massage

Now on offer throughout the whole of January and February for £72.50

ChemotherapyTrichotillomaniaMale pattern hairlossFemale pattern Hair-lossAlopecia

We have helped peo-ple with these condi-tions using the bestmaterials and naturalhair to achieve theappearance they de-sire. Our work hasbeen featured on BBC TV.

UNRIVALLED IN QUALITY SERVICE AND PRICE

Bespoke wig design &Hair replacement service

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London-south London-Centralfortyseven Heather Morris @47a Westow Street The Hair ClinicCrystal Palace John Bell & CroydonSE19 3RW 50-54 Wigmore Street, W1020 8771 7170 020 7935 9200www.fortysevenhair.co.uk www.the-hair-clinic.co.uk

Project2:Layout 1 23/10/2008 15:39 Page 1

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You can also pay for your subscription by credit/debit card online at www.thetransmitter.co.uk 21

Aromatherapy is the use of healing essential oils extracted from plants and trees which are administered to the body through deeply relaxing therapeutic massage, inhalation and baths to help relieve physical and emotional ailments.

An ancient therapy dating back to 3000BC, aromatherapy today suffers somewhat from the misconception that it is useful only as an aid for relaxation and stress relief when in fact it can help treat a wide range of ailments from colds and flu to eczema and psoriasis, from muscular aches and pains to insomnia and anxiety.

Essential oils are powerful medical remedies that have a direct healing effect upon the body. The natural constituents are drawn into the body through the lungs and skin and are carried in the blood to muscles and organs bringing about significant physiological and psychological healing.

Most people will be familiar with essential oils such as Lavender and Tea Tree but there are several hundred essential oils, about 70 of which are commonly used in aromatherapy and many of these can be used at home to treat minor ailments.

At this time of year coughs and colds bring misery to many but can be eased with simple aromatherapy remedies. Please refer to the safety information below before trying these remedies and if unsure contact a qualified practitioner. These remedies are not suitable for pregnant women or children.

Cough & Cold Relief Chest RubThis simple chest rub remedy uses Cedarwood Atlas (an expectorant which encourages phlegm and mucous to be expelled) and Eucalyptus Radiata, a decongestant and anti-viral oil helpful for unblocking noses and fighting the cold virus.

• 5ml/1 teaspoon of carrier oil (sweet almond or jojoba oil)

• 1 drop of Eucalyptus Radiata oil• 1 drop of Cedarwood Atlas• Mix thoroughly and rub all the oil vigorously

into your chest and neck allowing the oil to soak in. Repeat three times a day.

Immune Boosting Body OilIt is also important at this time to boost immunity to prevent catching any bugs doing the rounds. This body oil can be used in place of your usual body moisturiser after bathing. Litsea Cubeba and Black Pepper both have strong immune boosting properties and Lavender is a powerful anti-microbial oil.

• 10ml/1 tablespoon of carrier oil (sweet almond or jojoba)

• 1 drop Litsea Cubeba• 2 drops Black Pepper• 1 drop Lavender• Mix thoroughly and rub the oil all over the

body. Use once a week.

Decongestant InhalationInhalations are also extremely effective in treating congestion associated with colds and flu.

• Fill a ceramic bowl with just boiled water and add:

• 1 drop Ravensara• 1 drop Eucalyptus Globulus• 1 drop Black Pepper• Close eyes tightly, lean over the bowl and

inhale the vapours deeply through the nose. Repeat twice a day.

aromatherapy for beginnersFeel a cold coming on? Suzanne Goggin has some essential advice for you...

Safety Information

It is very easy to get started with aromatherapy and the therapy is extremely safe but there are some safety issues that you need to be aware of. Certain essential oils must be strictly avoided during pregnancy and also if you are epileptic, have high blood pressure, sensitive skin or intend to go into strong sunshine after applying them. If unsure, do consult a qualified practitioner. Never use essential oils neat on the skin and never take internally. Last but not least, do enjoy introducing aromatherapy into your lifestyle!

Suzanne Goggin is a qualified Aromatherapist and a member of IFPA. She practises at Cocoon Aromatherapy, The Crystal Palace Osteopathic Practice, 10 Westow St, SE19 Mon-Fri 9am-8pm. T: 07779 122 427 www.cocoonaromatherapy.com

22

A mother of natureOLIVIA NAIRN MEETS THE WOMAN BEHIND MOTHER EARTH BEAUTY SALON

Looking back over the past seventeen years, Rubina Latif has a great deal to be proud of. The founder of the

popular Mother Earth salon recalls with passion how she first operated out of a single room in another shop on Westow Street, before achieving her dream of opening her very own salon, offering a wide range of treatments and with special focus on natural and organic products. Over the years Mother Earth has gone from strength to strength, and stepping inside it is clear that the accessible, back to basics approach of the peaceful salon is echoed throughout.

After training at the London Institute of Beauty Culture, Rubina began her career in the beauty industry with a job at the Prescriptives counter in the former Dickins & Jones department store. It was during this period that she became rather disillusioned: ‘the world of make-up and in-house fashion shows was so superficial. It just wasn’t me,’ she says frankly. It was this experience which led her to bravely take that first step to set up on her own. Mother Earth opened in 1993, and since then Rubina has witnessed many changes to the area, yet continues to count some of those first crucial visitors among today’s regular clients. She thinks of the area as a village, and sees the recent regeneration as nothing but positive. The themes of the salon accord with many local residents’ ideas about nature and the environment, and consistently promote what is close to Rubina’s heart. ‘We just try to make everything as relaxed and friendly as possible,’ she says.

Indeed, Mother Earth is miles away from the stuffy, superior atmosphere of some salons. The most popular treatments remain the facials and massages, which have proved consistent hits with mothers-to-be, seeking those all-important relaxation treatments at a stressful time. Rubina now has a more managerial role in the salon’s day-to-day business but has trained the salon’s employees herself, and they are all well-versed in the ethics that Mother Earth preaches. She confesses that perhaps one day she would like to open a spa, and certainly to produce her

own branded goods. While we wait for the first Mother Earth products to hit our shelves, Rubina recommends the Matis Hydra SK4 Luxury Facial (£75 for 90 minutes) as ‘the ultimate treatment’: if we believe her claim that one client looks younger now than she did when she first started coming to the salon, there is certainly no time to lose.

www.motherearthbeauty.com

42 Westow Street, Crystal Palace London SE19 3AH020 8768 0620

Olivia Nairn

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Walk, don’t run!HOWARD MALE SUGGESTS THAT IF YOU WALK THE WALK, HAPPINESS (AND FITNESS) WILL BE YOURS

We’re a month into 2010 but are we any slimmer following

that New Year’s resolutions to get down to the gym or go for a daily gallop in the park? I thought not. The trouble is we’re inclined to set the bar too high when it comes to being tough on ourselves. My wife, a seasoned jogger, always comes back from her first run of the new year with the same dismissive report regarding all the new faces (and bodies) she has just seen huffing and puffing their way around Crystal Palace Park in their fresh-from-the-wrapping-paper running gear. She knows she’s never likely to see them again because they’ve jumped in at the deep end, and the deep end has left them gasping desperately for air. By the time they hobble out of the park they are shuffling, sweating wrecks with just enough energy to stumble into the first greasy spoon they set eyes upon

(try the excellent value Crystal Pantry cafe on Church Rd, all you fly-by-night joggers!)

So allow me, in my finite wisdom, to present an alternative way of losing those extra pounds that are still stubbornly clinging to your waist and butt following the Eating for Christ December festivities. My weight loss plan (as these things are called these days) can be summed up by the three words that every put-upon teacher shouts down the school corridor most days of their lives: ‘Don’t run, walk!’

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Howard Male

Running is a mug’s game. We higher primates weren’t even built to walk on just two legs never mind run on them; even our nearest primate relatives still use their arms to help propel them along. So when we start to place extra demands on our imperfectly evolved musculoskeletal system (bet you didn’t even know you had one of those!) it will immediately protest and eventually cracks will start to appear. Every book on running has a chapter on injuries: you can pull, tear or twist this or that muscle. Then there’s runner’s knee, shin, calf, hip… Or maybe your Achilles heel will turn out to be your Achilles heel; however amusingly ironic that might sound in theory, my wife will tell you that it’s a real pain in the… well, heel.

But who’s heard of a walker getting an injury? Unless, that is, they’ve not taken care crossing the road on the way to the park and they’ve been hit by a bus. And the walker doesn’t even have to get all the gear that the runner is somehow obliged to acquire (so he or she doesn’t look like an amateur in front of other runners.) When I go for my daily constitutional I just put on my sturdy Doc Marten shoes (no absurdly expensive trainers with hovercraft-like soles for me!) However, you do have to make a bit of an effort, physically speaking, and this is where this neck of the South London woods really comes in useful. The particular route I take at least three times a week could have been designed by an aerobics teacher, so perfect is it for a demanding yet pleasurable session of one-foot-in front-of-the-other forward motion. So, let’s go!

When I leave my flat at the top of Woodland Road it’s downhill all the way to Croxted Road, so this stretch of the walk functions as a perfect warm-up period. But be warned that however tempting it might be to break out into a trot or even – God forbid – a run, during this downhill stretch, it isn’t wise. Apparently when running downhill, gravity exerts around five times your body weight on to those poor old knees of yours. And the knees are often the first part of your impressive-sounding musculoskeletal system that cracks (sometimes literally) under pressure. So just keep those footfalls light (skipping is allowed if the mood takes you) and admire the scenery. And do resist the temptation to move from a canter into a gallop. When you come out on to Gipsy Hill, by the Station, the ground levels out somewhat. Keep on until the roundabout at the bottom, then turn left and continue along past the shops on Gipsy Road. Turn left on to Salter's Hill at which point you should be sufficiently warmed up ... As you

turn left on to Salter’s Hill you should be sufficiently warmed up (or glowing at this time of year) to tackle the hardest part of the walk. Salter’s Hill is a killer the first time, if you try to take it at full tilt. But, trust me. Once you’ve done this route a few times it will stop feeling like you are ascending

Everest, and it will simply be bracingly invigorating. Just get your

head down and go for it. Once you get to the top, you turn left again on to

Central Hill, and you have five minutes of blissfully horizontal ambulating to do before the gentler, steady climb back up to Westow Hill begins. If you’ve been striding purposefully enough, you should have got up a bit of a sweat by now. I wouldn’t go as far as to say, ‘No pain, no gain!’ but I would say, ‘No sweat – you ain’t working hard enough yet!’ When I first did this route about two years ago it took about forty minutes. Now it takes around thirty minutes. As long as you’re always striving to cut down on your time, you’re working hard enough.

So there you have it: the SE19 Walker’s Workout. Runners (as some joggers like to be called) can be a bit snooty about walking. One of my wife’s running books begrudgingly informed its readers that, ‘walking isn’t a crime.’ But of course the implicit message of a statement like that is that someone at some point has suggested that it is a crime. The purposeful walker in such books (rather than the walker who’s just gone out for a packet of fags) is always either having a restorative walk between stretches of running, or just getting the motor ticking over before they begin a run. But I say, be proud to be a walker – walk tall! As a walker – all other things being equal – you will still lose weight, feel healthier, and not end up half crippled because you’ve submitted your fragile frame to an inhumanly punishing activity. Forgive me if I leave it there, but it’s time for my afternoon walk.

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WHEN THE WILD THINGS WALK HOMEWalking home after a party through a winter wonderland, a girl needs some fur...Photographs by Andy Pontin

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Hannah wears vintage muskrat fur coat £175 Frankie and Lola (this page left),Charlotte wears vintage chocolate fake fur £40 from Vintagehart. (this page right)Fascinators from Oohlalalovlies (oohlalalovlies@yahoo.co.uk)

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Georgina & Flick walk home through Dulwich Park, wearing vintage fake furs from Vintagehart from £40.

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32

There will always be a place in our hearts for historic Crystal Palace Park, but venture a tiny bit

further and you’ll find two other local urban spaces worthy of our attention

There is a quite wonderful open space (a protected nature reserve and real urban oasis) just a few hundred yards from Crystal Palace Triangle which may not be so well known either to visitors or even to local people.

This lovely place is located on Farquhar Road. From Westow Hill turn left at the junction with the Parade, then left into Farquhar Road. After bearing right, walk about another 300 yards, cross two small roads, and there on the right is Dulwich Upper Wood.

The Wood has landscaped nature trails, wildlife habitats, and a number of benches for enjoying the view. Until the mid-1940s the area was occupied by eight large Victorian villas: their foundations can still clearly be seen and some have been turned into wildlife gardens. The best part of the Wood is in the far (north) corner where a long stone-paved staircase (formerly part of another enormous Victorian house) rises up to a glade (right beneath the junction of College Road and the Parade). In winter when the trees are bare there are great views from here. Dulwich Upper Wood has its own lodge with exhibitions about the history of the area and the flora and fauna which can be found there, and a warden (Jim) who also looks after the wildlife park adjacent to the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill. You can find out more at www.urbanecology.org.uk/dulwich.html

By Justin Kulaway

PASTURES NEW TWO BITS OF URBAN ECOLOGY ON OUR DOORSTEP

Beaulieu Heights, 16 acres of woodland and meadow, is one of the best kept secrets of Crystal Palace: a beautiful park with stunning views over the South Downs as it drops down from Church Road below the (other)Transmitter, and one of the most tranquil havens in Upper Norwood.

In 2008 the Friends of Beaulieu Heights came together, working with the Church and Scouts, Croydon Council Green Spaces Team, The British Conservation Volunteers, South Norwood Safer Neighbourhood Team and Councillors in order to improve access for all and make the park more welcoming. The environment, the bio-diversity and access have all been improved, including the main footpath leading from Auckland Road to South Norwood Hill, where much of the holly has been cleared.

As part of the Friends group, the GreenPrints project (started in August 09) works with 16-25 year olds who want to gain practical conservation experience by improving areas for the whole community to enjoy. The project is youth-led and managed, and runs until March. Young people have cleared vegetation, searched for birds and bats, planted bulbs, constructed waymarkers on site. Future plans include planting fruit trees and adding more seating.

Since the start of the Friends group, volunteers are gathering information about the site, recording its trees (60), plants and birds (52). This information will then help shape a long-term management for the woodland. A fantastic surprise was the discovery of a muntjac deer, and a volunteer with the London Bat Group assisted with identifying that there are two types of Pipistrelle bats and Noctules using the wood. There might even be a bat rare in London (one which likes dark woods) but this has yet to be confirmed.

The Friends meet for regular workdays on site but also offer a number of community events to invite people to get to know and enjoy the site. In the coming months there will be a guided bird-identification walk (with the opportunity to make a bird feeder); a sycamore clearance day; a community open day and festival to mark the end of the GreenPrints project; outdoor storytimes (in conjunction with Upper Norwood Library) and nature activities for families; and a traditional charcoal-making workshop.

See What’s On for specific dates, or contact friends@beaulieuheights.org if you’d like to become involved or simply find out more about this local gem.

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Digging for Victory (Little Bastard Trenches)

Sue Williams

..double digging holds the key to a pair of toned thighs and arms like Madonna... If your New Year is paved with

good intentions of fitness and exercise, this issue’s Patch looks to our Norwood gardens as a

possible gymnasium. No need to pay for that fancy cross-trainer or treadmill – double digging holds the key to a pair of toned thighs and arms like Madonna. As well as enriching the garden and honing the physique, digging is absolutely free, perfect for the austere post Noughties.

Generally speaking the soil in Norwood’s green and pleasant lands is good old London clay. Double digging helps to improve the soils fertility and drainage and was frequently practised in gardens of old, where it was commonly called ‘bastard trenching’ – not sure why but a colourful term nevertheless. There is a school of thought these days that double digging is unnecessary and that we should let mulching and earthworms do the job, but I feel that it is a marvellous tonic for any garden due to be planted up. It exposes and aerates lower levels of the soil, throws up any perennial weeds and places fertiliser right down near the plants’ roots.

Many people find the whole idea of digging somewhat off-putting. A back breaking slog! A tedious chore! Think again – it’s a marvellous muscle-toner. However, approach the job with the right mind-set: don’t set impossible goals and stop as soon as exhaustion hoves into view.

Double digging is simply digging the soil two spits deep (to the depth of two spade blades). You’ll need a pair of sturdy boots, a strong spade and a cheery smile (not essential). It’s a worthwhile investment to buy a good quality spade, false economy can lead to a splintered shaft or splintered hands. The Secret Garden and Homebase in Penge both have a good selection.

On to business. The first step is to divide the plot into two and mark out both sections in 2ft wide strips. Starting at one end dig out the first strip to one spit deep. The soil should be placed on the adjacent strip in the other half-plot.

Break up the soil at the bottom of the trench to the depth of one more spit, then introduce any compost or fertiliser into the broken-up earth. Hopefully you Norwood horticulturalists will all be producing marvellous home-grown stuff by now but if not a fish, blood and bonemeal mixture is top notch or a quantity of concentrated animal manure is effective.

Now move on to the second step. Dig out as before and place the soil into the first trench and continue in the same vein until the first trench is filled with the displaced soil from the first. It’s probably a good idea not to set any trench more than 10ft in length as it may be a bit morale-sapping: better to finish a short strip than half finish a long one (a moral for life maybe?) And at the end of

these labours? Self-satisfaction, aching limbs and a perfect plot ready for planting.

If your soil is not too heavy or you simply want to carry out a spring rejuvenation, then single simple digging is sufficient (one spit deep) and any compost can be introduced into the single trench.Well, Norwoodians, if you dig the idea of free, productive exercise, get those spades out and give your garden a nourishing makeover. Happy Gardening.

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The last enemy to be destroyed is bric-a-bracANDREW RUMSEY SAYS KNICKERS TO KNICKNACKERY

We have just had a bric-a-brac sale at church. In these

murky areas of religion, it is vital to define one's terms. Bric-a-brac, in the unerring words of Harry in my congregation, is ‘hard jumble’, and after the locusts have gone, we still have six creaking trestles of the stuff.

Surveying the wondrous dross this afternoon, perhaps I can tempt you with a china kitten, lifting its paw in a pleading posture? Or maybe a wobbly mug tree, or some rose-shaped tealights, or a pair of comedy antlers? No? Then how about a frankly unsettling model scarecrow stuffed with raffia, or more dried flowers than you could shake a dried stick at? Be my guest. Please.

Human beings, the Book of Genesis tells us, are made in the image of God: they are distinguished from other creatures in significant ways. Some point to our senses of wonder or humour as marks of this difference; others to our capacity for reflection or rational thought. Personally, I am clear that what sets us apart from the apes is bric-a-brac: our capacity to create it, collect it, and still have twelve baskets of it left after all else has been consumed. Scuttle aside, O cockroach; lay low, ye ancient hills of disposable nappies, for bric-a-brac will outlast you all.

A bric-a-brac sale captures the human condition in a nutshell – actually in a porcelain nutshell surmounted by a rustic fisherman. It is truly remarkable

how we imitate creation by reproducing it in microform, and then fetishise what we have made. Even in ages and cultures not so bulimically gorged with stuff as our own, bric-a-brac persists, with toys and ornaments emerging from old cans or scraps of soap. We are instinctively artistic, even if most of our art lacks a certain divine spark. Extracting a rib from Adam's prone form, the Lord fashioned the fathomless beauty of womankind. You can bet that Adam, presented with the same rib, would have whittled it into a pipe rack.

Human aptitude for creating things may positively reflect our status as creatures, but, as Christ observed, this knack for hoarding up our little treasures is a fatal crack in our clay – self-centred and only bound for decay. Hell could well be a closing-down sale where wailing shoppers tussle over trinkets, as if their deaths depended on it.

If it lies anywhere, salvation is in releasing our sweaty grip, and saying 'after you'. This is what George Steiner calls the courtesy of true art, which doesn't seek to grab, smother and possess, but stands back to make space, regardless of personal cost.

You can do this at a bric-a-brac sale, of course, although it won't raise much money for the new church hall. But then bric-a-brac is already inherently cheap – that's part of its appeal. Driving recently through a small town in North Wales, I passed

one of those fearful shops selling 'fancy goods'. As I waited at the lights, my blood quietly curdling, I noticed that we were being enticed inside by a pile of opaque plastic bags, all tied at the top. Above them was a sign which read 'bags of bric-a-brac, 50p'.

The idea that you might pop out for a random assortment of bric – or indeed brac – without knowing what was in it, struck me as truly priceless.

Perhaps curiosity is to blame. In Greek mythology, Pandora is given an interesting bit of hard jumble by Zeus: a box (no doubt made out of clothes pegs by Zeus's dad), which he forbade her ever to open. Having been to numerous bring and buy sales, though, Pandora naturally wanted to peek inside to see if the box contained some other pleasing trifle – a jigsaw, perhaps. When she did so, we are told that the evils of mankind – plague, sorrow, poverty, crime (and, I hazard, the intemperate love of fancy goods) burst out upon the world, though she shut it just in time to preserve one last quality, hope. Learning her lesson, Pandora quickly passed the box on to her local Cancer Research.

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Andrew Rumsey will be launching his book Strangely Warmed (Continuum £9.99) at Bookseller Crow on Sat 29 January at 6.30 - 8.30pm. He may well also be singing. In addition The Effras have an evening gig at the White Hart on Sunday 30 January.

The ballooning business of charity shopping to a certain extent redeems our crazy craving by offering a guilt-free path to self-indulgence. But when Sue Ryder or the Cats' Protection League own every other shop on your high street, two things at least are clear: first that the ground rents are too high and second, that we all have far too much stuff.

In the limitless tide of unwanted flotsam that swills and spills between these emporia, there is a kind of food chain. If one was especially perverse, one could map the progress of an item of bric-a-brac – say a Charley Pride album or a commemorative teaspoon – and find the point at which it was successfully scavenged, found a home or finally entered the landfill.

Which is probably where we will pay the true price for our inconspicuous consumption. Until then, though, we all love a bargain.

Andrew Rumsey

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Love is in the air! Well ... almost.

The other day, me and my husband sat opposite each other, and slowly looked at each other with an increasing level of concern and alarm. It was quiet. It was positively silent. There was no one else in the house. There was no one knocking at the door, no one editing some programme in the loft, no child screaming for a bottle or using a pet guinea pig as a Wii remote.

No, we literally sat opposite each other and heard ... nothing. Rather worryingly, being so shocked, we said nothing.It slowly dawned on us both, that during the 8 years of our union, we hadn’t actually been totally on our own together for longer than approximately 13 minutes.

We were now on our own! Anything was possible. And yet we simply sat at the dining table looking at each other, a strange state of traumatic silence descending on both of us.

‘What shall we do?’ I muttered.‘What do you mean?’ he answered.‘What SHALL we do?’ I didn’t really understand my emphasis on the word SHALL.

‘How long do you think we’ve got?’ he asked

Quick 'n' easy spice

Nadia Sawalha

NADIA'S UP FOR FOR A SPICY QUICKIE

‘I don’t know. Ten ... maybe 15 minutes ...’

Ever so slowly he started to blush.

‘What?’ I asked, reaching my foot under the table towards his.‘What?’ he returned, toes connecting.‘What are you thinking?’ I pressed him, flicking my curls over my shoulder.‘Erm ...’ He cleared his throat nervously, his blush now fully formed. ‘Well ... I ... was ...’‘Yes?’ I interrupted expectantly.

‘No, no. Nothing.’ Unfortunately, he backed away from whatever plan he was cooking up.

‘I think the girls will be gone for another 15 minutes’ I teased. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ By hick or by trick I was going to get my way!

‘I ... think ... so.’ He reached over and gently took hold of my hand. ‘Shall we do it?’ he whispered.

‘Have we got time?’ I said playfully.

He looked at his watch. ‘Let’s just make it a ... quickie’ he stammered.

I leapt from my chair. ‘Spicy Lamb Chops it is then!’

Who says romance is dead?

Spicy Lamb ChopsThis is such a delicious, divinely simple supper that you simply must surprise someone you love with it very soon. Sweet, tender, perfectly spiced lamb ready in minutes!

JEWELLED RiceThis rice dish brings you a taste of the Middle East: the exotic sweetness of the raisins marries beautifully with the lemony sourness of the barberries (a wild berry often used in Iranian cuisine) and the fragrant pistachio nuts. Feel free to play with the dressing, the amounts I have given are merely guidelines!

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

INGREDIENTS

METHOD METHOD

INGREDIENTS

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• 4oz of whatever rice you fancy (but please not yucky boil in a bag!)

• 2 heaped tbsps raisins• 2 heaped tbsps

barberries (sold in Turkish, Middle Eastern and Greek shops)

• 2 heaped tbsps of shelled pistachio nuts

Cook the rice as directed on the packaging, and then transfer to a bowl. Stir in the raisins, barberries and dressing then (once the rice has cooled down a little) stir in the chopped herbs and pistachio nuts. Taste and season again if needs be.

Jewelled Rice

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and marinade overnight or for ten minutes if you’ve forgotten! Then heat the grill up to as hot as it gets and cook the chops for a few minutes on each side (depending on the thickness) until the fat is nice and crispy and the meat is still pink. Serve with the jewelled rice and a green salad (though Mark despises salad so he has spinach bless his socks).

• 2 tbsps of lemon juice• 3 tbsps of olive oil• Zest half a lemon• 1tbspofeitherfinely

chopped parsley or coriander

• In a small bowl whisk all the ingredients together, taste and season.

The Dressing

In a small bowl whisk all the ingredients together, taste and season.

Serves 2• 6 lamb chops• 2 tsps of coriander seeds• 1 tsp cumin seeds• 2 tbsps olive oil• 2 tbsps chopped fresh

coriander • 1-2 crushed garlic cloves• Lots of black pepper• Plenty of crunchy salt

Spicy Lamb Chops

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In a January mood after the season’s excesses we went in search of a simple supper. Not necessarily a simple exercise

though, given that the entire universe appeared to be snowed in, with kitchens closed and apologetic A-boards all over the option. I, with an appetite sharper than a skater’s boot thanks to the fragrant ministrations elsewhere in this publication, began to get panicky. What if I have to go without? And given that the Coop on the corner had been stripped of all its essentials – can’t get a tin of condensed milk for love nor money and the last time that happened, a cloud had just passed over from Chernobyl – and we are forced into Nando’s? It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Then, our newest bookshop fairy and culinary nut, Jo, magicked up a fine suggestion: so down the hill we slipped and slithered to a secret corner of West Norwood. Not so secret, I hear you locals of Salters Hill groan, we’ve always been here.

No kidding, in the dark, sideways on, lit by the luminous snow on Norwood Park that loomed with tumbling snowmen, a sense of style pleasingly pre-empted by an elegant row of dwellings on Elder Road, the pub called The Park – fraught with prescient understatement don’t you think? – glowed with Pickwickian hospitality.

Inside, it was more Heal’s than Dickens. Spacious with subdued wood, a stack of vintage puzzles

and games on the hearth, the tables flickered with generous scented wax while enlightened regulars chatted and lounged around, basking in the candlelight at their good fortune at having such a useful battle cruiser to show off their general knowledge in (no coincidence then that Thursday Quiz Nights are very busy).

It wasn’t always thus. In a previous incarnation, this was the Sarf Lundun pub from hell, loathed by the old bill and neighbours alike for its foul cast of druggies, drunks and idiots intent on keeping the place firmly in the middle ages. Scott and Nick have worked hard to eradicate that memory. Knocking down walls, they have literally opened up a public house with a welcome that began the minute the bookseller approached the bar.

Starting with a thumb’s margin and capital letter, I wrote ‘Helpful..’ in my notebook but at this point, my pen ran out, probably the shock of activity. Fortunately the bookseller had his special eyebrow pencil to hand so I am able to bring you the detail after all, albeit appropriately unadorned. The menu was deceptively modest – pizzas, pasta, chilli con carne. Then our eyes defrosted and as we unwound our scarves, we noticed Vietnamese pork dumplings.. ‘traditional frankfurters’, mezze to share, vegetarian mezze, homemade pie.. Eh? A wine list! I bet the previous regulars never saw one of those...

The bookpusher immediately ordered anchovies so that I wouldn’t resort

to chewing my cuffs and they came with the exotic touch of food picks speared into the backbone of a green leaf. Happily harpooning the Lilliputian silvery game and some chillified olives, it really did feel as if we had tipped ourselves ever so slightly over the equator. Why was this?

Earwigging a conversation behind that roamed from Hong Kong to Sussex, we talked foreigners, we talked incomers, we talked about how much we valued diversity. We also talked about how we wished they’d all stop supporting Arsenal and put their weight behind their local team who could really do with some support right now.

Fortunately our pizzas cheered us up instantly: Funghi for me and true to stereotype, cue chest-beating roar, Meat Feast for the literary man. (‘Oh, forgot to order your green

the parkA PUB ROUND THE CORNER THATS TURNED THE CORNER

39

salad…’ he remarked, meaningfully). Straightaway we were on guy territory as he began mithering about the perfection of the bases. ‘They look real,’ he whispered over the hiss of the wick. ‘Not bought in,’ enunciating, in case I didn’t understand and had turned into one of the trolls that used to inhabit the place before it was cleaned up. They’d have been envious of the knives, mind you. Cutlery with gravitas, these things actually worked.

The wine list had been travelling too, with realistic pricing unusual for a pub, but we were unambitious and had chosen a sinus-clearing Chenin Blanc to go with the deliciously thin bases with just the right frill of crispness. Delivered with chilli oil on the side and a flourish of black pepper, my wild mushrooms tasted really ‘wild’ I whispered back. Too late, must’ve been the cold, but the bookseller went into full anorak

mode and collared the bloke that had cooked it. Which is why we know his name. With patient good humour he explained that he used a starter dough but didn’t spin them like an Italian. Why would he? He’s from Brisbane. Ah, did that explain the ‘Pacific-ness’ of the menu? It wasn’t a cliché?‘No way,’ Scott replied. He’d cooked his way around the world, South America, the Mekong.. ‘You should try the Thai Green Curry,’ he said. ‘It is authentic.’

I know what the bookseller will be ordering next time. Meanwhile, at the weekend, the popular Sunday Roast in the Park (with all the trimmings) might be just what the doctor ordered for our boy (there’s even a veg roast for his herbivore sisters), with child portions available and for afters, some good British ballast – real puddings served with custard.

The Park56 Elder RoadWest NorwoodLondon SE27 9ND020 8761 4782 (please mention The Transmitter!)

Justine Crow

We loved it. We felt right at home in the flickering unfussy atmosphere and Nick and Scott have worked their socks off to create a pub that the long-suffering residents deserve. With interesting plans afoot for the upstairs and outside, like a certain football squad, the good folk of all the Norwoods, new and old, should take a talented team like this for granted at their peril. We’ll definitely be back for more. Second thoughts, get me a season ticket!

heart_of_transmitter_outline.indd 1 08/01/2010 11:45

40

PortThe perception of port has been,

for some many years now, that it is the sole domain of fusty

old blokes guffawing away at their club whilst calling for Arbuthnot to ‘fetch my gout stool and be quick about it man’.Or indeed the sad old bottle to be brought out at Christmas as it was an unwanted gift from last year and needs to be got rid of, somehow.Here are a selection of brilliant drinking ports and port styles that would go down a treat whenever, wherever and with what or whomever.

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Michael

An excellent place to start would be:Warre’s Otima 10yr old Tawny Port. Portugal. (£14.49. 50cl. 20% vol. Oddbins and elsewhere)With an inviting deep amber colour glowing through the clear glass of this 50cl. bottle one is instantly drawn in. The slightly maderised sherry and toffee nose leads to a beautifully balanced palate of cherries and warm raisins. A level of sweetness is invariably there but not at all cloying and, in a funny way, quite refreshing. Making for a long, low finish. This is stunning, easy, light, all-year-round drinking and could easily cope with, if not benefit from, a light chill in the frigidaire. Tops.Could be drunk with cheese (natch) and fruit, pears perhaps.

D’ArenbergVintageFortifiedShiraz. 2005. Australia. (£19.95. 75cl. 17.5% vol. Oddbins)The wines of d’Arenberg have been renowned for as long as I can remember. Here is yet another fine example.The intense inky purple colour belies

MICHAEL EYRE QUAFFS SOME MORE EXPENSIVE BOOZE AND THEN TELLS US ABOUT ITNoT Just For Christmas

a nose of dark, soft berry fruits and a hint of black peppercorns with a sneaky undertow of orange pith. Segueing very neatly into a palate of rich ‘in your face’ black fruit superbly balanced with notes of citric fruit acidity and a hint of leather and spice on the finish. A sizeable piece of work, in a ‘New World’ way but nonetheless very accessible.Yet more cheese.

QuintaDoNoval.UnfilteredLBV (Late Bottled Vintage) 2003. Portugal. (£13.49. 75cl. 19.5% vol. Oddbins and elsewhere)A rather delightful little number, this one, starting with a rich, deep red brick colour which slides very efficiently into a somewhat spirited mouthful of fresh and vibrant fruit with a surprisingly dry edge. Upheld by a solid tannic structure which inevitably leads to a long-lasting fabulous finish.As this is unfiltered there will be a level of sediment in the bottle and should be decanted. All of which can be nothing but good.

Fonseca Vintage 1997. Portugal. (£59.99. 75cl. 20.5% vol. Oddbins)Opening with a beautiful dark ruby/purple colour, this vintage port is a surprisingly light number. The nose offers a flamboyantly floral and exotically sweet bouquet but no huge weight. I put this down to its youth. On the palate there are sweet well structured tannins, concentrated black fruit and jammy spice effortlessly slipping into a long and velvety finish. An exemplary port of distinction.Again, decanting is a must.Both the Noval LBV and the Fonseca Vintage could be had with any dish containing strong game or even some of Blackbird Bakery’s fab sausage rolls.

Until then.Cheers

42

THERE’S A WORLD OUT THERE!

Howard Male

PRESENT DAY AND RETRO AFRICAN MUSIC TAKE UP THE LION’S SHARE OF THIS ISSUE’S COLUMN, PLUS A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR PARENTS TO ANNOY THE KIDS WITH...

Back in the 1980s, thanks mainly to Paul Simon, South African music became

relatively fashionable, even to the extent that Zimbabwean band the Bhundu Boys toured with Madonna. But since then it has been largely ignored by a world music industry that has mainly shifted its attention to West Africa. So it’s always a pleasure when a new compilation of the country’s most vibrant period appears. Next Stop… Soweto. Township Sounds from the Golden Age of Mbaqanga (Strut Records) covers the late 60s and 70s and is absolutely brimming with great tracks. Those guitar- and bass-driven grooves juxtaposed to sweetly ecstatic vocal harmonies reminds us of the fact that the freest and most liberating music often comes from the most oppressed people.

Talking of which, there was also a golden age of music occurring in Ethiopia in the 60s and 70s before a brutal military dictatorship put an end to it in 1978. The Ethiopiques series of CDs has garnered praise from the likes of Brian Eno and Elvis Costello and is now, amazingly, up to Volume 24 despite the fact that the material all stems from a period of just ten years. Listening to any of this unique mix of soul, jazz, funk and rock is like discovering a somewhat askew parallel universe where the Western pop styles you are familiar with have been lent a new, fragrant and mysterious ambience. If you are new to Ethiopian music you could just take a dip in these foreign waters with this latest release, or go back to the 2007 The Very Best of Ethiopiques for more of an extensive overview. Either way, you are in for a treat.

Meanwhile, over in West Africa, there is still great music being produced today. The late, great Ali Farka Toure made one last album before he died in 2006, and it has finally been released. Ali and Toumani (World Circuit Records) is a collaboration with the equally revered kora player, Toumani Diabate, and although it was recorded in just three afternoons in 2005 you wouldn’t know it from the quality and poise of the musicianship. Toumani’s kora (a kind of harp-like lute) sends out fractal spirals of heavenly notes while Ali’s curlicues of guitar provide a rhythmic anchor. The end result is a timeless, graceful and effortlessly perfect piece of work in which both musicians are majestic but neither needs to proclaim that they are King.

Finally, back on earth, we have the rather long-windedly named Solex vs Cristina Martinez + Jon Spencer and their debut album Amsterdam Show Down, King Street Throwdown (Bronzerat Records.) This curious trio (from Amsterdam and New York) are the latest signing to the label that launched everyone’s favourite OAP rocker, Seasick Steve. But it’s far more bonkers and left-field than the bearded bluesman’s efforts in that it throws some angular Captain Beefheart-ish funk rock into the mix as well as utilising the same cut ’n’ paste eclecticism that made early Beck such a pleasure. It’s as mad (and as noisy) as a bag of cats, but at least if you’ve got kids it will make a change for them to be asking you to turn down that damned racket.

Jean Boht on Location in Eversley Road

Intrepid crew filming in Eversley Road

The finest bookshop in the multiverse

43

FILM NewsTHERES BEEN A SHOOTINGCRYSTAL PALACE PICTURES

Transmitter spies got wind that local filmaker Chris Shepherd was shooting his new feature film right here in Crystal Palace, down on 'The Rec' or 'Upper Norwood Recreation Ground' to you.

The film is called Bad Night For The Blues and tells the story of a young lad who takes his aunty to a Christmas Party at a Conservative Club. It stars Kieran Lynn and Jean Boht (who played Nellie Boswell in Bread and has been in millions of TV productions). It's for the BBC and the UK Film Council.The film is directed and written by Chris and produced by Maria Manton for Slinky Pictures.

There will be updates on its progress on the blog on the Slinky website. www.slinkypics.com

Our new local film society, Crystal Palace Pictures, is going from strength to strength. In just a few months, it’s already built up a regular following down at the Gipsy Hill Tavern. They show a different film every other Thursday at 7.30pm, starting with a short. See www.crystalpalacepictures.com for a full programme. Tickets are £5 and the pub even lays on free food during the interval.

The society has some big ideas for 2010, including writing workshops, a summer film festival and more visiting film directors. For the latest news, sign up to the mailing list on their website or join their Facebook group.

While we all wait with baited breath to see what happens with the cinema campaign, it’s good to know we can enjoy a good movie right here in Crystal Palace.

44

The Bookseller"..an attraction that captured the attention of millions."

JONATHAN MAIN PICKS THE BONES OF A LOCAL VICTORIAN LEGEND

‘Waterhouse Hawkins’, I said to a friend, a bright man with an enquiring

mind, who has spent the better part of the last 50 years as a near-resident of Crystal Palace. We were talking about our dinosaurs in the park, but my friend looked at me blankly and I realised he didn’t have a clue who I was talking about, which is a shame because the man who had the vision to build our dinosaurs was one of the most fascinating figures of the Victorian age. A painter, Hawkins played a central role in the popularisation of 19th-

century science. Early in his career his knowledge of comparative anatomy enabled him to create beautiful and scientifically accurate illustrations of fish, reptiles, amphibians, and perhaps most importantly, the fossils of long-extinct creatures for such important figures in the world of natural history as Richard Owen (the man largely responsible for the Natural History Museum and the coining of the word Dinosauria) and Charles Darwin. He also managed, even as a young man, to father innumerable children, and have a bigamous marriage (that ran for most of his life in parallel

to his legal marriage), visit France, and honeymoon with his second wife in Russia where they travelled over 700 miles from St Petersburg to Kazan in the depth of winter, as, of course, was the fashion in them days.

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations was held in Hyde Park between May and October 1851 and Hawkins acted as a district superintendent there, where he also exhibited several items of bronze casting and a Model of the Anatomy of a Horse. When the Crystal Palace moved to Sydenham Joseph Paxton planned ornamental gardens and parkland, and in freshly-dug lakes islands were created where life-size antediluvian creatures could sit in an appropriate geological context. Hawkins was given the job of reconstructing these models of extinct creatures and worked, by all accounts every day, in all weathers. The public imagination about this work was fuelled by lively press accounts and royal interest, including visits to his workshop. Perhaps the most notorious piece of publicity was engineered by the man himself: 15 months into the project he hosted a New Year’s Eve dinner party on 31 December 1853, inviting a number of eminent scientists, senior officials from The Crystal Palace Company and members of the press to dine with him inside the mould of an Iguanodon. The resultant images of which remain resonant even today.

45

Jonathan Main

Unfortunately this was to be something of a highlight of Hawkins’ time at the Crystal Palace, for while he had the support and admiration of artists such as Alfred Tennyson and John Everett Millais, much of the scientific community were beginning to be derisive (as indeed they are today) of Hawkins’ idea of anatomical truth through the shaping hand of art and his principle of teaching through the eye and were increasingly critical of the veracity of his efforts. Possibly because of this (although The Crystal Palace Company also had money troubles), in July 1855, with the completed construction of 33 figures and with work under way on a mammoth, Hawkins was fired. What remained, six years before Darwin published The Origin of the Species and the first of its kind anywhere in the world, was an attraction that captured the attention of millions of people and introduced the world to ‘dinosauromania.’

Later, Hawkins spent 10 years in America, eventually being commissioned to produce a Palaeozoic Museum in Central Park New York, but it ended badly when he fell foul of William ‘Boss’ Tweed one of the most corrupt politicians the US has ever known.All in the Bones: a Biography of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins by Valerie Bramwell and Robert M Peck (the first and only full-length biography) is published by The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The Crystal Palace Foundation and the Bookseller Crow have exclusively imported it to the UK. It costs £35.00.

The Extraordinary Dinosaurs of Mr Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley and Brian Selznick (Scholastic £10.99) is a children’s picture book that also tells the story, including a splendid portrait of a grim-faced Tweed. Until recently we had to, again, import it from America. Thankfully however, it has now been published in this country and is a must for any older child wanting to know about what lies at the bottom of the park.

The dinosaurs were extensively restored in 2002 and in 2007 were granted a Grade 1 listing and it is now the intention of the Foundation to lobby for the area to be designated a World Heritage Site.

Alex Milway, who has featured in a past issue of The Transmitter and who was

responsible for last year’s Children’s Book Festival is the author of The Mousehunter trilogy the last of which Mousebeard’s Revenge (Faber £6.99) is just out. For three days Old Town is to play host to the International Mousing Exhibition, the greatest event that the world has ever seen! Unfortunately Mousebeard is back and that means war. Indeed, look out for our own International Mousing Exhibition, beginning sometime in early February.

Other notable new books published this month include The Long Song (Headline £18.99) a historical novel set in 19th-century Jamaica by Andrea Levy author of Small Island; The Pregnant Widow from Martin Amis (Cape £18.99), which may (or may not) be a good thing; and in paperback, Sarah Waters’ Little Stranger (Virago £7.99), AS Byatt’s The Children’s Book (Vintage £7.99), and A Family Man (Hodder £7.99) by Justine’s favourite author Elinor Lipman.

46

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

WHAt's ONHorniman Museum 100 London Road Forest Hill London SE23 3PQ020 8699 1872 www.horniman.ac.uk

Sat 13 Feb – Sun 5 Sept 2010Myths and Monsters

Cyclops, unicorn, yeti, dragon, the chimera… are these creatures real or imagined? Take a journey into the strange world of Myths and Monsters and unravel the truth behind universal legends and myths. Discover the origin of the Cyclops, the links between dragons and the dinosaurs, and why the yeti is the monster most likely to be real.

Featuring a captivating mix of animatronics, specimens and photography, this celebrated blockbuster show explores some of our best-known ancient myths and the possible scientific explanations behind them.Temporary Exhibition Gallery

Adults £5, Concs £3, Children £2.50, Children under 3 FREEFamily ticket (2 adults and 2 children) £13Schools (pre-booked) £2 per personSchools (not pre-booked) £2.50 per personFamily season ticket £26Online booking availablevisit www.horniman.ac.uk/mythsandmonsters

Until Sun 28 Feb 2010Fabric of a Nation: Textiles and Identity in Modern Ghana

Fabric of a Nation focuses on the role of printed cloths and their designs as an expression of cultural, social and political identity in modern Ghana, cutting across ethnic and language differences. This exhibition reveals that these beautiful fabrics play an integral role in many aspects of daily life such asceremonies, politics and religion.Balcony Gallery Free admission

Opening Sat 27 March 2010Tuareg: People of the Veil

Tuareg: People of the Veil provides a fascinating insight into the culture of the Tuareg people of NorthWest Africa, through the exploration of Tuareg clothing and jewellery.Balcony Square Free admission

Until Sun 11 April 2010Darwin200 Photographic Competition: Exploring and Investigating Nature

The winning competition entries from across the world, inspired by Darwin’sspirit of exploration and investigation. Nature lovers of all ages have been busytaking pictures of the creatures and plants around them and our top judges have selected the best of the best for this engaging exhibition.Gallery Square Free admission

Until Sun 10 May 2009Nature as Designer

Simple elegant objects, both natural and man-made, act as inspiration to artists and designers. This unusual exhibition combines photography, design and nature and includes beautiful large scale photographic images of objects displayedin unexpected and truly inventive ways.Balcony Gallery Free admission

Thursday LatesExperience a different view of the Horniman with our programme of late-night cultural events, typically held on the last Thursday of each month.

Thurs 28 Jan 7– 9pmThe Eleventh Hour (2007) PG

With contributions from politicians, scientists and activists, Leonardo DiCaprio examines the state of our global environment and proposes potential solutions to climate change, in an attempt to “turn mankind’s darkest hour intoits finest.”Gallery Square Free admission

Thurs 25 Feb 7– 9pmCaféScientifique:BackfromExtinction

Should we bring back Dinosaurs? What about a Woolly Mammoth? A panel of experts argue for four extinct species to be resurrected before being put to an audience vote. Gallery Square Free admissionSuitable for adults and children 8+. Places limited.

Friends of Beaulieu Heightswww. beaulieuheights.orgfriends@beaulieuheights.org

Saturday 30 January

10-12noonBig Garden/Park Bird Watch, join us for an hour to see what we can spot, make a bird feeder and help us put up bird boxes.

Saturday 27 February,

Sycamore clearance work, start at 10.30

Saturday 20 March

Community Open Day come and celebrate with us to mark the end of the GreenPrints, project and all it has achieved. Food, music and lots moreSaturday 22 May 11amStorytime outdoors joint event with Upper Norwood Library, meet us in the grassy meadow for stories and nature activities.Family event

Saturday & Sunday 29/30 May

Charcoal Making , see the traditional way of making BBQ charcoal and buy your bag for the summer season!Saturday 26 June start 10.30Step building, help us complete the set of steps to the top of the slope. Tools Provided

47

WHAt's ONThurs 25 MarTuareg Revealed 7– 8pm

The Tuareg call themselves ‘Kel Tagelmoust’ – People of the Veil. Join exhibition curator Ursel Widemann and find out more about the role veiling and other forms of dress play in the life of the Tuareg of northern Niger. Free admission

Please book in advance for all Thursday Late events by emailing marketing@horniman.ac.uk

or call 020 8699 1872 ext 196.

FILMCrystal Palace PicturesGypsy Hill Tavern79 Gipsy Hill, SE19 1QH

Thursday 4 FebruaryHarold and MaudeDir. Hal Ashby 1971 91 mins Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort

Thursday 4 MarchJar City

Dir. Baltasar Kormákur 2006 94 mins Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir

Thursday 18 MarchGun Crazy (aka Deadly Is The Female)

Dir. Joseph H. Lewis 1950 86 mins Peggy Cummins, John Dall

Dulwich Picture GalleryDulwich Picture GalleryGallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD

GalleryfilmAll films in the Linbury Room. Bar open 7.15, film starts 7.45.£8, Friends £6.

Monday 22 February The Lives of Others (2006)

Cert 15/137 mins Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmark, starring Sebastian Koch Set in East Germany in 1984, an actress and her dramatist partner are spied on by the secret police.

Monday 15 March Somers Town (2008)

Cert 12A/72 mins Dir Shane Meadows, starring Thomas Turgoose, Piotr Jagiello . GalleryFilm for Kids:

Sunday 7 March3.45pmIce Age (2002)

Cert U/81 minutes £4 Free juice and popcorn

ARTS LECTURESDulwich Picture GalleryDulwich Picture GalleryGallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD020 8299 8750

Tuesday Evening Lecture Series:The Canvas Ceiling: Women Artists through the ages

7.45-9.15 pm in the Linbury RoomSeries of 6 lectures £50, £40 FriendsSingle lectures £10, £8 FriendsBar and book sales in the interval

Tuesday 12 JanuaryAn Unsuitable Job for a Woman?

In this lecture we’ll discover women who became artists. - Jo Walton

Tuesday 19 JanuaryFrida Kahlo – a life on canvas

Frida Kahlo was seldom without pain, and she charted her life, including her two marriages to the same man through a series of self-portraits and other colourful (and sometimes

disturbing) works. - Frank Woodgate

Tuesday 26 January“We can’t get even, so we’re gonna get mad.” Art and the F-Word: Feminism

This lecture will look at key artists and ask what kind of impact feminism has had on art, and whether overt political content compromises artistic integrity. - Linda Smith

Tuesday 2 February Modern Mothers

What are modern portrayals of motherhood by women telling us about the relationship of mother and child? - Melanie Paice

Tuesday 16 February Georgia O’Keeffe

American artist Georgia O’Keeffe is known for her semi-abstract paintings of nature, which contain erotic undertones She developed her style after studying Kandinsky and being influenced by photographer Alfred Stieglitz. - Peter Scott

Tuesday 23 February

Mad Tracey from MargateTracey Emin is frequently accused of being self-indulgent because of the autobiographical nature of her work, but artists often use their experiences without attracting criticism. This lecture examines the antagonism Emin faces.Rosalind Whyte

InSight Series: Group Dynamics10.30-11.30am In the Linbury roomSeries of 3 £25, £20 Friends. Single lecture £10, £8 friends. Coffee afterwards

In the first half of the 20th century three groups of artists became leading forces in the development of modern art, two in Britain, one in Canada. Three experts give a fresh appraisal of their distinctive and striking work, still little known. They assess despite the different dynamic of each group, how far being part of a creative community shaped their work and what it contributed to their artistic legacy.

Wednesday 27 JanuaryThe Camden Town Group

Robert Upstone, Curator of Modern British Art, Tate Britain.

Wednesday 3 FebruaryThe St Ives Group

Chris Stephens, Curator of Modern British

Art and Head of Displays, Tate Britain.

Wednesday 10 February The Group of Seven

Ian Dejardin, Director, Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Friends InSight Lecture Series:Islamic Art: 14th to 18th Centuries

10.30-11.30am In the Linbury roomSeries of 3 £25, £20 FriendsSingle lecture £10, £8 friendsCoffee afterwards

Wednesday 3 MarchThe Art of the Mamluks

Alison Ohta, Curator Royal Asiatic Society

Wednesday 10 MarchArt and the Ottomans

Tim Stanley, Senior Curator for the Middle

Eastern collections, Asian Department, V&A

Thursday 25 FebruaryThe Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters

Graham Greenfield talks about the Royal Academy’s landmark exhibition of the work of Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)

Thursday 25 MarchHenry Moore: Radical, Experimental and Avant-garde

Jo Walton, a Tate Britain lecturer, will take us through the Henry Moore exhibition which opens at Tate Britain in February 2010.

Smith & Canova bagsat Smash Bang Wallop40 Westow Street SE19

Smith & Canova bagsat Smash Bang Wallop40 Westow Street SE19

Bursting with new ideas and great products unique to Smash Bang Wallop, with bits and pieces from local artists and designers.

Everywhere you look there are gorgeous gifts & treats. Come and explore the shop or visit us online www.smashbangwallop.co.uk

40 Westow Street, Crystal Palace SE19 3AH 020 8771 5517

40 Westow Street SE19

www.smashbangwallop.co.uk

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Closeboard, Panels, Trellisand Gates

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We are a local club, with a Saturday league side and Sunday friendly side.

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