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 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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Awesome. This guys speech gives me hope. First Obama now this guy. Surely Australia can’t be far off leadership like this.

At first I think that this guy must have been a past Prime Minister and was so surprised to find out that he is the current. Gordon Brown’s speech is far from political spin. It talks practically and wisely about the future. How problems like climate change will need a global effort and how we need to be structuring ourselves towards this effort. I found his talk very inspiring. He doesn’t talk like a politician – he talks like a man that can understand a problem and formulate a solution that includes concerns far beyond his own political party or personal political aspirations.

But what does this say about us? I said, first Obama, now this guy. I feel like something is happening/changing and it must be us. Men like these exist all the time, You probably know or have at least heard of one. Check out TED.com if you haven’t. I heard it said once that Hitler emerged as a leader because the mindset of the people allowed him too. I hesitate to call it democracy as I am not so sure that is what we have in our country nor is it the force I think which is at play, but I do believe it to be true that leaders emerge when the people are ready. But the kind of leader, is determined by the mindset of the people. At elections it feels as though there are no Obamas or Gordon Browns to choose from in Australia. Are we ready for such leaders? If they did emerge would we recognise them? I think we like to think in business terms in Australia, especially when it comes to politics. Maybe the leaders I dream of don’t see a market for their kind of leadership just now?

When I think of Australia and leadership as it relates to the rest of the world I see Australia having a wonderful opportunity to play a leading role as we face the challenges that lie ahead. My reasons are derived from the following 2 quotes.

“People who have wild ideas about how to run the earth ought to start with a small garden” – Ahmed Kathrada

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

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.

Last weekend we went to see The Buddy Holly Story and while it is not usually the kind of thing that we would find ourselves at, we loved it. It was a great fun show. And a really interesting story considering that the guy’s career was only 18 months long before he died. If you get a chance to do so get along and see it. The guy that plays Buddy is really good. Oh and when they ask you to participate please do. I had to yell a bit too loud to make up for our quiet crowd.

We have a wonderful son Oscar that just turned 3 and this year he got mostly wooden toys from the Plan Toys toy company. Plan toys are made from renewable timbers and use non-toxic glues and paints. The quality and detail makes the adults want to play too. Each box comes with a little catalogue and I kid you not, the adults were fighting over it as they announced their wish-lists. There might be other toy shops that stock these but we have been getting ours from Crackerjack For Good Toys Balmoral, Shop 3/208- 216 Riding Rd 07 3399 4444.

We are keen to remove plastic toys from our lives and have been exploring things like Plan Toys. Oscar also has a fair bit of LEGO, but my research is have trouble concluding whether LEGO is toxic or not. If anyone can help me work this out that would be great. Thanks.

Many Urban Grind customers probably know Adam Sebastian West as he has been hanging around for years. About 7 years now. He is a wonderful friend of mine and a great photographer. You can check out his photography on the Zenstick Website or this Friday night the 6th of March you can see his latest work as part of the Sea City Sky group exhibition at KILN Gallery. The show runs from the 6th – 29th of March. For more details check out www.kiln.com.au.