This is where Quentin and his team import coffee beans from all around the world (plus some grown themselves) and roast them perfectly in-house, winning lots of awards in the process. They have more than fifty different types of coffee available.

Needless to say, I’ve built up a good relationship with Quentin over the years and (with the help of a friend) recently updated their website for them so that they can manage it themselves. Now that I’ve resigned from my position at the National Archives, I won’t be heading into The Fresh Roast Coffee House for my morning coffee, but I will continue to order beans for use with my coffee machine at home.

If you’re looking for the best, freshly roasted coffee in Canberra (they ship all around Australia, free in the ACT) make sure you check out Jindebah. Some of my favourite coffees are:

• Colombian Supremo Huila
• Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
• Guatemala Antigua Los Volcanes
• Indian Monsooned Malabar
• Indian Tiger Mountain
• Mexican Kassandra (Rainforest Alliance)
• Peruvian Organic (Rainforest Alliance)
• Royal African Blend
• Sumatran Lumika Lintong

If you’re looking for a nice Mandehling, I quite like the Sumatran Kudu Mas.

If you’re a decaf person, I quite like the Colombian Excelso.

I’ll miss Quentin and everyone at Jindebah, so thanks for your friendly service over the years. You won’t get rid of me that easily, I’ll certainly be back from time to time to say hello (and down a beautiful cup of the best coffee in Canberra).

-c

*Well, technically yesterday as it’s after midnight..

Finally, today I was able to do that and for a bargain price I think.

The machine is a Sunbeam Café Series EM6910 which has twin pumps and twin heating systems so that one can prepare the coffee and milk at the same time. Andrew Tridgell recommended it when he recently presented his home made coffee roaster at CLUG. I also have another friend with one who highly recommends it. So with Tridge’s recommendation on top of that, it was just a matter of time..

RRP AU$799

To go with this lovely machine I of course needed a coffee grinder, so once again the recommendation came in for the Café Series Conical Burr Coffee Grinder EM0480.

RRP AU$219

That comes in at a total price of $1018, recommended retail of course.

Currently however, Sunbeam has a promotion on giving you a free EM0480 grinder when you purchase an EM6910 espresso machine.

With that in mind, I went out to find the best price I could on the machine, which would therefore include the grinder, saving a few hundred dollars.

Myer had it on special for $718, Harvey Norman would do it for $699, Bing Lee beat that price for $670 but today The Good Guys were the winners for $597.

Yes, $597. I had to double check the ticket to make sure I was looking at the right item! It was true. So now I have the exact machine I wanted with the exact grinder I wanted, brand new, and for a bargain price!

Fortunately, the week before I had bought a new portable air-conditioning unit for home.

The one I settled on is a De’Longhi PACW160B, AKA the “Pinguino” – how could I not buy that!? It’s so cute..

..and it works really well!
(Yes, sometimes I wonder too.)

Edit: Matt Bottrell pointed out that it’s actually “Pinguino” not “Penguino,” however it’s still meant to be a penguin which you can see from the image. That’s good enough for me!

-c

13 2281
CANBERRA CONNECT SHOPFRONTS
Belconnen, Dickson, Tuggeranong, Woden.
For addresses see back cover

It’s an address given by a woman named Rachel Barkey, who is dying of cancer. It is a very touching story and I feel privileged to have seen this talk. Thank you Rachel for sharing your life.

-c

The move appears to have been successful, which a huge hike in fees should restaurants choose to comply.

Buoyed by the nightclub ruling, the PPCA is now targeting eateries. It wants to increase licensing fees in a 120-seat restaurant to $19,344 a year — up from $125. Small cafes would be slugged with a 4729 per cent yearly increase from $124 to $5860.

Why am I writing this? I think this is a great opportunity for those free culture type people to come together and create and/or gather some creative commons compilations of music for use at these establishments. It might be a great way for local bands and musicians to get their music out into the public spotlight.

The way I see it working would be either physical material, or a website where anyone could download the music. I know that lots of these online places already exist, but perhaps a more targeted website would be helpful. Such a site might simply include information about the change, what it means to them, and how they can use CC music royalty free.

Information could be distributed to all cafes and restaurants in the ACT and indeed right across Australia.

Anyway, just a thought.

-c

Thank you to everyone who helped out in the lead up to the big day, and especially to my wife for marrying me. I love you

(Photo courtesy of friend Yu-Qian Wang, licensed under Creative Commons Attribute-Share Alike.)

mendy: I just had a super yummy lunch!

me: cool, what was it?

mendy: I didn’t use soya sauce for stir fried. I used
lemon juice instead
I opened the salmon with salt and pepper
Boc-choy and bean spout

me: yum

mendy: and spring onion, and Thai basil
and noodles
so yummy…
hahahaha
and I’m so full!
I only have one teaspoon each of the seeds
and I will have the rest later
hahahha, my tummy is so happy, I going to wash dishes now, ttyl