ZyotismBlog

Pulled about 15 Shots of espresso tonight.  FAILED the whole lot.  Haha.  In fact the only tastey thing i got out of the machine tonight was some water for a cup of tea.  Haha. TEA FTW.

I pulled my first shots on Miss Silvia tonight with my good friends Sean and Kat, and guess what?  Yup.  It tasted TERRIBLE! Hahahaha.

Though, after reading so many reviews of the machine, i knew and expected it to take me a while to get the hang of.  Miss Silvia is very particular about how you treat her.  Anyway, tonight we went through a whole bag of beans in search of the correct grind, the right tamp, the right timing.  Sean and Kat both managed to get some good shots out of her, but they’ve had a lot more experience with espresso machines, and coffee preparation in general in the past.

I did manage to rock some good steamed milk out of her though, but sadly my espresso was terrible, so went all down the sink sadly. :-(

I’m looking forward to practicing my technique and learning loads more about it all in the coming days, weeks and months.  Hopefully by Christmas i’ll at least be able to get more of them to drink, than to go down the sink.

So the 3 boxes containing my Espresso Machine, Bean Grinder, and Accessories arrived at work today.  However, because of their size, and the fact that i ride a shuttle to work, followed by a 5 block walk, i’ve had to only bring the middle sized box home tonight, as the espresso machine was way to heavy, and the little box, well… is pretty boring anyway.

Yes, that means no awesome amazing coffee until tomorrow at the earliest. Though in the meantime, i can practice grinding beans.  Yay!

I’ve been looking at purchasing a fancy espresso machine for months, and now that i’ve finally started getting settled i decided it was time to bite the bullet and put my order in for my setup.

What i’ve gone for is a Rancilio Silvia espresso machine, and their matching Rancilio Rocky bean grinder.  I’ve done a lot of reading up online about these machines, and while most reviews say how difficult the machine can be for novices, and semi experienced home coffee makers, they also say that if you’re willing to learn all the subtle quirks of it, you can end up with a fantastic drink.

Things that can cause Miss Silvia to make a terrible shot of espresso:

1. Beans not fresh.

2. Beans not ground up consistantly, or at the wrong size.

3. Ground Beans not tamped evenly at the correct level in the portafilter.

4. Ground Beans not had enough pressure applied during tamping.

5. Incorrect water temperature, too hot or too cold.

6. Correctly heated up espresso cups, prior to pour.

7. Temperature of milk before and during steaming.

8. placement of the steaming wand.

The problem being is that, ensuring all these things are correct is challenging, and can take weeks/months of trial and error.  And also, if you change to a different coffee bean type, you will have to start all again, and find out the exact right age of the roasting, the right grind setting for the bean (my grinder has 55 different levels for example!).

It’s a good thing i really enjoy the process of making coffee, and improving my technique/skills in the search of the best coffee.

Silvia and Rocky should be turning up on Monday.  I can’t wait.

Yesterday I finally got around to picking my health insurance. The reason I waited so long was mostly cause one, I didn’t understand it, and two, I didn’t understand it.

That said the company I work for provides a fantastic array of help and advice, so I could easily have got answers to my questions quite easily. But to be honest, it’s not exactly the most enjoyable to do list item for me to get done.

I had to pick from 5 different plans. Each designed for a slightly different use in mind. The main differences are on the following things:

1. In network or out of network doctors

Aparently here you should have to shop around for a ‘good’ doctor or specialist. In the UK you pretty much have to go with your local one, which always seemed fine to me. I ended up with the option of in and out of network. Just to keep my options open for now. Though I believe this option means I pay more.

1. Big or small per month fee

You can pay next to nothing each month out of your paycheck, or a lot. Depending on your use, or if you have dependants or if you have special requirements. Or if you like going to the doctors lots. It’s this monthly fee that the company has contributed too. So if I was to get the same plan by visiting the health insurance company on my own, it would probably cost 4-5x the price.

1. Your yearly deductable

Each plan requires you to pay out of your own pocket a certain amount of money before they will pay out. For example. One plan requires you to have first paid $750 for doctors visits, fees, prescriptions, at full price before they’ll start giving you any help. Other plans have no deductable, but have a higher monthly payment (I think). I again went for a medium deductable here. $300.

1. Copayment

I think this is the fee you pay when you visit the doctors. Depending on the plan your own the price of this varies. And again you pay these in full until after you’ve met your deductable.

1. Consumer spending account

You can also sign up to put aside money pre-tax from your paycheck each payday to a healthcare spending account. That you can use to pay for your copayments, and prescriptions and random healthcare items from drugstores. Advantage obviously is that it’s pre-tax. So if you think you will spend a lot each year it can save you money to use a spending account. However if you over estimate, you loose the remainder completely and The Man gets it, or you have to spend it on loads and loads of cough syrup or something you font need at the end of the year.

I only put aside $100, as I tend to only go to the doctors once every few years, and I don’t have / need any drugs or applicable healthcare products.

I’ve oversimplified healthcare insurance completely here, and I’m sure I don’t understand it properly either. One thing I don’t understand is if I’ve already met my deductable and if I go to the emergency room for a massively swoolen ankle or something, I have no way of knowing if insurance covers it fully. As they can deem it ‘not an emergency’ and could then say they’ll only contribute 30% or something. Which might leave me paying thousands of dollars. Argh. You could ring them up for info, but if it’s late at night, on a weekend, and if your out of town, they’re gonna say “please call back during office hours.” argh.

Anyway. We shall see how it goes. Hopefully I’ll stay heathly and not need to use it. But it’s a sad day when you have to worry about medical costs, and not getting better. :(

One thing i’ve not discussed on this blog is my work.  The company i work for is known for producing some of the best designed products and services in the world.  Though it’s also known for being incredibly protective of information relating to unannounced products, business processes, and pretty much anything relating to anything and everything.

So as you’d expect, i’ve not been, and will not be commenting on anything relating to work here on this blog.  But what i will and can say is that i’ve been thoroughly enjoying my time with the company.  The people that i work with are not only extremely talented, but also damn hard working too.  And super nice and friendly and crazy and silly and all that stuff too.

So i’m very happy where i am now, and look forward to each and every day of work, and i feel very privileged to be have been invited to join the company.

Dear people that like eating grits. You are crazy.

Lots of love, Mischa.

I felt dead last night. First headache (perhaps even a temperature too?) since I’ve been in the US. Wasn’t fun, but reminds me I need to stock up on ibruprofen. Let’s hope it doesn’t cost lots.