It’s the silly season in Darlinghurst, but that’s no reason to just throw your shoes off in the street.

That stylish kicker was on Macleay Street, outside the Potts Point Fratelli Fresh. But it’s by no means the only pair in town. Cast off shoes are reaching epidemic proportions.

There’s another pair just around the corner on Llankelly Place. Just over to the left there, it’s a pair of suede heels.

A fancy night out gone wrong (or right?) – it could have been a Take It Home And See If It Works, but this has the feel of something much bigger.

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.

The Christmas tree in Fitzroy Gardens has borne fruit, well parsley.

It’s just common parsley – not the good Continental stuff – but when you’re short and the shops have closed, it’ll do at a pinch.

It reminds me of those weird planters the council put up at the intersection of Victoria and William Streets and Darlinghurst Road – they had strawberries, although none seemed to make it to fruiting. Still, I’m really into the concept of council decorations that are useful for the locals.

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.

It’s 2009. Happy new year!

We haven’t been exposing hoaxers or Indian IT firms. We have been busily eating great food and exploring the neighbourhood and generally kicking off the year with great friends.

The picture above is one of my favourite xmas cards this year. If my brother ever wants to give up music, he might have an alt career in bleakly existential stationery.