Have you heard of the Café Todra? It’s a coffee like a Latte but in a glass 2 thirds the size. Same amount of coffee as a latte just less milk. Basically the same flavour just a little stronger. It’s my coffee of choice. I drink it as a Soy Todra. It’s a coffee that any coffee maker could stumble upon but the name Todra has a small story behind it.

The story actually starts years before Urban Grind when I worked for another cafe that served a long standing coffee in the same size glass but they were over extracting the coffee by half filling the glass with expresso before topping up with milk. It seems that many cafés do not understand what ‘espresso based’ coffee means. For me it is 25-30mls of coffee poured over 20-25 seconds. Those numbers can vary depending on the coffee and the preferred method of the coffee maker but all good coffee makers will agree that there is a point where there is nothing more to extract from the grind. To continue pouring is to simply pour dirty water over good coffee. So I started pouring true espresso based coffee and put an end to the over extraction. I know I was onto something when a customer walked in and said, “I have been ordering the same coffee from this shop for 14 years and that was the best ________ that I have ever had.” It became my coffee of choice then.

Jump to the first week of Urban Grind opening and some climbing friends drop in from an overseas trip to play chess and drink coffee. I asked them what they would like and they ask me to make them what ever I drink. I return with 2 coffees to find amazed looks on their faces as they quickly explain to me how for the last 3 months they have been rock climbing in a place called Todra Gorge in Morocco drinking the very same coffee every morning before climbing. The name Todra was adopted. Though we don’t use it anymore, the phrase ‘Please do not ask for Decafe as refusal may offend.” was coined 5 minutes later when one of the climbers made the joke. He said I could use it, and I did until Nestlé said I couldn’t.

“What is worth doing and what is worth having?” asks Vasco of his friend Mr. Curly.

“It is worth doing nothing and it is worth having a rest”, advises the sagacious Mr. Curly. “In spite of all the difficulty it may cause, you MUST rest Vasco – otherwise you will become RESTLESS!”

For me this translates into sitting down and drinking your coffee in house. Take-away is so popular these days as we are all in such a hurry to get to work etc, but surely we all deserve at least 20 minutes to sit, think about our day (or not), enjoy your coffee and rest. If I can’t convince you I am sure Mr. Curly will…

I just got an email from the Australian Conservation Foundation with 5 tips for a sustainable festive season. As I really liked the idea behind tip number one I thought I might post the tips here for everyone.

1. Buy a service, not a product:
To reduce embodied carbon pollution and water consumption, think about buying someone a service – say a voucher for a massage, rather than a massaging appliance. Vouchers for other services, (such as gardening or housecleaning) or film and theatre tickets are also good.

2. Buy gifts that give twice:
Give your friends and family membership to charities, overseas aid groups or environment organisations – such as the Australian Conservation Foundation!
Get someone an ACF membership, see Karma Currency for charity gift voucher ideas or visit Oxfam Unwrapped.

3. Buy carbon offsets:
You can choose the amount you want to spend and offset someone’s car travel, household energy use or airline travel, once-off or for a year. A great gift for people coming from interstate to celebrate the festive season!

4. Get a really green Christmas tree:
Go for an Australian native tree in a pot which you can use year after year, or can plant in the garden after Christmas. Tip: Support the campaign to revive the native Wollemi Pine, an endangered Australian native which makes a great Christmas tree!

5. If you’re organising a get-together with family or friends, check out what you can do to make your event more sustainable here.

Read the rest of the email here.

Adam Sebastian West was the reason this week that I made a special effort not to go to bed instead. I have known about Creative Commons for a while and totally love it but it was great to hear the story again and Elliott Bledsoe gave a really good presentation. I have never really been interested in fashion (I can hear you saying, “Yes, we can tell!”) but the stuff that George Wu does is outstanding. And last but not least I really enjoyed Tanya Ruxton’s talk. If I understood correctly, she is the founder of Blanket Magazine.

So check out Pecha Kucha, it’s a great night at a great venue.

My son is fascinated by the moon. He can spot all kinds of pictures as the moon. I thought I would Google it for him and found this awesome site from Google that is basically a Google Map of the moon and planet earths missions to the moon. Very interesting. Interesting also that we have not been back to the moon since 1972 which was before I was born.

Straight people are allowed to marry and divorce multiple times. They can get drunk and get married in the middle of the night in Las Vegas by going to a drive-through chapel. They can get on a show like “The Bachelor” and sell themselves on national television to find a spouse.

But somehow my 25-year relationship with my partner is a threat to the “sanctity” of the institution of marriage.

The vote in California on Proposition 8 was more than just wrong. It was immoral and pathetic.”

— Mitch Kohn, in a letter to the New York Times

Thanks to Pownce for bringing this to my attention.

It’s happening again that event where we use the awesome power of the internet to start a conversation. I love starting conversations expeccially when it leads to greater understanding of a topic or better still a solution if the topic happens to be a problem like poverty. And this year for Blog Action Day the topic of conversation is Poverty. You may not be a blogger but luckly for you blogging is abut starting conversations, that is what the comment feature is for.

This is what I blogged about last year for BAD07.
Lets talk about the Environment

Ok, for a couple of weeks now we have been warming up the Table Top Arcade machine that we have on trial for a month or so at Urban Grind, but now it is time to have some fun and start seriously playing/practising because at the end of August we are having a Galaga Tournament.

The idea is simple, have some fun, win some prizes, hopefully get crowned the Urban Grind Galaga Champion. Only 20 places available for entry. Highest scores in each round will see you progress. All games will be 2 player shoot outs. Each entrant gets a free coffee – everyone needs a twitchy trigger finger!

Register in store, but be fast! And don’t forget to practice.

Date: Sunday 31th August
Time: 1pm
Place: Urban Grind 530 Brunswick St, New Farm
Cost: $10 entry fee but it gets you 10 free credits
and the chance to win an iPod Nano.
Terms: Max 20 entrants.
Highest scores advance rounds.
3 Heats, 1 Final – 1 Winner
Possible Bonus Prizes

And a few years back we made it a rule that when we move into a place we change all of the light bulbs to energy savers and leave them behind when we leave. Then we move into a place with no less than 40 incandescent light bulbs. Nearly 3 bulbs to each room. Crazy. We can cut the bill to one third just by taking two bulbs out of each room. But we are slowly putting one energy saver into each room and getting rid of all of the old school bulbs.

A few things. What does one do with the still working incandescent light bulbs? We are just going to store them as back ups. Do Not by the cheap bulbs. We bought some the first time around because we had so many rooms to change but they would flicker every 5 mins or so in the off position. And they glowed a bit. Maybe they were not saving energy.

To the landlords. Please install energy savers for your tenants. It will save them money. Things like this can be features of your properties. Oh and it is good for the environment. To the tenants. What you save on your energy bill will probably be spent on the initial changing of the bulbs, but maybe one day you will move into a new rental to find that the last tenants left energy savers for you.

I think I read something once about making every place that you have been a little better for you having been there.