I have a colleague at work who, when I start giving out and telling him about all the things I am going to do to make (not the world, but) Ireland a better place to live in, asks me, with a lovely smile on his face: ‘Reinhard, for how long have you been living here?’ – basically telling me, that having spent more than half of my life in the country, I still haven’t got a breeze of how things work here. But, apparently, writing to your T.D. is the way to do it. T.D.’s can get you your passport super fast (there is a special post box for them in the Dail), and a really famous but now slightly discredited T.D. in our constituency (he was Taoiseach at the time, and his daughter is a famous writer) managed to get the double-yellow lines removed in front of my very elderly mother-in-law within days, after we had tried unsuccessfully for weeks to find the person responsible for double yellow line removal in Dublin Corporation.

For those of you interested in inter-cultural studies, this is another of the many differences between Ireland and Germany: in Germany, people would not even know which constituency they live in, never mind being aware of who their local politicians are. (Thinking about my mother-in-law who sadly is no longer with us, there is another lovely story involving her, a German, and a roofer, which I will tell another time.)

Today, I posted my first letter in Irish. No, it was not me who translated the English version into Gaeilge, but two of Pádraig’s friends. (I am still working on my Irish – but my day will come too, one day). It’s Pat’s and my open letter to An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, T.D., which Pádraig would, not doubt, have written in Irish in the first place. The letter is now up on the website (www.caringforpadraig.org) and it’s also going to all of the four T.D.s of Dublin Central: Paschal Donohoe , T.D., Minister for European Affairs, Fine Gael; Joe Costello, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for Trade and Development, Labour; Maureen O’Sullivan, T.D., Independent; Mary Lou McDonald, T.D., Sinn Féin. I will keep you posted on their replies.

Last week, Pádraig was measured for his custom-made wheel chair. It will take a few weeks for it to get ready, you will remember, but we can’t wait for it. As the weather is getting better and the first buts become visible, he is getting ready for the rose garden and his first walk in the park. We all hope that he’ll stay on course, becoming more alert and more mobile over the coming weeks. And at least for the time being, it looks like he is doing really well. Today, he was opening his eyes when we were with him, and he seems to have much more controlled movement in his ‘good’ eye. We have been told by his doctors that they will try to encourage him to also use the other eye a bit more.

We’ve heard about preparations going on for St Patrick’s Day but nothing concrete yet. Today it’s Rosenmontag, the main day of Carnival in Germany. People in Northern Germany are far too reserved to get involved in silly things like Karneval, Pappnasen, and Kamelle – they leave that to the people living in the Rhine region, mostly Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Mainz. It’ll be some job to get them out of their famous ‘coolness’ for St. Patrick’s day:)

Today’s German Music Tip
De Höhner, Viva Colonia (2007). Even if you don’t like it – this is “Kölle Alaaf”, people basically going crazy, just because – well, they don’t really need a reason.
What’s hot
Karneval
What’s cold
Aschermittwoch
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Rosenmontag

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events