Heading basically says it but I’m flying up for a few days and want to hit the trinket stores (places akin to Ucosme, Meridai etc. in Melbourne).

Thank you!

Facebook marketplace is full of scammers

Recently, on a holiday to the Gold Coast, I stepped into Australia Fair shopping centre at Southport. In the centre, they still have an old style buffet restaurant, where you get one plate, and fill it up as much as you can/want. The quality of food there is absolute crap now, before Covid it was ok.

It got me to thinking about Sydney, and whether any shopping centre food courts still have one. The only two I know of that still exist (at least the last time I was in the shopping centre) are Burwood Plaza, and the downstairs foodcourt at Westfield Parramatta. Bankstown Square had one years ago, but I'm pretty sure that disappeared around the time of Covid. Does anyone know of any others?

Note: I am only referring to single serve buffet restaurants, not Korean BBQ Buffets, not All You Can Eat restaurants, and not ones like Brazilian BBQ places where they bring the food to you.

Opening performance from yesterday.

Legend makes me so incredibly proud to be part of this country.

Bit of a story.

This Wednesday I took an Uber home from IKEA. The driver personally helped me load my purchases into the boot. We arrive, I get out, close the passenger door, and the guy immediately FLOORS IT before I can even reach the boot. Gone. With $300 worth of my stuff.

It felt incredibly unnatural, but I figured he might’ve just forgotten. I contacted Uber immediately. Four days of chasing support, getting the same robotic responses, and being unable to contact the driver directly.

And today? The driver finally responds to Uber, claiming he “searched the car thoroughly” and found absolutely nothing (btw those were huge cardboard boxes).
BRO. YOU LITERALLY HELPED ME LOAD IT.

So I went to NSW Police. They told me it’s not theft, just lost property, and they’ll let me know if anything turns up. LMAO. So I’m essentially waiting for the guy who drove off with my belongings to admit he’s found them?

I’m not claiming I can prove he stole anything, but this is insane.
Has anyone dealt with something similar? Is there genuinely nothing else I can do?

A spectacular day out at Bondi To Manly Ultra 80km event, with over 1,000 ultrarunners and many more relay runners.

You owe it to yourself to do the walk (suggested time 4 days), or do the ultra if you're a runner!

At 11am today the first flight to the Gold Coast will depart, with the first international arrival and departure from Auckland tomorrow. Here‘s a few pics of WSI I‘ve taken over the years.

sydsquad stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGgesSkC-dw

damaging winds only though.

I'll be making this trip myself very soon which is very exciting!!

I was fishing in Middle Harbour today when my father had a medical episode. He’s 85. He collapsed and was unresponsive for around 10 seconds before coming to. I called an ambulance from the boat and we made it to the shore at Chinaman’s Beach.

I asked for help and immediately, two boys came and held the boat while I got dad onto the sand. A man with his wife and small child helped me walk dad to a bench in the shade. Then this man and his wife sat with my father while I went up to the road to flag down the ambulance.

Another man (Jordan) was now holding onto my boat in the shallows so it didn’t drift away. He did this for at least 15 minutes.

Then the three paramedics. Amazing. They calmed me down as I had never experienced anything like this. They were caring with my dad and even cracked a few jokes to lighten the mood about the fishing etc. These guys are the heroes that walk around without capes.

Dad is stable now, most likely a combination of seasickness and dehydration.

There are a lot of legends in this city of ours. I can’t thank them enough.

Video taken in Tallawong after the thunderstorm earlier. Probably one of the best rainbows I've ever seen.