Unp(l)acked
I found out how to shave off 35 years of my age in an instant. I spent a day in IKEA trying to find stuff to furnish a completely empty – and I mean empty – apartment on a budget. And then bringing the bargains home in a Kia Picanto. I felt as if I was in my teens again, trying to get the first place I could call my own going on a shoestring. It felt like going back to basics, like getting rid of all the extras, unplugged.
Lebst Du schon oder schraubst Du noch?
The apartment is now full of boxes, unpacked. Also, raw and rough. It’ll be nice tomorrow evening, when all the lights have been connected, the bed built, and the tables set up.
Pádraig keeps doing well, quite alert and cooperative with the nurses. It’s all extremely modest progress, and his level of alertness is still quite restricted, but it is definitely there. There is no doubt that he is missing his friends, the talk, the music, and the nights out. And Christmas as it used to be.
PS on Easy Rider: Here is a little quiz for you. Which British singer-song writer release a song in 2012 containing the line Only hate the road when you’r missing home?
Today’s German Music Tip
Klaus Doldinger, Das Boot (1981). Soundtrack to one of the most successful movies of all time, written by Klaus Doldinger who became famous with his band “Klaus Doldinger´s Passport” jazz band.
What’s hot
Getting the apartment kitted out
What’s cold
IKEA
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Lebst Du schon oder schraubst Du noch? (IKEA tag line, “Wohnst Du noch oder kebst Du schon?”, turned on its head:)
Hospi-Tales 
Hello, Reinhard. It’s just a bit early of a Saturday morning for me to figure out the phrase (perhaps ‘slogan’ in this instance?) of the day. Leave it with me!
I’m happy to hear that Pádraig continues alert.
And I wish you the very best with getting the apartment in order. You’ve already accomplished a lot, in relation to it, in a short time. Hopefully you will shortly begin to feel the benefits of the non-commuting.
All the very best, Louise.
The last days of driving, Louise. We’ll be ready for Christmas.
Hello, Reinhard,
Glad to know you will be in the apartment for Christmas, though I would imagine that, by now, you’ve passed the 10k km mark on the mileometer (I realise I don’t know what to call a mileometer when it’s in kilometers – kilometerometer just doesn’t do it for me). That was some police convoy. (What law did you break, exactly?)
I was interested in hearing your comments about President Higgins and Ethics. He gave a lecture in DCU on 11 September, as part of the Mater Dei Institute/DCU ‘Ethics for All’ series. See http://www.president.ie/speeches/toward-an-ethical-economy-michael-d-higgins-dublin-city-university-11th-september-2013/ See also http://www.materdei.ie/index.cfm/page/newsarchive/id/247, and let me know if your senior moments extend to senior visual moments or if you can spot anyone you know in the photograph!
I’m very happy to hear that Pádraig’s more alert state continues, and of course I hear what you say about the improvements being small, but the thing is that they are there. I look forward to keeping in touch over Christmas, and I wish you all the very, very best for what will be a very different occasion from what you would wish but one on which Pádraig will be surrounded by even more love (if possible) than usual.
Louise
I’ll find you in the video, Louise:) Turns out, we had another day of driving. So it’s close to midnight again, it’s raining, and the internet feels Leitrim-like, on a bad bad day:(
I’m sorry to hear that, Reinhard. No doubt it was all the harder to do the driving if you had not been geared up to do it. Wet and windy here, but the Internet connection is Dublin quality! With best wishes, Louise.
The Irish weather has arrived on the north coast of Germany, Louise. Although a few miles inland, in Hamburg, it’s close to 14 degrees. And there is internet, Dublin like:)
It would be so easy to Google the lyrics… but I’m not going to. Gah!
You didn’t have to google this, Andrew, you knew!
Hallo Reinhard, ich freue mich sehr, gute Nachricht von Patrick zu hören. ich denke immer an euch. Noch viel Erfolg beim Schrauben….
LG an alle,
Claudia
PS: Passenger?
Passenger:) – Um ehrlich zu sein, Claudia, die gute Nachricht ist natürlich eine bescheidene und muss im Kontext gesehen werden. Aber wir freuen uns natürlich über jeden noch so kleinen Schritt.
You will see that you soon will start to leben instead of schrauben. Your apartment look very nice. but I understand all the effort and all the adaption.
I wonder if Pádraig and you are aware of the fact that because of his situation I have learned about Kila. So the love for Irish music has also reached Spain. Yesterday I spent all afternoon listening and watching the group in YouTube My knowledge finished with the dubliners more or less before that.
Patricia also did made me love in the 80’s Irish mits and sagas through a beautiful book she gave me when I was leaving Eire. You are such an enriching family!! I mean “enriquecedora”.
I wonder if you know the spanish celtic group Milladoiro. If you have the chance to listen to them I thing you might like them. (gallegos, claro)
I found some pictures of ´Pádraig and you when you visited us in 1991 would you like me to scan them and sent them to you.
¡Hola, Ana! – Please scan and send on the picture! You are right: so much has happened to so many people because of what happened to Pádraig. (And I will listen to Milladoiro when things are going to settle down a bit:).