Last Saturday week, my old school had a school reunion. I was looking forward to seeing some of my former school mates. There is about half a dozen of us of finished ‘Gymnasium’, our secondary school, together and who are still in touch. Apart from just a couple of friends from college and very few I got to know through work, these are my best and oldest friends here in Germany. As it turned out, I did not make it to the school reunion. We had an important, unforeseen, appointment here in Hamburg on the same day.

Even though I did not go, I realised that we are getting close, very close, to becoming the ancient guys in this group of former students. In 2017, it’ll be 40 years that we left secondary school, as the last class with what was called a “Humanistische Bildung”, at least that was the aim. For the most part, we did ‘stuff’ because we enjoyed it and we did not do ‘stuff’ that was boring. We certainly did not learn for money (or because we wanted to get a certain job) but because we wanted to know how things worked.

The trouble of that education is that we still keep asking. And you know how irritating questions can be that do not take ‘no’ for an answer.

Pádraig today had a high pulse, and high blood pressure, but no high temperature. We hope that all will be good by tomorrow, that it was just a short, temporary hiccup.

The highlight not just of the day, but of the week was Maitíu visiting today – and sharing with Pádraig and with us the magic that he manages to get out of his uileann pipes! He brought the house down and it was absolutely fantastic. It was his one day off, coming from Sweden to Düsseldorf, where he’ll be playing for a few nights.

I’ve mentioned that I feel so lost at times. Where do I belong? Germany, Ireland?

Tonight was not one of these nights. Tonight I knew that I will get an Irish passport and that I will learn Irish. I love my German family and my German friends, as always. But my heart is in Ireland. So much for today. Good night and sleep tight!