With all the footage of the town hall protest attacks on protestors coming to light - new and old!

I can’t walk past cops or town hall and not imagine what went down that day

as well as the blatant revenue raising, illegal strip searching, internal corruption (see friendlyjordies counter terrorism unit assaults and harrasments + botched firebombing investigation) plus all the other piles of historic failures of NSWPOL

It’s really becoming quite obvious to the average Joe that NSW Police are NOT here to serve the common man.

They are the unchecked arm of violence of the rich and connected to keep us broken, down and controlled.

When’s the last time a cop genuinely and actually helped you when you experienced assault, domestic violence, theft or stalking? They just make a note of it and you never hear from them again. They take years to arrest murderers and let off violent criminals on bail like it’s going out of style.

But don’t you worry - they’ll immediately come to the rescue of the cunce of society - they give a free pass to protests involving cookers, anti vax, one nation, anti migration and nazi’s and cover up the crimes of their mates in power, be it pedo’s, organised crime and the oligarchs. You won’t see any beat downs or riot charges at children or old people there!

but god forbid you protest against Zionists, Israeli war criminals and genocide? Think of the social cohesion!

Honestly if you’re a nsw cop with a conscious you should just resign and find an alternative source of income. Good on you for trying but If you really want to help people become a social worker, lawyer, nurse or doctor. There’s too many bad apples and I think as a society we need to rethink what law endorsement looks like and how it functions in Australia.

If you ask me the whole law enforcement system needs to be torn down and rebuilt with community protection first and foremost, not protection of oligarchs, genociders and fringe right wing political movements using unchecked violence and aggression.

Id start a petition but I don’t quite know how

Is anybody else with me on this?

Commenters are saying the solution is to vote green, can’t help but agree, the two party system needs to go

I can’t figure out what the queueing etiquette is at Sydney bus stops. Where is the first person supposed to stand? Do people just stand randomly? I try and queue but then people go and push in or start a new queue on the other side of the bus stop and start standing in random places and then when the bus comes they all storm to the door.
Is my bus stop a bad example is this the norm in Sydney?

Where do you stand if you’re first to the stop?

Red Person - by the bus stop sign

Orange Person - behind the ad

Yellow Person - in front of the ad

Pink Person - sitting on the bench (but leaving a big gap)

Green Person - in the ‘doorway’ blocking the path

Blue Person - closest to the direction of the bus

https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system/files/media/documents/2026/illawarra-shoalhaven-sritp-20260813.pdf

Currently having FOMO on missing out on the Messina drop of Bertha cakes, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions on where else to find a similarly textured cake. (Supermarket reccs most welcome)

Photo added for context: it’s a firmer type of chocolate cake.

For those who’ve tried the Bertha, would love to know if it was worth the hype!

Keen to sense check I'm not the one being unreasonable here

A local cafe in my area charges a 10% weekend surcharge.

Partner went in to buy a 1kg of coffee beans... And they applied the surcharge to that purchase.

Is that fair?

I didn't think so. I think the surcharge should be there for prepared coffees and food only - not jamming customers and extra $5-6 because they bought a bag of beans on Saturday instead of Friday.

To make matters worse - when my partner asked them how much - they quoted the price without surcharge and she only realised she paid more when the notification popped up on her phone.

They then stared her down and said "well of course there's a weekend surcharge"

I don't think it's up for debate that second part is totally wrong.

I was wondering if somebody could point me in the direction of quality adult swimming lessons? I learnt as a kid but haven’t swam for decades and feel myself sinking when I swim laps and don’t feel safe swimming in the beach.

I tried some lessons at an inner west pool but was unimpressed by young instructors who either did not show up or were not attentive.

11 :30 am on a Wednesday, 11 Aug 21. I half miss it

I know that the Mean Fiddler at Rouse Hill had this long long ago, and also the West Ryde Hotel.

I have been away from Sydney for 7 years and want to go to one while I'm there next month.

Any suggestions, can be anywhere in the greater Sydney area.

Thanks

I went on the sunday, which was the last day. Actually I heard last week the blossoms weren't blooming but I had prior arrangements so I missed it.

So this was actually my first time (despite only living two suburbs away from auburn). I've only ever went to the area to grab charcoal chicken with coworkers for a work thing.

Anyways, so some thoughts:

Entry is 16 bucks for adults. I'd say its fair. I go to conventions and this is much cheaper though understandably theres much less going on.

The Main Events:

1. Cherry Blossom trail: So this is a small walk around the park and the park itself is quite nice. The pond in the middle does add to the scenery and you basically do a loop around, ending in the zen garden. The zen garden itself is quite small and didn't have much markings in the sand like others I've seen. The walk itself was quite nice but to be real, the blossoms weren't crazy wowing. Like the blooms were decent in some areas where as kinda few in others. Not a disappointment at all but also yeah don't expect to drown in them. Now, it was very crowded and lots of people were taking pictures. I think redditors can get a but cynical in this regard. Lots of ppl were taking family pictures and a few couples were using polaroids. You absolutely won't be seeing those pics on some page for 'content' - this was clearly for personal memories. People were also generally pretty polite - was a real nice vibe. Like people were giving way to ppl taking pics and naturally lining up/waiting for their turn. If I had to complain, short ppl are gonna have it rough as most blooming trees were tall-ish. Now it was crowded but not jam packed.

2. Festival Stalls: A slight disappointment. Long lines and nothing too interesting. The non-food stalls were filled with mostly knick-knacks and trinkets which weren't too interesting. Like maybe for kids? I was hoping for interesting themed trinkets but they were similar to the stuff you see in cbd night stalls. Just kinda random uninteresting stuff. Now the food stalls were kinda mid. You had staples like yakisoba, onigiri, karaage chicken and despite the prices being similar, they were kinda all over the place. For 18 dollars, I got a small cup of kinda bland karaage chicken without sauce or mayo. Very overpriced. For a few dollars more, from the stall right next to it, my friend got a huge box of yakisoba noodles, minced meat, egg and lettuce with generous sauce. Even on its own that would be a bargain and yet this is supposedly festival prices. On the one hand you got 14 dollar 'long chips' (which is just chips tbh) but then you could also get pretty tasty skewers. As for the drinks? Around 10 dollars. Which...honestly is about the price of similar drinks in bubble tea places when getting a large. Here, the sizes would be closer to regulars. The matcha drink was apparently yummy. I got the cherry blossom soda which...honestly didn't taste like anything LOL. Lightly flavoured soda water with jelly bits. I will add the desserts were quite good and strangely pretty cheap. The mochi balls were 4.50 bucks for 2x skewers and the sweets with brown sugar were cheap and tasty. There was a stall that had very pretty looking mouse cakes but I found them quite pricey. I get it though, they would have been a lot of effort to make since they made them look visually nice as well. I will say, the lamington stall was the only stall that was consistently empty when I went. Kinda sad - do ppl in auburn not like lamingtons? lol. Then again, it was thematically a bit out of place.

There were however, way wayyy too many ppl for the amount of proper seating. Everyone ended up sitting around the pond on the rocks and ate there. The ppl who brought picnic blankets were the real winners. Lots of ground spots and it was a lovely day for a picnic. Through out it all, I want to say the staff were all very nice and friendly. This might sound like a given but not always. I've been to other events where staff kinda half ass it. But yeah, it was crowded but the vibes were good. Also lots of bins. I work in cbd. I know the terrors of 'not enough bins' during weeknights as people will start putting rubbish on the ground or making mountains out of the bins.

Minor events:

1. Takumi pavillion - basically an area for origami? I didn't go.

2. The nature walk - a small loop on the opposite side of the cherry blossom trail. Saw a wombat, kangaroo, wallaby, peacock and some fat birds.

3. The Main Stage - arguably a major event but I generally just walked past it. They played music and had events depending on the time but yeah I wasn't too keen. Also 100% they played anime songs LOL.

Overall? Quite a nice day out. Parking is horrendous (this was weekend). I had to drive like two streets away for curb side parking. The normal parking of the park is blocked off (despite what the webite says - I think it got reserved for staff). There was another parking lot nearby but I was unfamiliar with the area and saw a sign saying it was for tennis users.

Bluntly speaking, its maybe just a few hours of fun. You don't need the entire 9-5 to enjoy, just 4 hours is enough (including eating). But yeah I didn't regret going and it was just a nice day out. Sure beats staying home, turning on the vpn and watching shameful content on the hub.

Recent reforms supporting foster carers include:

• a 20 per cent increase to the Care Allowance – the largest increase in the payment’s history

• enhanced independent information and advice delivered by Carers for Kids

• more than doubling the immediate emergency crisis payment to $200 per child

As part of the Strategy, every out-of-home care provider will develop and publish a specific Carer Support Action Plan. The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) has published its plan for the next two years, with 45 detailed actions including a boost to carer training and choice.

Parody, in case you have not yet encountered a betoota Advocate pisstake article.