This is half-pie.

That’s my favourite corner of the kitchen, right there.

The machine was a wedding present, a Brasilia Club, so it’s seen good service (and L’Affare, from whom it was purchased, have replaced the seals for us just twice in over twelve years). But the grinder is new from last week, and is the thing I am pleased with.

The old grinder, a previous birthday present, wasn’t grinding finely enough. We have a coffee über-geek in the family, and he advised that the Rancilio Rocky was the way to go. Of course, he’s long since upgraded his to a semi-commercial Mazzer (and so I can always be pleased that there is someone else who is much more of a nerd for coffee than I am). I can’t bear the thought of old coffee going stale in in those doser things, so we got the doserless model from Ripe in the Hutt.

And so in the last week I’ve discovered I can now make nicer shots using about 50% fewer beans than ever (although by “fewer beans” I’m using 18g – oh yes, I’m now rather anally weighing the beans – which is apparently at the upper end of the double-shot range). I now know what a blonde shot looks like. And I’ve had to purchase a new “coffee squasher” (as Rosa calls it) in an attempt to stop the new coffee-geek bugbear of channelling.

I’ve also discovered that while it is possible to have three very strong shots in close proximity, it does mean that sleep, when it comes, is troubled with strange dreams and bouts of partial wakefulness.

Living is learning, isn’t it.