Rise like a Phoenix!

Went back to run for the first time after the Marathon. Short and slow. Next week will also be quite relaxed and then I will start on a more focused programme for the Dublin Marathon in October. Five months will be better than just two months of preparation. While I was running today, I was thinking about the time Pádraig told me in no uncertain terms (in his nice but quite direct way you might be familiar with) that I was gaining weight and that he couldn’t believe how much and how quickly I was eating. Would you believe it!? Of course, there is no contest between him and me in relation to weight – but there is no doubt that, at least at times, he eats huge portions (bigger even than mine!). Even here, he is getting 3k calories (and that was before the regular cycling!). The difference is, I am sure he would have told me: he seems to need it. I just think I do:)

We were telling Pádraig about the Giro ‘Italia in Ireland (!) and the bad fall by Dan Martin who now will miss the rest of the Giro after breaking his collarbone in a crash right in the opening trial in Belfast. Pádraig did his now usual 35 min, 3.2km training on the MOTOMed-viva-2 this afternoon. In the morning, he sat out for about 4 hours in his hot-wheels-on-fire-can’t-wait-for-the-rosegarden, and managed the speech valve really well for just over an hour. He also did not have any oxygen or humidified air connected to his “Feuchte Nase” for most of the day. Despite that, his oxygen levels staid up quite high (97%) while doing the Giro d’Schön.

Tonight, Saturday, is our one-hour-night in Lütt Matten, a pub in Garding, Germany’s third smallest town (by territory), the last stop before Tating. It’s on a peninsula called Eiderstedt. It’s absolutely deserted during the winter, swamped by tourists during the summer. Yet, it’s the closest thing to an Irish Pub you’d find anywhere. There is live music over the weekend, all year round, and on Tuesdays nights, during July and August, the whole city is converted into a free, big, weekly Electric Picnic. All the music is free, and there is a great atmosphere  – both in the Pub and the town. Tonight, there was a man singing all  ‘my’ songs. Heute hier morgen dort. Guantanamera. Leaving on a jet plane. Me and my Bobby Mc Gee… Why did that make me cry? How pathetic can one become? I decided to get a guitar to Hamburg. To the Schön-Klinik.

Pat made Pádraig smile today when she read out to him the first of five things that makes everybody happy (from thejournal): finding money in your jeans pocket. It was such a nice moment, that I checked my own pockets:) When he gets going again in his jeans, we’ll have to make sure to leave some money in his pockets.

Rise like a Phoenix!

Today’s German Music Tip
Serkan, Geld in die Tasche (2008). – Rap. Turkish. Mannheim.
What’s hot
Smiles
What’s cold
Wind and rain
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Erwarte nichts, doch rechne mit allem.