GrumpyOldGuy

Megafactories, does indeed rock, I particularly liked the one on Ferrari, real innovation. Anyway, I dont know, each to their own I guess, but when I look at factories like ILLY with millions spent on R&D the most up to date state of the art equipment, decades of experience, professional specialist taste panels, top chemists, access to the best beans in the world, a massive market penetration and a loyal following worldwide, I cant help but agree, ..............its the Barista.!

Thats right, they remove the air and pack it with nitrogen gas. I must say they do a massive amount of testing if the show was anything to go by and they are very meticulous, if you watched I was impressed by their quality control and R &D. Even at the tastings they do, they are all anonymous tasters selected from a panel and they even go so far as to check each and every cup of coffee for temperature before it goes to the taste panel, the implication been that even a degree or two in either direction can change the taste, so before it goes out a guy tests each cup with an electric thermometer to ensure they are all exactly the same.

Hmm, I was watching the Discovery channel the other day and they had that show "Megafactories" on. This week it was ILLY the huge Italian coffee manufacturer. The numbers are mind boggling, they make around 5 million pods a day, let me just repeat that 5 million pods a day.!! its the fastest growing form of coffee sales. They have a machine which checks every bean for quality and on normal speed it checks 11000 beans a second, its really quite incredible. Anyway, they had the top taster on and he said coffee should never be roasted and ground / drank, it needs about 8/12 weeks to mature in an air free environment to develop the nose and taste, so they have this system where the coffee is packed into a special container, all the air is removed and its packed and held for about 3 months before been released to market. The machine that removes the air also slightly squeezes the bean which releases the incredible aroma hit you get when you crack the tin open. In the light of this thread it was quite interesting.

- Ha, Ha, tick bite fever in dogs is very serious, my one boxer got bit and ended up with tick bite fever, we nearly lost her, even though we used a repellent the vet said they can still get it, he was great though, and smiled very pleasantly when he presented me with a very big bill.

Phew, not sure I would go with that advice, my wife got tick bite fever a few years back when we went hiking up in Crystal Springs and she got really sick. Wasn't pleasant at all, severe headaches, eyes very sensitive to light, nausea, very tired etc and the bite left a hard nodule under the skin which took a long time to go away. Now I go to the outdoor shops before we go hike and buy the tick repellent sprays, theres a few, cant remember names but they all worked, Outdoor warehouse, Trappers, etc they all sell them, I would definitely use it, tick bite fever is not fun.

Case for a Nespresso. The only Doppio Zero I go to is that one in Emmerentia, they seem to be consistent and I have always had good coffee there, the other's unfortunately seem to be a bit hit and miss, one day great, the next aweful, which is a pity as I like the concept and their bakery is usually good.

I have one as part of the machine but I seldom use it. Its very nice and works well, but, well, I still seldom use it.

I Also like the Indriya although I haven't bought it for a while. I have been buying the Kazaar, personally I cant tell the difference between the Kazaar and the Dharkan, so I just buy either or. I mostly stick to 4 or so blends now, the lungo's (Vivalto and Fortissio) Rosabaya and Kazaar or Dharkan.

Yah, I concur, the worst is those places where they serve from a drip machine and the coffee lies there brewing on the hot plate for hours before its sold, ...........

Cant recall exactly, but I think it was about 15 / 18 bucks, pretty much the average around here.

I think any of the Nespresso machines will be good for you, they are all good, take your pick. If you just fancy a hassle free quality coffee then one of the small Nespresso machines (in my opinion anyway) will suit you fine.

- Yup, Nespresso (I think anyway) makes very little on the sale of the machine, their business is in the pods, pretty much like Amazon and Kindle, money is in the books you buy, not the reader. Well thats my theory anyway. Yeah, I hear you but it was a small shop, maybe about 20 seats, a few more at a push so I think in that kind of low volume environment its okay, certainly a place like say Mugg and Bean could never survive using a Nespresso, but for a small place it means quality is always controlled, every cup is good and although the pod cost will be high, maybe the hassle free, zero waste factor is appealing, or maybe commercial businesses get pods cheaper, dont know, but it was Vivalto blend (Blue pod), one of my favorite's, so it was all good.

Yesterday I was out on the road and stopped at a small coffee shop for lunch and a cup of coffee, when the coffee came it looked and tasted distinctly like a Nespresso, so I took a stroll to the counter and sure enough it was. The young lady said a top quality commercial coffee machine was out of her budget, but a top of the range Nespresso wasn't, so thats what she bought, and although the cost per cup is higher, her investment is much less, she recovers her cost quicker, she has never had complaints and its worked faultlessly. Seems like a win / win to me.

Thats a nice explanation, thank you. I like your train of thought, positive and level headed, we all go through rough patches but I am a firm believer in nothing lasts forever, and we mostly we come out the other side better for the experience,.. certainly wiser. Looking forward to seeing the Owl, my brother has a small bird rehabilitation hospital at his home, he has been doing it for many many years now and people from all over the country, including some vets and even the SPCA bring him injured and helpless birds to look after, he rehabilitates them and lets them all go if he feels they have reached a point where they can look after themselves. If not he looks after them for their lives. He often gets beautiful Owls which have been knocked down on the road at night, I think he has a soft spot for them as he always calls me to come look, the other day he got the most magnificent falcon, also badly injured but with care he says it will live on. We need to care for all the creatures of the world, its our responsibility.

Pheew, I can imagine, anywhere there is bone near the skin surface must be painful. I was wondering if there any sort of personal message or remembrance you considered when deciding on an octopus or if you just liked the art and that was your deciding factor.? I know it may be personal so please dont think I am prying, I was just interested, but if you feel you would rather not reply, its no problem, I understand.

Flying in and out of Lanseria as opposed to OR Tambo is also a bit cheaper, if you will be in the North then its also easier, but otherwise the distance out of JHB makes it a hassle.

Phew Caerus, thats hectic, not something I would do but I can admire the art work anyway. How long did it take? I cant really tell if its your arm or your calf but it must have been quite a long period of inactivity.

I cant comment on those as I dont know, but people need to remember Golf estates and the Game of Golf are not the same thing. Not everyone who lives on a Golf estate plays Golf, the same as not everyone living on an estate with a M/Bike trail rides M/Bike, estates are housing developments and as we all know housing is under severe stress, Golf, the Game, however is not reliant on Estates to be enjoyed, many people play on stand alone golf courses and most of them are excellent and very busy. The day M/Biking pays the kind of prize money Golf pays to serious professionals, is the day I will start worrying about the future of golf.

Indeed, dont expect the golf courses to be empty anytime soon, at the club I play at its very much alive and well and even though I am retired I still get umpteen invites from the banks and other relevant companies to golf days, weekends are impossible to get a game unless you book. The truth is all activities go through phases of growth, maturity and if they are very unlucky, decline, its nothing new, its a perfectly normal cycle. I am old enough to remember when Wind Surfing was a major activity, today, not so much, 10 years ago Gyms were full of big guys huffing and puffing and moving around huge chunks of iron, today, its petite healthy housewives doing Yoga, Taebo and Pilates, there was a time running was so big you could almost not get into a club, it was that elitist, today its struggling. I think Mountain biking is just in a nice growth phase, nothing wrong with that, and good luck to More Golf for seeing the opportunity, but nothing lasts forever and in time Mountain biking will reach a level of maturity and then decline as folk move on to the next great adventure, so Yah, I wish More Golf well, but I am pretty sure they will be the first to say golf is hardly dead.

No Eddy, its the same thing, you may not publish or make defamatory posts on social media. The laws regarding social media are extensive and quickly, cheaply and easily enforced due to the ever increasing scourge of harassment.

There are so few good news stories these days that when I read something like this it makes my heart happy, I can only imagine the poor animal must have been terrified, thirsty and hungry and I am happy it will be well looked after now have a home, food and water. Many unsung hero's here.

Shame, looks very thin to me. I hope they let it go somewhere it can live out its life in peace, I abhor cruelty to animals and it makes me very happy to see its getting such good care, it would have been easy to just take the easy route and kill the poor animal, but I am glad sanity prevailed, there are still a lot of good folk around.

Yah, probably,... the price is certainly not in line with (my) perceived value anyway.

I said already you should not misunderstand my post, I understand you feel passionate about the issue and thats fine, willful littering is unacceptable in any form but posting pictures of people on public forums and pointing the accusing finger at them without offering any proof makes your argument weak and makes it look as if you are on a crusade, and crusades never end well. But lets take this a little further to illustrate the point, Lets hypothetically say I suspect my wife of having an affair, I even suspect I know who the fellow is, so one day I follow him around and take a photo of him getting out of his car in the Sandton City parking lot. Then I rush home and post the picture on The Hub or any public platform and point my finger saying "This sod is on his way to meeting my wife for an illicit affair ." Now let's think about this, suddenly the guy is getting strange looks in the coffee shop, maybe his usual friends are looking at him oddly and mumbling under their breath, maybe someone recognizes him in the mall and calls him a "fat middle aged tonsil", and all the while there is absolutely no proof he was having an affair, all the picture showed was a guy getting out of his car in a parking lot. You see where I am going with this, things can quickly be seen in the wrong light and spiral rapidly out of control, next thing lawyers are involved and it all starts to look like a bad idea. We are all adults here, I think so anyway, and you can make up your own mind on matters you feel strongly about, post pictures by all means but my suggestion is to make sure you have either evidence to substantiate your post, or a very good attorney on 24 hours call, because all I saw was a picture of two guys riding a bicycle and what could be considered a rather libellous post. Anyway, my position is clear, I have made my point, I dont have any beef with you or anyone else, I know you meant well and I hope this clarifies my standpoint. I have nothing further to add.

Quite chilled, I have no beef with the OP, I am sure he meant well, but we need to see the bigger picture as well, we cannot simply accuse people of wrong on a public platform without showing substantial proof or giving them the right of recourse, its simply not fair play.