Yesterday we walked down Kirketon Road and came across an obviously dumped washing machine.

It reminded me of a time years ago, when I lived on Barcom Avenue, and my flatmate and I found a dryer on the street. We were so excited, we dragged it up the stairs and into our unit. We plugged it in, only to find out that, no, it did not work. So we dragged it back out onto the street.

I wished someone had just attached a note to the appliance, like they did to this TV I spotted today on Kings Cross Road.

“OUT OF ORDER.”

As school went back for term 4, Darlinghurst Public School announced their new, grassy playground on the message board at the south-western corner of the school.

Since then, each time I walk past, I gaze longingly down at the lush greenery, wishing I could walk on it barefoot.

This morning, it looked so glorious, and we wondered if it could really be real. It is just so green. Without going in the school gates, we got as close as we could, and it did seem to look decidedly non-plastic.

While we were pondering, a cleaner came out of one of the offices and proceeded to walk across said lawn. I called out to him, to get the facts.

It is plastic grass.

Looks lovely though.

Itching to crack the chalk alphabet code?

One of our readers, Fred, dropped the letter I into our inbox this week.

He came across it on Oswald Lane.

Come to think of it, I passed by “A is for Azimuth” on Friday, on Barcom Avenue, just near Oswald Lane, and I am sure there was another entry for “Z”, but not for “Zipper”.

Will have to go back and check it out. Perhaps it was done by the copycats.

We’ve been noticing this graffiti all over town.

Here’s the latest, scribbled on the wall of St Canice’s catholic church on Roslyn Gardens, near the corner of Roslyn Street.

UPDATE: Thanks to @alliejt’s keen eye, we’ve got another clue.

So now we’ve had:

A is for “azimuth”
C is for “cephlapod”
K is for “kibosh”
M is for “modulate”
N is for “nebulous”
Z is for “zipper”

Is it a riddle?

A strip of Oxford Street in Darlinghurst – on the way up to Paddington – renamed itself ‘Three Saints’ recently.

It actually happened in the second half of 2008. Businesses on the Oxford Street, South Dowling Street, Victoria Street and Barcom Avenue intersection started talking renaming, set up a website, and started jamming out some names.

• Fruit Bat Crossing
• Penguin Square

They settled on Three Saints, due to nearby St Vincents, St Sophia and Sacred Heart.

So they’ve got the branding down.

Top picture is the window of Ariel bookshop – and below, Ariel’s shopping bags.

Is this common, this renaming business?