Mayor4Unley

I talked with a Greek mate today and he surprised me by raising the issue of the ball tampering scandal of the Australian Cricket team. I was surprised because normally we talk soccer. This issue has touched all Australians. It’s damn embarrassing to be called cheats at cricket. Heads must roll; in the team and in the cricket hierarchy. There must be a change of culture. Those who were aware of the plan to tamper with the ball must be banned for life; never again to play for Australia. Yes it will hurt Australia’s prospects for a couple of years, but life bans must be applied. Unfortunately our reputation as cheats will linger for decades. I’m annoyed; just so annoyed. Let the heads roll ...

Maybe it’s time to stop drinking bottled water and just drink tap water. Let’s face it, with average bottled water, it’s not much more than filtered tap water. Do yourself a favour and buy a good quality plastic (or metal) drink bottle and use tap water; preferably filtered. Why? To save money. To stop drinking high concentrations of plastic particles. A recent report from the World Health Organisation exposes that after analysis of water samples, more than 90% of the samples contained high concentrations of tiny plastic particles; aka. microplastics. One brand had concentrations as high as 10,000 plastic pieces per litre of water. This is absolutely appalling. Downstream this ends up in the oceans and rivers and in fish that we eat. Just so sad. All due to our buying bottled water. Make the change to tap water and a good quality drink bottle. The cheaper the drink bottle the more likely it is to contaminate. Read the story

Fantastic news that SA's Golden North ice cream has been named as the best tasting ice cream in Australia. It's a worthy award because it is simply the best. It was rated the best by a survey of people across Australia. Golden North ice cream is made purely from fresh milk and cream; not powders and water like used by some other brands. Importantly for SA, it's local. A bit of history ... The Golden North factory is located in Laura, in the mid north of SA. It was founded by the Bowkers family in 1880. Initially they only sold milk and cream. When electricity arrived in the early 1900s and refrigeration became available, Golden North expanded into ice cream. It quickly became the market leader in SA; just as it is today.

I recently went to the Sri Lankan Festival, held annually at Fullarton, SA. They had a chef demonstrating how to make a prawn curry. A tip for the future: save the heads and shells from the prawns and pulverise them in a blender and add the finely ground mix to the prawn curry for that extra special taste. I will try that next time. What was special was the fried rice to accompany the curry. Here’s the recipe (from my observation) ... Add a dash of oil to a pan, bring to a medium heat. Cut an onion in half then cut half rings, not too thick. Add onion to the pan and slowly caramelise (for 10 minutes). Add 1-2 cups of grated cauliflower. Ok to use a blender. Stir in the cauliflower to mix well with the oil and onion. Cook slowly for 5 minutes. Add 1-2 cups of cold cooked rice. Mix well. Slowly cook the mix until it is just right. Yum. Fantastic. Use as an accompaniment with a curry or use it as a base for fried rice; just add whatever you usually do to mak

Now is the time to plant your garlic in #Unley. An older school of thought is to plant it in late May or early June and harvest in December. Talking with other garlic growers, the consensus is to plant it in mid to late March when the soil is warmer. It enables the plant to get a good start and be established before the colder months. Also the cloves will be bigger and plumper. So, plant your garlic now. Dig in organic fertiliser and just bury the cloves. The pointy part of the garlic clove should be just under the surface. Cover with pea straw and water lightly each day until the growth is established; and then ease back on the water. It’s a good cash crop; ready to harvest in mid December. With proper storage, the garlic will last 12 months until the next harvest.

Today I was down in Torrensville on business. It was interesting to see a different bunch of pics of political candidates up the poles. A young looking Tom Koutsantonis (Labor) was up a pole with an equally young looking Jing Lee (Liberal, upper house). With all the air-brushing art work, they looked so much younger than they actually are. They barely looked old enough to vote. I have met both and trust me, in the flesh they are (or look) a lot older. Why pick on these two? At the time it stuck me how silly it is allow candidates to misrepresent themselves using digitally altered images. They all do, across the state. Even those who don’t look that flash in the flesh seem to look beautiful when up a pole at election time. Come the count of the votes, when the winners emerge, they morph into an older and less attractive politician. Such is politics; and such is life!

Most of us probably have a reasonable idea of how we will vote in the #SA #Election 2018. However, I'm still agonising over how I will number the voting slip. As a matter of principle I won't be following the voting order recommended by the major parties. I will choose who is best and who is second best etc. in my local seat of #Badcoe. Voting for the Upper House is a totally different ball game. Like many (hopefully most) voters I will probably be voting different to how I vote for my local seat. I will vote for candidates who will make a difference and keep the Government in check; rather than just blindly voting for Labor or Liberal or ... I ask you how many can actually name more than 2 members of the Upper House? #saparli Most of us have no idea of who is Up there; and there are some who wouldn't be there without the blind vote just along party lines. Voting blindly following party lines for the Upper House is not a smart move. Heaven knows who we might be v

The SA Liberals have announced that they are turning to the far right. That is, Liberal trams will make a right hand turn from King William Street into North Terrace. Labor is maintaining that it will only turn left. If trams do make that right turn then surely (it would be logical) that they should continue on to Norwood; a journey and destination that Steven Marshall doesn’t support. So, why turn right? To go where? Travel 3 stops to the old RAH? David Pisoni (Liberal Unley) has already stated at a public meeting that there will be no tram through Unley. So, where will the Liberal trams go? I suspect that a proposed Liberal tram network will be very similar to the proposed Labor tram network. Let’s face it, there are limited opportunities of where a tram can go. For the record, I support the Liberal plan for trams to make that right hand turn;  despite the huge cost to retro-fit it. It just makes sense. #Unley #saparli

I’ve been talking to people at some metro Councils in SA eg. Mitcham, Marion, West Torrens. Staff are busy pulling down election posters that don’t comply with regulations. Fair enough I suppose. But it is a waste of ratepayers’ money  because these Councils (and probably most Councils) are not fining the candidates. Leave the posters up the poles (as much as I hate them) and let SAPN (formerly ETSA) deal with them and fine the candidates. At #Unley Council a more relaxed and commonsense approach is being taken. Importantly, ratepayers’ money is not being wasted. But what really prompted this blog? I heard from a source at Marion Council that they have seized 100s of posters from just one of the candidates. That candidate was told to bring a ute to the depot to collect them. I was wondering why that candidate had so few posters up compared with others. Mum’s the word as to the identity of the candidate 😉 #saparli #Badcoe

Remember the saga of the 3 noisey in-ground trampolines at the Katherine Street Reserve. A nearby resident complained of noise and bouncing people being able to see over the fence. The trampolines were removed. After receiving a petition from 600 people, Unley Council decided to re-install the trampolines. 2 will be installed at Katherine Street Reserve (in a central location) and 1 will be installed at Ridge Park. This will happen in 2 months. A great outcome showing #Unley Council responding to public demand. I fully supported the re-installation of the trampolines at Council.

I was delighted to learn of the Repair Cafe being established at Clarence Park Community Centre @ Black Forest in #Unley. Just love the concept ❤️ It’s a growing trend across the globe. Volunteers will assist people to repair home appliances. These people may over time (with increased confidence) offer to volunteer their services at the Repair Cafe and assist others in the community. I would like to see more Repair Cafes across Unley. Read more about the Repair Cafe concept

What is Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio Wine? Most of us are confused. We get told that it is the same wine from the same grape; just with a different name, dependent on the winemaker. I struggle a bit when I see it on a wine list or in the bottle shop. The reality is that in Australia, yes it is the same grape. But it is not the same wine; each has a different style. Technically, Pinot Gris is the name used for wines from the Alsace region of France whereas Pinot Grigio is the name used for wines from the Lombardy region of Italy.   However, in Australia, there are no rules governing the use of the names of Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio. The convention in Australia is to use either Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio to indicate that the wine follows the French or Italian style. Sweeter or richer wine styles are typically labelled Pinot Gris whereas the drier, lighter-bodied varieties are labelled Pinot Grigio. In brief: Pinot Gris = French =sweeter and richer wine Pinot Grigio