Any South Africans in Unley / Goodwood surrounds ?

[Lonzo]

Hi

Been in Adelaide 3 months, enjoying so far.

Lived in Glenelg for 2 months and now taken a 12 month rental in Goodwood.

Reminds me of Melville in Johannesburg.

Keen to meet some other South Africans in the area, just to hear what is happening back home and find out about our local area. What places are cool for kids in Unley/goodwood ? What pre-schools are best etc etc. Where is the local DVD rental shop ? What are the good parks and walking traks in Adelaide ?

We have young kids 2 years and 4 years. Im working for BP, wife looking for accounting jobs...

Im English, Wife Afrikaans, from JHB and Cape town.

andrew.lonsdale@bp.com

[Jo123]

Hi Lonzo,

We stay in Glenelg which not in Unley/Goodwood. I have two kids, 4 years and 6 years, and always interested in meeting other South Africans in Adelaide. We have recently joined the Hallett Cove Christian Reformed Church. They meet every Sunday at 9:30 in the Hallett Cove East Primary School, Quailo Ave, Hallett Cove. Just South Africans but the services are held in English. I have met some great South Africans there.

There are also 3 Facebook groups “South Africans in Adelaideâ€. The largest one has 438 members and facebook page “Afrikaans Adelaide†with some activities. Send me a PM if you want to meet sometime.

Hopes this helps,

[Bob]

Lonzo!

Excellent advice about joining the Reformed Church down at Hallett Cove. That's a suburb where there seem to be no end of Pommies and, nowadays, South Africans for some reason. I guess they feel the need to be near the coast and a beach.

There's also the Reformed Church in Campbelltown, up the Main North East Road (Hill Street) where there's a big congregation of South Africans and older folk who came out from the Netherlands several years ago. There is an Afrikaans service fortnightly, also, I believe.

I know Unley / Parkside area well from my student days in the mid 1970s when I shared houses there with mates. The area's become quite posh and up-market since then, but it still has a great feel about it.

I lived for some years in a house (now pulled down) in Hughes Street. The east wall began leaning out (poor foundations) and it shifted from being 4 inches out (10 cms) to a foot (30 cms) out in one year, so the bloke next door who parked his brand new Volvo complained to the Unley Council who gave us a year to fix it. We pulled the wall down, living in a house with only 3 walls for the last year before we all shifted out eventually to another house.

Mates wouldn't bother knocking on the front door, they'd just walk down the side and stroll straight in to the lounge where the old black and white TV was.

Nothing ever got pinched in those days. It was paradise.

It was at that particular house that I first got to knock up tacos.

There were a couple of young American Mormon blokes who rode push bikes, wearing dark suits and ties, all of about 19 years old calling themselves "Elders"!

Anyhow, one hot summer day, they came knocking on the front door to evangelise. It was about 105 degrees F (41 degrees C) and I knew they didn't drink tea of coffee, so asked them if they'd like a glass of cold milk out of the fridge.

In they trudged and skolled the milk and went on their merry way after 5 mins or so.

Next day, same time, same blokes . . . . you guessed it!

They got to make our place a regular pit stop on their laps of the district and I invited them round for a feed one evening.

I didn't know what a taco was, but coming from Arizona and Utah, they told me what to get (mince, kidney beans, lettuce, onions, etc) and they knocked it all up.

It was a really good feed for all four of us in the house and those two young American blokes.

I can still make my own taco shells and all the mince, etc. even today!

They got to tell us about their lives back in America and we shared our lives as young Aussies and it was a bit sad when one day only one came back, the other had moved on. Eventually even the last one moved on and we lost touch.

I also remember pushing my mate in a Coles shopping trolley down Unley Road late one night . . . . we'd found the trolley a few hundred yards down the road from Coles! . . . and, of course the first police car that came along made us two young blokes do some serious explaining.

I mean . . . what do you tell a couple of coppers when you've got a big 6 foot bloke sitting in the shopping trolley like a baby in a pram?

If he'd have had a big dummy to suck on in his mouth, it wouldn't have looked any more ridiculous!

[quinswan]

HI Lonzo

We live close to you in PArk street.

We arrived here in Adelaide on 19 June.

Give me a call on 0414 211 118

Cheers

Quinton