He finished 3 out of 5 marathons. There is still time to stop him, although I think he is really set to so this to the end. And – he is getting faster!!!

This morning, there were more than half a dozen of men in our kitchen, around a table that was far to small and on chairs I had to supplement from our living room. A plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, a builder, a project manager, an architect, a lift installer, me, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone. All determined to get Pádraig’s extension ready on time.

I would never have thought how complex this whole business would be: not ‘just’ the extension but also a million ‘small’ details around it: from drainage pipes to steel girders, from switches in the right places to doors and roof configurations.

Pádraig had a hot auld day in Hamburg. Today it was the speech therapist, not really a very outgoing man usually, who said that he felt Pádraig had been responding so much more and better today.

When I arrived back from Dublin and Bremen tonight, I met my friend from the North and we went for a beer and some Indian food near the Kietz. It was a bit like a chipper, but instead of chips they were selling really good Indian food. We sat outside on a wooden bench and took in life at the crossroads in St. Pauli. Amazing. A really incredible mix of people and characters. Not like Tonndorf. At all.

Today, it’s, of course, the 70th anniversary of the drop of the first of two bombs by the USA on Japan, killing 100s of thousands of people. When will they ever learn?