Klick here and listen while reading.
In a previous life, I was a travel writer. One year, my German Hamburg-based publisher asked me to write a book about Australia. It was a follow up on Ibiza. Easy. Both were islands. Both were kind of hot. Both were fun. Both guides were to be 98 pages long. Exactly. Piece of cake, I thought. So I went to Melbourne, saw my sister in law and her family, flew to Tasmania for a few days, back to Adelaide, then on to the Indian Pacific Railway. First Class. Courtesy of my Australian Family. Steak for Breakfast. In bed. In my single berth, shower-equipped super-deluxe compartment. It was unreal. As was the landscape passing by. I had wanted to see Australia’s wildlife. The dramatic country side. The reality was that for two nights and three day, each time I looked out the window, the country passing by looked exactly the same. Exactly.
The highlight of the trip was the longest straight section of railway in the world (478 km, or 297 miles). There is a youtube video capturing the excitement of this trip in 1:42 minutes – it’s far too long, because nothing, absolutely nothing ever changes. On the way, the train stops in Cook (named after former Australian Prime Minister Joseph Cook) a town so desperate to attract people that the put up a sign saying “Please get sick. Our hospital needs your help!”
The Nullarbor and the Indian Pacific are the opposite to the roller coaster. They go on. And on. And on. And on. Until you surrender. Time disappears. Vast space morphs into never changing pictures. You are tempted not to even expect anything different.
Today was such a day. It could have gone on forever. Valentine’s Day. A visit to Whitfriar’s Church in different times with the whole family (nobody had received a card back then either:). It’s a matter of “keep going”. Staying strong. Beir Bua. No change today. Tomorrow, the world will still keep spinning, keep changing. So will we, so will he.
16 February Coffee Morning for Pádraig Schäler
Aideen Cassidy
12h00 – 15h00
26 Iona Drive
Dublin 9
Today’s German Music Tip
Tangerine Dream, Das Mädchen auf der Treppe (1982). An absolute classic. It was one of those moments on TV you’d never forget. And the music! Tangerine Dream is, along with Scorpions, one of the few German bands who became famous internationally – well… 🙂 The full Tatort film, “Das Mädchen auf der Treppe” from 1982 with Schimanski and Thanner, my favourite Kommisare (yes, one is a bit macho, the other not less stereotyped, and both are a bit too much, but what the heck).
What’s hot
Schimmi und Thanner; Brecht und die Dreigroschenoper
What’s cold
Banks
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
“Was ist ein Dietrich gegen eine Aktie? Was ist ein Einbruch in eine Bank gegen die Gründung einer Bank?” (Die Dreigroschenoper (Druckfassung 1931), III, 9 (Mac). In: Ausgewählte Werke in sechs Bänden. Erster Band: Stücke 1. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1997. S. 267)
Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events
Hospi-Tales 
You betcha! Just when you least expect it!
Hello, Reinhard. As hard as rollercoaster-type experiences are, the sameness of day after day is perhaps harder. We are all with you on this road. During the week, I met a woman I know very slightly – so slightly that I wasn’t sure of her name until someone else referred to her as X. How is that young man? she asked, almost before she said hello. (A common experience, I’m finding.) I don’t specifically remember telling her about Pádraig’s accident. But she remembered. All of these gestures of good will are but proxies for what everyone really wants to do, which is make Pádraig better, had we only that in our power. As we cannot do what we want in the timeframe that we want, we will do what we can and stay with you on the road until better times come. With best wishes, Louise.
Hello Louise, thank you for staying with us on the road – it’s a bit of a stretch at the moment, but we’ll get there. Together. – Reinhard
Yes, Reinhard. We will. All the very best, as always. Louise.
Yes, sometimes the time stands still and normally it is when all is normal or wrong, and time speeds away when we are having a very good time,… but it is also true that quite often the sum of those periods of “nothing special is happening” leds you to your goal. Pádraig needs surely lots of this calm days to recover and get strong again!!! And that means lots of boring and tedious time, and also to much time to think. How I wish you where near to us so we could somehow help more,… Besos y abrazos and a bit of music
¡Besos y abrazos! And music. I am beginning to think that ‘nothing special’ can be the most special, only that we don’t notice it. – Reinhard