This belt was cast aside on Darlinghurst Road, just down from Kings Cross station, this morning.

It started life as a tweet. But @poisontofu thought it was a Take It Home And See If It Works, and we couldn’t help but agree.

Too bad the tip of the belt had been torn away – we noticed it a little further up the street.

We love the staff at our local DVD store – Darlo DVD – and were amused to see a sign expressing their gratitude at discs being returned.

Okay, I admit the first time it was pointed out to me, I just thought it was a picture of Tom Hanks, saying thanks for returning the DVD. I thought, “That’s nice.”

But no, it is genius.

Did you see the bright lights in Potts Point and Kings Cross over the past few months?

It was the tail end of a sustainable lighting trial by the council – they swapped 200 street lights to LEDs in Circular Quay, Martin Place, Alexandria Park, and on Darlinghurst Road between Bayswater Road and Macleay Street, plus another 50 street lights at Bourke Street, Surry Hills, with Energy Australia.

Energy savings of 30-40 per cent have been touted, which is a big deal considering the council reports spending a third of its electricity on street/public lighting. No results yet, but the council plans to install the energy efficient lights in all 8500 of its street and public domain lights over the next three years.

Tom’s generally outside the newsagent at Kings Cross, right next door to the train station on Darlinghurst Road, and he’s always wearing a sloppy joe like this one.

His fleecy-lined jumper is embroidered to say: “I did it with Kylie.”

He loved having someone take his picture, and turned around for me to get a clear shot of his back.

He smirked as I looked around, “But I can’t remember which one.” Admittedly, his other shirts are a bit more direct. My favourite: “I did it with Sandra Sully.”

The crossroads where Darlinghurst Road meets Victoria and William streets is busy, and there’s no shortage of bright lights. But this weekend, a phone company started projecting ads on the Top Of The Town building, right there, at the intersection.

They’ve borrowed the idea from progressive graffitiists, but I’m not sure. It colonises more of the fabric of this part of town, and the ad was pretty weak. But it’s a fairly non-invasive advertising – it’s there on Saturday night and then it’s gone – and when it comes down to it, I like the neon brightness of Tokyo (or Kings Cross).

Walking through Darlinghurst this week, I spotted a chalked message. Something’s happened, and something’s changed. Someone’s trying to claw their way back.

This one was outside the Darlo Bar at the corner of Darlinghurst Road and Liverpool Street.

While on Burton Street, the chalked up ‘Miss You’ appeared on the wall. This one, below, was further up Liverpool Street at the corner of Darley.

Someone’s feeling the autumnal mood. Hope it works out.

So it seems our good old friend Porky’s is no more.

We walked past today, only to discover it is now known as ‘Seventy Seven.’ This was apparently the original name of the club when it opened in 1988.

I thought it lost a lot of its appeal when the Eurasian chick with the enormous boobs stopped encouraging the passing trade to enter inside.

I really do miss the sight of her.

Discarded shoes keep showing up across the neighbourhood.

These two pairs of heels, one a sort of fawn boot, and the other a bit more sensible, appeared on Bourke Street, Woolloomooloo, down near Harmer Street.

Just as I was beginning to really wonder what was going on, I hit the motherlode.

The silly season seemed quieter this year. The fireworks weren’t quite so explosive, not quite as much rubbish on Darlinghurst Road the next morning, and so on. But maybe that was just here. Maybe the kick-off-the-shoes urge was greater elsewhere.

Tiger Woods was one of the most tightly branded (and bland) public personalities anywhere. So with the unfolding story of 10 or more regular ladies on the side, it’s not too hard to imagine him rocking up at Kings Cross bar Porky’s on his last trip.

Every year around this time, Porky’s gets dolled up in tinsel, Christmas trees and Santas, and truckloads of lights.

A sign above the bar’s Darlinghurst Road front door gets used for ad hoc messages, kind of like a heathen take on the St Barnabas on Broadway. In June, they used it to point NRL players elsewhere. This week, they’re claiming Tiger as a recent guest.

Christmas dollars make as much sense to Darlinghurst shops as anywhere else. But there’s a different vibe here. So when decorations go up, they’re generally on a different tip.

A dishevelled looking Santa Claus appeared hanging from the roof outside the Darlo Bar on Darlinghurst Road this week. There’s a moulded plastic Santa in the window at hip second hand shop Blue Spinach. And at the cafe named for its location at the corner of Forbes and Burton Streets, a very rock’n'roll Santa Claus is tearing across the outside wall, propelled by a giant shark.

It’s well into the Christmas drinks season in the neighbourhood, so the streets are permeated with a generally relaxed vibe. Which is great, unless you’re still hard at work, of course.