I showed up to Port Kembla Men's Group and was quickly recruited to make coffee for anyone. Three men in the group had been telling/showing me how to do it right over the past two weeks. On Monday last week I went with A. to serve coffee in Berkeley. He showed me how to steam the milk and that was my job the whole time besides clean up, etc. (Worthy of note: I burned my arm on the coffee machine when I picked it up hot.)
Anyway, yesterday the group needed me to make coffee because the two main baristas were preoccupied and fully busy. One was preparing and cooking chooks/chickens, pizzas, and bread in a built wood-fire oven. That was lunch for the men's group and at the same time practice for a wedding reception coming up. The other barista was out back painting and doing some work on his car to get it ready for rego/registration. The back up barista is in Ireland and traveling abroad for the next several months. So, I got my chance to practice.
One thing I've realized is that often baristas in coffee shops have served me overheated milk in cappuccinos. Also, I like the flavor of coffee, which means it's got to have the creme (sp?), all the flavor and oils in the beans besides the caffeine. So, the coffee that has a medium light brown, smooth color and texture is lovable while instant type coffee has become for me "unloved". (The way you get this lovable coffee is by adjusting the coarse-/fineness of the grounds. Eg, if you get the grounds too coarse, the hot water will run quickly past them and only pick up caffeine and some of the flavors and come out blackish. You really want the hot water to pick up as many delicious flavors as possible, running in a slow, medium light brown stream. If you can ignore the sugar and see the espresso around the cream/milk sun pictured, you'll see what I'm talking about.)
There is definitely more to good coffee than bitterness, caffeine, and wasted milk. One more note about yesterday . . . P., a Macedonian, beat me royally in outdoor chess. Apparently, I play too slowly in addition to stupidly. But P. and the rest of the advisors were kind enough not to call me "stupid," just "slow". So that's okay. One 36-year old told me I should play more aggressively when I'm down to just my king, queen, a rook, and two pawns. It sure wouldn't have hurt. That's a lot like life. When you're down and out or stuck, don't be proud or timid; make drastic changes. Or like Jesus said, if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It'd be better to thrive with one eye than to dwindle with two.
I think it was yesterday, too, that I registered for Relay for Life, a cancer support walk-a-thon sort of thing.
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