When the sun stands still it’s, of course, the longest or the shortest day of the year. Today, it was the shortest day. It’s an ancient turning point. Now we’re clacking at computers, in the sickly light they throw. All jonesing for wi-fi, so we can steal more tv shows. Watching a 6 year old on YouTube, playing drums to Billie Jean. Now this is the stuff that binds us, this and all those dairy creams. Pádraig had a ticket to tonight’s Bell X1 concert in Vicar Street. What a highlight on the shortest day, just a few days before Christmas.

We discovered by accident, that the dentist had done his job: Pádraig got a teeth protector for his lower jaw. Who would have thought that this would happen. I had mentioned potential damage to his teeth in the previous hospital (because Pádraig is grinding his teeth) , and asked whether there was anything that could be done – there wasn’t. Secondary injuries there were what they called them: secondary. They could all be fixed once primary injury was improving, so they said. In the meantime, they did not really matter that much. It’s too late to think about this too much now, but I remember that this attitude made me mad and got me close to a point where I would have lost my temper.

Today, I talked to the nurse looking after Pádraig, who had just come back after two weeks of holidays. She said that she saw a huge change in Padraig’s level of awareness and the she was very impressed by his progress. She also told me that they are just giving Pádraig now 2 hours on the respirator and then go back to just the plain oxygen support for his own breathing until they see that he is getting too tired; then they switch him back on the machine. Pat was there when she cleaned his teeth. They have all the nice lemon-ny swabs here, the same we used to buy in the pharmacy in bring in to the hospital. They also have the sponges on a stick which, we were told in Beaumont, were too dangerous to be used. The cleaning starts with a soft tooth brush. The nurse explained to him what she was going to do, then she holds the tooth brush against is lip so that he feels what it is she’ll shortly place into his mouth, and only when he understands what is going to happen next, does she put the brush into his mouth and cleans his teeth. After the ‘heavy’ cleaning, the freshening up of the mouth starts with the swabs and the sponges. Needless to say, there was no time, nor the necessary resources in Beaumont to do any of this. Tomorrow, Pádraig will get his hair washed – not for the first time in Hamburg. – This was done twice in Beaumont, the week and the day before he was going to leave. In nearly four months.

This evening, the police in Hamburg had big clashes with demonstrators against the evacuation of the Rote Flora, which has been occupied by squatters since 1988. Never in my life have I seen so many police cars. Driving up the Kieler Straße towards the Autobahn, there was a convoy the took at least 2 minutes to pass by us , in full speed.

I’ll be your velcro. I listened over the phone to Bell X1 tonight, thinking about what could have been. Dieser Weg wird kein leichter sein.

Today’s German Music Tip
Xavier Naidoo – Dieser Weg (2008).
Dieser Weg wird kein leichter sein
Dieser Weg wird steinig und schwer
Nicht mit vielen wirst du dir einig sein
Doch dieses Leben bietet so viel mehr

What’s hot
Skype and mobile phones
What’s cold
2,000 police breaking up a demonstration
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Dieses Leben bietet so viel mehr.