man, i was training on my own, you seat in front of your machine and start testing, more coffee, less coffee, corser grinding, finer one, forget grams ,they dont count, the cup is counting, in 20-30sec some 20-35ml, find glass testing cups if you dont have them, train and train, when finding your perfect espresso, find the time for splashing period even it can be tricky but dont worry. then milk, tons of milk, micro foam, forget latte art and train to make perfect milk, or at least the one close to.then go back again, clean grinder and just train dosing, leveling, tamping with as less ground and thrown coffee. its the hardest way but it sounds like is your and mine, we dont have friends as others to help us, but we have passion and will. just go on with the show! i was lucky to visit norway just before tokyo and those 3 days made me 31st,some were laughing, me, i was smiling and happy in tokyo bcos of all of you. if i was longer and somewhere else with training, ill be maybe first. i dont care, iv seen so many better ones how were shaking hands more then i was. so dont worry