There was laughter and never ending smiles from Pádraig with a level of slagging going on between his friends that he was enjoying tremendously. There was no end to it. They didn’t want to leave and he didn’t want to go to sleep. He and his friends had a fantastic time. There wasn’t a taste of this boring every-day routine stuff we are going through with far too little fun and far too much ‘have-to-do’…

To be honest, I don’t want to go to sleep either. (And I have that feeling most days.)

I tried swimming today. Where would you go but to the National Aquatic Centre, the NAC. Everybody else must have known because there were just about half a dozen of swimmers in there. They were cleaning the pool and were charging twice the normal, already overpriced entry fee – because they were deep-cleaning the main pool with only the diving basin open. The 25m lane was fine. I had it all for myself. (I had paid twice for it:) I managed to do 1k. It’s a start.

Staying fit will not allow me to control life. But I hope it’ll help me to deal better with what life holds in store for me. – How pathetic does that sound.