The hundreds of choices we make each day impact the environment. Sometimes it’s a big decision… sometimes it’s as small as changing your toothbrush.

The plastic in tooth brushes has bothered me for a long time. When I used to rock climb we would reuse our toothbrushes to clean the holds but after that it still had to be thrown away. It doesn’t seem like much plastic but think of how many you might have personally thrown away in your own life the multiply that by everyone on the planet that is using a plastic toothbrush right now.

Made from bamboo and designed in Brisbane by a dentist. And as far as I can tell they are really good value. Read more on their website: The Environmental Toothbrush

Our family volunteered last Sunday at our very first Permablitz and it was amazing. If you have never heard of Permablitz check out: blitzbrisbane.org. I think nearly 100 people turned up to volunteer their time to help build gardens for the school children of Seven Hills state school. At a guess more than half of them were not parents from the school, they were just passionate permaculturists that desire to see as many people as possible growing their own food.

In simplest terms, once you volunteer at 3 Permablitz events you are then eligible for the the Permablitz team to come out to your house and build your professionally designed garden. It was amazing to see how many people just turned up with all their tools and got busy.

So if you have been talking about having a vege garden one day but didn’t know where to start then consider signing up to volunteer at a Permablitz or 3. You get to learn as you go and eventually you get your own garden. And it’s seriously great, family friendly, feel good fun.

So we opened on Tuesday and the response over the first two days has been amazing. A really lovely experience. So many of our wonderful customers from the last Paddington shop have been in to visit us that it’s as though we only shut last week and simply re-opened this week in a new spot. When in fact it will be 3 years in April since we left Paddington.

Having to shut up shop and leave 3 years ago was really hard on us. Urban Grind was surrounded by a wonderful community of people, and it was a really crap thing to have to take Urban Grind away from them. But for us that community was a really big part of our lives too and we were so lost for months without it. We knew in our hearts that eventually we would return and it feels so good to have come full circle now.

So what’s new? In many ways, it’s the same old Urban Grind. We have tried to preserve all the things we think people loved about Urban Grind but we were ready to evolve too. Firstly, we think we have great landlords and we look forward to a wonderful and long relationship with them. They have been great and most helpful in bringing us back to Paddington. My wonderful partner Rachel helped a lot with the design of this shop which is why it looks just a little bit fancy. It would not have happened without her hard work. We are opening a little earlier. 6:30am Monday – Saturday (Sunday’s from 8am). We are doing more food… everyone seems very excited about the Avocado on Toast which does taste great. We also have some alternative brewing methods on offer like the Cold Drip and the Coffee Syphon.

The photos of the shop are by our great friend Adam Sebastian West. He is also responsible for the framed photos hanging on the walls. They look so good in their own right but they also just really finish off the space. Adz was a big help and we are honoured to have him as our first artist to hang in the new shop.

Big thanks to Carl, Jac, Ben, Rhys, Oscar, Di Bella Coffee, Mekalie and everyone else involved. And most of all thank you to the beautiful Rachel, we make a great team and Urban Grind wouldn’t be as good as it is without you. I love you.

A lot of love went into this space. I hope you love it too.

So we have been working on a little side project Rach and I, as we nurture our hopes and dreams of reopening Urban Grind one day.

It all started when we realised that we had a virtual cafe under the house and we could just plug the coffee machine in, put stools down the driveway and invite our family, friends and the old Urban Grinders that we knew how to get in contact with. Due to a great suggestion by a friend of ours Yen, we invited the neighbours in our street too. It was also Yen that suggested we take it on the road. Suburban Grind seemed like a perfect name. Called some friends and managed to get support from my Di Bella Coffee, Barambah Organics, Total Generators and map magazine and in no time we were serving free cafe style coffee in another good friends sisters garage.

Want to know more? Want to have Suburban Grind come to your house? Check out the website generously designed by this young fellow.

A big thanks to everyone that has helped us get it this far.

Surprise! by Improv Everywhere. Well worth the read.

So as you might be aware by now Urban Grind New Farm closed it’s doors at the end of 2009 and will not be re-opening at the beggining of 2010. It’s time for a break and a regrouping. In simple terms this is not the end of Urban Grind. It is going to take us a little while to regroup but we are working on our return and will be back better than ever.

I have learnt a lot from my mistakes over the years and along the way I have discovered other directions in which I want to take Urban Grind. I can’t wait to re-open Urban Grind and show you what I am talking about. In the meantime I will keep this website/blog going. I will also be working at the Di Bella Factory which is going to be great. Obviously I love Di Bella coffee as I have been serving it for about 8 years now. I also have a good friendship and a great respect for Philip Di Bella so I look forward to working more closely with him.

For me Urban Grind is more than just trying to make great coffee. Of course that is really important as anything less would be just embarrassing, but for me Urban Grind is a way of life and an experience that I want to keep having. Only one thing has made this experience as wonderful as it has been and that is people, and the amazing relationships we were able to have with them. From the single moments with a stranger that have taught me life lessons, to the life long friends we made, Urban Grind has been about the interaction of people – community. To all in this community I am most grateful for your help, your willingness to interact, your bravery to be yourselves and to challenge yourselves. There would not be enough pixels on this computer to properly thank everyone that has meant something to me over these years. But to Rachel my loving partner, Urban Grind would have never been without you. To Adz, Brendan, Carl, my brother Dan & Sophie, in particular – Thank you. To so many more – Thank you.

Now in looking forward, lets keep in touch.
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So if you too find the topic interesting I recommend having a read of this short blog post by Max Wind-Cowie of the Demos Think-Tank blog: Education is a high-stakes game

This TEDtalk from Bill Gates is also very interesting. I think it is in the second half where he talks about quality of education.

Our friends at map magazine first alerted us to this book as one of them there, in particular Carl Lindgren is very big on reminding us all to dream. I have lots of fun readying this with my son Oscar and every night as he is going to bed we all ask each other what we are going to dream about. We will continue to teach him to dream as he gets older and remind him that he can do anything if he ever forgets (he is pretty sure that he can already do anything that he wants).

So check out the Awesome Book. Buy it for you kids, as a gift or just for yourself. Find whatever excuse you need, cause for every book that you buy one gets given to a child for free. Get more details at the Awesome World Foundation. The video is well worth watching.

I found this on a day when I really needed it.