The guys at Concrete Playground asked us to dream up a perfect Darlinghurst Nights weekend, so we obliged – but thought we’d better cross-post here for you.

Spring has sprung: the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and mating right outside your office window when you’re trying to concentrate on a spreadsheet. It’s time to fling off the knitwear and thermals and explore Sydney in the sun. Concrete Playground has collaborated with some of Sydney’s favourite bloggers to bring you the best picks of what our city has to offer in music, art, food, film and fashion this spring, as they describe their ideal spring weekend in Sydney.

This is Sydney By The Blog: Spring Fever.

Part Four: Matt and Polly from Darlinghurst Nights

Weekends are like gold for us. Wedged in busy weeks, we savour every free moment we get. We’re up at six on Saturday morning, and by seven we’re at Fratelli Paradiso on Challis Avenue, Potts Point, for sheep’s-milk yoghurt and granola. And coffee.

Then it’s up to the Sydney Sustainable Markets at Taylor Square to get apples, delicious East Sydney honey, and picnic goods. We have great plans of going to the pool, but actually wind up walking around the neighbourhood. Taking photos as we go. We might do some shopping at the brilliant One of a Kind on Darley Street or Blue Spinach down on the corner of Liverpool and Womerah Avenue.

We might stop and see new work by Matthys Gerber at Sarah Cottier Gallery, Matt Glenn’s show at James Dorahy, and the brilliant Turkish artist Ahmet Ögüt at Artspace – he took us on a very funny running lecture around Woolloomooloo and Darlinghurst last week.

By then, we’re shopped and gallery-ed out. Taking the papers and picnic goods we head to Beare Park, on the water at Elizabeth Bay. If we get through the papers, we have books: Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, and Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This is where we’re likely to spend most of the afternoon. Lazing, hopefully in the sun.

We’re dying to see Trevor Jamieson in Namatjira, across town to Surry Hills. The play doesn’t start until eight, so we stop at our favourite Frenchie, Tabou. The cote de boeuf is spectacular – it has to be shared. After a cup of Mariage Fréres tea, we’re off to the Belvoir Street Theatre for Big Hart’s take on the Arrernte country artist’s life. Can’t wait.

You need a debrief after a play. So throwing around ideas, we walk briskly back to Tastevin, another favourite French restaurant, on Victoria Street, Darlinghurst. The food is perfect here, but we’re after a nightcap – and cheese and muscatels.

Sunday morning, we wake up bright and early, strap on running shoes and head out. We drop a couple of DVDs at Darlinghurst’s answer to Empire Records – Darlo DVD – and run down to Rushcutters Bay park. After working up a sweat, we go to Sel et Poivre on Victoria Street, Darlinghurst – of course – it’s a local favourite, and although the duck rilettes and country pate baguettes are staples, we’re there first thing. For $7.50, the special – bacon and egg baguette and coffee – is hard to beat.

Reading papers and magazines, breakfast turns into lunch, and pretty soon we’re walking the neighbourhood again, looking for interesting sights for the blog. You never know where you’ll find them. So we try to walk different streets and lanes every time, eyes peeled.

As the afternoon winds on, we stop for a boost at Gelato Messina on Victoria Street. We always try the new flavours, and although the Muum Maam (Thai green curry) is interesting, we’re not taken. Liquorice is a favourite, but it’s rarely available. Instead we opt for Number Two (peanut butter, caramel and chocolate fudge) and the Salted Caramel and White Choc-Chip – with an espresso – and sit on the footpath to do some people watching.

On the way home, we pick up a bottle of Montenegro from ABC Cellars on the corner of Farrell Avenue and Darlinghurst Road. Every week, we get a box of fresh produce from farms within five hours of Sydney from Food Connect (we pick it up at East Sydney Neighbourhood Association on Wednesdays) – and this week, we got Warrigal greens, kale, beetroot, watercress and coriander. Lining up a couple of records by John Fahey and Seaworthy, we set about finding a recipe that works. There’s not one, so Polly improvises and throws together a soup of kale, Warrigal greens, stock, egg and parmesan.

It’s hard to believe the weekend’s over. It’s Sunday night, we’re racing into summer – but after a dream weekend like this, we feel completely ready for the week.

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.