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

As you might know we had a movie night planned at Urban Grind for this Wednesday night. The bad news is that the organiser has decided not to go ahead. The good news is that you can still watch this amazing documentary online for free. Watch HOME online for free.

Home is a 2009 documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The film is almost entirely composed of aerial shots of various places on Earth. It shows the diversity of life on Earth and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet. Source: Wikipedia

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.

Until April 16th, we have photos for sale from the lovely Natalie McComas. Very nice stuff. Be sure to have a good look next time you are in. You can learn more about Natalie McComas here: www.natmccomas.com

Over 16 million is the estimated number of mobile phones stored in cupboards and drawers all over Australia. 31% of mobile phone users have 2 or more old mobiles at home. 70% have 1 old mobile at home. If you are one of them you can now drop your old phones into Urban Grind and we will organise to have them sent off to MobileMuster for recycling.

Over 90% of the materials in mobile phones can be recovered and used as raw materials for new products.

MobileMuster give some pretty good reasons for recycling electronics:

• prevent pollution and protect our environment
• minimise solid and hazardous waste going to landfill
• recover resources to manufacture new products
• reduce the need to use raw materials and save our natual resources

Here is another very good reason: Conflict Metals

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.

Facts from the One Day Without Shoes website…

• In some developing nations, children must walk for miles to school, clean water and to seek medical help.
• Cuts and sores on feet can lead to serious infection.
• Often, children cannot attend school barefoot.
• In Ethiopia, approximately one million people are suffering from Podoconiosis, a debilitating and disfiguring disease caused by walking barefoot in volcanic soil.
• Podoconiosis is 100% preventable with basic foot hygiene and wearing shoes.

Awareness is nice but how do we help these children? By buying a pair of shoes from TOMS SHOES. You see “TOMS was founded on a simple premise: For every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need. One for One.”

So it’s fashionably easy to help put a pair of shoes on a child’s feet.

One Day Without Shoes
TOMS SHOES