Of course the main reason we live in Sydney is the beaches, which remain largely somewhat accessible to the general population if they've got a full day off in summer (most of which will either be spent on public transport or looking for a parking spot).

And the best beach in Sydney is... Freshwater. Why? A number of reasons. One is the lack of tourists, which makes it feel like a locals haven tucked away out of the city. The second is that unlike Mount Druitt, this Sydney name is actually somewhat accurate: the water is generally clean and fresh, with half-decent waves.

And the final reason is the Harbord Milk Bar, just up the street, which has the best thickshakes in the world. The best way to end a long day of sunburn, dumpings and sand up your nose, is a Harbord thickshake made from almost a whole tub of ice cream.

The Harbord Milk Bar is at 30 Lawrence St, Harbord across the street from the Vintage cellars. Get the wife to make it if you can, only she uses New Zealand's annual dairy worth in Ice Cream.

Sydney's trashbag heart oozes... well ooze early in the morning. It reminds me of how dodgy King's Cross used to be.

Ever been in Taylor's Square at 6am on a Saturday morning, and been sober? To say it's a view of humanity at its most depraved is being overly generous. You could shoot a sequel to The Killing Fields here on some overcast mornings. There's fights, injuries, drugged out ravers, drugged out gay people, young professionals up early having coffee and people jogging to work. It's Sydney's melting pot at boiling point, and considering how dangerous it's meant to be, you actually feel surprisingly safe. Maybe it's ambulances hanging around for people to hurt themselves, I'm not sure.

The City of Sydney council is looking to renovate the Square, which would be about the fourth time since just before the Olympics. Personally, I like it just the way it is now: the fountain seems to wash away a lot of the vomit and vomit smells.

Congregating around the more affluent suburbs of Balmain and the Lower North Shore, Sydney's Yummy Mummys are recognised by their designer maternity wear, their industrial strength strollers that cost more than most second-hand cars, and the fact they aren't at work during the day.

Are these the model wives of multi-millionaire bankers and stock brokers? Or just the model wives of millionaire lawyers and solicitors? We'll never know.

And if you work in a cafe, they'll order a coffee in a way you've never imagined possible before: with half the milk soy and luke warm, half cold skim and the coffee half decaf, with the foam not too thick.

One image sums up Norton Street in my mind: a young man doing tearing up the block doing a wheelie on a Vespa Scooter. Say no more.

Lygon Street's poorer little brother, this was originally Sydney's home of cafe culture and Italian food, but has in recent years become a poor imitation of its former self. It's crowded, overpriced, and with the arrival of the Forum, a fake imitation. Yes, Norton Street is very Sydney indeed.

To be a teenager in Sydney in the 1990s was to be a fan of You Am I. To not be, was heresy and inexcusable.

You Am I is Sydney.

They sing songs about the Town Hall Steps, drinking beer, taking girls home and the Glebe Island Bridge. Without them, Sydney club night institution Purple Sneakers would be nameless, as would new band Dead Letter Chorus. To see them on a good night is to be reminded why Rock and Roll will never die. They tried to break in America and failed, but inspired fly by night bands like The Vines and Jet who did it for them. They opened for Nirvana!!

They mix punk, grunge and country into a timeless mix, as old school as Sydney's old sandstone buildings.

We love Chinatown. Where else can you get a 500 gig hard drive for the cost of train ticket AND hepatitis A - all on your lunch break?!?!

Sydney is home to Australia's largest Chinatown (Melbourne''s is a laughable back alley by all accounts), and is home various food courts, Asian bakeries, restaurants, massage facilities, pubs with gaming rooms, sushi bars, Falun Gong information tables and weird shops which sell either kids toys, electronics or phones (we're not exactly sure).

Amongst other things Chinatown first gave Sydney includes bubble tea, gambling (originally illegally) and 2am BBQ Pork (should be illegal).

Located near such Leftie workplaces as The ABC, the ALP head branch, various unions and Central Railways, Chinatown becomes a lunchtime hub for well-paid, white anglo Communists who think of themselves as multiculturally aware and very tolerant, You'll see them scoffing combination Laksa, bubble tea and cheap computer accessories in the noon-day sun, all the while in real life they would never think of living outside their very white and very safe suburbs of Pyrmont, Balmain, Potts Point and Roseville.

When loud obnoxious rock bands play the Entertainment Centre (I'm talking about you Deep Purple), the only true cross-pollination of Sydney's disparate racial groups takes place, as drunk bogans from the burbs descend on Chi-town, can't believe there's no parking, drunkenly order "fried lice" and then get booked for drink driving on the way home. Ah, karma, you must be Chinese too.

11 months of the year, drinking in Hyde Park or dancing in the fountain at 4am could get you arrested. For one month of the year, a classy big wooden tent rocks up in Sydney, and you feel like you're drinking in a 19th century Parisian cabaret lounge - and all is acceptable.

The Spiegeltent is a heritage-listed, world-class performance art and music venue, an antique tent made of ornate wood and mirrors, programmed with exciting and cutting-edge performance arts and music events. To the shock of all of us, Sydneysiders emerge from the darkened pubs of Newtown and the Rocks in sold-out numbers.

The Spiegelten comes from some foreign country - who cares which one, it doesn't matter, we all know it belongs in Sydney and should stay here.

We plonk it down in the middle of Hyde Park for the duration of the Sydney festival, and it's like it never left. Programmed with 3-4 shows every night, including a (shock horror) very late and unSydney-like midnight jazz/latin/funk gig. And in a true sign of egalatarianism, Hollywood royalty is forced to sit down with the plebs in the round (Keith and Nicole distracted me - and no, it wasn't a media launch or celebrity preview, it was just a regular Thursday night session.) Even current American TV darling Rose Byrne had to queue up like the rest of us. And if you can't afford tickets to a show, you're welcome sit out in the balmy Sydney summer night and have a $7 beer in the multinational-company branded garden and overhear the excited crowds inside.

So this leads us to ask, why doesn't Sydney just build a spiegeltent and have world class acts in it all year round? Because in typical Sydney style, it would be a ridiculously overpriced public-private partnership, be built of stainless steel and be fourteen stories high.

Above: Sydney crunk/jazz/gypsy group Waiting For Guinness rock the Spiegeltent to a packed crowd on Australia Day this year.

We love Sydney buses. If you ever need to get to Bondi Beach or travel down Parramatta Road and you're a poor ass and don't own a car, then chances are you've traveled by a Sydney bus. In fact you can travel anywhere you need to get to, so long as it's on the lower North shore, Eastern suburbs or Inner West. These areas are extremely well serviced by buses due to the lack of other transport infrastructure and low income in these areas. But please note, travelling between these places, like from say Bondi to Newtown, is ill-advised as it will probably involve going through the city, changing buses and walking, all of which is scary at night.

Bus tickets can be bought on board from a grumpy dwarf known as the driver, or you can pre-buy tickets known as "Traveltens" or "Travelpases" which are dipped in the green ticket readers on board. On mass, these tickets cost more than similar quantities of street drugs, and are often harded to obtain on Sydney streets at night.

Some people say Sydney buses are over-priced and over-crowded. Well move to friggin Kempsey or Canberra then, those buses are plenty empty, you just can't get home at say, 3am on a Saturday morning like you can in Sin City.

The reason I Sydney buses comes in at number one on our list of things to love about Sydney is their speed and efficiency. On Tuesday I saw a woman lying unconcious in the middle of the Parramatta Road bus lane the other day, hit by the L38 - which proves it really is an express. It doesn't even stop if a pedestrian jumps in front of it! Don't believe me? Well a recent rumour has both the Butcher of Bega and Bundaberg's Doctor Death applying to be Sydney bus drivers, to quench their thirst for strangers blood.

Related Upcoming topics: The Nightride, the 370 "round the world" all stops and Sydney trains.