Am becoming a bit obsessed with People’s Coffee at ‘The Garage’ i.e. their little walk-in on Garrett St. Popped over this afternoon after going to the wool shop to grab a takeaway. Amusing conversation was had when I put the wool on the counter to get money out of my purse.
Coffee man: Ooooo, what’s that? Is it food? Is it a burger?
Me: Are you starving? I’m sorry but it’s a ball of wool!
Coffee man: Oh. No. [Sigh.] I’m OK. Just thought it looked like an interesting packet.
Me: Well yes it is. Normally I get a little plastic bag, today they gave me this paper packet.
Coffee man: It’s quite cool, I like seeing where different things come from.
Me: Well, I’m sorry it’s just a ball of pink wool.
Almost rushed back with a couple of chocolate chip cookies for him that I made yesterday. But I don’t think The Mister would approve of that.
Have surprised myself by reading a factual book from end to end and can even remember some of the stuff I’ve read! It’s Espresso: Coffee Supreme Training Manual. It was published in 2001 and has definitely stood the test of time!
The main thing I need to work on is my ‘mouse tails’ – have to twiddle my grind & dose to get a finer stream of coffee with the objective of just the right amount of espresso in the cup after 25 seconds. Could also polish my milk pouring habits but for the most part the milk design on top doesn’t impact the flavour.
It’s a really great book – I love the voice, the flow and the illustrations – check out this great paragraph – so descriptive that it just takes you right back to those terrible early days:
Many years ago, when making a fluffy cappuccino was the greatest challenge in coffee making, trainees were encouraged to maximise the creation of foam. This usually resulted in the customer receiving a drink with a head of tepid fluff floating on a sea of scalded slop. It may have looked impressive to the naive eye, but it tasted awful.
Had a couple of days in Auckland playing lady wife while The Mister spoke at a Microsoft conference. Well, wasn’t really playing ladies as I went into work – got to spend some time in the Auckland office for the first time.
Compared to Wellington, Auckland is so busy and warm and there seems to be plenty of money about still – lots of flash cars and people out drinking coffee. Including us – just HAD to stop at this outdoor cafe that had orange umbrellas – not only the orange but the ability to sit outside and not freeze or get blown away! Plus they had cinnamon buns.
Called into the Ruby store on High Street – didn’t even look at the clothes – got distracted making kissy noises at the 2 orange canaries they had!
I still get a buzz out of seeing the Sky Tower whenever we’re up there – it was practically Xero blue on this visit!
Am a bit peeved yoga is getting in the road of our annual apartment anniversary picnic ordinarily scheduled for tonight. 5 years today since we took ownership – can’t believe it’s been that long. And it’s going to be a gorgeous evening too – spring time. We’ve now lived here longer than the neighbours either side of us so that makes me feel like the boss of our deck space!
More coverage from the NZ Internet Industry Awards that we appeared as as Xero’s celebrity couple is on the Liz Dengate Thrush Foundation website. The photo of us as the glam couple, but also a video of The Mister’s acceptance speech for Xero’s award. Isn’t he great? (click image to play)
I was out ’stalking orange’ earlier (new fav phrase coined by a friend today) & took a picture to add to a collection of orange pictures I’ve taken lately but hadn’t yet posted. So here’s a catch up.
Orange shark resting on the beach at Lyall Bay today
Orange airplane cup brought back from a recent overseas trip (you gotta feel special when one of your Board of Directors brings you presents!) … am travelling with that airline next time!
Found an awesome spot on a rock beside the runway today to watch planes and feel the rush as they took off, especially the 737’s. I managed to get high enough to feel like I was eye-level with the windows as they began their roaring run-up to lift-off.
In the wind and spur of the moment before lift-off I just can’t help waving, just to the plane really, never mind the people on it who probably think I’m a 5-year old trapped in a 30+/-40 woman’s body, however The Mister was on one of them today and he reported from Auckland that’d he’d seen me waving to HIM
And if you’re the people that tooted and waved at me from a white car (some kind of Toyota I think) I’m sorry if I should’ve recognised you and given you more than a confused ‘who me?’ wave back. Actually I rarely get over to that side of town so went for a walk along Lyall Bay, and the small villiage that Wellington is had turned everyone out for some air – I saw those ‘friends’ from the white car, bumped into other friends and we walked together for a while, the Xero car drove by and another car carrying a couple more friends.
With Nikau reopening tomorrow after their 9 months closure due to earthquake strenghtening going on in the City Galley where they are housed, I thought today that my batch of scones might be my last for a while. I’m not sure if Kelda (chef at Nikau) is still monitoring my progress but I thought I’d post a photo anyway – they’re looking pretty good straight out of the oven.
Another reason not to park under a tree, apart from avoiding bird poop, is to avoid it being used as a stage for a pigeon to lord it about over the other pigeons pecking around on the ground, and in fact humans. We practically came eye to eye and you could tell he was pumped to be in such a staring contest although as The Mister pointed out he probably wasn’t staring at me given that his eyes are on the side of his head – probably the person standing next to me! Hopefully whoever owns this car doesn’t come back to a whole lot of pigeon claw scratches on the roof from his strutting about.
Nikau is on schedule for opening Monday – wahoooo! We were invited for a special friends and family practice lunch today. We were chuffed! It was such a glorious rushing back of routine and memory. Lots of familiar faces there, both staff and customers. The cafe is still the same, there is a new bar top and toilets and till, but it was neat to see lots unchanged, right down to the My Little Pony on the coffee grinder.
I can’t explain the swell in my heart when I rounded the corner via the familiar route from home and saw people sitting inside at the tables. Felt like I was home or something.
Familiar lunchtime view
Little coffee pony
Smiling at the bar (The Mister had kedgeree & I had asparagus with this great pistachio/lemon/parsley mixture on top … no date scones today)
Sad SAD news is that there’ll be no Sunday opening. Nice lifestyle choice to balance their hard work but we’ll have to have a family conference to figure out how to deal with that! We had a brief conversation with Kelda and a few suggestions for what she could do on her Sundays – perhaps date scone or sour dough loaf baking sessions! I think that’d be great!!
