Someone told me some time ago that this is not a sprint, but a marathon. (Talking about marathons – are you on for 27 October, Merrion Square, Dublin?) We’re in this for the long run which will require an awful lot of preparation, support on the way, and a big pint of Guinness at the end. In a way, tough it definitely depends on how you look at it, in a way, we are still at the preparatory stage. Here’s an example from this morning, 8:45am.

Pádraig had a double physiotherapy session, with a super fit therapist practicing Vojta. At the end, I’m not sure who was more exhausted, Pádraig or the therapist. You wouldn’t do many of these sessions on one day – either as a patient or as a therapist. It was the first time I saw Pádraig lying on his front, supported by his hands and arms above his head, with his feet and legs positioned as if they were pushing him up the extra-wide therapy table. The therapist made Pádraig feel parts of his body I’m sure he had forgotten all about. It was wonderful – but I was in sweat just watching them. To me, this looked like physio for an athlete getting ready for the next Olympics. Wonderful.

A few weeks ago, a friend showed me a card Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Ireland had distributed during this year’s elections. I had meant to share this with you for some time. So here it is. It’s one of the most ingenious ways I have seen to get people’s attention to the fact that many millions go into intensive care (quite profitable for the hospitals, the media here in Germany says), but very little is then spent on proper and timely rehabilitation which is very labour intensive and costly.

À propos Marathon – here is another first: a young person who doesn’t really know Pádraig that well and who, to be honest, looks a bit mad (in a nice way:) is going to run not just the Dublin Half Marathon later this month in the Phoenix Park for Pádraig – something he’s never done before. He is also going to run 42.194988km on the October Bank Holiday weekend: his first ever marathon. Please support his fundraising effort on iDonate.

I will have to get back to this one because – Donal will definitely not be on his own that day. I know a few people who will join him and, who knows, maybe we’ll have that point of Guinness at the end. Something that Pádraig, I know, has been looking forward to for more than a year now.

Remember: Vote for Hospi-tales on the Blog Awards Ireland 2014 every week – and get your family and friends to do so as well! Today, the blog was just a dozen votes away from going into second position which is crazy. Please keep voting and asking all your friends and family to vote vote vote! I’ll promise you anything you want if you give your vote to this blog!!!

Finally, there are only two days to go to the Big Sea Swim for Pádraig on 06 September.

Today’s German Music Tip
Adel Tawil, Weinen. A bit of a pop song from 2014 with a few lines that stuck with me, like “ich will dich einfach nur zurück”, “du bist der Beweis, dass es Liebe gibt”.
What’s hot
Vojta
What’s cold
Being stuck inside
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Futschikato – look this one up in Google. Means: it’s gone, weg…