HappyMartin

I'm now getting emails from Vitality suggesting I upload and sync my activities. I feel no incentive to do so and have not done so in months. Next year if I decide to continue with the system and points become needed and available I will upload until I have met my goals.

I do a fast every Monday. By Tuesday morning when I have my first meal all I can think about is that cappuccino. By that time I have a pounding headache. Pretty sure from caffeine withdrawal. The bliss as I take that first sip cannot be described. I totally understand heroin addiction.

Lions ran riot tonight. Flipping cold in the stadium.

A big thank you to V12 for the almost two hour coffee break on Friday to help me with my coffee making skills. It was both pleasant and helpful. Things going well with the new machine at the moment.

I do quite a lot of location work. I take an Aeropress with a Porlex filter with me. My girlfriend is a geologist and also travels with an Aeropress.

Exact same thing happened to a mate a few years back. Krell power amp fried. 200K repair bill was just one of there items.

Anyway so what. Who cares. It's an African team. You want people to be chosen on merit or on a quota? When quotas are mentioned with the Sprinbok team people have a flipping fit. Now we want a quotas for Aafricans in DDD. Makes no sense to me.

Yes in a way. The Oscar would get to a point where it would choke then I would have to back off with the grind or the tamping or the dose. The Linea will quietly just push the shot even if it takes 45 s. I get a much thicker shot now if that is the correct term. Creamier I suppose. Steaming milk is a SOB though. It goes so quickly I don't have time to think or react. Did better this morning. I read last night that starting with everything ice cold gives you a bit more time with the stretching so I actually stuck the jug in the freezer for about 5 minutes. It seemed to help.

Yes an Oscar. I think I got out of it what I was capable of. Learnt a lot with that machine.

Doing much better today. new beans and things starting to click. Had an espresso at a restaurant at lunch and that cheered me. Seems I'm not doing nearly so badly as I thought. gave me the confidence to try an espresso again and it was pretty good. Velvety texture and lots of different flavours. I always seem to prefer it as it cools down though. Not sure whats with that. Hot the flavours seem a bit sharp. Perhaps I'm just not used to it.

Deal. I am teaching on Thursday and Shooting tomorrow. I can make Friday this week or if thats not good how about next week? So far just Monday and Thursday booked. I have many many questions but mostly I would like you to give me a really good espresso so I know what I am aiming for, if that makes any sense. I am a creature of routine and agree that too many variables at the moment. I was doing well over the weekend but that was just good fortune. Thanks everyone for all the advice. I listen to it all. Burrs are sharp. I may be bumping the portafilter on insertion. Never thought of that, clever. I'm very careful not to bump after tamping but I bet I'm clumsy inserting. Im super careful with the level of tamping. Cant guarantee with the weight though. I have given up on those woolies beans. Ordered from Greenbean Coffee Roasters. A Cameroonian bean I never had before. Looking forward to that. Another variable. "sigh" Oh well. single origin African beans is something I just love. Discovering all there different flavours.

I am in the valley of despair at the moment. This bloody Linea Mini is working me over. After cleaning the grinder out and changing beans I'm all over. I ran out of beans and just picked up a bag from Woolies to see me through while I get used to the new machine. What a *** idea. I simply cannot get a decent cup of coffee out of it. Even the normally quite forgiving cappuccino is not good. On top of it the grind is all over. One moment the machine is choking the next I pull a really awful shot in just under 15s. I am usually pretty good with consistency but that is now out the window. Question is could that be related to beans? I have never noticed that before. It could be that I never cleaned out the grinder before and it is settling in again. Don't see why. It's metal. As for steaming milk, don't get me started. It's a coffee set up, it's not sentient, I think. Surely I can out think it? On another note. Anyone heard about the new Baratza Sette grinder. Specs look interesting. Grinds 3.5g of espresso every second. Grinds to weight and is accurate to 0,2 g and grinds into the portafilter. Due for release around now. Projected cost $400. Sounds too good to be true. Will have to see the actual grind quality

Not aimed at you but don't you think this hobby of how to get Vitality to work is getting totally silly now? Seriously I have to sit on my trainer when cooling down and move my arms like I'm running?

I hope you are wrong. I have some hope. Some very big changes happening in the team and the thing is they are working out. Perhaps it will give everyone confidence to keep changing. Faf is a case in point. He has gone from being given a test run off the bench to being the stand out player in just three games. Those of us that have been watching him at Ellis Park are not surprised. Let the guys settle. Let's see what the coach can do. We needed a shake up. Perhaps this is it

Will do thanks. It's going to take time. On the plus side I think quality is up by quite a bit. It's just erratic. Talking about espresso here. I'm also drinking more americanos than I used to. Having hot water on tap has caused that. Milk frothing is very hit and miss and making just two a day for my GF and I it will take a while to get it sorted. Perhaps I should just buy 4 l of milk and go for it but I feel very odd wasting food.

I haven't uploaded anything in weeks and weeks. Checked my points target a moment ago and it's drifted up from 500 to 700. They can make eleventy million for all I care. I won't be uploading any info until next year when I need the points to stay on gold. I realize they are after the info to do all sorts of actuarial wizardry but I couldn't be bothered with the system the way it is. Basically they are rewarding us for info with this program or we are selling the info if you prefer that analogy. Well I don't think the price is adequate.

It's not very impressive at the moment. I'm not doing badly with the extraction as far as I can see. Taste is impressive to me. I'm just not grooving it at the moment. I'm fumbling around. It will come I suppose. I will try shoot a video of the extraction tomorrow. I gave the grinder a thorough clean this morning. Right down to the burrs. Should have done that ages ago. Fortunately with the Simonelli the adjustment is on the bottom burr so removing the top one and getting in to clean doesn't require dialing in the grinder again.

Having much fun with the Linea Mini. Bought a tamping stand and a crotchless portafilter.

Well done Bokke. Faf you beauty.

The LM came with a water test kit. I ran the tests and plugs the relults into LM website and it came back as very slightly corrosive non scale forming. I have decided to run with Aquelle water in the meantime. By the images above the baskets are def VST. After all the organizing and moving around of stuff I think I deserve a coffee before I get in front of Photoshop again

Done a bit of research on the basket thing. I have read that LM baskets are the same as the VST. I didn't know about this issue but I noticed how different the baskets are that came with this machine. I will start dosing as per the weight etched on the basket from now on. I was using 18g so now just a gram down. I can now say that with the 1g saving the machine will pay for itself in about a levinty million and thirty eight years.

I bought a waterproof Barista scale and I'm very specific with weights. I weigh the extraction and time it. Weigh the beans as well. A left over from my days of chemical based photography or just a personality trait.

Art is another thing. Managed to stuff up my first attempt at steaming. I could nail it with Photoshop and a wacom no problem. Need to be able to get it right before the GF comes home from the Northern Cape. She likes the hearts. I tend to be a bit traditional and will drink a cappuccino at breakfast then go for espressos the rest of the day. The machine is lovely. Quiet and solid. I think we will be friends.

I think they are VST. As far as I can tell. Very fine precision holes. Look quite different to the ones I am used to. Very smooth basket inside. Does that make sense? Came wit 21g, 17g, 14g and 7g. Oy so much to learn.

Yep. Thats what I am doing. Making single shots and taking a few sips then dumping it. I have set my grinder way finer. I am keen to try the steamer at some point.