There is a sign in Darling Harbour that really triggers me. It’s one of those big, block-letter artistic installations that you often see at airports, and the idea is for tourists (or locals) to pose next to it and take a photo which they share on social media.

This one, surrounded by restaurants, is at Cockle Bay Wharf on the eastern side of the harbour and says: #LOVECBW. One admires the intent, but #LOVECBW is not going to happen. Stop trying to make it happen. [The hashtag has generated 416 Instagram posts, which is not bad, I suppose.]

How annoying! #LOVECBW is not going to happen. Stop trying to make it happen.Credit:

I think the sign annoys me so much because it’s trying to spruik a tiny segment of the city when we would be much better off plonking down a sign that says #LOVESYD or preferably just #SYDNEY. People identify with Sydney, not Cockle Bay, but everyone wants to boost their own little agenda.

It’s a minor gripe, I know. I’m full of them. Staying in Darling Harbour, someone in government has decided we need rangers patrolling the Pyrmont Bridge, at peak times at least, to make sure we can all walk across a bridge safely. I feel sorry for them.

It’s the same nanny state proclivity that clutters up our city with metal gates during events such as Vivid Sydney. I’m no crowd management expert – lord knows we’ve probably paid cottage industry consultants to come up with all this stuff – but it seems to me that funnelling crowds into narrow lines is entirely unnecessary and counterproductive. People will figure it out! Just trust them.

But this is NSW, which famously does not trust its citizens with anything. The government is currently touting an e-scooter “trial” in Wollongong. Embattled Transport Minister Jo Haylen described the scooters as “an exciting new and sustainable way to get out and explore” the city.

A new way to get around in NSW? Brisbane’s had e-scooters for five years.Credit: Scott McNaughton

An exciting new way? Brisbane has had them for five years! They’re in every other state capital. What does the NSW government think Wollongong is going to discover about these things that Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart don’t already know?

Which brings me to my latest irrational obsession: the endless stream of safety and etiquette announcements on Sydney trains and stations. We’re all used to “stand behind the yellow line”, but these condescending warnings seem more frequent than ever, and they’re now mutating into new reprimands about manners and bad behaviour.