Action is building up

Friday: got chris law to help with a poster for the pop-up store. slept at 3am trying to churn out a speech. didn't know how to present, didn't know what to say. Brainstormed marketing and strategy. got excited.

Saturday: full day on the ball. presentations that went a lot better than expected. got people excited.

Sunday: Printed off posters and stuck them around arrow. Superb job by chris who took time off his really heavy work load. Did costing with Jon. rushed back to arrow to rescue a situation with an Events Centre Client.
epic story of how i offered cordial not knowing that it's a concentrate that required water.
yeeeappp. Tim and Ellie laughed their heads off on Monday. painful laughter, really.

Monday: Spoke to ivy about getting supplies and went scouting with shing and a couple of boys from the neighbourhood :D Had a mini taste-testing session at night with a bunch of under 18s and the arrow bunch. it was hilarious having joey around as well. insanely funny. i had a superb time laughing and eating. what could be better?? (having dong, mummy, caleb and ching around to eat and laugh with)

Today: So today's kinda like my second day using twitter on behalf of arrowtoastbar. doesn't seem to be as effective as FB at the moment. realizing that people are missing details on the poster. marcus volunteered to tweak the poster to increase readibility. Lodged Visa application. Texted Jarrod from Kinfolk to reschedule our meeting. Texted Kerri about Open Mic Fridays. Asked Sam if he could help with cuting up a Toast Mascott! Went to Melbourne Artists' Supplies with Sam to get paint, and ended up having an amazing conversation with a guy who works there who's caught on the vision of Toastbar.

Or rather.. i should say he caught on to the vision that Tim has led us all to share for the neighbourhood. It's conversations like this that really energize me and make my day. I'm hoping he'd come for the Arrow neighbourhood dinner tmr!

rushed back to arrow where rachel offered me a home made sandwich! yummmmm! that was my lunch at 3ish.

Did a pretty rushed photoshoot with shing and marcus came to help out a little. omg i need to manage my time better. i keep rushing here and there and not have enough timeeeee.

charles was really nice and drove us to get supplies. he's such a joker. i realise i feel insecure spending large amounts of money, even though the individual items that add to the total bill may be priced reasonably. something i'll have to get used to doing i suppose.

Sue also had fantastic news to deliver. once the news reaches it's most glorious point, i shall blog again.

when i got back to arrow, Karen offered to write an article for the pop-up store on Meld Magazine.

omgggg.. things are starting to kick in and i only have 4 more dayyss!

Excited! but anxious too.

LOL. i can't believe you read the whole blog post.

to have someone who believes in you

background story:
I went to source out possible suppliers with Bernard, Joshua and Shing yesterday. on the way back with Bernard and Josh, i got them to follow me to a ladies fashion store where i ended up trying on a $10 dress.

it was not bad, but it wasn't an immediate OMGILIKEIT dress.
and i reminded myself that i was on a tight budget this year..

so i put the dress back and left.

when i got back to arrow, i mentioned to S in passing that i was going to get a dress but ended up not because blah blah blahhh

Then this evening, S suddenly came up to me and gave me an envelope. i kept it in my bag and only took it out ten minutes ago to see what it was..

it contained a $10 bill with a note saying: Because I believe in you, go get that dress!

it's just ten dollars, but i just feel like i've been blessed over a hundred times that. to have someone believe in me this way. S has been such a blessing and a support this year even as i work though my fears and anxieties, my expectations of myself and what others expect of me.. She was right there with me as i made my presentation 4 times over on Saturday. She accompanied me to hunt for percolators and kopi beans and cheered me up when i felt so defeated when we found nothing we needed. From things like that to even just simply putting fresh flowers from the community garden in the basement to beautify the space.

May you be blessed many times over sue, and may this year of faith-step-taking be one of abundant growth for the both of us.

the value of what other people invest in me

what are three specific things you take for granted?




so plans for the cafe are smoothening out.
we're having a pop-up store set up this coming sunday through to wednesday.
4 days of intensive service.
this baby has made me go through an emotional roller coaster because of the challenges it has posed. i was so worried about how i was going to present to the 4 different groups of stakeholders on saturday that i had to force myself to stay awake for 3.5 hours working out what i was going to sa and how i was going to say it.
it's been an exhausting weekend. i just got back from taking the under 18 students over to grace's for dinner a couple of hours ago.
ok it's been an exhausting week. but satisfying.

someone asked me quite seriously if he/she could have food for free from the cafe. because things in melbourne are expensive.

that really caught me offguard. how could anyone have that expectation? how? how can a business survive more than a day if there is no revenue?? what will i be able to give the team in return for the hard work they've put in??

trust and respect

last night i got grilled soh ;asughpaushg IKSljsdgv; iu

yes so at nick&phebe's last night, i got grilled by some of the guys (general term, not referring specifically to just the male species) about the cafe. i know people have good intentions and there are bound to be difficult questions and feedback that's hard to swallow. so i took a lot of it in my stride, but a few times it felt like someone was pinching my baby's cheeks so hard that it hurt. well, i didn't realize how much i was really affected by all the grilling and pressure that has accumulated until i broke down while talking to tim today. heck of an emotional roller-coaster the past 3 weeks have been. nick has been more than encouraging. every time after i speak to him, i feel so recharged as his faith and belief in me builds my faith as well. i think mind-blowing is an appropriate term to describe how much of an encouragement he's been.

actually, i'm so blessed to have people around me who share the same belief and who have enough heart space to give me some comfort and encouragement. like mummy, ellie, jon lee, sue-lee, doreen, chris willis, yuli, gav..

skype convo with gwen

Gwen:
elisa
what's your favourite quote?

Me:
erm
erm
love is blind

Gwen:
seriously?
okay
no
...
i wanted to ask you.. like.. what do you think is a funny/wise saying?

Me:
Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres

Gwen:
hahaha :)
FUNNY OR WISE>

Me:
funny.

Gwen:
joker.

Anxiety reveals the smallness of myself

Only the great self, the True Self, the God Self, can carry our anxieties. The little self cannot do it. People who don’t pray basically cannot live the Gospel, because the self is not strong enough to contain and reveal our delusions and our fear. I am most quoted for this line: “If you do not transform your pain, you will always transmit it.” Always someone else has to suffer because I don’t know how to suffer; that is what it comes down to. Jesus, you could say, came to show us how to suffer, how to carry “the legitimate pain of being human,” as C.G. Jung called it. Beware of running from yourself and your own legitimate suffering, which is the price of being a human being in a limited world.

From A Lever and a Place to Stand:
The Contemplative Stance, the Active Prayer, pp. 79-80
From T's facebook update

Sourcing for things is difficult. This treasure hunt is tough. I do really feel like a roti prata. Deflated and flat out. i know days like that will keep coming, and i need to press on. the hours i have feel clocked because i'm not being paid by some huge monster organisation. yup dont feel like writing anymore.

Dream plan to action.

When i first saw this picture from the top, the first few words immediately reminded me of ACS. LOL.. then i scrolled down and spotted the books. in red, blue and yellow. SERIOUSLY?? this is such an ACS picture. well.. just that it's got a soft, gentle, quiet, hopeful feel to it.

Anyway, i'm back in melbourne. It's been a week.
going down to the kitchen now. talk later.


loving it here by the way. not that it's easy.