Community- Going strong

Hi all,

I know I have been absent for a while. It is because we have moved and are not as involved with the community as before. We still own our house in Victoria Park and it has been a great investment so far.

I would just let you all know that the community still is going strong and has grown to great numbers:)

The neighborhood watch is active and people are always happy to help each other.

I will just share a story to show how good it is to know your neighbors:

The area was hit my some break ins a few months ago and of course it was not nice (the criminals seem to take turns on areas). One of our neighbors noticed that there is a strange car parked at her neighbors drive way. She did not see the people walking in or out or carrying anything, but still thought it to be strange as it was during the day and she knows that the couple in the house works full days. She took a video of the car pulling away and alerted the neighborhood watch. It was a break in and the owners lost some prized belongings- which is very sad.  The video was shared with the police and led to arrest of the burglars who are now spending their time behind the bars!

There are regular patrols in the neighborhood and people who do not belong there are noticed quickly!

Keep it up!

Lifts and ride-shares from Victoria Park

Dear Neighbors, 

I recently go a job- which is great!!! However it has an impact on our families daily routine, as I will no longer be able to take my kids and fetch them from school etc.

So I started to look for solutions. I believe that others might be in similar situations. My husband, for example is traveling to Cape Town for work on the bike.

I found a following connection:

• Kim is taking her kids and has some extra place in her car for more kids to Hendrik Louw primary from Victoaria Park. Please contact me to obtain Kims number, if you need assistance with H Louw transport at a reasonable price. 

Please let me know of other transport options from Victoria park, so we can have a ride-share and lift clubs helping each other:)

Ritma 0611776609

Neighbourhood watch control room & useful numbers

CONTROL ROOM

The new NW Radio control room is running very well thanks to the hard work and donations of dedicated community members as well as our kind sponsors.

Please Note: The NW Control can contact all the emergency services and have  a dedicated Neighbourhood Watch response vehicle. The SW Neighbourhood Watch is supported by several security companies & ambulance services, including Secure Rite, AM/TSU, Gordon’s Bay Security, ER24, EMO and SSS Emergency Services. They all signed a Code of Conduct and will work together with the NW to make Somerset West a safer place for us all. This means that should an incident happen there are 8 or more vehicles that can respond! I salute these companies, as well as SAPS, who have decided to work together with the Somerset West NW. Unfortunately, to date, HCW/VS (Helderberg Crime Watch) has chosen to work independently but will still assist NW Neighbourhood Watch and patrollers where necessary..

USEFUL CONTACTS: 

•Illegal dumping of garden waste - contact the Green Scorpions (Environmental Management Inspectors). It is always good to attach a photograph and registration number. 0800 205 005. http://www.greenscorpions.com/

•Illegal dumping of building material or other waste: Call Law Enforcement on 021 596 1999 or 021 842 3222 / 021 900 4028

•Faulty streetlights: Send sms with street name + Somerset West (no more than 160 characters) to 31220

•Water mains/burst pipes: Send sms with street name + Somerset West (no more than 160 characters to 31373

Happy paintings to raise funds for Cancer support

This is a follow up project from "Horse painting for cancer support" - I would like to have it as an ongoing project. Don't You think that would be awesome!?

Large horse 3,
Acrylic boxed canvas, 91x76cm,
R3000

The paintings that can be seen on this page are the ones, that are available for purchase through the project. From every sold painting I would donate 50% of sales price to CANSA - The Cancer Association of South Africa (http://www.cansa.org.za/).

Why cancer support?

Since my family has been battling the cancer, I hear more and more people fighting or fought cancer- everyone knows someone that has cancer!? This clearly is a big issue in today- if we work together we can make a difference. Donating to cancer cause is my choice, if You would like to donate from a purchased painting to a different charity, please let me know :) I donate through http://www.givengain.com/. Info on previous project & donations.

Why call these "Happy paintings"? 

1. Painting them made me happy,

2. they hopefully will make the person purchasing the painting happy and

3. the donated funds will make whole lot of people dealing with cancer happier

Just thought its a nice reason to call them "happy paintings":)

Proof of previous donations

LET'S SHARE THE HAPPINESS AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

• All paintings are fully hand painted in acrylic or oil on canvas;
• All prices are provisional and negotiable. Provisional price can be seen below the painting, 50% of the paid price will be donated. Price excludes shipping and delivery costs. 
• If You would like to buy a painting or have any questions, please contact me on email or phone. 

Bob Marley
Acrylic on stretched canvas, 100x80cm
R2000 

Happy
Acrylic on boxed canvas, 91x76cm
R2000

White horse
Oil on canvas board, 40x50cm
R700

Angel
Oil on canvas board, 50x40cm
R800

Baby girl
Oil on canvas, A3
R700

Profile
Oil on canvas board, A3
SOLD

Little girl
Acrylic on canvas, A3
SOLD

Ritma Grizane

http://ritmart.blogspot.com/

 

Carlo - gardening services, lawn cutting

Our neighbor Carlo, has started a gardening business. 

Carlo will: 

• cut the lawn, 
• trim the edges and 
• take the lawn cuttings to the dumps 

So we can have a nice and neat lawn with no effort :)

Please contact Carlo 0815447452 or Simone 0711516460 for a quote, as our yards vary in sizes.

Carlo at work:)

I can confirm that Carlo does an awesome work on the lawn for a very reasonable price (definitely worth the time my hubby can spend with me!) + Carlo is a very motivated and someone we can trust in our backyard:).

Let's support one another!:)

Uriel Barreneche - our singer, musician and dancer

Is an established singer and vocal artist from Uruguay/ Las Piedras area. His repertoire includes music from yesteryear till today.

Now available for Performances, MC and Dj at: Weddings, Festivals, Corporate functions, Morning/ Ladies Teas, Fund Raisers, Funerals, etc.

For weddings and other special functions he can be booked to perform that SPECIAL SONG.
Own sound available.

Uriel can also teach various dancing styles, drumming and self defense. 

Please contact this multi-talented artist on:

Cell phone: 0748478186
E-mail: elcharrua33@gmail.com

or via Facebook

FB: Uriel Barreneche
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Uriel-Barreneche-Denis/468624739912768

Walt - vehicle sales

In case You are looking to buy or change your car, please give our neighbor Walt Binneman a call on 0842994042. Walt is working as a sales representative at  Auto Pedigree in Strand and surely will be able to offer You a great deal!:) 

Walt at work:)

Great deals on cars!

If You live in Victoria Park and would like to share what You do, please contact me:) It's free!

Share what You do!!!

Living in Victoria Park and would like to share info on what you do??? Please send me the information and I will create a link to Your website/ blog under "What People do in Victoria Park"

Here is a sneak peak what we do:)

www.1man1bike1adventure.blogspot.com

www.portraitartist.co.za

www.keiptauna.com

If You need help setting up your own website / blog, please speak to Ritma.

New trees

Hey, we are so happy to have new trees in our neighbourhood. Thank You to Cape Dev Homes for organizing and helping us to plant the trees. now we just need to look after them and make our neighbourhood a leafy suburb :P

Neighbourhood street cricket

So, the neighborhood fell back into routine after the festive season and there was a great need to wake it up:) The Street cricket afternoon was held on 23.February, everyone was welcome;)

We had fun!

December & New Years parties

Dear Neighbours,

The life is continuing and we are all busy with our daily routines... Schools reopened today. The neighbors are still doing the night patrols and some early morning patrols too- THANK YOU!!!

December is the fun time!:) we had a few street braais/ parties where all were welcome. Not everyone came, but those who came were great! Here are some photos:

13 December, 2013

New Year celebration

May You all have loads of fun in 2014!!!

Crazy rain in Helderberg

15.November, 2013 was a crazy Friday in our beloved Victoria Park. The area was flooded! Some of the neighbors properties suffered quite a damage. However I would like to thank our neighbors for great cooperation and for coming out in rain to help reduce the rain waters level on the streets.

Paddle ski was a better mode of transport

Halloween event, 1.November

Hei, hei, hei!!!

As we have a few families that have small children in the area, we decided to do something small for the kids on Halloween. It was not easy to get people involved, as some of us don't exactly support Halloween, so we came up with a following setting:

We walked around to all the houses in our area (Phase 3 in this case) and explained the ideas- to have some kids fun, not go crazy :P

The houses willing to participate, can put a candle in the window or some Halloween decoration on the door/ window, so that kids only knock on the doors of participating houses, without disturbing others.

The night was a great SUCCESS! Kids got to dress up and get their candy (note the Americanism:P) 

Note Hulk coming from behind!!! :D

We had over 10 kids participating and about 1/3 of the houses. We were pleasantly impressed that people who don't have children on their own and still participated in the event. Next time we should either have more kids trick or treating or ask participants to buy less sweets for the night :)

Thank You all for making our neighborhood great!!!

Feedback on 28.Oct. meeting

The meeting was a blast!!! 
If You were not there You missed out on some great action!:)

Minutes will hopefully be added to the blog at the later stage.

New Victoria Park Neighborhood Watch chairperson has been elected.

R

Next meeting

Next meeting will be held on 28th October 7pm in the Helderzicht Rugby club. All residents are welcome to participate!

Great stuff!!!

Dear Neighbours, 

I would like to extend my gratification to those improving our area.

Here are just some things that have been improved and deserve mentioning:

1. The NHW patrols are out almost every night and whats even more amazing- during the days- thank YOU!
2. The NHW boards been moved to more visible spots- Perfect!
3. The speed bumps been installed on Park drive- Amazing!
4. New jungle gym for the kids installed- Unbelievable!
5. The trees behind Turnfontein road have been taken care of- Great job!
6. The whole in the vibre create wall has been closed up, to stop trough traffic- Outstanding!
7. Wednesday bin- scratcher- stop-day works impressive- have not seen any bin-scratchers this Wednesday - Fantastic!
8. Grass cut on open plots in phase 3- Beautiful!

Please share, if You know more great stuff happening in our area!:) 

Minutes from the meeting on 16.September

Venue: Helderzicht Rugby club, 7pm

NB: Open with a prayer (Patrik, Brandon)

Other NHWs present: Bridgewater NHW (Gavin Holroyd), Paardavlei NHW (Ellen) and Lourentia Park NHW (Doreen & Mary)

Also present: Annetjie Robertson (Community Police Forum) Will chat to Charl Viljoen about possible training next year ower 2 nights.

Patrolls· 

• Patroller registration forms distributed in the meeting– needed to secure their own safety. Forms distributed and 21 filled form received.
• Be non-aggressive. Walking etiquette. No patrollers under influence of alcohol or other substances to participate. 
• To keep patrolls random- as times of peak crime tend to change.

Record of patrolls to be kept:

1. Date
2. Time
3. Observation (place, what happened, clothing)

Jackets to be made: Cost R55 will be financed personally. Please speak to Donovan, 14 Phoenix street.

Communication methods: 

1. Create a special group for patrollers on WhatsApp to discuss the meeting times etc. Brandon Smith as administrator of the group 0745545218

2. Facebook no pictures publicly allowed. Only for nonsesitive information

3. 2-way radio – advised to be purchased from an official NHW network as it has to be linked to the speciffic frequency etc.

Problem areas & way forward:

1. Incident record. To be mapped out where most incidents happen, to attend to the most urgent areas.

2. Open field on Paardevlei side and area behind Turnfontein boundry wall to be cleaned up. Ellen and Mariette has taken the issue further. Will be discussed with Councillor Van Minnen.

3. Broken Boundry wall on Victoria Street- Cape Dev Homes responsible? Does not seem that Victoria Park residents use the oppening. Required to be closed

4. Drain close to broken section of the wall need to be covered. Possible hiding place for criminals.

5. Lourentia Park boundry wall on Links road towards the Mall- permanent wall to be installed when other section of Lourentia Park is built up. Can we wait so long. John Middleton taking issue further. The wall between Victoria Park and Lourentia Park- plants to prevent jumping over the wall to be planted. Needs input from the Councillor Van Minnen.

6. Suspected Drug house/ problem houses in the area- should speak to Sector 2 commander 082411271five

7. Lights in open spaces- Darryl

8. Speedbumps in Park Drive- issue taken further and should be installed in near future

9. Bin scratchers – please ask the bin scratchers to leave Your bin alone! Be nice. Stay safe. Don’t display the boxes of new appliances or equipment you have bought! Take down serial numbers of all electronic equipment- so in case of being stolen, it can be recovered.

10. NHW boards:

• Existing boards hopefully can stay where they are. New big boards can possibly be installed at the entrances. Need to investigate where they can be acuired
• Small NHW boards in the window or on property saying that the owners belong to NHW can be bought from CPF @ R40 per board. 

Next meeting: 30.September, 7pm, Same venue

Meeting 16.September

The meeting tonight 7pm!!!

Suggested agenda:

1.Member registry: use existing list and update. + who is on whatsapp, fb, email.

2. Patrol schedule and Incident registrar (Fb) to keep record

3. Jackets and funding - fundriser options?
4. Problem areas: open field on Paardevlei side, broken boundry wall on Victoria side, wall on Lourentia park side, no wall on Folkstone crescent, suspected drug house.
5. Possible solutions/ steps

See You all there!

Support our neighbours!

This blog is open for the Victoria Park residents to advertise your business or skill. Let's support our neighbors!!

Here is one of the businesses in the area:)

Please inform, if You know a reliable and safe domestic worker/ gardener. 

If You would like to feature your business here, please send me the information You would like to have posted. Please send in JPG file, if possible. 

Have a great week!!!

Ritma

Map of Victoria Park

Dear Neighbours, 

Here is the map of Victoria Park, so we all know the street names and areas. The area in blue is 3rd phase.

The map is also available on our Facebook Page: Victoria Park Somerset West. Please join us on Facebook page!!! And lets make Victoria Park the best place ever!!!