I fear that I may have become a stereotypical MAMIL (Middle Aged Man In Lycra, in case you don't know). The evidence is compelling - I've taken up cycling in my mid to late forties, embraced the full road bike/Lycra thing, turned into a complete coffee snob, and now I have this bloody blog to document it all. As I approach 50, I'm afraid I've become a seriously sad old bastard!
However, there's a few parts of my mamilism that don't quite fit the mould. I don't hang out with my cycling buddies at the end of a ride drinking coffee, nor do I do the team kit thing. Neither of these things really float my boat. Firstly, I don't have a bunch of cycling buddies because, for me, bike riding is a fairly solitary experience and I'm not really interested in riding with a group. Nothing against those who do - it's just not my thing. Nor do I like to promote teams/brands etc. I just wear plain jerseys or those from charity rides that I've done. Once again, nothing against those who don the kit, but it's just not my thing.
I've always had an aversion to brands and labels generally and, much to my wife's annoyance, I've never liked wearing garments emblazoned with logo's or brand names. It's no great ethical stance - I've just never been able to work out why you'd pay lots of money for a windcheater that has a huge Nike logo on it. Every time you wear it you are promoting their brand - they should really be giving you a discount because you are a walking advertisement for their company. The people who restore your roof will happily knock a bit off the price if you stick their sign on your front lawn for 12 months. What's the difference?
The coffee snob thing has evolved since last December, when I wandered into Cash Convertors with my son to look at video games and happened upon a Rancillio Silvia espresso machine for sale for the princely sum of $140. I was aware that the Silvia is probably the most popular machine for home baristas and can make a cracking cup of coffee if you get your technique right. It's also around $750 new, so I didn't hesitate in snapping it up. The guts of it is basically like a scaled down commercial machine - it has a full sized grouphead and a mini version of a high pressure commercial boiler with a 3 way valve so you can backflush it to clean it out. My grinder is just a Breville thing, but I've modified it so the burrs run closer together, giving a finer grind suitable for a decent espresso machine. I suspect I'd get better results from a better quality grinder but, for the moment, it does the job.
Anyway, it took me a while to get the grind, dosing and tamping technique right, but I'm finally getting there and can now pull a fairly reasonable shot. It's certainly equal to or better than the coffee I've experienced in most cafe's. Our weekends now seem to revolve around the frequent coffee ritual. We've also had a couple of holidays over the past three months (to Mannum in April and Port Elliot last week) where we've had to take the coffee machine with us. Sad I know but, as we explained to the kids, if the parents are kept happy (and energised) then everyone has a better holiday.
Anyway, I'm not about to stop any of these MAMIL pursuits anytime soon, so I'm quite happy to be another sad old bastard riding his bike and writing a blog that mostly seems to get read by people in Moscow. I really don't think anyone there is interested in my mediocre cycling story - I somehow suspect all the hits I get from Moscow come from some automated software that scans websites looking for ways to exploit people and do nasty things. Anyway, onwards and upwards.
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