Mayor4Unley

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

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.

An Aussie Christmas tradition is to pick your first home grown tomatoes before 25 December. There is often a competition amongst friends and other gardeners in your street. There was much joy (to me) when I picked my first on 14 December. Yesterday I picked another 6. I'm not boasting, but it is now starting to feel like Christmas. No more tasteless tomatoes bought from the shop. Nothing beats a home grown tomato dressed with basil leaves, cracked pepper and a drizzle of good olive oil. A healthy breakfast with toast!

Golden Gnomes are again popping up across the City of Unley. This time it is official. Council is rewarding residents with a small golden gnome for excellence in landscaping (and greening) their verges. Students from Concordia College assisted by painting the gnomes and creating gift tags. Also, at my suggestion, the students selected the worthy residents to get a gnome. A great outcome in helping to transform dolomite verges to blooming greenery. A year ago I unofficially launched the concept and bought a bag full of gnomes and painted them gold with a few special ones painted a distinctive rose gold. I delivered them to worthy homes across Unley. Residents have been delighted with the recognition. If you missed out in getting a gnome, why not buy one (or two) and paint them gold. They would make excellent Christmas presents.

I received a couple of complaints about Unley Council asking the Church of Trinity (on Goodwood Road) to remove its YES Rainbow Banner. It had been there for months with no complaint. It was a symbol representing its gay community and the church's position on marriage equality. Then after one complaint Council asked that the banner be removed. I explained to the residents concerned that it was simply non compliance with bylaws regarding signs and that it had nothing to do with any personal decision made by Council. In fact, the matter was not determined by Council. Hopefully the banner stayed up in time for the announcement of the same sex marriage postal survey result. Whilst on Rainbow matters ... The City of Unley is flying the Rainbow Flag for the duration of Feast Festival at either end of the Customer Service area of the Civic Centre. 10 November -  27 November . This has been done for several years. Celebrating diversity, the Rainbow Flag represents the six colours of t...

Come and celebrate the transformation of Goodwood Road @ Goodwood. The road and footpath works are complete and it's time to party. A huge street party is planned for Sunday 22 October 10am to 2pm. It's a collaboration between the City of Unley and the Goodwood Traders' Association. The official launch will be at 11am in Rosa Street. See you there. Bring some cash to splash on the day and support the local traders.

Australia Post has celebrated street art across the nation by releasing 4 stamps depicting the best examples. One image shows artwork on a house in Railway Terrace North in Goodwood. Fantastic recognition of the local street art. I give it a lick of approval. Oh, by the way, 2 of the stamps show images of street art in Adelaide. Not bad for a sleepy backwater town! Click on this link to view the 4 stamps

Last night was probably one of the biggest and most important Unley Council meetings of recent times; in fact, during the past 6 years. We finally debated the Unley Central DPA - the rezoning of the Unley Central Precinct. Whilst there was a strong thrust to go to the upper end of high rise, common sense mostly prevailed and we achieved a reasonably sensible and sensitive outcome. More on this later when the minutes of the meeting are released. When I got home, a bit late,  I was still feeling good about the outcome and did a bit of a song and dance for the dogs who warily lay in their beds. View the video

Australia Day is approaching and with it comes the gongs; the annual awards given to people deemed worthy. Upon reflection, some are worthy. We've had some great Australians of the Years; at the National and State levels. And there have been a few duds; at all levels of the awards. What really annoys me is that most recipients get awards for having simply done their job and were paid to do it; and usually paid quite handsomely ie. in high flying jobs. Real people who make a real impact and a huge contribution to society (eg. volunteers) usually get overlooked. It's quite sad that those most deserving get overlooked. Councils also have Australia Days awards for various categories. Unley Council has had some wonderful recipients; mostly deserved. I have enjoyed my past involvement on a Council panel to determine those most deserving; and to filter out the duds and crazy submissions. This year at Unley it's a Captain's Pick with Mayor Lachlan Clyne deciding who ...

I recently attended The Mad Hatter's Twilight Festival held in Quadrant Mall. A fun night with pop-up stalls. A good example of place activation. The place really came alive. Here I am pictured with The Mad Hatter. He was quite a character; literally quite mad. I was part of a group and the Mad Hatter led us through the streets, winding through lanes and into Quadrant Mall. The Mad Hatter is the one in costume  

Harmony Day at Unley Council last night; in the Town Hall. This year it was to recognise the Italian community. A fantastic night of music, dancing and wood fired pizza; washed down with local wines. It was a good night of the community getting together. A diverse group of people. I met up with Simon, a Nigerian who is studying agriculture in Adelaide. He said that we were the best dressed there; or at least we had the loudest shirts in the room. Here is a photo of us taken in front of the red spot light.

It's that time of the year again (for the Chinese and some other Asian communities). It is the start of the Chinese New Year. Over the past week homes have been fastidiously cleaned. Now it's time to celebrate to usher in the Year of the Monkey. The celebrations will last a week and mostly involve eating. Restaurants will be full and overflowing and perhaps a bit daunting for the non Asian diner. It may be best to wait a week or so before visiting a Chinese restaurant. So, practising my Chinese, I wish you 新年快樂 (pronounced “xi nian kuai le”) ... happy Chinese New Year. More about the year of the Monkey

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...

Tonight the Maroons didn't just beat the Blues in the Origin final. They thrashed them. It was Queensland at their best. And their goal kicking - a record, one of many records on the night. I enjoyed a few maroon drinks during the game.

Easter is a special celebration. For some it is more spiritual. For all (I suspect) it means giving, receiving and eating chocolate. The downside is the calories we pile on. Here are some sad statistics. One Cadbury Mini Easter Egg (3.3g) is 16 calories, so ten of these are 160 calories. Below is a chart of activities showing how long it takes to burn off 10 mini Easter Eggs. Activity                                        Men*            Women** Running (15 km/hr)                      7.5 minutes  10 minutes Cycling (less than 16.1 km/hr)     30 minutes   40 minutes Walking (4.82 km/hr)                   37 minutes   47 minutes *   Based on an average male, 175.6 cm and 85.9 kg ** Based on an average fe...

I've always wondered how the goon sack got its name. I never used to refer to it as a goon sack, but my kids do ... so it's an acceptable term these days. I thought that maybe there was some derogatory reference, other than to the usually cheap wine inside. The Urban Dictionary has an interesting definition viz. ... a silver sack filled with cheap wine which is found within a cardboard box. Drunk by youths in Australia due to its low cost however it promotes vomiting due to its awful taste. Hey, you want to get a goon sack and get maggot? Anyway, this year celebrates the 50 years since invention of the goon sack. It was conceived, invented and put into production by Riverland winemaker Tom Angove. He wanted a easy way to transport the equivalent of a half-gallon flagon of table wine. Hence the creation of the term goon, soon to become goon sack. It's a fantastic SA invention, just like the Hills Hoist, the Stobie pole and the Stump Jump Plough.  ...

I was reading a glossy brochure (with mostly pictures) of genuine Panettone (cake). It is becoming traditional (around the world) to enjoy an Italian Panettone at Christmas rather than a heavier English style rich fruit cake. I noticed that the brochure had a quote from Oscar Wilde. It read … In Italian: Avere buon gusto è facile: basta scegliere il meglio di tutto... and then in English … Having good taste is easy: simply choose the best of everything. A great quote to use for advertising anything of purported quality! I was curious as to why the Italians would quote from Oscar Wilde. Surely there were Italian philosophers that could have been selected. Then again, who on earth can better Oscar Wilde?

I reckon that Ken “KG” Cunningham is on the right track. He says that the Adelaide Oval should ditch the Riverbank Stand name and replace it with a permanent tribute to Phillip Hughes. There are 3 stands at the Oval: The Western Stand, the Eastern Stand and the Riverbank Stand. In my mind, it doesn't matter which stand is selected, but why not rename it as the Phillip Hughes Stand ?

On Sunday I attended the French Christmas Market held at Memorial Gardens, Unley. I spent a couple of hours with three other Councillors and their partners behind the white picket fence drinking young (very young, shamefully young) Beaujolais. In France, it is a tradition to celebrate the release of the latest batch of wine, just weeks old. Here are more details about the tradition … Beaujolais Nouveau Day Beaujolais Nouveau Day is marked in France on the third Thursday in November with fireworks, music and festivals. Under strict French law, the wine is released at 12:01 a.m., just a few weeks after the wine's grapes have been harvested. Festivities and parties are held across the country and to celebrate the first wine of the season. The Beaujolais was airlifted into Adelaide (and across Australia) so that we could join the French in celebration. Later in the night, I visited the food stalls and discovered some absolutely superb croissants from Bottega Rotolo @ 4...