Mayor4Unley

The State seat of Unley is heating up for one hell of a fight in the upcoming SA Election. It's going to be a fight that Unley has not seen before. Incumbent, Liberal David Pisoni was looking safe, in his very safe seat that he has held for 12 years in opposition. SA Best candidate Anthony Olivier will give the traditional Liberal/Labor polling a solid shake-up. There will be a lot of Liberal money splashed about in Unley to get their message out. Liberal priorities like rate capping and a cycle path to Melbourne will be real election issues. My reflection is that: Rate capping is just a vote grabbing ploy; I mean what voter wouldn't want reduced Council rates? The reality is that rate capping won't actually work. I don't imagine there will be a huge influx of cycling tourists pedalling over from Melbourne. Seriously, this huge spend needs a rethink; it just sounds a bit looney. I won't give my forecast or reflect on my political views, but Unley...

#Doritos for women in #Unley What a lot of silliness. They could have released a product with less crunch and less mess and not mentioned women. It could have been targeted at both women and men for those times when you eat in public and want to avoid a lot of finger licking and pouring the crumbs from the empty packet into your mouth. Read the story. The comments are a real hoot 🤣 Click here

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...

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

We all do it. It's mandatory; an absolute obligation. When you're down at the beach on a non swimming visit, be it at Glenelg or Semaphore or Beachport or wherever, and you're done the shops, had a bite to eat, whatever, you simply must walk the jetty. Right to the end, then loiter a while and then head back. We observe each other, we look in the buckets and engage in idle conversation about the luck of the fishers who are mostly male. But put yourself in the the place of a fisherman and the continual stream of people who enquire about 'how are they biting?' and 'what have you caught?'. Actually there is strict etiquette about a walk along a jetty. And so many people break the rules. Here's a list of etiquette guidelines to help you on your next stroll along the jetty. Jetty etiquette

I was interested to find an article claiming that most South Australians speak posh; compared with the rest of Australians. There is Adelaide English and 3 regional varieties of English; Eyre and Yorke Peninsula English, South East South Australia English and Northern South Australia English. Also, due to the prevalence of the South Australian long a , the South Australian accent appears to be closer to a cultivated and posh sound compared with dialects in other Australian States. It seems that we're a posh mob (in SA). Have a read. Here's the link ... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Australian_English

I've never had serious food poisoning or given birth, but I understand that both have some discomfort. Recently there was a case of salmonella food poisoning that affected 32 people who had a buffet breakfast at a big hotel on North Terrace, Adelaide. I understand that it was the eggs. One of the women affected described her ordeal of week-long pain as worse than childbirth. The pains of childbirth over one week would have been horrendous. It puts salmonella food poisoning into perspective.

An amazing tale with supposed credibility. Remember the Bush Tucker Man, Les Hiddins. He has an ongoing pursuit to find evidence that survivors of a Dutch shipwreck off Western Australia trekked half way across Australia and colonised Palmer River, 300km SSW of Alice Springs. The colony is claimed to exist between 1708-1832; started before British colonisation of Australia. DNA testing will try to confirm links between local Aboriginals and family descendants related to those onboard that doomed Dutch ship; back in early 1700. The search for evidence in Central Australia is winding up due to weather and will recommence next year. An amazing tale ... and wouldn't it be nice if it ended up being true 🤔 For more details ... http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/bush-tucker-man-les-hiddins-great-dutch-adventure/news-story/b122ba9491e73aa7d4d2f8e0c8866b9b

A snapshot of South Australia's population: According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the preliminary estimated resident population (ERP) of South Australia at 31 March 2015 was 1,696,200 people. This is an increase of 13,900 people since 31 March 2014 and an annual growth rate of 0.8%. Australia’s growth rate over the same period was 1.4%. Population growth is driven by natural increase (births minus deaths) and net migration (overseas and interstate).  Net migration contributed 52% of South Australia’s population growth in the 12 months to March 2015.  Positive net overseas migration helped to counter South Australia’s net interstate population losses. This is more easily understood pictorially. Here’s a diagram showing the components of South Australia's growth, 2014-15 For more information from the ABS ... click here . I'm not in a hurry to see higher figures of growth. SA is somewhat unique due to its smallness compared with the oth...

FYI a friend sent me an article on the pervasiveness of acronyms today; the push for more and more acronyms is probably driven by the desire to fit more words into a 140 characters text message. BTW I am simply reprinting what was sent to me; without my usual edit of spelling and grammar. This article is from the August 15 issue of The Australian Digital Edition.   The acronyms are coming. Marching across the language in their thousands, blunt, unlovely, artificial abbreviations, easy to coin and virtually ineradicable, forcing out perfectly good words and replacing them with ugly initials. Acronyms are the grey squirrels of language. Two acronymic films will be competing at the box office: The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which stands for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, and the Bond movie, Spectre (Special Executive for Counterintelligence , Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). The men from U.N.C.L.E. fight an evil organisation called Thrush (Technologic...

For some time now, people have talked about when robots will be taking our jobs. It is now claimed that in reality, they have already taken some of our jobs – we simply have not noticed. We know what physical robots can do eg. tasks in car assembly; tasks that are easily programmed. These are tasks that help to make the workplace safer (for humans); who cares if a robot drops a welding hand-piece on its toe! Now we have artificial intelligence robots that mimic what humans do. These are mostly software robots – and they are taking jobs from humans in droves. For example in the UK, the telecoms firm O2 has replaced 150 workers with a single piece of software. Typical tasks involved are Sim swaps, porting mobile numbers, migrating from prepaid onto a contract, unlocking a phone; now automated by software without human intervention. The software (robot) isn't trained how to perform the tasks, rather it watches and then mimics the human tasks. Another example is performing leg...

It’s all too easy these days to not communicate face to face and just use email or sms to tell someone you fancy them,  wouldn't  mind a bit of sex and then, later, to use email or sms to break-up. Is there any guilt these days? Is it too awkward to just say in person ‘sorry Babe’? These days it is just that much easier to do it online. And, if you don’t have the guts and just want to quickly move on to the next relationship , then there is the option of outsourcing the task of saying sorry to Babe. Here’s a link to someone who will do the dirty deed An sms or email to Babe will only cost you $5.50. In fact you can outsource most dreaded tasks to someone else online. Here’s some more information … Breaking up is hard to do. So let someone else deal with it. Remember when breaking up was hard to do? There were the teary speeches, the recriminations, the anguish at losing someone who meant a great deal to you. Well, not anymore. These days, with a bit of hel...

If any team beats England at cricket, then all Australia celebrates. We just like the Poms to get beaten. And what a beating it was by Bangladesh in the Cricket World Cup. The Poms are packing up, ready to go home. Cheerio boys! There's often talk about the degree of assimilation of migrants in Australia. The successful assimilation in Australia by Pommy migrants is when they barrack for the Australia cricket team and express delight when England gets beaten. When this measure is achieved the Pommy migrants can then be considered true Aussies. By this measure, the $10 Pom (Unley Councillor) Mike Hudson makes the grade and is a true Aussie. He loves it when England gets beaten.

I abhor bad manners - at work, in the community, at Council, wherever. There's no need for it. To quote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (aka. Goethe ) ... ' a man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait '.

There is a rally tonight to show solidarity with the je suis Charlie gathering and march in France. Victoria Square (northern end) Adelaide at 8pm. Take a candle. For more information ...  https://grumpyinunley.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/jesuischarlie/

At any Council, Councillors and the Mayor are recognised as community leaders. They champion the wishes of the residents, they are captains of initiatives and drivers and navigators through difficult obstacles. Their goal is to get there, to deliver outcomes. They are meant to be representative of the broader community; and to some degree they are. They are also human and from time to time err like the rest of the people. I do and I am quick to confess and say that I got it wrong. As a matter of decency I will withhold the name of the Unley Councillor who recently had trouble navigating home after a day trip to Victor Harbor. For some reason, she/he decided to take a bit of a scenic detour through the country-side. She/he got lost in the Meadows/Macclesfield area and seemed to be going in circles. After passing through Macclesfield for the third time, the Councillor went to the Post Office at Macclesfield (postcode 5153) and asked for directions on how to get to Adelaide. I ha...

A few weeks back, I was the keynote speaker at a youth gathering in Everard Park. Actually, I'm romancing a bit. It was my son's 21st birthday and I had to give a speech. We had 70-80 youths around to celebrate the event. I was instructed what beverages to buy. On the list was Passion Pop, a sparkling fizzy sweet wine based drink. When trying buy some, the local bottle shop informed me that the manager had banned it because they didn't want to tarnish their reputation. After some negotiation, it was agreed that they would order in a dozen. 21 years ago I bought a case of vintage port to keep until my son was 'of age'. That was what we did back then. It was traditional. Times have changed. I opened a bottle to try on the night. Surprisingly, the cork was in very good condition. The vintage port was absolutely superb. I would say that it has many years to go. At a 21st it is tradition for the father/parents to give a speech. I prepared some speaking note...

The function and purpose of libraries is being challenged. Are books really out of fashion? I challenge that suggestion. Maybe they are becoming unfashionable and less read. Replaced by electronic media? Replaced by CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray? Curling up to book is a better feel than snuggling a CD. Whatever, the function of libraries is changing and whilst cracks of change might only appear on the surface now, there will be rapid shift in the near future. Libraries must recognise the need to change and embrace and experiment when the opportunity arises. It’s always better to be in control and driving the change rather than playing the hard game of catch-up. I found this interesting story about libraries in the USA that are establishing innovative and high tech facilities (aka. Workshops and Maker Labs) within the existing library. A practical example is the installation of 3D printers.  Residents can use the printers to make whatever they wish eg. a mobile phone case (yellow...

This October will mark the centenary of ANZAC. It was in October 1914 that the first convoy of Australian troops left Western Australia by ship to fight the war to end all wars. To this day, the ANZAC spirit lives on and remains relevant to our ever changing society (and its make-up). This year's Annual Hawke Lecture is titled Commemorating the ANZAC Centenary: Why is it Important for all Australians? It will be delivered by Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston ACAFC (Ret’d). He will reflect on the centenary of ANZAC and explain why it is so important to observe this time in history and just why does the ANZAC story and the values remain so central to what it means to be an Australian today and in the future? The centenary not only provides us with the opportunity to remember the service and sacrifice of our past and current servicemen and women, but it helps to unify our ever-changing nation. I hope that recognition of the centenary helps to inject the ANZAC spirit into all s...