The frustrating and the fun.

Well as some of you know, I went and did a cheese making course last Sunday. I have to say that the description was very misleading ....Would a brie by any other name not taste as sweet? Would a cheddar from another culture not still melt your heart? Well, you can find out thanks to today's deal from Permaculture Realfood! For just $19 you can spend three hours learning how to make your own foods like cheddar, brie, kimchi, sauerkraut and more with accredited permaculture teacher Elisabeth Fekonia (normally $45). You can choose a time that suits you - either from 12pm to 3pm on Saturday 31 March or at the same time on Sunday 1 April, and not only that, but your ever-curious taste buds will also get to sample raw cheeses, kefir, kombucha tea, sourdough bread and more on the day. Would a deal by any other name not be packed with the same awesomeness and variety of flavour? It's fair to say that no, no it wouldn't.

Well not sure how a brie could taste as sweet or if the cheddar would melt my heart, we didn't get to try any. We were shown, well really half shown, how to make feta and we had tasted one that they made the day prior. We also did get shown how to make sauerkraut and kombucha tea.

Now I think something was a bit amiss with all that we did get to taste. Sauerkraut tasted like vinegar, sourbread tasted like vinegar, kombucha tea, which is just black tea with fungi, tasted like salt and vinegar. Kvass, well it was indescribable and certainly undrinkable haha.

The woman who taught the course, seemed to read about old recipes and then set about doing them her own way, so they didn't end up tasting like the original. She was also one who had read on one site how homogenized milk was so bad for you and ran with it.

Who has ever hear of Cleopatra bathing milk? We now have. We were told this was the best milk to buy to drink and not to worry that it has 'not for human consumption' on it. Its just the way of getting around the laws.

Our sourdough pikelets ended up with a small bite out of them and then were hidden in Veronica's McDonalds drink cup haha. We got no recipes, as you had to book into another class and would get them there. Sorry, but if you want people to book in, then have an interesting class to start with.

In the class there were probably around 40 people. All ages and manner of dress. One woman who gave me a giggle, for whatever reason seemed to pick us out to do her sprook to. She had a business selling plants that attracted butterflies. She was very animated in her sales pitch. Imagine a 5 foot tall, blonde dreadlocked woman, waving her arms back and forth, showing us how the butterfly tastes with it feet. Gave us a bit of a giggle.

It wasn't all a waste of time. We were able to connect with another woman there who runs a different cheese making course, and am going to access it instead. Plus met a lovely young mum, who is going to come over and get some plants from me for her garden.

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Now for what else has been happening.

We had it all sorted with carers prior to booking our cruise, but as we all know so well, Murphy's Law kicks in. One of Ryan's carers got a chance to start a new job teaching, so had to cancel doing the overnight shift to look after Ryan.

He told the agency and I waited for them to contact me about it... and waited... and waited. In the end, I rang them. I was told that the shift was going ahead with Wayne. I said 'No, he isn't able to'. Again told he was. I asked if they could check, as we really needed it all sorted. A lot of tutting and they finally agreed. They were going to ring me straight back. Yeah, yeah I know, I have heard that before.

Nothing from them until this week and yes he couldn't do the shift and what was my backup plan? Well my plan was to make sure everything was in place before booking. Could I find someone else from our other agency to do it? Well I had already rung them the previous week hoping to get Ryan's new Monday carer to start earlier that day, but they couldn't stay overnight and as it turns out, couldn't start earlier.

So off goes agency 1 to try and find a staff member who could do it and take over the shift permanently. They would get them to meet us and do double up shifts. In talking about the shifts that we had before going away, she said that we had cancelled Easter Thursday shift. Ummm no we hadn't. Someone had and written it was us who cancelled it.

Called agency 2 and asked if they had any luck finding someone to get Ryan out of bed while we are away. 'Oh I haven't, I will look into it next week.' 'No I NEED to know ASAP. I am trying to co-ordinate 2 agencies and make sure its all in place'.

Following day, Agency 1 rings with news that a young uni student is willing to take on the shift and that we will meet her Thursday afternoon and she will come in on Easter Monday night and the following Thursday for training. Fantastic!! one thing not to worry about.

That night one of Ryan's carers is here and I am talking to him. He is able to do the Monday morning and get Ryan out of bed, but hadn't been asked. So today I ring agency 2 and let them know that Clive can come in and has agreed to do the shift. Fixed up the days they had forgotten to cancel carers on and so hopefully now everything is right.

It's very frustrating that I have to spend hours trying to sort this all out, instead of those that are paid to do it. The poor carers get frustrated as well, by the lack of action and politics that happens.

Anyway, fingers crossed its all sorted and I can now spend the next week buying what we need and packing.

Now on a brighter note. Have a really beautiful friend coming to stay over Easter. I am sure there will be lots of laughter and fun. Plus the kids are all coming for lunch on Sunday and I have some new plants to put in.

Take care everyone and Happy Easter to you all.