I thought I’d got up really early this morning until the man doing the groundworks on the extension said well, that’s about the time I get up every morning now. Right, I thought. 5am is not as early as I would’ve thought. A short walk, a train to the Hauptbahnhof, a train to Bremen, a tram to the airport, Ryanair to Dublin – and then, not the bus home, but a lift in a wonderful and comfortable car driven by a really good friend to his house where the best ever Irish Breakfast was waiting for me! It couldn’t get any better! After that, I was prepared for the day!

Builders, garage (trying to get the car fixed for the re-test), visit at a friend’s house. These friends had recently organised a coffee morning that generated several thousands of euro for Pádraig’s fund. Check out the photos here.

A trip out to a care facility in North County Dublin to meet the parents of two other young people with a very severe acquired brain injury, as well as, of course, their sons. I had not met them before, neither the parents nor their sons.

It might sound strange, but it was in a way one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve had for some time. I had heard to much about them before and had been looking forward to seeing them, meeting them, talking to them.

They are fabulous people, beautiful people who are trying to live life, their life, to the full.

Pádraig had a good day today, on a really warm, almost hot Hamburg summer’s day. The heat makes him a bit tired, but I’m sure he’s enjoying it. He’s eating is three meals a day, and taking in loads of fluids to make up for the sweat in this hot weather.

Big building-related meeting tomorrow morning.

Where is this letter? The one. Not all the others on my desk, on the floor, in the shelf, in the plastic storage boxes, in the arch lever folders, on top of the shelf, on top of the boxes, or in the kitchen. There must be hundreds of them from some state offices, the hospitals, the insurance companies, the courts, the waterworks, the electricity company, the carers’ company, the Wohnungsgenossenschaft, the Wasserbeschaffungsverband, the critical care company, the Apotheke, the bank, the credit card company, and I don’t know from whom else. They are all writing us letters. It’s a wonder there’s any trees left.

All those letters are here in this room. It’s a small room and it faces to the East which means that you better avoid it in the mornings, because these days it gets really hot when the sun shines in. I’ve looked through all of these hundreds of letters several times today. I’m telling myself how useless I am in organising all this stuff. All the letters are there. Everyone of them. But not the one I’m looking for. The important letter. The one.

I’m praying, I’ve tears in my eyes, I’m asking Pat: she’s the one who always finds lost items in our house, long after St. Anthony has given up (although, he might just take his time when I’m getting too impatient). Even she can’t help. There’s absolutely no sign whatsoever of this letter. Anywhere.

At least Pádraig’s had a good day today. No sign of a cold anymore. Three meals, small and pureed, but three meals. Pat went out for a walk with him and while I kept looking for this letter getting more and more desperate, the two of them enjoyed the blue sky and the sunshine. It’s not too hot here (yet), just a beautiful summer’s day. Physiotherapy and speech therapy sessions, followed by an occupational therapy session. More than he got on a good day in the hospital – especially if you count the walk in the park today as an extra two hours of therapy.

One last desperate look, passed all the really old papers and letters, down to the bottom of the transparent plastic box with the pink lid. An envelope with the letter in it. The one. I can’t believe it. The relief is something else. But still, why am I not better organised? Is the German in me dead and gone? What happened to the organised me? Did I just get overwhelmed by this masses of paper from all these people all looking for all sorts of stuff, from money to information?”

Off to Dublin tomorrow to check on the extension. I’ll take a day off during the weekend to sort out all the letter, answer them, fill them in, pay the amounts requested. A day might not be enough…

Talking about letters – the one to the Governor and the one to the Attorney General of Massachusetts have neither been answered yet.

Today’s German Music Tip
Gestört aber GeiL & Koby Funk feat. Wincent Weiss, Unter Meiner Haut. Uploaded mid March of this year, this song got 6.2m views on youtube. It’s a good song, I guess, they don’t play it on the radio, must be a club hit! I wonder is it the really cool apartment the two are living in that makes this so attractive?
What’s hot
Bins
What’s cold
Paperwork
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Papier ist geduldig

‘Change will come’ was the message a friend from sent Boston today. Yes, it will. Change will come. We will make sure it will. Actually, not so much me and my generation but Pádraig, his friends and their generation. There must have been dozens of messages and letters and emails and tweets that were sent to the Governor and Attorney General of Massachusetts. So far, we haven’t received a reply to the open letter, but important things take time.

It has been so warm today in Hamburg that I am sitting, for the first time, on the roof terrace writing this blog. There is no wind, the sun is going down, some DIY enthusiast (in Germany, you’re never far away from a DIY enthusiast)  is cutting something with his electric saw, Pádraig is relaxing in his bed behind me, and the world is not so bad. It’s funny, how not thinking too much makes the world a better place!

Today we got a visit from a German physio living and working in Dublin. We got out Pádraig’s big Vojta table and he got an extra hour of therapy. It was great. Each therapist has their own individual approach. Getting an extra, very different, hour of therapy today was a real bonus. I also learned a few new ways of keeping Pádraig fit.

I thought more of An Saol – Live your Life! today and the many things that could get started straight away, like a website with information, very pragmatic stuff, things that we learned over the past two year, things that other families learned and are happy to share. That would be a good first step.

Change will come. That has to be our message to all of those who think they could just continue in their tracks.

Change will come.

Today’s German Music Tip
La Resistance, Alienbesuch. Well, this is an unusual one. Uploaded about 6 years ago and just 4600 or so views. It’s rap, not my kind of music normally, but I like this. Not just because of the lyrics… Was ist das für ne Welt…? Sag mir bitte, dass ich meinen drei Augen nicht trauen kann.
What’s hot
A clear message
What’s cold
Business as usual
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Mensch Meier!

Help! I’m falling! – Don’t blackmail us!

Fair play to the Grrrreekz! They demonstrated two facts today: one, whatever happens in Greece will profoundly affect the rest of Europe and the world: when they declared a week of bank holidays today, stock markets and the euro went down worldwide; second, of course the decision on Greece’s future can never be left to unelected bureaucrats and even less so bankers who have nothing on their mind than profit margins for them and their client investors/gamblers, so they announced a referendum in about a week’s time.

All this, of course, because they are intelligent, well-versed in Game theory, and firmly grounded in democratic principles. Greece is where democracy was born, they even invented the word for it. They certainly don’t need a lecture from the Germans, nor anyone else for that matter, on democratic principles.

The heat is on – not just in Athens, but also in Hamburg. If you believe the weather forecasters (can you really believe anyone on the telly these days?) temperatures in Hamburg will exceed 30o. It’ll be hotter in our apartment, being on the top floor and exposed to the sun all day long with no shade whatsoever. It’ll be fun! – We are prepared though: when Lidl had those blow-up canoes on offer, we bought one planning to use it the other way round. Instead of putting it on water, we’ll put the water into the canoes and create a mini-pool for Pádraig. Can’t wait to see it working!

Talking about Pádraig, he still has a tiny bit of a cold, but nothing serious, really. He continues eating his three extremely healthy ‘meals’ every day (ReadyBreak with stewed fruit, soup, and carrots with potatoes – mustn’t forget to change the menu one day).

A new problem we’re facing are mosquito-type flies who seem to wake up in the night, make this awful noise, and love sucking blood out of innocent people, leaving itchy marks behind. We’ll have to find an effective solution for that one soon…

Live your Life!

The Andy Warhol – type poster of Pádraig really impressed me! Like the brilliant picture of the Dreamboat on the cover of Amhrán do Phádraig it was done by one of Pádraig’s really talented friends. Pádraig once produced a ‘logo’ for his An Saol podcast, using a very cheap internet-based service.

I want to start working on PR material for An Saol – but I could never produce a logo of the quality of any of the stuff prepared by his friends…. They’ve just got so much more talent! (Get the hint?:)

Anyhow, here’s to An Saol – Live your Life!

Today’s German Music Tip
Glasperlenspiel, Paris. “Wir können immer noch frei sein… Lass’ es jetzt nicht vorbei sein…” The brand new song of one of Germany’s best known bands.
What’s hot
Talent, intelligence, and democracy
What’s cold
Blackmail
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Der schnöde Mammon

Pádraig is alive and keeps getting better.

So infinitely more than any of the doctors who treated him would have thought.

There are many hundreds of people all over the world who have in a real and very significant way contributed to his very slow but very steady recovery.

There are thousands of people, some are random strangers, who have heard about what happened to him, who have heard about he phenomenal support by his wider family and friends, who spontaneously send messages of supports and contribute to caringforpadraig.org.

Right now, two years ago, we were frantically booking tickets to get to Cape Cod as fast as was possible. Pat and Pádraig’s sisters here in Dublin, myself in Sanya, on an island in the South China sea. Nothing was real.

They promised us that he would be alive when we got there.

Today, Pádraig had a picnic in the park with Pat, and a beer, to celebrate. He is alive and keeps getting better. And soon, he will be back in Dublin.

Now, how’s that, Dreamboaters?

There is no two ways about it: Pádraig’s friends, the young, the old, and those of no determinable age, have this joie de vivre that is just contagious.

I will write More details about the Féile Schaler later in the morning.

Have to go to bed. Good night!

Cancel all appointments or meetings you might have tomorrow evening and make your way down to the Conradh for Féile Schaler! Check out the details here.

When I arrived back home to Dublin today for a short visit, building work on Pádraig’s extension had started! It’s magic and it’s going to be the best extension ever built. Because people know how important this is going to be for Pádraig coming back to Ireland. Check out these pictures!

with Pádraig’s room dimensions

Our front garden…

The back…

In the afternoon, two of Pádraig’s friends from Coláiste Eoin turned up together with their wheelbarrow to help. They did magic! One of the men working on the site said: “Wow, he must be a special person – if I tried to call on my friends from secondary school, I’d be on my own. – Thank you so much for your help!

I’m going to write a short piece every day on the accident, coming up to the second anniversary. I took the following short video on Rt. 6A Eastward, the direction both Pádraig and Mr Couto were travelling. Watch the pedestrian on the right, how the cars are very much slowing down, and how the cars (there’s also a truck similar to Mr Couto’s) are driving around that pedestrian very slowly. – Now, imagine Pádraig on his bike, on the left of the white ‘fog line’ delimiting the right side of the road. And imagine Mr Couto overtaking him, with his foot on the accelerator, driving at a speed of approximately 30 miles per hour – while, at the same time, another car (with one of the key witnesses to the accident) was pulling into Rt. 6A from Croker Lane in plane eyesight and now driving straight into his way.

Tonight at 8pm, there was a big feature on Raidió na Life about tomorrow’s Féile Schaler with an interview and an airing of the brilliant recording of “Pádraig” by Markus. You can listen back to the few minutes of the interview to get a taste (!) of what is going to happen tomorrow in the Conradh.

Please Join Us on Friday for Féile Schaler

Would you have a few minutes and do me a favour, could you?

Take a few moments and either (1) write a short email or (2) tweet (or do both:) to:

• The Governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker and
• The Attorney General of Massachusetts Ms Maura Healey
  • to consider the request made by the parents of Pádraig Schaler in the open letter of 22 June 2015 to them, to establish an independent investigation into the accident on Route 6A in Brewster, MA, on 27 June 2013, that left their son and your friend Pádraig in a minimally conscious state. Here is the link to the letter: https://padraigschaler.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/ol-mass-150622.pdf

Here are their contact details:

• The Governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker
  • Twitter
    • @MassGov
    • @CharlieBakerMA
  • Email
    • Could not find an email address, just a form to fill in: http://www.mass.gov/governor/constituent-services/contact-governor-office/
• The Attorney General of Massachusetts Ms Maura Healey
  • Twitter
    • @MassAGO
      @maura_healey
  • Email
    • ago@state.ma.us

Once you have done this, please take another moment and ask you families and friends to do the same – may be we can create a snowball effect right in the middle of the summer!

Look at it as an experiment:

• How many people will we get to send them a note? – 20? 30?
• How many countries will these emails/tweet come from? – 5? 10?
• … by next Saturday – the second anniversary of his accident.

I think the more of us write to them the more likely it is that they’ll take notice.

Let’s make it viral.

From a very different sphere: It’s amazing how everything slows down and the ‘important’ stuff retreats into nothingness when you close the door, sit beside Pádraig, hold his hand, talk a little or just sense a silent but very strong connection. No need to take a course in meditation or mindfulness. It’s all there. There is a huge energy in the room, not the kind of busy energy, but a kind of re-assuring, centre-ing one. It is hugely rewarding to spend that time with Pádraig. I hope he feels that too.

And all along, we keep building dreamboats: trips to Alaska (remember Alaska?) or just down to Tating (we discovered there are wheelchair you can push into the sea) or to Drumdarkin (in the middle of nowhere, literally).

Today’s German Music Tip
Fard, Reich und Schön. Don’t get turned off by the name of the singer… This is a really good German rapper song. Rapper are the new Neue Deutsche Welle, only that the background of most German rappers is not German.
What’s hot
Viral campaigns
What’s cold
Letters
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Wo kämen wir da hin, wenn das alle machen würden?