Tonight will have to be a short update, I’m afraid. For some reason this was one of those days when work just did not stop. Being alone in the apartment doesn’t help. There’s no one here to make sure that certain things stop and others begin. Balance is what it is all about.

At 4:02 pm this afternoon, I realised that I had received a message on my German mobile this morning. For some reason, it had decided to switch itself off during the day – and it wasn’t even the battery. Not sure whether you remember the KitKat ad on the TV, or whether it even ran in your country. It’s worth checking it out here. Because what happened to that poor photographer was exactly what happened to me today, except that the photographer only waited maybe an hour until he took the break and missed the ‘shot’ he had been waiting for; in my case, I had been waiting for this call almost three weeks – until my phone decided to take a break and I missed it.

At 4:03 I rang the number and heard the voice of a nice lady telling me that she was delighted to hear that I had called but that, unfortunately, I was calling outside of their normal business hours, which is 7:30 am to 4:00 pm.

So, I’ll be getting up early tomorrow morning to call the Genossenschaft and to find out what the news are about this apartment we applied for – because that was what the call was all about.

Pádraig and I had some time for a long chat, we went out onto the roof garden (in the cold, bbbrrrrr), we went through the mouth hygiene routine, and I tried out my hot towel shaving skills (no cuts this time). At the end of it all, the nurse remarked about how nice he was smelling (and he did). I am sure that when I left Pádraig said “Gute Nacht” and I hope that this is what he is going to have tonight.