So TEDx Brisbane is almost here and they have just released the Speaker List and it is a cracker. This is going to be a great TED event and right in our back yard. Very sad if you are a TED fan that missed out. I can sympathize with you as Urban Grind in partnership with Di Bella Coffee is sponsoring the event with free coffees for attendees which means that I will be lucky to see any of the talks on the day. I am honoured to be able to support such an event as this but have you seen that speaker list? It is going to be an inspiring day. And we have Carl Lindgren & Paul Fairweather to thank. They have done an amazing job putting it all together.

If you do have a ticket. Be sure to get there early and register first. Once registered you can head down to the Ideas Worth Spreading Tent and get a free coffee. Coffee will also be offered free for both morning tea and lunch time breaks.

To get in the mood for TEDx you could check out this amazing talk by Aimee Mullins. Such an amazing women.

“Adversity is just change that we have not adapted to yet.”

Aimee Mullins: The opportunity of adversity

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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email – it’s in the picture

We have been lovingly nominated for the award below:

Best Service to Make You Smile
In this digital age of automated existence, sometimes we forget to value the important stuff like good old fashioned face-to-face service. Whether it’s a pizza made to order, artworks out of lattes or a waiter who remembers you’re crazy for creamed spinach just like your mum used to make, this category showcases service that makes you bust out a smile and tip like it’s actually a pleasure! Vote for us in Brisbane

It is an honour to be nominated in this category because while we love serving great coffee end hope that is an experience that you walk away feeling like you have had. For me personally there has always been more to Urban Grind than just that.

So if we have ever managed to make you smile please vote for us.

If we haven’t, watch this then vote for us.

Thanks

Did you know that over 8000 tonnes of batteries end up on Australian landfill each year? You can start recycling your batteries at Battery World today or at Urban Grind if that happens to be more convenient for you.

As far as I understand it you can recycle all batteries from watch batteries to car batteries at Battery World though Urban Grind can only really accept up to D sized batteries. So check those desk & kitchen drawers and dig out those old batteries that you just knew would have been environmentally uncool throw in the bin. We are collecting now.

I would like to thank Albion Battery World for getting us set up to collect batteries.

Oh and seriously… you should be using rechargeable batteries anyway. No excuses (that I am aware of anyway).

It’s that time of year again where you find a good car parking space, put down some tarps, roll out your turf and invite people to PARK. Urban Grind’s park will be in Harcourt St this year from 7am till 11am. For me PARK(ing) Day is about many things but mostly about starting conversations because that tends to lead to those other things anyway. What? Anyway…

It all started here… www.parkingday.org
Find all of the Brisbane PARKS here… www.brisbaneparkingday.com

That time of year is this Friday the 18th of September 2009. Thanks Simon.

This is from a local office. I am told that this is a little under five days worth of cups between three. While impressive two things stand out to me. The first is that they are obviously awesome customers and for that I am grateful. Secondly, that is a lot of wasted resources. Like wow!

So as of tomorrow, if you bring your own cup we will give you a takeaway discount. In this way we can say thank you for being regular customers and see if we can’t reduce some of this waste. Common sense conditions apply.

Took my son down to the local hardware today to get a few small things and upon reaching the counter I turned to Oscar, my son and exclaimed “Oh no I forgot my wallet!”. Instantly the guy in front of us said don’t worry I will pay for it. I didn’t hesitate and said thanks because the best advice ever given to me was to “Never deny someone the opportunity to give.” – Nigel Reed. David, the generous man in line told me how he had once filled his car with petrol, then at the counter realised he had no money only to be surprised by a women willing to pay the whole bill. He said that he is now always on the look out to keep paying such a kind act forward. It reminded me that when you do a good thing for a person or a bad thing against a person it gets multiplied which is why you should do good things. A random act of kindness really wakes something up in people I think and it will be a feeling they will want others to experience. If you have never seen the movie Pay it Forward I highly recommend it.

Earlier in the day I had another wonderful encounter with a customer that had returned to pay her bill after what must have been at least six weeks. I have a personal policy of trusting that if people don’t have the cash on them or they only have card I trust them and ask them to simply fix us up when it is next convenient for them. So far everyone has returned as far as I know as I don’t keep a record each time and I usually forget moments later that this person still ‘owes’ us. It’s a nice place to be in cause it kind of means for me that I get to live in a world where everyone is trust worthy and my personal theory goes that you can’t trust people if you never give them the opportunity to be trustworthy. I know some have abused this but that’s ok cause the percentage is so low that I could probably only name one person in nearly 8 years of Urban Grind. Anyway… six weeks ago I declared to my awesome (just as her she will tell you herself) assistant that this particular women has obviously scammed us and is never coming back. But such is life yadda yadda. She had been so vague the first time that she came into the shop and we just couldn’t work her out and I guess the experience made us wonder a bit as to what was going on and we started to get sus. Then she came up to pay and only had card, no cash and while I said sure just fix us up later I honestly thought that she was never coming back. I didn’t trust her. Today she walks in and I pretend I don’t remember her, but I do and she asks for a coffee and would like to fix up her bill from last time she was in Brisbane. How is that the first time I am so sure I couldn’t trust someone I am wrong. So I get talking to her cause now she’s cool you know, I trust her and I can treat her like everyone else (I just called myself a tosser so you don’t need to) and she mentions that she doesn’t come into the cities much or something like that and now I am getting the sense that maybe her being a bit vague was actually her way of just finding her way around slowly. She has actually been so patient the first time that she waited like 20 minutes for the line to die down before ordering. Maybe I can go easy on myself for thinking that is strange as so many people these days are impatient and pressed for time.

This is not the first time that I have found that it only takes about a maximum of 2 questions to start to get to know someone. If you think you know someone on sight, inquire, you will be so wrong unless you are gifted. I once thought one of my customers once was an obvious bum until I asked he once what he does and it turns out he was a retired physics professor in a field that I had never heard of and these days he just likes to tent to his garden. Speak to people, they have stories that will out do your assumptions.

This looks like an interesting campaign for climate change. I will reveal more details later but I do have an idea on a way that Urban Grind can participate.

350.org