Last night, I didn’t sleep much. What really surprised me was that I was not on my own. Around the world, there were people doing what I was doing: watching the Dreamboat video Pádraig’s friends had put together.

Pádraig was good today. He is really so much more alert these days. He had two visitors over and we all agreed that he looked like he was really enjoying the chat.

It has been a long day and a short night last night. Can just about finish this blog…

Keep watching the Dreamboat!

Good night.

I was going to write about… something. Tonight. But then I watched this.

The Future is Yours. And with your energy,  love, compassion, enthusiasm, fun, friendship, commitment. There is hope. For us. All.

Watch it. Keep watching it. Then watch it again.

I had doubt. He believed. It floated like a dream. The Dreamboat.

Tonight will have to be a short update, I’m afraid. For some reason this was one of those days when work just did not stop. Being alone in the apartment doesn’t help. There’s no one here to make sure that certain things stop and others begin. Balance is what it is all about.

At 4:02 pm this afternoon, I realised that I had received a message on my German mobile this morning. For some reason, it had decided to switch itself off during the day – and it wasn’t even the battery. Not sure whether you remember the KitKat ad on the TV, or whether it even ran in your country. It’s worth checking it out here. Because what happened to that poor photographer was exactly what happened to me today, except that the photographer only waited maybe an hour until he took the break and missed the ‘shot’ he had been waiting for; in my case, I had been waiting for this call almost three weeks – until my phone decided to take a break and I missed it.

At 4:03 I rang the number and heard the voice of a nice lady telling me that she was delighted to hear that I had called but that, unfortunately, I was calling outside of their normal business hours, which is 7:30 am to 4:00 pm.

So, I’ll be getting up early tomorrow morning to call the Genossenschaft and to find out what the news are about this apartment we applied for – because that was what the call was all about.

Pádraig and I had some time for a long chat, we went out onto the roof garden (in the cold, bbbrrrrr), we went through the mouth hygiene routine, and I tried out my hot towel shaving skills (no cuts this time). At the end of it all, the nurse remarked about how nice he was smelling (and he did). I am sure that when I left Pádraig said “Gute Nacht” and I hope that this is what he is going to have tonight.

Shopping at Lidl is always an adventure. Some of the stuff is to similar to what they say in Ireland. Some of the stuff is really different – like the “Irländer”!

We listen to the early RTÉ morning radio, then Morning Ireland, and the news most mornings. This morning I thought that there was one murder, one raid, one bomb disposal after the other. The German news are really tame in comparison. As if nothing really news-worthy was happening. What the Irish news are missing in ‘good’ stories, the Germans are missing in ‘interesting’ stories.

We had hoped to have heard about the apartment by now. We had hoped to have heard about the move to the UKE for the operation by now. Neither of it did happen. We’ll have to be patient.

Pádraig has been really alert and awake over the past days, including today. He is getting really stable again now, and will have plenty of time to demonstrate to everybody how he is getting not just stable, but better.

Wednesday, 03 December is the official launch of the Dreamboat, the Amhrán do Phadráig, in Dublin, in The Grand Social. Be there!

I wish…

Can I tell you or would that wish not work if I did?

Mmmhhh – I know. I’ll tell you about one wish I have. If that wish should not be granted because I told you about it, then I’ll just keep my wishes for myself.

I wish to find out about this apartment; and not just to hear about it, but to get good news about it. Initially, we thought we’d hear about it last week, then this week, now it’ll be next week…

I also wished my Irish was better. In case your Irish is a bad as mine (practically non-existent) you’ll have wondered what last night’s blog was all about. I thought, I’d try what the Irish Government did with its website promoting the 1916 Easter Rising celebrations: getting it translated using Google Translate. [In case you don’t trust Google Translate, but still want to find out what the ‘original’ was, I’ve copied the original text to the end of this blog.] I just thought that it was hilarious that they first get a Minister for the Gaeltacht who does not speak Irish (but is, apparently, very keen to learn the language), and then get the website for the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising translated by an online machine translation programme. It’s pure genius.

(In case you didn’t know and were wondering what is going on here, “it is a primary objective of the Department to support the implementation of the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 and, within that context, to promote Irish as the main language of the Gaeltacht.”)

There is a bit of good news (this has got something to do with the wish I didn’t tell you about). Pádraig’s main doctor here told us that they did another EEG and it turns out that especially that part of his brain that was less injured is beginning to show what would be considered to be ‘normal’ activity on the scale they use. Is this a sign of things to come?

If the Irish Government can do it, so can I. You might have heard in tonight’s news that the official Irish Government website for the 1916 commemoration was translated into the first official language of the country by Google translate. It’s incredible. Thank you Google. Thank you Irish Government. You make technology work!

I won’t be writing that much tonight because I’m not sure about how much of what I’m writing will be understood by the fantastic programme that has now replaced human translators, even in the Irish Government offices.

Und warum schreibe ich überhaupt auf Englisch? Und übersetze das dann auch noch ins Irische…

Patrick ist heute offiziell ein Hamburger geworden. Er hat seine leichte Erkältung so weit hinter sich gebracht und wirkt insgesamt sehr viel gesünder.

Bueno, voy a dormir. Será otro día mañana.

This is not Libya or Iraq, it’s main street in Hamburg and the police is obviously getting ready – for what I’ve no idea, but it seems pretty serious!

http://www.amhrandophadraig.com

http://www.amhrandophadraig.com

Más féidir leis an Rialtas na hÉireann é a dhéanamh, mar sin is féidir I. D’fhéadfá a chuala i nuacht na hoíche anocht gur aistríodh an láithreán gréasáin an Rialtais oifigiúil na hÉireann don chomóradh 1916 isteach sa chéad teanga oifigiúil na tíre ag Google aistriú. Tá sé dochreidte. Go raibh maith agat Google. Go raibh maith agat Rialtas na hÉireann. A dhéanann tú an obair teicneolaíocht!

Ní bheidh mé ag scríobh go bhfuil i bhfad anocht toisc nach bhfuil mé cinnte faoi cé mhéad ar cad tá mé scríofa a thuiscint an clár iontach go bhfuil ionad anois aistritheoirí  daonna, fiú sna hoifigí Rialtas na hÉireann.

Agus cén fáth a scríobh mé ar chor ar bith i mBéarla? Agus a aistriú go ansin freisin go Gaeilge …

Tá anois Patrick bheith go hoifigiúil hamburger. Tá sé ag a thug a fuar beag go dtí seo taobh thiar agus rinne a lán níos sláintiúla.

Bhuel, tá mé ag dul a chodladh. Is Amárach lá eile.

https://www.facebook.com/amhrandophadraig?notif_t=page_invite_accepted

http://www.amhrandophadraig.com

I almost missed it.

There was a brown envelope on Pádraig’s desk today. Packed. I ask you, what do you do with a packed brown envelope? Make sure no-one else sees it and you’d put it away in a safe place? Or would you ignore it altogether?

I decided to open it.

And inside, inside were five copies, wrapped in protective plastic, of the new Christmas No. 1 CD, Amhrán do Phádraig.

I played it a dozen times and thought that Pádraig was singing along. Is it only just a dream?

I had heard so much about it, had seen the pictures on the website, holding the cover in my hand and listening to the poems, songs, and music was something else.

Even if I wasn’t who I am (and who knows who I am:) I would buy a box of these CDs and give them as a present to all of my family and friends. It’s incredible stuff. Absolutely incredible.

Pádraig was humming along, and it was a sign of things to come.

If there is one thing you’ll be getting for your family and friends this Christmas, make it the Christmas No. 1 album, Amhrán do Phádraig.