So Urban Grind has a Facebook page, we have have nearly 100 fans too, which is cool. I have just been playing with the page and stumbled across some demographic stats which might be of interest. Was to me.
Monthly Archive for May, 2008
For a while now Urban Grind has had a Mobile Muster Box. It is great because you can not only throw in your old mobile phones to be recycled but you can also throw in all of those accessories you you never use.
I try to think of Urban Grind as a community hub which is why I requested one of these boxes. You can find them at places like Cartridge World but a lot of the places you find them are once in a while places. The places that every time you go in and see the box you smack yourself in the head for forgetting that old mobile phone again. But Urban Grind is different, most people are there day after day (God love em!) so it only takes a couple of forgetful moments before the phones start rolling in.
To help those who are extra forgetful, Urban Grind will see Mobile Musters tree and give you a free coffee for turning in your old mobile phone. If you want to learn more about Mobile Muster please read on.
Continue reading ‘Coffees for Mobile Phones’
I’m not!
But here is a really good article about what to expect. We live in a society that is built on oil and while it may or may not be running out we can all agree that the price is going up. We feel it at the petrol pump but do we understand yet the real costs. Costs which are predicted to effect the coffee industry too over the next couple of years. I have seriously started to the about what I might have to do to keep my coffee price down.
Wake Up, America. We’re driving toward Disaster.
Posted from my iPhone
I am talking about the awesome soundtrack from the perfect movie Once. It should be at your local DVD shop now. It’s a musical but don’t let that scare you. I struggle with musicals but Once is one of the best
films that I have ever seen.
So what is so environmentaly un-friendly about the sound track? It makes me want to drive my car more and alone so I can crank the volume up and sing my little heart out.
Lars and the Real Girl is a close second or is it first. I am so torn.
Recently I have started using www.scoodi.com to keep an eye out for things that people in my area might be wanting to give away or sell cheap. Scoodi sends me a daily update of new items but only within a 20km radius of my address. This means that someone on my street might be wanting to give something away that I need and I will find out. Maybe even meet some new people in my local area.
Rach and I plan to do a clean up soon, so you might find some of our stuff on there soon. The site is a nice idea and worth checking out. Takes no time to register, and being a part of it just means scanning a very quick email each day.
Since the New Farm Urban Grind opened up we have been saving the tips we get for a micro lending project called Kiva. Tonight I made our first $50(US) worth of loans to 2 different Entrepreneurs. The first $25 went to a women who supports her family by recharging batteries as a small business service to people in her Cambodian village. I think she needed more charging stations and the ability to pick up and return batteries to her clients. The second $25 went to a Clothing Sales shop owner in Tajikistan to help fund the more stock so as to grow her business so that she can put her daughter through university.
Our plan is to keep adding our tips to our Kiva fund and keep lending our funds out. The funds get returned to our kitty, then we are about to cycle them back into the Kiva community. Who knows but in time we could have up to a $1000 of your tips helping to change lives over and over again.
I should point out to that Urban Grind staff have always volunteered their tips to the causes that we might be supporting from time to time or should I say move accurately that they have never argued with me about it. At a guess over the years there has probably been about $2000 plus worth of tips that have been passed on the charities or for a while there used to buy extra green energy.
I encourage you to get your own Kiva.org account. Lending is very easy, and it feels good.
Did anyone read page 3 of last Saturday’s Courier Mail. Not something that I would normally recommend doing but due to the heads up that I was given I can recommend that you read it now. Here is a link to the article online: Drivers in line for fuel ration shock.
Without getting into a rant on this one I would just like to point out that we need to be seriously having this discussion. Government is often the last to catch on, and if they are finally convinced that things are really bad then it might just be too late. So lets learn a new word…Locavore:
Oxford Word of the Year
Locavore on Wikipedia
The Locavore in South Australia
www.locavores.com
Oh, why the new word? Well the way we consume food contributes in massive ways to our fuel consumption. Listen to this short talk for a very good overview of how it all works: Mark Bittman: What’s wrong with what we eat?
Just a quick note to let you know that during winter Urban Grind on Sundays will open from 9am till 2pm. Seems that the only reason I am all alone till 9am freezing my butt off is because no one else is willing to. Here’s to Sunday breakfast with the family.
It is probably about time that I officially mention that we have moved. Our shop in Paddington is now closed and we have reopened in New Farm at 530 Brunswick St. We greatly miss all of our Paddington friends and hope to cross paths with each of you eventually. It truly was our customers that made Urban Grind Paddington what it was. It has been a wonderful 3+ years of growing, learning and sharing that I know the whole Urban Grind team was sad to see end.
I would like to take the opportunity too to give an extra special shout out to Sophie. I know you all joked about it, but it’s true we would never have made it as far as we did had it not been for Sophie. We love her, we adore her. She stuck with us through everything and never for a moment gave anything less than more than she was asked. She was a friend not an employee and remains one of my best friends. Thank you Sophie… love love. She saw you all as friends too and I promise you that you meant more to her than you can ever imagine. For 3 and a half years you played a part in raising an nurturing this most beautiful soul. I could thank each and all of you for so many things but this one probably means the most to me. Thank you for being so much to Sophie.
So tell us a bit about New Farm. Technically I think it is actually Fortitude Valley, but we sit right on the border and there is New Farm sign outside. So we went with New Farm. We are actually on the corner of Harcourt St. It’s near Burger Urge, only about 4 or 5 blocks up from the mall. Still can’t place it? Ok, well I gave you a chance… do you know the dodgy Laundromat with the prostitutes? We are virtually next door. I can’t recommend the prostitutes but I can recommend the Burger Urge burgers. Fully wicked! I am addicted to the Portobello Mushrooms and grilled halumi cheese burger. But here are a couple of tips. The sweet potato chips are awesome but if there is only 2 of you get a burger to share if you are having chips too. Also for those that can’t eat a whole burger I believe that you can get all of their burgers without the bread. Colby is a really nice guy and until now it was a secret that I wanted a Cuddly Dora Doll.
What else? Well it is a lovely little building that we are in. They tell me that it is Tudor style. Anyway the best part about the building is our landlords. Clearly God felt really bad about the Paddington thing and thought she would cut us a break this time and send us a couple of landlords that are true gentlemen. These guys see our success and happiness as theirs. I am most grateful to them, for not only are they simply awesome to do business with, if they had not offered us this space there might not be an Urban Grind of any kind right now.
So in short, we look forward to a wonderfully fun future at New Farm. See you soon, I hope
Today started at 2:30am for me and my family. Today was World Pangea Day. Which is an event designed to bring the people of the world together by helping us to look at our similarities instead of our differences. Our local event was hosted by map magazine in their office in Newstead. We all started arriving from about 3am onwards for a 4am start. You see the idea was to get as many people as possible around the world watching the same world changing films at the same time. This meant a 4am start for Brisbane.
The show started right on time. It was a seamless effort and for me a very emotional experience that was very hard to pull away from. I was supposed to leave early but couldn’t. I now can’t wait for the next Pangea Day. I strongly urge you to visit the Pangea Day website where you can watch all of the films that were shown during the event and even reply the event which is well worth the 4 hours.
If you do find it inspiring then head to TED.com where it all started. TED is also a great way to keep the conversation going.
