Mayor4Unley

The Royal Show is always a great event. A big hit on the pocket, but lots of fun for the kids. Also the local traders on #GoodyRoad do a brisk business. But, beware and don’t get hit by a parking fine. #Unley Council rigorously patrols the area to ensure that residents are not inconvenienced eg. by cars parking across driveways. It’s best to take public transport to the Show. Less hassle, a low cost and you can stay as long as you want. Written and authorised by BOB SCHNELL #Mayor4Unley 10 Halmon Avenue, Everard Park 5035

A fabulous Sunday night at the #Unley Town Hall hosting the ‘ The Travelling Table ’. Many courses of simple Italian food cooked by a team of Nonnas, just like they cook at home. The decorations were rustic style - branches of olive tree (with olives still attached) supporting strands of mood lighting. On the balcony, Italian voices entertained us and encouraged us to singalong. Good Italian tucker and excellent company. The Unley Town Hall should be used more for such events. The Travelling Table = ‘ Celebrating migrant food, culture & stories from South Australian kitchens ’. about The Travelling Table

Surprise, surprise ... Unley has been awarded a start in the 2018 Tour Down Under (TDU). It coincidentally 😉😉 was announced soon after the budget rate rise was endorsed by Council. Unley has been awarded the Stage 2 Start, from King William Road up to Stirling via the long way, a distance of 148.6km. Stage 2 will be held on Wednesday 17 January, 2018. The Gourmet Gala street party on King William Road will be held the night before. For the record, I oppose hosting this event for the 18th time at a cost of $266k. This equates to a cost of about $14 per household, funded by a rate rise of 2.9%. At Council, I opposed this budget expenditure. In my chats with residents, there seems to be little support for the huge cost of hosting this event. Most people would prefer a smaller, cheaper and more family event eg. like Unley Way to Go, like what we used to hold on Unley Oval. I doubt that Unley will host the event in 2019. The money saved can be used to pay off some debt.

Here's a letter to the editor, published on 25 January 2017 ... It was another great Gourmet Gala evening and a fantastic Tour Down Under start in Unley. Next year I want it to be even better by moving the gala and start events to Goodwood Road to celebrate the completion of the streetscape and roadworks. Goodwood Road is being transformed into the premier main road in Unley. It's time to share the love and bring these events to Goodwood Road. The local traders would embrace it and inject a real Goodwood flavour. I will pursue this initiative at Unley Council.

The food trucks are coming in huge numbers to Goodwood. Starting next year the initiative (known as the Food Truck Movement) will see dozens of food trucks setup inside Goydner Plaza (at the Showground) on Thursday to Sunday, 11am to midnight. This will be a weekly event. A liquor licence will help to lure people to consume the burgers. Goydner Plaza holds 800 people so it will be huge. The plan is to have live music or family-themed days with children’s activities. No Council permit or licence is required. It will be great to pop in late at night for that burger or other food truck delight on the way home from a big night out; at a time when other food joints are closed. This initiative has happened due to the State Government recently declaring that there be no limit to food trucks. Read the story ...

The Bum is much talked about, much loved and a frequent subject for artists. As artists say, 'if you can get the bum right then the rest of the body will just flow'. From a young age our fascination of the bum is fixed. There are bum jokes and bum stories; a kid's delight. As we get older there is a different fascination in the bum. I would not normally share such thoughts, but in my email inbox I received the following. It's an invitation to the launch of OBUM . It should be a good night. A bit of a bummer that I have another commitment that night. Dear friends and fellow travelers. You are invited to the opening of OBUM!  OBUM! is Deborah Baldassi's celebration of something which we would all rather put behind us - our bottoms. It includes  classic bottoms, the quirky bottoms of the Acrobutts, Burlesque Bumbushkas and the presidential posteriors of Barrack OBuma and Donald tRUMP.  A classic bum and a Burlesque Bumbushka are attached to whet your appetit...

Went to Bonjour Adelaide @ Unley today. Bought  a tray of lemon tarts (aka. Tarts de Citron). 9 for $20. A good buy. Tangy on the tongue. Excellent. Dessert tonight. Dawdled along to ETSY on Oxford Street. So many people and I needed to take a break. So I laid the tarts on the ping pong table @ the Civic Centre. Here's a photo ...

Fantastic last night at Bonjour Adelaide in Unley. Lots of people, having fun. The caption to this photo is: "Bob, you're my best girlfriend on Council" ... Unley Councillor Jennie Boisvert.

What a fantastic interview with Sue Dewing, CEO of Sturt Football Club. She was the driving force behind the glorious Double Blues SANFL Premiership in 2016. Well done Sue !! A fantastic turn-around for the club. Here's the interview ... http://online.isentialink.com/adelaidenow.com.au/2016/10/02/203091cd-af51-4a75-ab4f-c85198e8fd05.html

Here's a letter to the editor, published on 14 September 2016 ... During last week's Royal Adelaide Show, parking in adjacent Unley suburbs was a total mess. Local traffic was heavy and slow. Why don't more people catch public transport to the Show? The cost of fares for single tickets is a big expense for families. A simple solution would be if the SA Government provided free public transport for people with prepaid tickets to the Show.

Last week I attended the launch of the Alliance Française French Film Festival. One of the sponsors of the French Film Festival is Peugeot and their advertisement of the 308 sedan was stunning; a must see action packed short film. People were talking about it afterwards. I suspect that sales of the Peugeot 308 will soar. The film screened was 'Rosalie Blum'. A lovely film, just so ... so French. A nice sting and a twist in the plot that took the audience to an unexpected ending. The After-Party flowed nicely with delectable nibbles and entertainment. A nice and somewhat familiar crowd of people. A great night. Had a cleansing ale afterwards and then caught a tram home. The photo below shows some of the beautiful people at the launch.

Recently I attended the launch of the Spirit of Anzac Centenary Experience at the Showground in Adelaide. A wonderful exhibit and experience. I carried an iPod-like device and tagged exhibits that I found interesting and wanted a link for future reference. Excellent use of technology. My tagged exhibits can be viewed by this link Click here

SALA is big in Unley. It’s huge. Of all the Councils across the State, Unley gets the top gong for participation. This year it promises to be bigger and better. This season SALA runs from 1-31 August. @ Unley the involvement includes: The coordination of Where Business Meets Art , a project developed in conjunction with Unley’s five Main Street Traders Associations for businesses and artists to participate in our ongoing initiative to put art in our shops, cafes and businesses. This year over 40 businesses will display work in a variety of mediums from around 120 artists. This continues to be the single largest response to SALA in any metropolitan area. The premier event SALA on Show has now been reformatted into a different event SALA Gala in the Garden . We are again supporting this event on Sunday 16 August 10.30-4.30pm . Last year it attracted over 4,000 people and there was excellent feedback on the economic return from the local traders. This year the whole...

The SALA exhibition 'forWARDback' is a unique collection of contemporary visual art; displayed with objects from the Unley Museum's historical collection. It promises to be one of the best exhibits in 2015. Five local artists have contributed to the collection. It's on display  from 02 August to 22 September 2015 . ... and it's free. The advertising blurb reads ... Contemporary artists create new stories from old. Through contemporary artworks the artists reinterpret objects from the Museum's collection to create a dynamic social dialogue between Unley's past, present and future. See tomorrow through the secrets of yesterday.

Last weekend I had a quickly scheduled road trip to Penola; down the SE in Coonawarra country. Timing could not have been better. July madness had struck Penola and the wineries in Coonawarra. There were huge discounts to be found at most shops in town and the wineries also had special deals. As luck would have it, there was a Pop Up wine event in Penola on Friday, early in the evening. A side street was closed for the event. It was chilly, very chilly; beanies were essential and gas fires helped to beat the cold. There were large umbrellas, but fortunately no rain; a perfect, but cold night. At the Pop Up there were several wineries showcasing their wines; the wineries take it in turn and are rostered on these regular events. This was where I met Jack; or at least, Jack’s wines. Jack Estate winery had several wines for tasting; all wines at the Pop Up were $5 per glass; very reasonable. From memory the wines at the Pop Up were: 2013 Jack Estate Chardonnay 2013 Jack Est...

Last night I enjoyed another night at the Fringe. Two shows on either side of town. And then a trip home on the tram. We were packed in like sardines in a can. The tram would have to be the most popular (and crowded) public transport in Adelaide. Anyway, back on the tram ... An intoxicated Asian woman got on. She was on her mobile talking very loud, having a one-way conversation. The poor person at the other end. She was oblivious to the world around her. Totally immersed in her conversation. Actually, she had been at our tram stop and had been on the phone for 10 minutes, perhaps longer. A third of the tram followed her conversation with interest and laughter. One person near me very nearly wet herself. From the conversation ... The woman had recently got a dog - one of those fluffy shitzu type. She was worried about her dog being left alone at home in the dark (without any lights on). Someone had told her that dogs are colour blind. (Which is true.) She rationalised that bec...

The Fringe Festival has started in Adelaide and the city is coming to life. Sunday night I was down at the Garden of Unearthly Delights to see ‘The Magnets’. Absolutely fantastic. The Garden has an improved layout this year and seems less congested. It would have worse the night before on Saturday ‘Bogan Night’ with a temperature of 41 degrees C. As I waited for a tram to take me home, the city came alive with green shirted spectators from the India vs. Pakistan Cricket World Cup match at Adelaide Oval. (It was evident that many of the green shirted Pakistanis were leaving early due to a pending loss to India.) Today, my Indian friend at work was beaming – he was just so happy. According to him: ·          The crowd at Adelaide Oval was 42,000 ·          There were about 1,500 Pakistanis ·          The rest (~ 40,000) were Indians ·  ...

The Cricket World Cup ‘kicks’ off this Sunday, with India vs. Pakistan. The local Indian community in Adelaide is in a frenzy. It seems that they all want to go to the match. They will pay whatever for tickets. The online ticket sales were a disaster. No-one could buy tickets during the allotted time. At work, a distraught Indian colleague approached me and asked for help to get tickets. What to do? I had to help him. He believed that I had contacts; that’s how it is in India. I am sure that it was all legal and above board, but I managed to get 2 tickets from someone who was, shall we say, unable to attend (using those tickets). Last night was the big bash welcome to the Indian players at the entrance to Adelaide Oval. There were activities, food venues, opportunity to meet the players etc. I expected 1,000s to attend. My Indian contact says that there were only 200 (+ politicians) there. Sounds like something went wrong, very wrong with the planning. The Indians didn’t...

On Sunday 25 January I participated in the Crush Festival in the Adelaide Hills – a multitude of venues with local food and wines. I selected Uraidla and was enticed by the food on offer and the associated wines. The late breakfast was green eggs and ham at the Owl & Elephant Café . Sounded good. Sounded fantastic. I was thinking of Dr Seuss and green eggs and ham. It was described as an uber cool café. The food was crap. Very disappointing. It was an overcooked egg with a green/grey mix (and supposedly ham) in a bread base, curled at the edges. It was cold and served with a cold fried tomato half. I’d rate it at 1/10 . The waitress was surprised that I didn’t enjoy. (She did ask how I found it.) There was no offer to redress my concern. I should have selected the rhubarb and quince on rye toast. That did look appealing. The coffee, a latte, scored slightly better (at 4/10 ). The milk was good, but the coffee had no depth or finish. There was no lingering after...

This Friday (05-Dec) is the night to be in Goodwood. Goodwood Groove is back in action. There will be great local food and free entertainment. See you there J More … Time to get your Goodwood Groove on!  Friday December 5, 4 - 9.30pm  Once again the Green Lawn Space adjacent to the Goodwood Community Centre will be transformed into a twilight wonderland for the Goodwood Groove. Great free entertainment for kids, including The Amazing Drumming Monkeys Fabulous food from many of our Goodwood Road Foodies and a bar by The Goody Wonderful live music, incuding the Germein Sisters , fresh from an overseas tour For more information check out  this link