Ruined by the Perfect Cappuccino

Quite a while ago, Pomodoro (the restaurant that I work at) sent me on basic coffee training. We don't usually have a barista in the bar, so we tend to make all of the coffee ourselves. This makes training fairly vital to the reputation of our coffee.

The three day coffee shop course by Ciro focused primarily on setting the grind of the coffee beans for the perfect espresso, but we were also taught how to texturize milk for cappuccinos, which is pretty important, too. I absolutely loved learning about coffee, and for the first time, I understood what truly good coffee should taste like. I enjoyed a cappuccino that was so exquisite, that I didn't need to add any sugar to it. This is a problem... Because now I'm very fussy about my coffee.

I'll still drink a cup of coffee that isn't quite right, but every time that I do, I'll be thinking about how it's too bitter, or a little too sour, how it's been over-extracted, or probably been burnt in the machine. Every time that I taste an imperfect espresso, or see a cappuccino with a towering head of foam on top, I feel the need to walk over to the barista, give them a stern look, and then set them straight in the not-so-mysterious ways of coffee. (I have actually done this before. Don't judge me. The cappuccinos at the Hoekwil Café are better for it, and the staff have thanked me for sharing my knowledge. So there!)

Anyway, most of the cappuccinos I've had since that day in training have not lived up to my new expectations, which is really disappointing, because I used to enjoy all cappuccinos. My newfound knowledge and skills have deprived me of a constant enjoyment of coffee...

Of course, the utter contentment I experience when I taste a REALLY good cup of coffee is totally worth it... I appreciate it so much more now.


Topic Change! I have the best Grammy in the world. After reading my post about being interested in doing some short courses to improve my writing skills, she sent me over to The Great Courses and told me not to hold back. I sent her links to this one about storytelling and this one about writing fiction, and she promptly bought them for me! So I now have two courses to get to work on, which I'm very excited about. Thank you, Grammy!

Awww, how cute! Very silly. But cute!

Also, puppies!

No, they're not ours. We don't need puppies, we have a permanent kitten. They're just frolicking around the Café and I'm watching them being stupid (i.e. eating actual mud) while I'm writing this post. It's very entertaining.




I'm going to stop writing now. I have a lovely day off to enjoy, which I'll be spending doing whatever pleases me! Cheerio!

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin

They taste kinda like popcorn.

Lookie here! I roasted the pumpkin seeds, just like I said I would. And contrary to my initial prediction, I did take a picture of the finished product, EVEN THOUGH they were fairly darn tasty. (I did them in coconut oil, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar, if you're interested in that sort of information. I roughly followed this lady's method.)

Also, they're really filling, so we still have some left. Knowing Francois though, they'll be finished by the end of the day. He seems to enjoy them a lot more than I do. I think they're a little too tricky to chew, which puts me off a tad. I'd like to try doing this with seeds from a sugar pumpkin or something similar - apparently it works a bit better.

While nibbling on the seeds, I decided to whip something up that I thought about making last night: A pumpkin smoothie. After defrosting a segment of pumpkin and microwaving it to cook it through nicely, I scooped up (and accidentally shredded) the fleshy contents and plopped them into my smoothie jug-thing. I wouldn't be able to tell you how much pumpkin I used, but I can say that it was a LOT. I added a banana, some cinnamon and nutmeg, honey to sweeten it a little more, and yoghurt and milk to dilute the flavour and thin things out a bit. Here's a picture of the result:

Oh yes, that prediction about not taking
a picture of the yummy seeds in time?
That happened with the smoothies instead.

Sorry, Francois decided that he needed to get all of you with that hand-sign thing. Also, you've now all lost the game. Sorry. Again.

I'd suggest using cold pumpkin and a frozen banana if you decide to try this out. We had ours luke-warm and it was rather tasty, but I get the feeling it would be ten times better if it was icy-cold. Crushed ice is also a good idea if your blender can handle it... Mine can't. :(



The segment of pumpkin that I defrosted and cooked for the smoothie still has loads of flesh stuck to it, so there's definitely more pumpkin on the menu in the very near future. Maybe pumpkin crumpets, or pumpkin mug cakes, or some more pumpkin soup... I'd definitely like to try pumpkin mug cakes. That could be very interesting.

Darn it, the power has gone off. Hoorah for load shedding! I'd better stop typing now and upload this article before my battery goes flat. If I'm lucky, though, my tablet will stay on long enough to write up a short story. Time to get cracking!

A Quick, Slightly Boring Update

Francois and I were planning to do a proper cycling trail in Saasveld yesterday, but we decided against it for now. I'm still not able to stand and cycle at the same time, and that would make the extra-bumpy trail particularly painful to experience.

Cycling along the driveway, just so Francois can take
a picture of me... Proof that I really can ride my bike!

Instead, we went for a ride around Wilderness. It was really relaxed, and gave me the opportunity to learn how to start cycling from a standing position (as opposed to starting with my bum on the seat). I enjoyed navigating the sidewalks, dodging people and dogs, trying not to scratch parked cars and narrowly missing various poles (most of the time).

Me again! Still in the driveway. But cycling!

Well... I enjoyed it after the initial extreme nervousness, anyway.

Unfortunately, after the cycle, I was so kaput that I couldn't bring myself to write anything for my blog. So I skipped a day. :(



What I did do was make really yummy pumpkin and spinach soup. We bought a HUGE crown pumpkin for R30 from Fruit and Veg City, which Francois massacred artfully using his manly muscles. I wouldn't have been able to tackle that pumpkin... It was ridiculously hard. So we had fresh pumpkin (I used less than a quarter of it), and spinach that I bought for R15 from the local veggie-selling hippie in Wilderness (which I used about a third of). Woo! Cheap, ridiculously tasty soup!

It looks weird because spinach makes things
look weird. But I promise it's delicious!

I'm going to roast the seeds that were scooped out of the pumpkin to make a crunchy snack. I might post a picture of them here when I do... But that may not happen, for two reasons:

1: If I fail miserably and burn them or something, I won't post a picture out of sheer embarrassment and depression. (I'm kidding. I probably will, because it'll be funny.)

2: If they're amazingly delicious, we'll probably eat them all before I can grab my camera. (I'm not kidding about this one.)

Okay, I think I'm done with this post. Hopefully I'll think of something more interesting to write about tomorrow... Any brilliant topic ideas are always welcome, by the way. :P

A Balancing Act

Potholes are a pain in the ass. This is not a recent revelation - it's terrible to hit one while you're in your car - but I'm speaking literally here. When you're riding a bicycle, every bump that you hit hurts your behind. During my cycle with Francois yesterday, I really started getting nervous about the big bumps in the road... Because the longer you ride, the more sensitive you are to every stone that you bounce over and every hole that you drop into. I was starting to hurt.

I have a comfy silicone seat cover...
Not comfy enough!

Once I started paying proper attention to the deeper holes in the road, I tried lifting myself off the seat just a little bit to minimize the impact, but I couldn't lift up enough to make too much of a difference. That's when Francois suggested that I figure out how to stand up while riding my bike. He showed me how to position my feet, explained that I should lock my knees into place for better balance, and waited for me to give it a go.

Well, I tried, at least. A few times! I didn't give up too easily. But for some reason, I just couldn't lift myself up and balance nicely on my pedals. At first, I thought that my legs were just too tired, or a little too weak, or that I just needed a lot of practise and would get it eventually. They were all logical assumptions. But the answer was actually in my bicycle.

Because I'm still very uncertain with my bike and have only recently figured out how to ride, I've left my seat fairly low down. This allows me to climb onto the seat, balance with one foot on the ground, and then push off on the pedal with my other foot. I start with my bum firmly on the seat every time. That's all good and well, until you want to stand up on your bike... My leg doesn't straighten completely when I push the pedal all the way to the bottom, so standing automatically becomes a much trickier feat to accomplish. Without that straightened leg helping me to balance and then distribute my weight between my two legs, it became nearly impossible to lift my body weight.  There we go, it suddenly all made sense!

The pesky pedals that I need
to learn how to stand on...

It would be perfect if I could tell you that I adjusted my seat, started riding and 'voila!' managed to stand and cycle. One problem, though... By the time I realised how to fix things, I was super tired and just wanted to make my way back home. No seat adjustments, no victorious standing on pedals, none of that. I made it home, flopped onto the grass defeated, and gave up for the day.

It's still all positive, though. I learnt quite a few things during that ride:
1: That I had a problem. (My sore bum!)
2: What I need to do to fix that problem. (Standing up while going over bumps.)
3: How to adjust things so that it's actually possible to achieve my goal. (Raising my seat. Obviously.)

When we go for another cycle on Monday or Tuesday, I'll change the height of my seat and give the whole standing up thing another shot. Hopefully, with my new information and adjustments to my bike, I'll manage to perform the balancing act that will save my behind from certain doom.


P.S. I was going to point out the way that this relates to other aspects in life, like balancing work and leisure and things like that, but Francois said that he'd tease me about it if I did. So I didn't. But I kind of did, by telling you about that in this Post Script. So yeah... Balance is important and stuff! Okay. I'm done now.

As Easy as Riding a Bicycle...

"It's as easy as riding a bicycle!"

This is a phrase that I never did fully understand until very recently. I'm twenty three years old, live with my boyfriend in a little cottage that we responsibly pay rent for, ourselves, every month. I've paid off my car, pay insurance for it like a good grown-up, and even have a little retirement fund going. And yet, until yesterday, I couldn't ride a bicycle. When people said that phrase, I'd just think: "But riding a bicycle is DIFFICULT, not easy!"

I've been trying to figure out why I never did learn to ride when I was younger. At first, I thought it was because we lived in a place where learning to cycle was not made easy. When I was given my first bicycle, we lived up a very long, narrow dirt road, that was not exactly the safest environment for a young girl to learn to balance on top of a thin thing with only two points of wobbly contact with the ground. So, I went around in circles on a stoep, with my training wheels ON, and after going in circles for a while, I got bored, and stopped. I didn't start again.

I think that while I was in primary school, some of my friends tried their best to teach me how to ride... But I don't remember much about that. I suppose I wiped it from my memory, or didn't see it as particularly important at the time.

While in high school, my best friend also tried very hard to teach me how to ride her bicycle. She held onto the seat and pushed me along the length of her garden, but I wasn't too enamoured of the idea of cycling, and her garden was rather small and grassy, so I didn't particularly like the idea of falling or crashing into the wall at the other end... Eventually, she gave up on me, and quite frankly, I was relieved.
So, what changed? Why did I manage to learn how to cycle yesterday?

1) First of all, I kept at it. It didn't all happen yesterday. It took quite a few days. On day one, I rolled backwards and forwards on the bike, not even able to push off properly on one pedal before chickening out and putting my feet back on the ground. I was nervous, which I've always been. But I kept going, kept trying, and the next day I went outside and did it some more. Francois (that boyfriend that I mentioned earlier, the one I live with) pushed me just the right amount, giving me little snippets of advice and suggesting that I give myself more space, pointing out that hills are useful, all of those small, useful things. And with some time (less than I expected!) I was actually pushing down on the right pedal, and then the left, and then the right again. Actual cycling! So that was number one. Perseverance.

2) You won't persevere unless you have motivation. My whole life, I've never felt motivated to learn how to ride a bicycle. When Francois and I decided that we wanted to do something fun together, we thought a bit about lengthy hikes (days and days in the mountains), but that didn't really seem to stick as a great idea. When Francois suggested cycling in the mountains, however, that sounded more reasonable and MUCH more exciting. Speed! Greater distance! Who wouldn't want to cycle in the mountains, right? Right? Well, with that exciting goal in mind, we started shopping around for a bicycle, and I was just as excited about it as Francois was. Despite my lacking skills in the cycling arena, I was giddy over the new toy that we were looking for. The motivation for cycling had finally arrived, and I actually WANTED to do it. There we go. Now I know how to ride my bike.

Anyway, this all brings me back to that opening phrase: "It's as easy as riding a bicycle!"

Now I understand what that means. It means (to me, anyway) that it'll be a little tricky and unusual at first, even scary, but with the right amount of motivation, perseverance and practice, it'll feel natural and easy in no time... And that you'll never forget how to do it. Right? Well, I think that's what it means.


P.S. I think that it generally looks like I'm pretty good at life. Being a grown-up and doing responsible things and all of that junk. Actually, I'm pretty bad at it. Hopefully learning how to ride my bicycle with more skill will give me some good analogies for life and how to improve at all of those terrifying new things that people expect me to know how to do. Wish me luck!