The Coffee situation...

Well "situation" is a bit dramatic really, isn't it... I don't have a coffee situation though some of you may say I do...

I've been wondering "why is coffee so expensive in Australia" and that thought coupled with "should I be buying locally to support local growers and a slowly dying market" has added up to a tiny bit of research... ongoing research... but research that start here. Tonight.

I thought I'd start by working out what I was paying, roughly but you know.. work it out.. So, 1kg of Coffee Supreme "Supreme Blend" beans costs me $40.00 (AUD) and that bag of beans lasts me almost invariably two weeks... I worked out (And I say roughly as I'm sure I missed a couple and a couple of them were consumed by Kate, too, so it works out even) that I made around 51 cups of coffee. Of those cups, I'd say about 10 contained milk, mostly though - this month - espresso. (looks down at stomach, waves)

I won't go down the machine depreciation, water, electricity, milk and time costs in this blog post (but will at some point) ....however, just based on beans alone, my coffees cost me around $0.78 each...

How much does your regular coffee "from the shop" cost you?  Answers below, please!

Black tears

After watching some show on the ABC t'other night that had Bernard Fanning and his new band on, I was thinking about this song he / Powderfinger wrote, Black Tears, it was a nod to Cameron Doomadgee,  the Aboriginal man that died in custody, or not... depending on which story you read.. Anyways, I just like it.. Here's my #oneTakeMondays version... [mp3t track="http://gtvone.com/music/black_tears.mp3" caption="by Simon" ind="n" vol="75" style="bigger2" bold="n"]

Dear cafes of Melbourne....

When I come to you for a cup of coffee and you charge me $4.30, I don't want half of the tiny glass to be foam... I want it to be no more than a centimeter, ever... It needs to be hot but not too hot, fresh, strong... You prove to me often that you shouldn't be allowed to serve coffee and certainly not for $4.30... Here is what I like. Print it out and stick it on your wall.

Sigma Photo 120-300mm F2.8 EX DG OS APO HSM

I've not been able to get out of the house to really give the new baby a run... Seb, the older baby, asked if we could head to the park today - a boys day out - so of course, I was "that dad" the one with the 120-300mm f/2.8 lens... at the park... I'm not going to blabber on... All images shot with the Canon 5D MKIII at ISO640 or above. One or two of the photographs of my little man made me really smile.. that, to me, is the sign of a great lens that I'd be very happy to own full time. Ha. Bias dad? Maybe...

Moments later, Seb dropped onto his head. He was OK and asked "did you get that" This is called #Fail - By me. Focus point spotting, anyone?

That's better... Little bit of dust kicking up action with the Tonka! Inbound! Babies be cryin' I be driftin'... Dad... this way! Into the spooky forest! #thatswhathesaid Melbourne on sun down... Seb in his element.. Tonka, Milkshake, Swishy stick... And in Black and White.... I love this photograph of my little man. His Milkshake brings all the mud to the yard.. damn right..  See... here's the mud!  Damn right... its better than yours.. he could teach you etc etc blah Just one more run through, dad!  I may have splashed mud on my squishy face! And my socks are also squishy! Do you like what the mud does for my eyes... (300mm @ f/2.8) Yeah... so that's what a kid, his dad and a sweetly ace Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX DG OS APO HSM (Err, Sigma.. less letters? ...or more! Go for the whole alphabet!) do on a cold Tuesday...

Sime

Do you Vine?

Anyone using Vine? Twitter owned, short video sharing app for iPhone. Plus: More going on than that of a single image, fun and easy to express something that takes more than just 140 characters / one word.

Minus: Damn slow to load via your regular 3G iPhone connection whatever.. even via Wifi.. Speed it up, buffer the other videos in the stream, I don't know.. it's almost enough to make me use it less. Almost.

I've posted a couple of videos on Vine recently, nothing life changing. But there are some fun ones up there.

That's my friend Jill, when I say friend, I mean I've never met her, she's a writer from the other side of the world.. I've watched her photographs on Flickr for years, now she posts crazy vids the oft make me chuckle, thanks Jill.

That's a new take on dinner via Vine. Asian Sea Bass... I'm certain my friend Alice would have LOVED the fish head.

You can get Vine on the app store.

Think of the many things you can do with this... A crazy stop motion type thing.... maybe...

...and, um, she doesn't really want to do it in this voice!