Mayor4Unley

What a simple, yet fantastic idea. Secret messages and poems written on footpaths using a super-hydrophobic paint. The paint repels water, so the stencilled words remain invisible until it rains. Many of the streets of Adelaide will have poems stencilled on the footpaths. The messages will come to life when it rains. I would love to see this happen across #Unley. Such a simple and low cost activity. It will put a smile on people’s faces - when it rains 🌧🌨 Read the story

An Australian first in #Unley !! The first basketball court mural painted by local artist Matt Fortrose  ️ Go and see the Unley Colour Court  at Page Park (corner of Cross Road & East Avenue, Clarence Park). This is the first of Unley's six Arts In Your Space projects. View the video  https://youtu.be/9Rxm0IHID08 Vote 1 BOB SCHNELL #Mayor4Unley Your #BestChoice4Unley I will fight for funding for more of these small & exciting projects that inject vibrancy into our local parks! #Mayor Written and authorised by Bob Schnell, 10 Halmon Avenue, Everard Park 5035

The Unley Repair Cafe held monthly (on the last Saturday of the month) at Clarence Park Community Centre would not be successful without the many volunteer skilled workers. Most are Unley residents. When I took my broken chair to be repaired I was assigned to Peter Moors . It took a while to remove the broken screw. The rest of the repair job went quickly. Here's a photo of Peter Moors holding the repaired chair. more info on the repair job ... #Unley #RepairCafe #UnleyRepairCafe

The Unley Repair Cafe held monthly (on the last Saturday of the month) at Clarence Park Community Centre is just fantastic. Such a great concept and all made possible by a large group of skilled volunteers. I went to the May session and took my broken bentwood chair. The chair had a wonky leg with a screw broken off (inside the wood). It was a tricky job, but Unley resident and volunteer Peter Moors fixed it. Peter did a great repair job and I picked up a couple of tips. Every repaired job gets a photo. Here is a pic of me absolutely delighted with the repaired chair. #Unley #RepairCafe #UnleyRepairCafe

What to do when at the chemist when waiting for a script to be filled? Read the pharmacy health care magazine. I read with interest about Ubercare which is nothing to do with Uber (I think). I’m not too keen on Uber and its pervasiveness; and also stories about cold food delivered by bike in the rain ⛱ Ubercare sounds like a great service, especially for the elderly and the frail, for times when that little bit of help is required. Services include: Helping to dress, shower, iron Preparing meals, shopping Temporary carer Assist with correspondence, emails etc. Companion for a walk, dining out etc. The hourly fee is ‘reasonable’ with a discount for National Pharmacy members. All Ubercare people are police checked and are covered by insurance. And, according to the blurb, support staff are highly available around the clock; with many different skills. All up, I’m confident that it’s a good service that fills a niche. Google Ubercare.com for contact details. ...

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

A high speed train service from Mount Barker to Adelaide is emerging as a strong promise in the campaigns for the SA state Election. And so it should be. It's long overdue. There's no point in building satellite cities without provision of decent public transport. Having a bus service is not adequate; especially through the hills. Experts are forecasting an express service of 20 minutes between Mount Barker and Adelaide. What will be required, and there has been no mention, is huge land acquisition along the Belair line, from Adelaide to Belair and then on to Mount Barker. Currently there is is single track to service the Belair route. Work is expected to commence in mid 2019. Or will it? The only way to avoid the huge land acquisition is to build the detour for the freight trains at Murray Bridge and then use the old freight train rail corridor to build new dual rail lines from Adelaide to Mount Barker (and beyond). A tip to Premier-to-be Jay, Nick and St...

At the Australia Day Ceremony in #Unley, Professor Rob Morrison was the Australia Day Ambassador. He delivered a lively speech that reflected broadly on the make-up of Australia; a character portrayal of what it is to be an Australian. His speech encouraged debate on the subject. However, I disagree with his main thrust that it is too soon, too early to categorise Australia. He said that only just over 200 years had past since colonisation and that it was too early. Nonsense. And there was no mention of the Aborigines who have been here for 65,000+ years. The culture of a country evolves over time, so there is no problem with our perception of our country changing over time; as it will; as it has. Australia has the richest cultural diversity of any country and that adds to the problem of achieving consensus on what it is to be Australian. The problem is compounded by the fact that many of Australia's newer cultures are constrained (or are in silos) in our society and a...

There's so much buzz about Bitcoin and other crypto currencies. So much envy about those making an absolute killing on the crypto currency market. There's so much ups and downs. So much desire to get some of the action. But is it too late or do we just wait a bit and then buy in. To compound the situation, there are approximately 1,300 crypto coins and the reality is that most will become zombie coins; so we need to choose carefully with a huge helping of luck. Yes, there will be winners in the crypto space. However, it may not be Bitcoin; despite being the first. But what would I know? To put crypto currency into perspective and to do a bit of a reality check, here's a monkey story to ponder ... A lot of monkeys lived near a village. One day a merchant came to the village to buy these monkeys! He announced that he will buy the monkeys @ $100 each.  The villagers thought that this man is mad.  They thought how can somebody buy stray monkeys at $100 e...

The media is being a bit fanciful of late, building up the high expectations of Nick Xenophon at the next SA State election in March 2018. They now have Nick as possible Premier; if he wins enough seats. The likely outcome is that Nick's SA Best won't field enough candidates to give Nick the numbers to become Premier. Yes, he will win a good handful of seats; but certainly not a bucket-full. Here's a scenario ... What if Labor, Liberal and SA Best each get ~ 1/3 of the seats. It may be that SA Best gets to form a coalition with Labor or Liberal; and with such a deal, maybe Nick would be Premier. A preferable outcome would be Nick getting a handful of the best of Labor (a hard pick) and the best of the Liberals (a harder pick) and getting them to defect from their party and form a Government to truely represent the people. This new coalition Government would have Nick X as Premier, Jay Weatherill as Minister for Energy and Batteries and Steven Marshall as Mi...

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.

What a fantastic innovation ... and all the way from Iceland. Don't build a speed hump, rather, paint a 3D white Zebra Crossing. It sounds simplistic, and it is but it is highly effective. It reduces vehicle noise (over the hump) and reduces pollution from cars slowing and then speeding. Unley Council is reviewing this concept to see if it is legally compliant in SA It may not not comply with existing Australian standards. If it doesn't then we should be pushing to get it approved. Have a look at the 1 minute video. I would love your feedback. watch the video

Funerals are just so expensive. Even when you have a modest one with few frills, the Funeral Directors fleece you with high markups when you are most vulnerable. If you select a cremation at Centennial Park, the Funeral Directors add a whopping $500+ extra; for doing nothing other than making a phone call to Centennial Park. Now there's a new player in the funeral business. A company called Value Cremations will collect the body, handle the death certificate and cremate it for a low cost of $1,500. There is no service or gathering to farewell the person. You simply collect the ashes and do whatever you wish with the plastic urn eg. go for a Sunday drive and scatter the ashes in a nice quiet country setting or from the top of a cliff along the coast; or you can just place the ashes on a shelf at home and wonder for years what to do with them. Will it take off. I'm not sure. However it does have appeal. Instead of paying $12,000 for a modest funeral (including heaps of...

The State Government has recently released a pilot IT facility that enables residents to subscribe (to DPTI) to receive email/sms alerts about upcoming scheduled works on the rail and tram network. I understand that the intent is reduce the extent of letter-boxing residents to inform them of scheduled track work, especially work scheduled at night. Here's the link to subscribe ... www.dpti.sa.gov.au/worksnotifications It's an excellent initiative. However, there must be an ongoing need to letterbox residents in the immediate location. Thinking about this, I propose that Council launch a similar facility and request all residents to subscribe. That way Council would be able to quickly alert residents of planned works in their local area eg. road works, road closures etc. The benefit would a reduction of letter-boxing the broader area; a significant cost reduction. I ask the Council Administration to assess and pilot this proposal.

What a fantastic initiative by Mannum Council to erase (or hide) remnants of chewing gum on the footpath through the Main Street. The gum can't be fully removed; leaving a sticky stain. The solution is to paint splotches of art over the offending marks. The result is a colourful street of art under foot. Given the number of art works along the street, Mannum must be the chewing gum capital of Australia. View the photos

Its amazing the apps now available on smart phones and devices. Now there is one that gives reliability to the rhythm method of contraception. A new mobile app for monitoring body temperature to track a woman’s menstrual cycle has been extensively trialed and now has been certified as a medical device for contraception by a German regulator.  The Natural Cycles app records daily temperature and uses an algorithm to plot fertility on an in-app calendar. The app was part of a clinical study in 2016 of one million women and it is claimed that it could be as effective as the contraceptive pill. The German certification body TÜV SÜD has approved Natural Cycles as a Class IIb medical device. The app developer now claims that the software is the first of its kind to be certified as a contraception alongside condoms, the pill and intra-uterine devices (IUDs). It is stated that ... “Our high quality clinical studies, together with the required regulatory approva...

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.

Soon to be considered by Unley Council is the matter of what to do about the trip hazards on the footpaths. There seems to be less on the old bitumen footpaths compared with the new brick pavements. Seriously, perhaps we should consider returning to bitumen . That was one idea I proposed at a recent workshop. Despite it having merit that proposal wouldn't get through Council. The matter of what to do about trip hazards has been the subject of several workshops. There have been many proposals and variations. I insisted that the criteria (for a trip hazard) be applied equally across all footpaths in Unley. An earlier proposal had different trip tolerance heights (eg. 20mm vs. 15mm vs. 10-15mm) in different streets. That was totally unacceptable. That inequity will not be in the proposal to come to Council. The trip hazard criteria will now be applied equally across Unley, from Black Forest to Fullarton. The options that Council will consider are: Do nothing (and...

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 debate has commenced on the proposal to store high level nuclear waste deep underground in the far north of South Australia. It will gain momentum over the next 12 months. The economic benefit to SA is huge. The risk seems to be contained. The people will decide in 1-2 years. It needs to be a well informed and educated decision. The recent issue of Resourcing SA has an excellent article on the subject by Ms Kyra Reznikov who has toured nuclear storage facilities across the globe. The bottom line will be if the people of SA fully understand the storage process and the associated risk; of the waste buried 500m. To put the risk into perspective, Reznikov examines a storage facility under construction in Finland. In the worst case scenario, if the steel/copper canister containing the nuclear waste rods is defective ... then if a person stood on the ground above the facility for one year then they would be exposed to the equivalent of one tenth of a banana! Yes, bananas (and s...