100 books … nearly

1. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkein
4. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
5. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
8. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
9. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
10. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
11. Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
12. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
13. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
14. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
15. Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
16. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
17. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Márquez
18. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follet
19. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
20. Emma, Jane Austen
21. Watership Down, Richard Adams
22. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
23. The Count of Monte Christo, Alexandre Dumas
24. Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
25. The Secret Garden, Francis Hodgson Burnett
26. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
27. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
28. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
29. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golder
30. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
31. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
32. Ulysses, James Joyce
33. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
34. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
35. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Márquez
36. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
37. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
38. I, Claudius, Robert Graves
39. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
40. All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren
41. Go Tell It On the Mountain, James Baldwin
42. Deliverance, James Dickey
43. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
44. Women in Love, DH Lawrence
45. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
46. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
47. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
48. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
49. The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
50. A Bend in the River, VS Naipaul
51. The Magus, John Fowles
52. Wide Segrasso Sea, Jean Rhys
53. Sophie’s Choice, William Styron
54. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
55. The Stranger, Albert Camus
56. Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
57. The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
58. Middlemarch, George Eliot
59. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
60. Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
61. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
62. The Trial, Franz Kafka
63. The Complete Tales, Edgar Allan Poe
64. Rememberance of Things Past, Marcel Proust
65. King Lear, William Shakespeare
66. Hamlet, William Shakespeare
67. Othello, William Shakespeare
68. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
69. The Aenid, Virgil
70. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
71. The Invisible Man, HG Wells
72. Lady Chatterly’s Lover, DH Lawrence
73. Room with a View, EM Forster
74. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tenessee Williams
75. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
76. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
77. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli
78. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
79. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
80. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
81. The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
82. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
83. Atonement, Ian McEwan
84. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
85. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
86. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
87. Perfume, Patrick Suskind
88. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
89. We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver
90. Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan
91. Les Liasons Dangereuses, Pierre Cholerlos De Laclos
92. The Black Sheep, Honore De Balzac
93. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
94. Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
95. Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
96. The Book Theif, Markus Zusak
97. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

I need three more …

100 books to read before i turn 30 … or 35, maybe

Anyone still out there? I need your help.

I’m compiling a list of 100 books to read over the next few years. I need suggestions. Be they culture-defining, inspiring, horrifying, or classic for no reason other than antiquity; I am trying to put together a ‘must-read’ list.

I’ve always eschewed the “classics”, I don’t know why, maybe I’m just stubborn, or maybe I just like to pretend I’m a bit original or something. But it’s time to read them. All of them. Well, 100 of them.

I’m about to sit down and compose a draft list based on the titles that pop up most commonly in other people’s lists.

Any suggestions? What should I include on my list?

you love latté art

The Koreans, however, do not.

h/t Dan.

twiloozer. twitlight. twihavenolife.*

I’m sitting on a plane that’s just left LAX, and is bound for Vancouver. My heart is thumping wildly in my chest, my cheeks are flushed, my breathing is uneven, and I feel a bit light-headed. Turbulence? Well, yes actually, and the pilot’s already apologised several times and explained they’re changing altitude regularly to try and ensure us a smoother flight. I barely hear these announcements though, and I’m hardly aware the flight feels more like we’re driving down a dirt track in rural NSW than cruising the skies above North America.

I’m far more absorbed in the pages of the thick black book on my lap. Ironically, my imagination has wandered to somewhere almost directly below the plane’s trajectory and is in a meadow in Forks, Washington. Yes, I’m reading Twilight. Now, before you sigh, shake your head and close your browser, let me assure you, this is not typical behaviour: I don’t do romance for goodness’ sake! I can’t stand “chick flicks”, and I don’t read soppy, romantic, girly novels, and I especially don’t care for vampire nonsense!! So why the heck am I literally about to swoon as Edward finally leans in to kiss Bella?

Honestly, I still have no idea. The Twilight books are scarcely literary masterpieces; the prose is rather unsophisticated, and in many instances I find the language construction clumsy and repetitive. I should not like these books. But I do. Oh, I really do. I finished Twilight in YVR waiting for the flight home. I finished New Moon in LAX, and had finished Eclipse before I’d landed in Nadi. It was agony to have to wait until I arrived home to get hold of Breaking Dawn. And the thing is, I’ve had several conversations with intelligent, mature, women who have had exactly the same experience!

To be truthful, I have some idea of the appeal. Edward.

Okay, well, now that I’ve completely embarrassed myself … we return to normal programming shortly …

canada

For those who didn’t know, I got to spend two amazing weeks in Vancouver in January. Rather than bore those people who have heard my stories ad nauseum, I’ll simply say: I hung out with some beautiful people, drank some amazing coffee, ate some delicious food, tasted some great beers and experienced some absolutely breathtaking scenery. Check out my flickr if you’d like. I’m also so thankful to Drew and the kids for graciously allowing me the freedom to spend two weeks being rather selfish.

For the coffee folk, the places to go: Elysian Coffee, Crema, 49th Parallel, Wicked Café, Momento … umm … Uva Wine Bar … Pourhouse …

This is probably the best picture I took:

knock knock

… who’s there?

Blog comeback in the works. I think.

Anyone still check in here?

photo summary of what i was too lazy to blog

awesomeness from Canada

tasty overseas visitors

exploring cup shape and affects on perceived coffee flavour

workshop espresso

our second home

pretty and awesome - you know you're jealous

my new local - photo by adam

hunter valley holiday - keith tulloch vineyard

hunter valley holiday - blueberry hill

ooh, reflections

family fun

Some of the photos are rubbish, I know. I almost always leave my camera at home and my iPhone usually has smudgy fingerprints on the lens. Ah well.

amazing coffee, anyone?

So I’ve been pretty much the most hopeless blogger on the planet lately. I’ll get back on top of things soon, I’m sure.

Anyone been drinking anything awesome? Let’s hear it …

Obviously, the Bagersh coffee’s doing the rounds are pretty freaking amazing. Hazel’s IMV is always amazing, and always intriguing, though I think I am overdue for another cup of it. I’ve also managed to have the Aricha #14, and #4, as well as the Beloya #16 at a few different roast levels. My current bag of Beloya #16, roasted for espresso by Mecca is emptying way too quickly. It is a stunningly complex bean this one. Such class.

Have also had some delicious coffees from O/S; a variety of shots and brews of different beans from 49th Parallel and Intelligentsia (thanks Dan!), and also Squaremile. I can’t even remember which beans most of them were, there were so many to crammed into just a few weeks! The Tanzania Kumaro Micro-lot from 49th was a particularly excellent filter brew.

Hmm, ooh, Hazel’s Brasilian offerings, the Alvarado Plot and the Moreninha Formosa, are delightfully balanced creatures. Oh, as was the Colombian El Cafetero from AIR that was yummy peach and vanilla.

Getting some delightful brews out of the Driver Brewer; more variables, more fun.

Currently also have two bags of the Guatemala San Fransisco Tecaumburo from Coffee Alchemy; one roasted for spro, and one for filter. I haven’t yet brewed for filter - I will once I get off the couch in a sec - but the cup I had of it last week whilst at Flint & Steel was floral and cidery, and very reminiscent chomping into a crunchy, juicy, sweet apple straight from the tree. And with that, I’ve just convinced myself to go brew some …

happy fathers’ day

Fathers’ Day this year is a little bittersweet.

It’s a very beautiful day, with Anastasia and Zeke celebrating their ‘Daddy’, who they, and I, love to pieces. Drew is a wonderful father, and I praise God for the deep, selfless love he shows our children, and for the concern he has to raise them to know and love Jesus.

It is, however, the first Fathers’ Day we’ve celebrated since my own father ran off with another woman and left it to my sister and I to tell our mother. He’s since moved in with her and her two boys, and we see him only sporadically. So today is also a day of for a few tears.

crazy hectic caffeinated weekend - part 4

Also known as … getting my own back.

After the Home Barista Comp there was a very spontaneous call for a professional bout; and who better to face off than our judge Hazel and last year’s HB-champ-cum-1000-shots-a-day-superstar-barista Dan.

By ’spontaneous’, I of course mean, ‘neither of them had a clue what was about to happen’. Well, Dan would have, had he not been giggling with Renzo during the team meeting in the morning I volunteered to put my judges accreditation to good use and taste their submissions.

Dan v. Hazel

Both of them were exceptionally good sports about it, and served up some über tasty shots for me to drink. Even though both are exceptionally skilled baristas, jumping on a random machine, dialling in a grinder and punching out some sweet shots in only five minutes is no small feat. Dan jumped back on the Bezzera Domus Galatea he’d had pumping all day and clearly had the speed, serving up a cracking espresso in no time at all. Hazel was a bit slower on the Minore III but soon placed a reddy-brown delicious doppio ristretto on the judges table.

Lattés came next, Dan’s super speediness meaning he had time to not only serve me a latté complete with tulip, and then pull himself a shot to steady his nerves whilst he waited for Hazel to serve her latté. Here, Hazel drew on her years of competition experience and took the performance up a notch, approaching the judge’s table to pour her rosetta clad latté.

It was a tight finish, but it was Hazel who came out on top, mostly due to the amazing syrupy sweetness she coaxed out of her espresso.

It was, however, all in good fun, and I think they’re both great sports having been put on the spot like that, and still managing to serve up some delicious ’spro.

Many, many, many thanks to Sanchia for her permission to use the lovely shots she took of the day.

crazy hectic caffeinated weekend - part 3

Aromafest 2009.

Tens of thousands of Sydney-siders enjoying a spectacularly beautiful winter’s day in the Harbour City, braving massive queues in search of $2 coffees, and ogling shiny machines.

This year I only pulled three shots. I was, instead, the ‘Home Roasting’ spokesperson at the Di Bartoli stand. Lots of interest, not many people prepared to take the plunge though … and lots of people who think the whole idea is completely mental.

The three shots I pulled were as part of the Di Bartoli Third Annual Home Barista Championships; which I got sucked in to competing in. No pressure at all … No, just having your coffees judged by the lovely lady who roasted the beans; who just happens to a former NSW and Australian Barista Champion, and ’super-palate’ Australian Cup-Tasting Champion!!!

Round 1 of the HB Comp

The first shot got dumped, the second Hazel got to to drink, and third got topped up with loads of milk with a bodgy heart poured on top, also for Hazel to drink. Luckily for me there was no tech judge in sight, and the drinks were only sensory-assessed. Though Dan has embarrassed me hugely by very kindly noticed my super-dodgy, wonky-tamp correction, which I think was for the latté

No selling-out to see here :P

Anyway, luckily for me, I hear I’m not allowed to compete next year. I’m so fine with that