DARLO

Image credit: www.mydarlingdarlinghurst.blogspot.com

Once Paddo comes to its natural end in the pop-up world, bams & ted will be moving into the Stables Theatre in Darlinghurst to take on Jane Bodie's play, This Year's Ashes. It will be a whole new adventure for bams & ted... night time opening hours, theatre crowd, Darlo town, cricket and the big challenge? Curating a collection around the oh-so-not vintage period of Next Year's Ashes. That's not to say we are not up for it, we will try anything once!

I lived in Darlinghurst from 2001-2004. I was all of 21. We lived in a 6 bedroom, rambling 3 storey terrace on Surrey St. I wrote this a few years back:

The last time I knew this sort of community feeling was all those years ago when we all shacked up in Darlo - commonly referred to as The Glory Years or The Good Old Days. The days when we all smoked so we had a reason to go to the convenience store everyday. We also had 7 in the house so a daily run to the store for bread and milk was needed. None of us seemed to work either so to keep our brain cells a ticking we would also include the Sydney Morning Herald in our daily pilgrimage. So we knew Simon at the Victoria Superette very well. So well in fact we would often have beers with him at The Green Park. Where we also knew all the staff. A result which also stemmed from a daily pilgrimage of sorts.

Darlo, huh? It kinda took my heart.

The junkies who used to scale our back fence, who slid in through the bathroom slot of a window, who to turned backs nicked in the door and pocketed wallets to escapee yodels of you scoundrel!

We dined at The New York Restaurant. We spent late nights at Barons. We played pool at The Green Park or perched ourselves high at that grand, old circular bar when you could still ash beside your $3 beer. And early light 389 bus trips to Bondi to cleanse the grit and grim away with salt.

Nostalgia, that meddling dame. A time now dead and now gone. We grieve for you. We don't necessarily want you back, but we thank God you were here.

All my greatest friends are from that period of my life. Blame Darlinghurst.