We didn’t show Pádraig another ice bucket challenge gone wrong today. Instead, we really got double-lucky today.

Today was one of those days when you feel that the summer is coming to an end. It was still warm, the sun was shining, but it was coming in low. There was an open day of some ward, with a jazz band playing, a BBQ, and soft drinks in front of Haus 2, the White House. A really nice therapist who knows Pádraig from the other ward came up and offered to go for a walk. It was so easy. Unbelievably easy. We were back in less than half an hour, plenty of time for Pádraig to listen to the music, smell the German pork sausages on the BBQ, and feel the wind on his face. It was brilliant.

Another really nice person we got to know here on the new ward, a nurse, managed to organise a new lifter sheet for us. We had asked for a bigger one some months ago, but, apparently, the only one that was available at the time was the one he’d got. Today, we realised that it was a size ‘S’. The new one is size ‘XL’. It was so easy to organise this. Unbelievably easy. And it will make Pádraig’s transfer much more comfortable for him.

Tomorrow will be the first day that we will not be able to visit Pádraig, because Pat and I are going to see a rehab centre that a father set up when he couldn’t find a suitable centre for his daughter when she had suffered a very serious brain injury following a car accident, about 25 years ago. The centre now has 100 beds. It’ll be a very early start and Pat will come back in the evening, while I’ll visit another centre in the vicinity on Friday. We’re really looking forward to these visits. Initial contact with the people we are going to see has been very, very friendly and forthcoming.

A note on the Blog Awards – Hospi-tales didn’t make it into the short list in neither of the two categories it was nominated in, but one particular blog is still doing well with the public vote, keeping its fourth place thanks to all of you who regularly vote – please keep it going!