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 mirror ball was nestled amongst an assortment of odds and ends at the corner of Clapton Lane and Farrell Avenue, Darlinghurst.

An old blue mac desktop, a few shelves, files and a mirror ball hidden away at the end – someone’s moving up to bigger and better things, though maybe less dancing.

The mirror ball wasn’t there long. We took the photo and a few hours later it was gone.

A bright pink fridge shouting PARTY appeared on Farrell Avenue, Darlinghurst, recently.

In these environmentally aware times, it’s no surprise to see the pink party fridge cast off in the street. But don’t they know the state government offers a $35 buyback for old fridges?

An activist/street artist called the Invisible Man has left small plaques on walls and telegraph poles around inner city Sydney, particularly Surry Hills and Darlinghurst. But recently, the Invisible Man’s branched out.

At this spot on Premier Lane, Darlinghurst, and on a few other walls around town, the Invisible Man’s appeared as a copycat of This Is For That‘s alphabaffiti.

We’ve had people searching the blog for various combinations of ‘Darlinghurst’, ‘Sydney’ and ‘invisible’ or ‘invisible man’ every day for the past month or so. And at least one report, in the comments, of hand delivered material from Invisible Man.

Then one of our readers, Steve, noted this plaque on the corner of Farrell Avenue and Kirketon Road, Darlinghurst.

Hard to see, I only caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye. It’s stuck to the curb that forms the garden bed on the little traffic island at the intersection of Farrell Avenue and Kirketon Road.

This one is for Lisa Marie Smith and references something happening with her in Bangkok in ’96 – and on a side note, asks to ‘FREI BOGAN SCHAPELLE CORBY’.

It’s also got what looks like a giant spliff on it.

And then this…

Walking down to Cafe Hernandez on a recent morning, we noticed this artwork on a shelf, dated 2007 – clearly by the same artist – Damien Jones.

And the result was there for all to see on a driveway on Farrell Avenue, Darlinghurst, this morning.

1 line = not pregnant.

Someone, somewhere, breathes a sigh of relief.

Or of disappointment.

Switching off is tough in this always-on world, but a local on Farrell Avenue, Darlinghurst, has reached out a helping hand.

It’s an instant relaxation kit: couch, ugg boots, a couple of pairs of around the house jeans, and a TV.

It’s been a while since we saw something worthy of taking it home and seeing if it works, but if you’re near the Palisades apartment complex, at the corner of Rosebank Street, we think you’ll agree.

People might say Kings Cross is where the dregs of society wind up, and they’re probably right, but not necessarily exactly right.

It’s hard to miss the skerricks of booze when you’re walking through the neighbourhood, especially early on the weekend.

Maybe they’re one for the road, the straw that broke the camel’s back. Surplus to requirements, a little too much.

Occasionally you see a guy pick one up, test the weight of the thing, then take a swig.

A couple of months ago, we passed this pre-loved wooden tricycle near the corner of Rosebank Street and Farrell Avenue, Darlinghurst.

Today I spied it with the garbage bins a hundred metres down the road, outside no. 2 Farrell Avenue.

My guess is somebody took it home, but it didn’t work.

A new Japanese place, Harumi, has just opened up on Darlinghurst Road. We dined there on the weekend, and it is pretty good, although what I really crave is a local ramen house. Harumi occupies a space which has seemed doomed in the past couple of years. It was recently vacated by Pasion cafe. Before this, it was a burger joint and further back, a fish and chips place. Let’s hope Harumi can make this work.

In other exciting (and optimistic) news, a second Japanese restaurant, Sushi Yachiyo, is set to open on the haunted corner of Kirketon Road and Craigend Street.

Weirdly, the menu and prices all look pretty similar to that of Harumi.

RAMEN PEOPLE! WHAT WE WANT IS RAMEN!

Swastikas with the words, “We’ll be back,” have been chalked at the corner of Bourke Street and Liverpool Street, at the corner of Farrell Avenue and Kirketon Place, and at Forbes Street and Liverpool Street.

These shots were taken by one of our readers. The bottle shop on Farrell Avenue and Darlinghurst Road is reportedly checking its CCTV for clues.