Honestly, it wasn't my idea to get one of such high maintenance toy! I had been the victim for such machine. As much as it could serve, I need to clean them up each time it gets into use.
Well, I told myself 'who knows I am going to be a barista' soon? This is my training ground for making a good coffee in future. And well enough, this require lots of 'trial & error'. All started with you tubing, I tried with a ready grained coffee powder which was meant for filtered coffee.
And well enough, the spending partner did his homework too, asked around from some experts, bought a few packets of grounded coffee bean, including the Illy Arabica, which then finally went perfect with my coffee machine.
There are just a lot to learn. In order to make a fresher coffee, selecting the right bean is a wide range of knowledge. This made me needed to buy several other accessories - coffee bean grinder, stopper, milk froster mug, thermometer, coffee cups an saucer and a set of glass for my favourite Afagato.
The family of coffee machine started with this, Philips Saeco's HD8325/08 manual expresso machine. No build grinder, and it is ever basic. To me, it has been ever complicated to operate, it failed me couple of times, when I first used the BON filtered coffee grained pack.
Philips Saeco
I soon tried you-tubing, and this movie helped me a lot. Especially on the milk frosting part. :)
The companion of coffee machine started with these 2 sets of cups from Ikea (in fact I broke 1 cup before, and replaced it). I specially bought a set of small glasses for my favorite Afogato (coffee with Vanilla ice-cream) on the visit for the replacement cup.
Ikea Cups
Ikea Glasses
My coffee accessories then further increased with the addition of a entry level Coffee bean grinder, the Krup F203. All the way from US, and it is important to check the input voltage of the machine, a regulator is usually needed for US electrical stuffs. I needed one with the price of RM30. Thanks to a colleague who usually helped me as US courier-man, and even for Tokyo courier services too. I think this machine cost me closed to $20, while I had other accessories which made a total slightly above $25, a presser, a thermometer and a small milk froster mug.
Coffee bean / spice grinder
The accessories
My 1st trial on the grinder. The bean wasn't fine enough, and it is manual, been difficult for me to handle its level of finest. So far, I am still practicing it with some cheaper beans I got from Chiang Mai BON cafe. More practice required... where I hope practice makes perfect.
This marked my first ever experience with Butterfly Threading facial. Thanks to the available treatment from my ever trusted beauty facial saloon, and of course a friend who introduced such kind of facial treatment many years ago (mind you, he's a guy!) It was an extra ordinary experience with such treatment, compared to normal facial treatment.
Herbaline leaflet
Watch the video which well explains how it was done. A layer of powder was placed and the true thread artwork starts after that. Be mindful, it was real painful, especially for me as a first timer. Tears went off a couple of times, till I really prayed how long else it will finish. The threading itself took me almost 30min. Then it continued with face massage (gua-sa 刮痧), I love this to the max! With the soft aloe vera gel they used, it had been so cooling plus the massage that came by with the jade stone. It was a true pampering one, the cooling gel helped soothing my skin.
For full information, check out their website here.
What's the effect and feel out from it. I couldn't explain much at this point of time... except kind of itchy once a while, I would say my face feels fresh. The beautician said I would need to apply more moisturizer in order to avoid dryness. So, I'd need to be more hardworking for the next 3 days. :)