Summer Lag

The school year is almost over and that means we won't be seeing a lot of people this week. Last week wasn't really THAT exciting. I'm still getting used to my job as manager, it's a bit boring right now though since it's not the same work as being a barista. A barista is always on the move, staying active making drinks the whole day. A manager sits down the whole day and thinks of stuff to do. Then I'll get fat.

Starting this week, Neil will be working Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Kuya Ramhil will be taking over the rest of the week. I will be your cashier on Thursdays and your cook on Fridays. But what I enjoy most since hiring Kuya Ramhil are our "coffee sessions". It's part of the day where I will blabber about all things coffee, teaching Kuya Ramhil my tricks and techniques, plus stuff that I read from the Barista Techniques Guide I got from Phil Ho and Highlander Coffee. Bessy also joins our sessions because she enjoys the free drinks we're trying. Hehe. And now that I have more time than ever before, I can now obsessively clean the espresso machine every now and then. Since coming back from Singapore I've become paranoid about bitter coffee. You can't mask bitterness with milk or water. So I test the espresso every once in a while to check. A clean machine is one of the factors for a great-tasting cup of coffee. It's not the sole factor, ok? Only one of the important factors, only one.

I've been online all day. This Globe Tattoo contraption is doing wonders for me. It's not that fast but it has a strong signal at our apartment. And I'm from the "dial-up" generation, who am I to say what's fast and what's not? I survived with PLDT Vibe for years, I'm used to a slow connection. I made web pages on Geocities using a Vibe card, so this Globe Tattoo thing is a huge upgrade. I've finished the Anniversary AVP but I haven't uploaded it yet. Yes, it is because of the slow connection. But at least I can blog and check my e-mail at this speed. I've tried some stuff on Facebook too. I haven't really explored the features of Facebook so I spent time on it today.

This summer Cafe Antonio and Azzul Grapika will be teaming up to put up the Cafe Antonio Online Store on Multiply.com (we're not yet sure what to call it yet, you're welcome to offer suggestions). Through that store, we'll be selling Cafe Antonio merchandise like shirts, mugs, tumblers, coasters, and other stuff. We'll also be selling our Houseblend Beans through that store. We'll be posting our designs on Multiply as soon as we can.

Please suggest what other merchandise you would like us to sell. We'll appreciate your ideas, thanks!

Hey blog readers, I hope you could hangout at the cafe this week, if you haven't been there for a while, this week is perfect. Not much traffic. But that's what I think. Again, we can never predict stuff in business.