Day 1 ... First up breakfast!

So i've been eating Brookfarm's macadamia muesli breakfast for some time now. Love the flavour and it's GMfree. It says on the packet they only use Australian ingredients unless there's not one available. Brookfarm is in Bangalow, NSW too so that's not too bad either from a local perspective. I wonder if there's muesli made closer to home though? I poured Bonsoy soy milk from Spiral Foods over the muesli. It's meant to be the best/healthiest soy you can get and i prefer the taste. Plus it's GM Free, no added preservatives, colours or chemicals etc etc. But as luck would have it in terms of local its a big fail as it's a Japanese product.

Stopping to smell the roses

On my way to work I stopped and chewed the fat with plant maestro Nick from Blossom nursery on the corner of my street. Nicks a great guy and has a real sense of the neighborhood as he is almost always open and out the front - but i often cycle past in a hurry to get to work and don't stop to smell the roses and chew the fat with the man. Today i did and i learnt that it was probably the humidity in my bathroom that killed my plant and not me being a crap custodian of other lifeforms.(though that surely helped) - i feel a bit better now.

Coffee time with my friend and client Tara

Had a lovely meeting with Tara at one of my favourite cafes Single Origin today too and while they have a serious commitment to their coffee growers and providence of the food they serve the house blend coffee i had was from five different countries using Bonsoy milk again. So again cool business but with coffee it seems its hard to source local atleast - they do have an Australian coffee bean variety but they were out today so i couldn't specify that. But remembering its about a lot more than food miles - going to Single O is like visiting a friends place, Nick, Gave and the crew there treat you like one of the gang, the smell of warmth and love is stronger than the coffee beans. You get a real sense of the community at the cafe and they are a bit of a hub - holding parties and events & constantly breaking down the social barriers we construct around ourselves when we go to a cafe. 

So i still think this is the live local'est cafe in Surry Hills by far.

FInally Dinner time (at 10pm!)

Ok backfrom gym late (its a local gym in terms of location to my house but its the mutinational Fitness First so not exactly local in that sense! I bump into friends there occasionally, including an old friend recently who ive reconnected with so it has a social component i think that is important - could be better in that respect though, hate the loud adverts & music mostly but its convenient & means i actually make it to the gym) anyway .. so made a pretty simple meal of what i had in my pantry so i doubt its going to rock the live local world.

OK so lets see .. Sirena tuna - Packaged in Thailand, caught and hauled in from some ocean very very far away (i have been teetering on giving up my addiction to tuna for a long while given the imminent collapse of the fisheries but now there's another reason - the distance it travels, what's the carbon footprint of that tuna!?). lettuce was from the local mini mart, no idea where the get it from - will ask next time, same with the tomatoes, vinegar was Isabella from Italy (doh!) with a third of the bottle to go i wont be buying more this challenge - finally some Lebanese bread rounded out the meal ... its baked in Granville from Australian ingredients so thats cool - not a bad finish to the meal audit - though im losing ground on my previous choices i fear!

Day 2: Kicking off with some inspiration..

I took this quick snap at the Sustainable Living Festie in Melbourne a while back. Thought it would give me some inspiration on how to live local this week. The sign's title is How to Build Community at the Cultivating Community stall (sorry about the appalling photography i had a 3 year old tugging at my leg!)

Shot over to Payrmont with max and lawrence today to look at an auction ..

Max drove and this photo shows the pain he felt as we experienced the badly designed car parking system that forced us to drive around and around before we could find a pay station so we could get out.

This reminded me how important Good Design is for our local environment, this poor design created unnecessary pollution and aggro and made me late for my next meeting.

Had a nice chat to the two lads though and hopefully we'll get a few things from auction tomorrow for the studio that will mean a lower footprint overall to achieve the same result so the extra carbon expelled getting to the auction and doing circuits of the car park will be offset and some.

Crossing the Bridge

I did a presentation for Hootville on Social Media strategies and experiences in Nth Sydney with Priscilla from ANTART this afternoon. It was an interesting session as we shared strategies, successes and especially our mistakes and lessons learnt from our campaigning experience over the years. Met a bunch of switched on people from the NFP sector and Brett who puts the event on was cool & very knowledgable.

So that was great from a social/business perspective however we needed to Cross The Bridge (cue sinister music!) and this meant either public transport, taxi or a GoGet. With my buffer time between appointments stolen from me by that bad parking system designer (see above) i opted for a GoGet car share car. They are a great way to get around when you dont need to own a car and i use it whenever i have to use a car unless a taxi makes more sense (say to the airport). In this case it was best to just do that and besides the ridiculous parking fee in Nth Sydney ($38 for 2.5 hours!) it proved as always efficient and cost effective to go with the GoGet.

There is a real sense of sharing with your local community in the car share scheme too - its a shared resource, a great example of product as service and a beacon to others that it is not only possible, but actually beneficial, to share things rather than own them.

Dinner tonight was shared with eskis Soraya & Matt

.. at Iku Wholefood in Darlinghurst which is on my way home from Surry Hills where the studio is. Not a bad eatery to have in the way as you head home. This lovely meal was just $9.50 and is organic, biodaynamic, vegan, macrobiotic and gluten free (!)  and mostly local though the cool chick at Iku couldn't say for sure how local. Will need more investigation i think but who could argue with that smile!?

Day 3 : Paddo Patrol cars & coming unstuck

Ok so Day 3 was a bit busy too blog on the go, had to prep proposals in the morning, then cycled off only to cop a fine from a policeman for not wearing my helmet in Paddington (what was a highway patrol car doing in the mean (back)streets of paddo anyway!?) so $54 later and feeling less community spirited by the second i cycled with my tail between my legs and Natural Born Killer fantasies playing through my brain to meet strategista Dan Cass and Piers for a soothingly calm zen and inspiring live local media session in Paddington.

Racing back to the studio and lunch was provided by our awesome studio co-ordinator (mental note she needs a better title that does her justice!) Catherine using studio ingredients (we keep a fully stocked fridge for the eskis to enjoy) most of which are purchased own at Paddys Market so would be grown in the Sydney basin i imagine (?), inhaling the sandwich we sat down to bid on the auction.

So .. when the dust settled ... we were able to pick up some tihngs we really needed for the studio for a quarter of the cost of buying new. Second hand, v. high quality and a good price = sustainable (if you 'need' the stuff - which we do).

btw the book in the photo was lying around amongst the detritus of excess at The One Centre and I thought it quite poignant. Despite my ideological differences with the agency it is a shame to see someone's hard work & dreams go down the gurgler . Read more about this cationary tale of expansion and growth in this SMH article

Falconer's chef rises to the live local challenge

After a mad afternoon prepping estimates, reviewing designs and generally doing the eskimo soft shoe shuffle around the studio we had a few beers, celebrated the weeks successes and said goodbye for the week as we always do.

I then met Piers who is my partner in live local for a bite and a chat. It as an evening of inspiring conversation about the live local project and the role we both might play in a sustainable future - made all the better for the venue, The Falconer on Oxford st - which is one of my favourite places for a meal or just a cool glass of local Lovells beer. It's cool to see the reaction when you tell people you're doing the live local challenge, the waitress dug it as did the chef, so much so rather than serve me their 'localest' meal he took on my live local challenge and served me a delicious meal made from only local ingredients.

Ben, Andrew and the crew are living the local dream and have a constant stream of friends, regulars and cool cats through the joint. The Falconer is one of those subtle eco-aware places where they dont shout it but lots of consideration has been expended on the minimal fitout and various aspects of the venue and of course the menu.

.. Home now and just writing this and I think a third successful day livin local(ish) ... onto the weekend .. where i'll endeavour to get local with the Darlinghurst crew. out.

Day 4 : Not as local as i'd like but quite social ..

I was in Bondi today looking at apartments and as usual hired a GoGet to get me around. Im keen to return to the suburb in which ive spent most of my life in Sydney and many of my friends still live in - while i dig the Darlo crew i miss the beach and the community vibe of some parts of the area. This was reinforced by the fact that at every opening i bumped into old friends, Olivia at one, Klara at another then Enzo with whom i ended up hanging for coffee. He's italian and i connect with him on a different level to some of my friends though i dont know him that well - perhaps it runs deep (and local?) going back to the old country.

Back from that and off to Petersham for a bbq and catchup with some more friends, i loved the fact that i saw 3 GoGet cars in the traffic - including the one i sat behind - we hooted and acknowledged the GoGet community connection as the rest of the Sydney traffic flew past.

Ok so it's Saturday night and a party in St Peters means ive certainly not been super local this day (though kept inner city!) but made connections with people i care about which is as important as anything when you're living local.

Day 5: Participating at the Sydney Writers Festival

Day 5, woke up late after aforementioned party (it was great btw, Eric the DJ is exceptional and a lot of old friends were there) - i managed to drink only Australian beers (Blue Tongue) so kept the live local challenge alive! Today my friend Gareth and I attended a Sydney Writers Festie talk at Pier 4, Walsh Bay on creating a participation society. The topic is very relevant to live local so i wanted to hear what they had to say. In particular the writer Hugh Mackay who contributed an excellent article to the recent Griffith Review themed around participatory society) .. he states that "Grand visions of society have their place, but its in the neighbourhoods that we join the dots." Sums up live local really.

So we cabbed it there as we were running late (ive come to the realisation lately that lack of time is the enemy of living local) rather than cycling so a bit of carbon released alas. However it was worth it as not only was the talk thought provoking but we bumped into my old friend Sophie Howlett who's just back from OS apparently and Antoinette from the progressive think tank Centre for Policy Development. We were shortly joined by a few more of their mates and we all had an impromptu session chewing the fat and having a really good laugh.

I again asked the bar staff to help me with my localisation preference however this time through some mistake we got Peroni beers instead of Blue Tongue so my efforts were in vain! Gareth's tea was Lipton alas and there was general mirth when i asked where that was from (nobody knew but we were sure it wasnt Australia) - seems tea drinkers may struggle with living completely local.

A few hours later Gareth and i decided to walk home to compensate for our cab ride in and visited two of the old pubs in Darlinghurst on the way, the first at the bottom of Crown Street has a no pokies policy and a really classic old feel. The second, the Old Fitzroy is a lovely pub snuggled in the backstreets of Woolloomoolloo. It has a great village vibe and mainly locals drink there - there's also a cool theatre out back and you can get a decent Laksa if you're hungry. James Squire, brewed just down the road in Camperdown was the beer of choice. Finally we ate Japanese at a little joint on McCleay street Potts Point - i had difficulty communicating the order at all so i didnt bother with the live local request and so ended the weekend a point down.

Day 6: Dinner date at Fu's

Mondays are always hectic so didnt get time to post my daily update until this morning but here goes:

Breaky - usual Brookvale muesli but picked up milk late Sunday night and it was Victorian regular cows milk which was all they had at the quickie mart. Sometimes you just go for the convenience and choice is very limited.

Lunch - Made up for the milk at lunch as i ate from our vegie garden on the roof at our studio, fresh lettuce and a few extras from our Paddys market (Sydney Basin) purchases.

Next local moment was when I had a coffee meeting  with Duncan, our Sustainability, HR and Operations manager. We bumped into our friends Michael & Eva from Toko (cool design agency across the road) at The Wall, our localist of cafes being just opposite the studio in Surry Hills. The Wall is a great place to meet the local community and we often bump into various colourful creative folk and assorted Surry Hills regulars there. (meetings tend to go overtime!)

I got home and knocked on my neighbours (Simon and Melinda from The Falls) who are planning a rooftop party with me for our building this saturday. (more about that next post).

Finally dinner with my girlfriend Vaike at Fu Man Chus which is just down the road. It's run by Annie, an old friend and serves mouth watering healthy Malaysian food. I gave Annie the challenge and received a quite detailed analysis of the state of Australian produce - she imports anything that needs processing as you cant get descent stuff here apparently - while she gets some fresh things from the markets - we found it difficult to settle on a vego plate that was local. In the end (after much commotion in the kitchen!) we settled on the chilli salt eggplant & pumpkin and rice soup - all Sydney basin sourced.

Wine was Logans Pinot Gris from Orange (pictured above with Vaike on her iphone actually responding to a comment on live local instead of talking to me!).

Another nice local/social moment followed as Vaike's auntie Julie & her friend Collette arrived randomly and joined us. I love those serendipitous moments that occur when you eat out a lot. Cafes, restaurants and diners have become defacto social spaces beyond the home (helpful when you live in a single room studio as i do!) and are vital elements of a cohesive community i think.

Day 7 : And on the seventh day he said let us party!

So day 7 (already!) and the live local challenge draws to an end (for me) and so i started the day determined to do more than question where my food came from ... My main activity this morning was organising the roof party for next Saturday which is an effort to kickstart my less than spectacular Rooftop Garden experiment. We're inviting our neighbours onto the roof of our building (which commands sweeping views of the city - aargh you can tell i've been talking to Real Estate agents lately!) and asking them all to bring a plant to contribute to the garden. (I'm suggesting edible varieties but really any greenery up there is appreciated for now)

So i got a poster up in the building (see photo) and  continued to bump into neighbours (around half a dozen today alone!) and asked them to come up and spread the word. Nick from Blossom Nursery on the corner of Darley and Burton has offered to donate some herbs and other plants - Nick you're a legend!

The rest of my day was the same as yesterday (same breaky/same lunch more or less etc) - i stayed back to consult with John Neeme on his band's web site plans as a return favour for teaching me the guitar - more live local magic there too now i think about it!

We had a quick beer at the Darlo (my local), i usually always go tap beer at the pub because the beer bottles alone take 30 litres of water to create! -  so its far far more sustainable to go with tap beer - the localest beer was Hahn Dry which is not my favourite but you gotta sacrifice to live local too sometimes. I bumped into another new neighbour on the way back and invited him to join us, he sounded keen. There was also a guy on our doorstep who'd been kicked out of his home by his wife (!), i would normally not know this but i seem to be engaging with people more this week and so i struck up a conversation, gave the man a carob coated licorice stick i'd just picked up from the quickie mart (source unknown - damn forgot to ask, its so easy to slip isnt it!) and we shared a laugh about how things could be on the way up for him now.

Well i guess thats the end of my challenge, not sure i broke any local living ground here but i certainly feel better than i normally do about my interactions with people and i definitely can see improvements to my local eating habits coming out of this. And I'm particularly excited about the rooftop garden party idea which has, in part atleast, been triggered by myself getting fired up and spending the time needed to live local this week.