Pádraig was in good form today. Of course, it’s all and always relative. I am sure he answered “Hallo” to me when I came in and after I had said ‘hallo’ to him. But then again, you can never be sure. Nothing is ever certain. Maybe it never was.
You have to look at the bright side. Of Life. And believe.
Two things, not directly to do with Pádraig’s situation, but connected to it, happened today.
One was that I found a concert on youtube. A tribute to Joni Mitchell. I was looking for and listened for a few minutes to one of the most beautiful albums ever recorded: Joni Mitchell’s “Ladies of the Canyon” – which will always remind me of a New Year’s Eve party in Dortmund, it’s a long story… but no-one wanted to listen to this new album I had bought just a few days ago (if you’re old enough, you probably know the feeling…). So I had to wait until mid-night when everybody had gone down onto the street to welcome the New Year with fireworks. Finally, I was on my own at this party, put on the record, and the volume to max. From the third floor, standing on the windows wide open looking down onto the street, I listened to Morning Morgantown, Big Yellow Taxi and Woodstock. – All of a sudden, I was not here, but there. For a moment. Full of hope. Strong. On my own. You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone… I wish I had a river I could skate away on… you turn me on, I’m a radio…. (To be honest, not much has changed since – I’m still listening to the music on my own:)
The other… I found a note Pádraig had written to me some time before my 50th birthday. In this note, handwritten and in German, he tells me that I was getting ‘old’ – he put ‘alt’ in inverted commas, as in ‘old’ but not really ‘old’. He was being kind to me. So, as I was getting ‘old’ – close to 50 – he gave me some advice.
The advice was to hand in the job, buy the boat I always wanted to buy. and do what I always wanted to do before it was getting too late to ever do it: sail around the world. He had it all figured out. It would probably take a year. He was getting out of school, Laura could take some time off, Pat would get a sabbatical, Maria would be on her transition year. Someone would be able to sail away with me. Maybe all of us could go together on this sailing trip.
Of course, we never went, I never quit the job – though I managed to blow our family’s annual holiday budget sailing across from Halifax to Belfast and on to Dublin the year I turned 50. Years ago.
Today’s German Music Tip
Rio Reiser – Junimond – Live-Konzert 1990 in Stuttgart
Hab dich flussauf- und flußabwärts gesucht
What’s hot
Keep searching, keep traveling, make friends
What’s cold
To be sure
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Der Gender-Krampf verhunzt die deutsche Sprache
Hospi-Tales 
I think that was the year I first met Pádraig, unless I’m mistaken, the year he first came into the Club as a legit 18 yr old with his school buddies, in May I think, all sitting up at the back of the little stage on a lounge couch, 6 of them, with him in the middle looking out all agog, eyes big as saucers, ears out, hair up, drinking in the place with obvious joy and bliss at being in the only Irish language venue in town, having finally ‘arrived’!
They proceeded to invade the bar and start messing with everything, checking everything out, like a bunch of puppies on the loose. Pádraig started messing with the till, not realising the barman (not me!) would charge him for false orders rung in.. Before long he had rung in a couple of Middletons (€14 each!), which the barman then insisted he pay for! (The barman was a bit ‘fundamentalist’ by nature and couldn’t see his way to noting a miss-sale in the book…).
Poor Pádraig had only €12 in his wallet, which I think he was nursing for a taxi home. I chipped in some €15 and suggested we take the Middletons – since we’d paid for them now! – and we duely received them, me merrily and he dubiously and we started sipping, I appreciatively and he dubiously still, but he determinedly drank (most of) it despite his loathing for the taste (at the time). He then went home scuttered, having learned several important lessons and I berated the barman for his stinginess!
All in all, a good and memorable introduction to him and a good evening’s entertainment for all, in Club Ch. na G.!
Seos
Club Ch. na G. – sounds like a magic formula, Seos! And like a magic place. With incredibly cool people! (Can’t believe I just used the ‘c’ word!) Keep it all up. Keep it all going!