A Kennedy – A filter coffee with 3 shots of espresso in it. Why it’s called this, I hope you know. Try asking for a Kennedy next time. The mixed reactions it receives makes up for the sheer caffeine content.

Black Eye – A filter coffee with 2 shots of espresso in it.

Red Eye – A filter coffee with only 1 shot of espresso in it.

Dirty Chai – A chai latte with a shot (or two, or three…) of espresso. It’s actually rather nice, and I’m quite a fan. However it’s an odd taste at first and maybe takes a bit of getting used to. The spicy-ness, the sweet-ness and the bitter-ness. Pretty good times. And it’s even better iced. Next time you’re at Starbucks, try out an Quad Venti Iced Latte Macchiato with Chai syrup, and 1 pump almond. It’s pretty gnarley.

What’s happening in the coffee world with me these days? Well let me enlighten you. My current drink of choice, is the result of a few things; 1 – Price, 2 – Caffeine content and 3 – Refill-ability™. It goes by the name of a “Tall Almond Black Eye with hot milk“.

Essentially this is just a filter coffee with two shots of espresso, a little almond syrup and some hot milk. But there is oh-so-much-more to it than that. To get it tasting good, a few principles have to be observed.

1) Assuming you’re ordering this in Starbucks, don’t get Estima (whatever you do!), get whatever else is going (even if it’s the morally questionable (don’t ask me why) House Blend), I find Sumatra, or something fairly bold is best.

2) Only get one or two pumps of almond syrup. If it’s a tall, then it’s gonna have 3 pumps normally, which is a tad too sweet.

3) Espresso is espresso, at least at Starbucks it is. Regular or decaf is fine.

4) Only get a little hot milk (a quarter/half inch will do). Even better if it’s dry.

This basically fulfils all my criteria, it’s cheap (£1.12 ish with a discount and Starbucks Card), caffeine rich (240+150 = 390mg Caffeine per cup), and refill-able (free refills on freshly brewed (and the extras are normally included)). Win for me. Stay tuned for more interesting drinks combos…

Being an ex-(and maybe possibly future) employee, I have a different outlook and opinion on the company and its ethics, and so do bear that in mind with anything I say, but then again it’s not like I’m saying anything remotely controversial—so don’t worry!

Primarily, this post concerns dry drinks… Not as in non-alcoholic, but as in more foam or less liquid depending on how you look at it. Basically it’s a simple way of customising your beverage so it’s how you like it. But then again it’s so much more. It can tell you a little bit about a person. For example, people who come in and order a wet latte are generally pretty stingy (or maybe just a little picky, but there’s better ways of doing that) and want the most value for money so to speak (or skin on their milk if there’s absolutely zip foam). People who order a dry latte (or a wet cappuccino in that case) probably think they are being all ‘hip’ with the wet/dry lingo, but don’t really know what the difference between a (Starbucks) latte or cappuccino is. Then again, they could be ultra picky, but the same picky rule from before applies (they could do better, or worse depending on your perspective).

What I used to order fairly often (this was when working by the way) was a quad Venti 1 pump almond extra dry cappuccino (try it, it’s quite nice). Essentially this is like an quad espresso macchiato with a venti cups worth of foam on top (and a little almond). A little too expensive seeing as most of it is air and a venti cappuccino is £2.60 (not including the 2 extra shots (15p each) and the syrup (35p)). Ordering this on the cheap could be done pretty easily as an espresso macchiato in a venti cup with XX foam + 2 shots + syrup. Paying by Starbucks card would also get you free shots and syrup, making the drink a much more manageable £1.35 I think… Anyway, back to my original point on dryness—the main reason I liked my drinks extra dry was that there was less liquid (quicker to drink) and in a busier Starbucks, they tend to make drinks over-wet in my opinion. They’re good skilled baristas, don’t get me wrong, but at high volume times, you might not get the absolute freshest (micro)foam in the world, so free-pouring (the action of not using a spoon to pour cappuccinos and (espresso) macchiatos) would not be possible, and so the foam and milk would not be mixed (creating a light airy silky milk) but in almost 2 distinct layers (using a spoon to achieve this). Not nice. So basically my theory in ordering an extra dry drink was to force the barista to make new (very dry) milk and then free pour it, creating a good (reasonably dry) cappuccino. This would generally work. As a result: Moses 1, Starbucks 0.

But then try ordering this at another store. This is where the confusion comes in… Fair enough they know how to make your drink, that’s their job, but they just do it differently. Going from the 2nd busiest (or busiest) store in the UK, to a smaller one (without even a queue!) has a surprising effect on the dryness of drinks. Whereas before in the busy store where jugs of milk used to be put on in ‘batches of anticipation’ which worked out really well when it got crazy busy, now milk is put on as needed and the barista’s outlook on the extra dry cappuccino has changed. They would happily make fresh and free pour any cappuccino (which would be excellent), but given a dry cappuccino (or even an extra dry cappuccino (shock horror!)) then it would be made exceedingly dry and then not even free poured, but basically the foam spooned on top (NB this was my experience for a dry cappuccino, I don’t want to know what an extra dry one is like…). Fair enough some people may like it like this, but then again you’re getting to the point where you are buying a cup of foam. Not always the best thing. Moses 1, Starbucks 1.

But basically the point of this whole mini discussion is to highlight the differences in a barista’s interpretation of a dry drink. Depending on the store, it will (strangely enough) be made differently. The main point to take home from this is: ‘Don’t buy a cup of foam’.

I do have lots of lovely pictures of bikes and jeans, but I just can’t get round to posting them as it just takes a little time. But maybe, just maybe soon.

The only real rant that I have at the moment is the whole living in Scotland and going to an English University thing. Basically, because I do such a thing (probably clearly considered obscene by the Scottish government) they penalise me… Just because I want to read engineering at one of the best places possible (hint: which isn’t in Scotland) I don’t get as subsidised financially…

Consider this:-

If I were in Scotland, I would not have any fees, and get a meagre yearly non income assessed loan of £915 (try surviving on that…)

If I was to live in Scotland and go to an English university, then I would pay the tuition fees (£3225 a year) and get the same meagre yearly non income assessed loan of £915.

Even if I lived in England and went to university here, then I would pay the tuition fees, but then get a yearly non income assessed loan of £3564.

Just consider the figures… I was just pretty shocked when I found out I was getting a solid £300ish a term, when others in the same situation here got £1000+

Fun times…

When I was still back at home, I still had a lot of painting to do on the fixie frame. Admittedly I still do, but it’s ridable, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. But anyway, it wasn’t even remotely orange for the last few days when I was at home, so, I just had to find some way of trying out the fixed gear wheel that I had put together laboriously with cone spanners and a fair amount of frustration. But anyway, as I might have mentioned earlier, I had that Giant Sedona frame that I picked up for a tenner at the start of the holidays that I was using as a kind of throw around bike. So I went and stuck the fixed gear wheel on there. The chain tension wasn’t that up to scratch with the whole vertical dropouts and such, but I found an almost magic gear (and reasonable chainline) with the middle chainset cog. And it was a pretty weird experience to ride as I really hadn’t rode a fixie before to any extent. I was a little shocked at the “you’re about to get propelled off the bike” feeling that I had at first, but it was a little easier with clip pedals…

Anyway, check out some pictures…

Honestly I don’t think they’ve changed that much recently. The spoke key that I’ve had in my coin pocket is starting to show through slowly, and the back pockets are wearing a little more, but it’s not the fastest process in the world. Maybe I need to expose my jeans (and maybe myself too) to some more rugged environments. Like a desert. Or dry rocks? Hmm, maybe even term time in Cambridge will take its toll.

I’m not entirely sure that next week’s photo’s will be even that different as I haven’t been wearing them a huge amount this week. I didn’t want to go camping in them as, well, who goes camping in jeans? I think no-one. But I’ll see what I can do a little later. For now, enjoy the week 4 photos.

Finally (and I mean finally) I finished the sanding and stripping of the frame itself. To be brutally honest, I was so tired of the whole sanding process that I just wanted it to be over with. I’m sure I had spent at least 6+ hours on it and gone through countless sheets of sandpaper and really just wanted the design to progress a little… Though initially, when starting the project, I really wanted to make sure that the work that I did was of a high quality and not rushed, I knew that this part of it would be pretty testing. I know for a fact that I get pretty bored pretty quickly when doing certain things—sanding comes to mind very fast—and I had to make sure that I put in a decent sanding effort. But to be honest I think I did pretty well. Maybe if I had an electric sander next time, or something just a little more effective. Anyway, I wanted to get the whole project moving, so I could finish the frame part and move on to the mechanics and wheels and so on and so forth. Except that halfway through priming the wonderfully sanded frame, I ran out of the stupid red oxide primer.

I kinda knew initially that I should have bought more paint, but I didn’t realise it would be quite this serious (look at the photos! The whole thing isn’t even covered!). So I’ve now (as of this time last week actually) taken the liberty in ordering more paints. Except that I’ve used a different company (it was £4 cheaper and I think I get more paint for my money) and it hasn’t arrived. So either they’re jerking me around and taking their time (I’m someone tempted to think this (my nasty side clearly)) or it is as they’ve said and it’s delayed in the post—postal strikes—hmmmmmmm. I guess it’ll be a wait and see till monday. Not cool at all.

In the meantime though, it has given me ample time to finish other parts of the bike. The front fork has now been sanded (not wet sanded because a) I didn’t realise one needed special sanding paper to wet sand and b) out usual paper really doesn’t work when wet) and varnished, or lacquered if you will. Anyway, it’s looking hot, and shiny. I’ll get some shots on Flickr soon.

But that’s not all! Despite the frame taking an absolute age to complete, I did get round to ordering more parts—and behold—some even arrived! I bought a whole bunch of stuff from VeloSolo, including all the bolt on cog and Shimano M756 axle conversion kit – and with their excellent customer service and packaging skills it arrived today. Thumbs up to those guys. However now I realise why I needed a cone spanner as opposed to a regular (adjustable) spanner – one side of the axle cones may be easy to remove. But the other isn’t exactly. However I found a temporary solution in the form of filing down a slightly thicker than cone 13mm spanner to a cone spanner. Thing is though, it’s made of “drop forged steel”, and it just ain’t easy to file. I might have to get one of those real cone spanners after all. Grrrr…

In addition to my ordering of the VeloSolo kit, I also got a chain off of Chain Reaction Cycles (haha – see what I did there) and behold, it also arrived today. So all is good except the fact that I don’t really need a chain as of yet. Though it was cheap at £5.99 – and it’s a 3/32 singlespeed chain which makes it all the better. Check out the KMC Z610 RB if you’re intrigued…

And last week too, when I was on my ordering spree, I placed an order for some sweet slick tyres. I’m not gonna lie, they’re probably the slickest mofos that I could find seeing as they have absolutely no tread. Wet times = fun. They weren’t that cheap (try £16 a pair inc. tubes…) but then again they look so gnarley.

Specialized Fatboys (26×1.95). I just hope the company that I ordered them from doesn’t screw up too much. It’s already taking a while…

I also got some sweet eBay items yesterday, which may or may not arrive in the post on Saturday. We’ll have to wait and see. Until then, have fun.

As for the bike making etc, the sanding and stripping of the main part of the frame is taking a long arduous time – and hopefully should be done sometime this coming week. We’ll see!

I have the frame almost completely stripped down – to the extent where all there is left is the bottom bracket (as I don’t have a large enough spanner!) And I’m not sure whether to go ahead and replace it anyway with a new sealed cartridge one… I am tempted to, but then again, why do it if it currently works fine and just could use a few more bearings and some greasy times? Hmm, we’ll see! On the topic of bearing I might replace the headset too as that’s a little buggered, but I think I found a nice 1″ bearing cup so that might do.

As part of all the rebuilding and so on, I’m stripping down the whole frame and removing rust and sanding and painting and everything – which is long and laborious, but the results are generally pretty self evident, so there’s a fair amount of almost immediate satisfaction. And so I have a few pictures from after removing the first amount of rust (which was luckily just surface stuff!).

As for the wheels, here’s some pictures of the rear wheel – which was originally a Shimano disc front wheel -h this should make for an interesting conversion. I currently need to retrue the wheel—a few spokes are loose, and replace the axel and bearings with a longer solid one.

For the front wheel, I have a fairly thin and light Mavic X139 wheel, which is probably sufficient. I only really need to get a thin (1.5″ is the thinnest) tyre.

The almost finished front forks. I have just put a couple coats of the main coat on. I need to (wet) sand it a bit to get rid of some lumps, but it’s looking pretty hot as of the moment.

And that’s all of the pictures for now. I should probably get on with truing the wheel more and sanding and so on, but watch this space.

FYI, I am building 2 bikes. Originally (like back on the Easter hols) I really wanted to build a fixie (with one gear and two way drive (i.e. forwards and backwards to and from the pedals to the back wheel), but after lots of careful research about the project, it seemed hard and expensive in that I need certain (track) wheels and a certain old skool frame. Well cut forward to now, I found a nice old slightly rusty Ridgeback frame in one of the sheds that was part of a pretty old mountain bike like thing with (ghastly!) slick tyres. So I figured I should take it apart (fun times) and then build it back up again (looking much better) in a single speed configuration and a bright new colour! I used a whole bunch of information and parts from velosolo to get a mountain bike front wheel with a fixed cog attached to the disc brake attachment as the back wheel, and then a pretty thin front wheel (with hopefully some pretty slick tyres (soon to be purchased). At the moment, I’ve stripped it all down, bought some wheels and have begun sanding and painting. Enjoy some of the pictures as there will be a LOT more on their way.

The other bike that I am building was a result of some cheap eBay purchasing and a slightly lack of hope of building a singlespeed. I really wanted to build a bike – especially a singlespeed, and when I realised that it could be too expensive and difficult, I thought that building a mountain bike would work just as well and be a similarly good fun idea. Indeed it is. So, I got this Giant frame and handlebars and such for a tenner on eBay and began doing it from there. I don’t have any pictures at the moment – and it’s raining like crazy outside,