Behold the Diadema Perfetta, stylish stainless steel hunk of metal. Makes coffee.

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Finally plonked down cash for a coffee machine and grinder. My previous machine from eBay had gone to the repair shop and I suddenly got an itch to replace it so I got myself a Diadema Perfetta single boiler dual purpose espresso machine and a Macap M5 grinder. Put in the order on Monday and I was sort of excited all week until finally this morning I went to pick up the machine. The grinder is pretty high end, and probably one of the best home use machines which is already bordering on commercial cafe quality machinery. The espresso machine is pretty much top of the line of the single boiler machines out there. Unlike the higher end machines, I cannot make coffee and steam milk at the same time due to the temperature differences between both processes. I’m quite happy to wait a bit before steaming milk as I don’t normally prepare that many drinks.

So far I’ve made only a few coffees (will start taking photos once I produce something decent) and with just some basic knowledge and skills, the coffee still comes out pretty decent. When I can start making coffee art on the steamed milk, I’d have had plenty of time on the machine.

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It’s been a pretty productive week for me. Cleared out a backlog of work I had piled up and feel pretty good about it. Finally got my first item sold on eBay, just hoping that it arrives to the person who bought it in one piece. Now I have one less computer and while four seems excessive, they all have their reasons for being in my room as they serve different purposes.

Got my shipment of books from Amazon regarding photography. Have graduated beyond the books that teach you how to expose for a scene. These days I’m more into the thinking behind how to compose an image and I’ve picked up a few ideas here and there. I had previously purchased Joe McNally’s The Moment it Clicks and mentioned it here. This time around I bought his second book, The Hot Shoe Diaries as well as another book by photographer David duChemin, titled Within the Frame: The Journey of Photography Vision. Have only skimmed the surface of both books and would like to spend time reading them over the week.

No soccer on tonight, so I’m happy to just lay back, relax and flip through my books.