One of my regrets is that I wasn’t born a few years earlier so that I could have attended Woodstock. So that I could have gone to San Francisco when that was the groovy place to go to. There’s little I can do about my birthday (apart from being eternally cross with my parents), but I’ll be going to Los Angeles on Sunday, and then cycle to San Francisco and on to Napa. You have to follow your dreams, right?

In my head I’ve been practicing my eternal party pieces: ‘Coming into Los Angeles‘ by Arlo Guthrie and ‘San Francisco‘ by Scot McKenzie. Still thinking of an appropriate song for the journey. Maybe Canned Heat’s On the Road Again… I learned Coming into Los Angeles from an old girl friend (old = when we were really young, like really), and On the Road Again from a hippie on the beach of Tarifa in Southern Portugal on the way back home from Interail to Marrakech. Never managed to learn San Francisco on the guitar off by heart – but who knows, it’s never too late.

On a less hip note, we had another meeting with the HSE team looking after Pádraig today (we have them every three months or so) and it genuinely was a really pleasant, encouraging and positive meeting. We talked about all the good stuff going on, about Pádraig’s rehab in Germany and how he enjoyed it being challenged, how he loved walking across the room and up the stairs, about some plans for the future – and left out all the difficult questions we all know we can’t do anything about. The German in me was getting a bit unsettled (Germans love to discuss the impossible) but in the end the Irish in me prevailed and we all went home happy campers.

In a way, it was all very ’68. Just without the smoke and drinks and flowers.

Please spread the word about the #GreatAmericanCycle in support of An Saol! Our aim is to collect 1.5m euro! No less. Check out the leaflet here.

I have some printed leaflets and posters – please let me know if you would like to collect some or if you would like me to post you some. They are really nice and would definitely encourage people to connect with the fundraising cycle!