Ellis Park

The only other stadium that I went to, when I was in South Africa, was the Ellis Park Stadium, where I saw a concert of a portuguese singer.
Ellis Park hosted the Rugby World Cup final in 1995, which was won by the country's national team, the Springboks. The large stadium was the country's most modern when it was upgraded in 1982 to accommodate almost 60,000 people. Today, the stadium hosts both football and rugby, and is also used as a venue for other large events, such as open-air concerts. It will host five group games, one second round game and one quarter-final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, for which its capacity will be increased by 5,000 seats on the northern side only, to 65,000.

SASBO Sports Club

Other big sport facilities in Rosettenville, is the Turfontein Race Course, where my uncle used to go bet on the horses. In Johannesburg when you speak about ‘going to the races’ you’re usually referring to spending a day watching horses race at the Turffontein race track, one of the oldest horse racing venues in South Africa, built in 1887.
The laydown on the racetrack: Turffontein has a 1200m straight course that joins the round course at about the 800m mark. It’s regarded as one of the stiffest tracks in the country due to a steady climb from about the 1200m to the final turn, which means that horses racing from well off the pace actually hold every chance.
Turffontein is also set to become a night racing venue, after Newmarket Racecourse in Johannesburg was sold to local businessmen in early 2007. Since then Turffontein has undergone a major refurbishment, including the installation of floodlights, renewing the existing track side facilities and opening a sports bar.
Horse racing has a huge following in South Africa and the history of racing can be traced back to as early as 1797, whilst the first race club meeting ever recorded took place in 1802. Turffontein hosts The Summer Cup, one of the three biggest racing events in the country - the others are the J&B Met in Cape Town and the Durban July.

Rand Stadium

Right next to the Hector Norris Stadium is situated the Rand Stadium. http://www.joburg.org.za/fifaworldcup/content/view/3309/280/
It is the oldest of the major stadiums in Johannesburg, Rand Stadium was the home of all the major football finals for many years. The stadium can accommodate up to 28,000 people. Rand Stadium is the home of the third major Johannesburg football team, the Moroka Swallows. And it was from this stadium that was launched the first " Guy Fawkes", as we called the fireworks, that I saw in my life for the comemoration of 100 years of the the first settlements in the zone.

Hector Norris Park

During the weekends or holidays I remember going to the Hector Norris Stadium in LaRochelle, where we used to race against each other. Hector Norris Park is the home to Central Gauteng Track Cycling,. It is the highest cycling track in South Africa, at an altitude of 1704m above sea level. The track is concrete banked, and measures 457m. Built in the 1950's, it is actively used today, with 38 of 94 of the country's track cycling records being held there. http://www.hnptrackcycling.co.za/index.html

Miniature Roads

Back to the parks in Rosettenville. While reading a blog about Port Elizabeth ( http://portelizabethdailyphoto.blogspot.com , which I highly recommend ), I remembered going with our school to a park in Rosettenville, not sure if it was Christopherson Park or Rotunda Park) to take a drivers license for bicyvles, it was a park which had a mini traffic system with small streets, with robots, zebras, cross-roads, stops and where we had to ride around on a bicycle along with some other students and where others were the pedestrians, and where we learned the essential for riding a bicycle in traffic zones. The photo below is property of the blog above mentioned.

Johannesburg Suburbs

Apart from the suburbs mentioned, I also know very well the suburbs of The Hill, Turfontein, Turf Club and South Hills for my cousins lived there and Steeledale for we used to make our weekly shopping in the local Pick'n Pay.

Santarama Miniland

I remember of going to the Santarama Miniland on a School visit, and I remember very well of climbing aboard of Jan Van Riebeeck's ship replic and of the minitowns where the vehicles were in movement.

Pioneer Park

Going back to the Pioneer Park, this is a park located in LaRochelle, where we used to go to play soccer, to swim there was a paying swimming pool, to picnic for there were several braai facilities and as we loved our boerowors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boerewors, t-bonkes and chicken. It has also a lake called Wemmer Pam, and there used to have a musical fountain, where hundreds of people joined at night to assist to this festival ( it seems that this will be coming into work again http://www.joburg.org.za/content/view/1112/168/ ) , it had a small train ride. It also hosts the James Hall Museum of transport http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionsga/museum-of-transport.htm ; http://www.wheretostay.co.za/information/topic/2027 ; http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:James_Hall_museum_of_Transport. In the banks of Wemmer Pam, lies also santarama Miniland http://www.miniland.co.za/.

Rosettenville, just like anywhere in South Africa, has plenty of parks, going from simple playgrounds to National Parks. Rosettenville is mainly a residential area, which we can described formed of blocks, and which has an important commercial compound in the main roads ( Geranium Str, Main Str, Turf Rd and Prairie Str ).

Speaking of the parks, these are the one I used to go to: just one road under High Street where I lived, Rosettenville was crossed from North to South by a park or a green place, where we mainly played hide and seek, cricket, baseball, soccer as well as tennis, for a bit further there were 4 tennis courts; JC Lucas Park which had a playground, tennis courts and a small swimming pool ( which wesn't famous for being clean ); Cornelia park especially when I lived in Kenilworth for it was close to our house; Wiliam Watt Park when I used to live in Regents Park; Pioneers Park in LaRochelle, which was the park I mostly went to ( further more I'll be telling about the activities I did in this Park ) and finally John Stevenson Park in Forest Hill, where there was a free big swimming pool.

Before living in Rosettenville I lived in a flat in Kenilworth ( think it was in Frasier Str ), before that i lived in Regents Park ( Augusta Rd ) and before that in a house in Malvern ( think it was in Darling Str ).

Rosettenville, back in the late seventies and early eighties, was a peaceful neighbourhood, where lived a large portuguese comunity. There used to be many portuguese tenants, amost some big marks, such as Checkers, OK!, Spars and Woolworths.

I went to the Rosettenville Primary School and the Rosettenville Central Junior School http://wikimapia.org/9666298/Rosettenville-Central-Primary-School. I remember my days in the Rosettenville Primary School, mainly for the Christmas Parties and for the Sport events, as well as for the many study visits we done around Joburg ( furthermore I'll be telling you about them ). As for the Rosettenville Central Junior School I have memories of the good sport facilities it had ( race track, soccer/rugby camp, cricket training camp and a netball camp ( don't know if they still call it like that there, for its feminin basketball ) ) and here also we made several study visits.

I was born in Rosettenville - Johannesburg. And from 1980-1986 I lived at 124 High Str. This house by the way is in the internet for sale at the price of 30.000€. It has changed a bit as we left it, before it was in cream color, and the neighbourhood was surely better. For nowadays Rosettenville is more famous for its prostitutes and drug dealers.

Rosettenville is known mainly for two reasons ( a positive one and a negative one ).

The first ever Nandos restaurant appeared in Rosettenville. http://www.nandos.com/ , and it's the place where South African reggae musician Lucky Dube was shot dead in front of his children in October, 2007.http://www.luckydubemusic.com/

Introduction

This is a blog, where I'll post my memories of South Africa. I was born in South Africa in 1974 and lived there until 1986. During these 12 years I gained fantastic memories. I'll try to post here those memories, and if you have any comments or aditional information, please post them.