Saturday should be the night fever. It’s when young people go out. There is no ‘going out’ here, not even on a Saturday night. I promised myself not to think anymore about what could have been, what should have been. Because it doesn’t make any difference. Things are as they are. In a way, it’s good that there isn’t any Saturday night ‘fever’, that all is good.

I spent some time on my own with Pádraig and played him some of my music. Streets of London, for example – so how can you say that the sun don’t shine for you anymore? Or: Stairway to heaven…

And then, I played ‘A song for Ireland’ by Mary Black.

Pat asked whether he could tap his feet along. And yes, you guessed it – he did it!!! For the first time ever in more than a year: he tapped his feet along a ‘song for Ireland’!

Strange things happen.

I remember one night at a friend’s apartment in Cologne where we talked about García Marquez’ Cien años de Soledad, with some fellow students, a professor, and Pat (from Ireland:). We concluded that the only deficiency of that book was that it hadn’t been written by an Irish person. Ok, it was early in the morning, after a long day and a nice meal… but the point we agreed on was that there was at least as much ‘magic realism’ in Ireland as there was in Aracataca, Colombia.

Here is an example of both: a bit of realism and a bit of magic – from Germany, the place you’d expect to find a lot of ‘realism’, a bit less of magic, but where, surprise surprise, you’ll find both!

Realism – This is the first page of our 20 page ‘Jahresabrechnung’ for our apartment. Check out all the items: For the last 16 days of December ’13, we have to pay for, among other items, street cleaning (0.55 euro), the gardener (1.55 euro), and – avid readers will remember these, because they were checked one morning in December at 07:15 – the smoke alarms in our apartment (0.34 euro).

I call the above an example of ‘realism’ – although in Ireland, you’d probably use it as an example of ‘magic’ because no one but a wizard could come up with such a bill.

Magic – Here comes the magic. The clock in Pádraig’s room this afternoon.

Watch it. Again. And a third time! This is not made up. This really happened! And it went on for much longer than this clip!

The other thing that really happened was that we went out a second time ‘into the wild’ of the rose garden and the grounds of the Schön-Klinik with Pádraig! (Thank you to the nurse who made this happen.) I still don’t know whether this was real or whether it was magic. Whatever it was, I am sure it happened!

To be honest, I can’t get enough of it. And I’m sure, Pádraig can’t get enough of it either! There is life out there. And he is part of it, again! – A sign of things to come! – Anything is possible!

Out and about. I was thinking about the big event yesterday. Getting out for the first time in more than a year, not in an ambulance, or on a plane, but in a wheel chair, for a stroll. To the famous rose garden. There must have been a million things that Pádraig saw, felt, smelt, touched, tasted that he would have almost forgotten about.

What do you do when you get overwhelmed by your senses? What I do (though it doesn’t happen that often anymore:) is: I just give up or give in – whatever. ‘Resistance is futile’ in these instances. I suppose this is what happened to Pádraig yesterday: a big big bucket load of stuff thrown at him with no place to go. I got the feeling that the real effect of that ‘out and about’ excursion only started when he got back into his ‘own’ four walls. When he realised that the world outside actually did still exist and is just waiting for him to dive in and then get on top of it again.

If we forget for a moment about how Pádraig might have managed to deal with all of this and how he will deal with it over the next days, what was probably as important, if not even more important, as the excursion itself it was the fact that he could embark on it at all. Today, I had to go over some notes from the year just past. When I read about and then remembered how he was doing just some months ago, and compare that with him moving around the grounds of the hospital yesterday in his smart yellow (!) trousers and his even smarter blue vans (remember the pictures of the vans?), the magnitude of what happened yesterday became as clear as mud: whereas we all would have been really afraid of something happening to Pádraig getting out ‘into the wild’ then, yesterday no one was afraid. Yes, very very very nervous, but no afraid. It was, literally, a walk in the park.

Sebastian Hackel, Warum sie lacht (2011). Ich hab’ Hasen geseh’n, mitten in der Stadt…

Today’s Music Tip
Sebastian Hackel, Warum sie lacht (2011). Ich hab’ Hasen geseh’n, mitten in der Stadt…
What’s hot
Being completely overwhelmed by your senses
What’s cold
Not feeling. Anything.
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Mensch, das kannste dir wirklich nich’ vorstellen! Der glatte Wahn!

We still can’t believe it. But, after more than a year, Pádraig was outside, in the fresh air, in the sunshine, amongst people, rabbits running across the grass, children playing at the water fountain in the rose garden – and himself right bang in the middle!

After that outing and all the fresh air, he was really hungry and ate more and better than ever before. He was also really awake and responsive, communicating no problem with the yes/no answers.

Brilliant.

Signs to the S1 in Berlin

Changing moving stairs at a station

“Die Bahn”, the German Railways, are not really known for their sense of humour. They are trying to become more international having announcements on their trains in German and English (“Sänk yu four träwelling wis Deutsche Bahn”), where it is not always immediately evident whether what they are announcing is being announced in German or English. Their attempts to be funny remained ‘bodenständig’ German. “Max der Maulwurf” is their character in charge of communicating difficult and annoying news to their customers. He even got his own website. Not sure what to think of this, but I have the feeling that if station entrances are closed and it’s difficult to find your way around, or if moving stairs don’t work, Max der Maulwurf doesn’t give me the impression of being taken seriously as a customer. To me, it looks like as if, in addition of annoying delays and inconveniences, the Deutsche Bahn was making fun of their customers… Humour. Doesn’t always work.

Today, the head of the physio team in the Schön Klinik visited Pádraig together with his speech therapist. No news of that visit and examination, but tomorrow is the day we get to meet the therapists and, who knows, there might be some news.

Pádraig continues with his meals and, no surprise here, continues to like the deserts much much more than the spinach (who likes spinach?) and really finely minced meat or fish with mashed potatoes. The new tube he got last week seems to work fine, it is shorter and looks much neater. We continue to block it altogether every day, just for a very short time, to get him used to breathing in and out through his mouth and nose. As long as his head is positioned well, he manages this brilliantly.  The transfer from bed to wheelchair and back is going smoother every day. You wouldn’t believe the amount of details to look out for, tubes, cushions, sensors, positioning, supports – it’s an endless list of things. But we are getting better at it.

Today, we got to know a new gadget: it looks like a shower cap. It comes in a bag like a shower cap. You can put it on like a shower cap. But it has exactly the opposite effect than that of a shower cap. Instead of keeping water out, it keeps moisture (and whatever else) inside: you put it on (having heated it up slightly in the microwave if you prefer) and you massage whatever is inside of the cap onto your head. We’ll see tomorrow how well it worked, but today his hair looked great and, more importantly, he really liked the clean feeling!

Don’t forget:

Today’s German Music Tip
Fard, Reich und Schön (2011). Not really my style of music, but it’s one of the better known newer German stars. Fard is a German rapper with Iranian roots from Gladbeck, with 16+ million clicks on youtube…
What’s hot
Washing Hair
What’s cold
Washing Hair with water:)
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Das kommt gar nicht in die Tüte!

We hit a humongous traffic jam today when coming back from Tating, driving out from Wacken onto the motorway towards Hamburg. Some heavy metal fans had decided to hit the road early to avoid the annual traffic jam on the A23 going South. The variety of ‘vehicles’ was incredible. What they all had in common was that they were driven by people wearing black t-shirts with tattoos up to their necks! Here is a small selection….

So we arrived a bit later than planned, but still at around 2pm at the hospital. Pádraig’s nurse had stopped his ‘Sondennahrung’ an hour earlier to try and make him feel a bit hungry. By the time we had moved him into the wheelchair, she had heated up his dinner and brought it in together with a really nice looking yoghourt. He had some of the dinner but, needless to say, he like the yoghourt so much more that he almost finished it up.

Then, and here is the highlight of the day, the nurse mentioned in passing that a doctor had enquired about the possibility of us taking Pádraig out, I mean OUT, out into the fresh air, the sun, the wind, the grass, the trees, the birds singing, people messing, …. The answer he got was: yes, no problem – as long as there is a nurse with him and his has a mobile oxygen monitor gadget attached. Isn’t this GREAT? (The doctor himself came in later and confirmed it with us!) Now, all we need is a nurse that has an hour or so to spare to accompany us outside, a day with not-so-much heat, and OUT we go! It would be really nice to organise the date in the rose garden now, to have a little get-together with all the great people who have worked so hard and helped so much to get Pádraig to this point! Can’t wait for the day!

Today marks the beginning of WW1. I just checked how many people died. For nothing. The number is 37. Million.

Instead of the usual German phrase or word, tonight here is a picture from an item that is so common in every hospital that I won’t give away what it is. It has some writing on it which really struck me, looking at German writing, but reading it in English – all of a sudden it sounded very much un-German!

And finally, a word about the Poker Night: the Facebook page for the event can now be accessed. Check it out: https://www.facebook.com/events/478688752267844/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=hosting

Can you believe that this is the 1st of August? The first day of autumn? In my mind it’s only yesterday we were sitting outside in Beaumont, in the early autumn sun, believing that the next four months would bring about a big change. Looking back, we were right in one, but wrong in another way.

Imagine. Lights going on and off. The door of your room opening and closing and opening again. Muffled but familiar voices in the background. There is the odd word you catch and understand, but it’s hard to grasp fully what is going on. Shadows on the ceiling of your room. You can feel people touching you, moving you around a bit. More shadows, at time, you recognize some of them, they are not here for the first time with you. Does this sound like a scene from a horror movie? This morning, I read about a new computer game of which the reviewer said that it was very different from anything else he had ever seen. The game is one of those where the players take on a specific role, only that this time it’s not that of a gangster driving a fast car, or that of a soldier trying to free one of his comrades taken prisoner by cruel guerillas in the South American jungle – this time the player becomes a baby in its cod.

Today we discovered that mincing the food for Pádraig is not quite sufficient. It also need to be ‘liquidy’. He got a menu for next week with a few options to choose from – unless you require the most minced version, like Pádraig does, and then there is only one dish. To be honest, in his case it’s not so much a matter of ‘which dish’ but more a matter of the food just being very soft and easy to swallow. We’ll try to mix in a bit of hot water tomorrow and see…

Poker Night for Pádraig Schaler! https://www.facebook.com/events/478688752267844/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=hosting

As many of you might know, our good friend, Padraig Schaler, is in Germany at the moment receiving excellent treatment in Hamburg. He has already taken many steps, but he has many more to take on his long road to recovery. And we are all here to help him on his way, in any way we can!

That said, one great way we can all help is through fundraising! Of course, there are very high costs involved in Padraig’s treatment, along with travel expenses etc. As a result, we are organizing this poker night to help raise money.

We invite all poker players (OF ALL LEVELS) to bring your sunglasses, hoods and whatever else you think is necessary in order to win!

We decided to organize this ‘Poker Night’ as Pádraig is a little bit of a gambler, many a game did he win and (mostly) lose, and I know it won’t be long before he’ll be saying ‘I’M ALL IN’ again : )

This promises to be a fantastic evening as it is seldom that such a collection of top poker players come together under one roof. We thank you in advance for your commitment!

Tournament details:

Pre-tournament training and talk: 7:00pm
Register: 7:30pm
Tournament kick-off: 8:00pm

Buy-in: €30
Rebuy: €15 (one rebuy each)

For Texas Hold Em’ rules: http://www.texasholdem-poker.com/beginnersintro

For tournament prizes:
1st Place = €180 + (€40 Hailo credits)
2nd Place = €90 + (€40 Hailo credits)
3rd Place = €60 + (€40 Hailo credits)

Worst beat = €20 in Hailo taxi credits
Worst player of the tournament (biggest donk) = €20 in Hailo taxi credits
First person out = €20 in Hailo taxi credits
Luckiest player = €20 in Hailo taxi credits

The ‘Wishing Well’ on Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock has kindly agreed to host this event, and some snack finger food. https://goo.gl/maps/Cu4Ka

Further information on Pádraig’s accident can be found here: http://caringforpadraig.org/as-told-by-his-family/

Reinhard, Schaler’s dad writes daily updates here: https://hospi-tales.com/

Start practicing 😉 Pádraig abú! As an aside, if anybody uses Hailo, enter the code schaler2014 (first time users only) to get €10 off a taxi with Hailo. Tournament sponsored in part by Hailo Ireland & The Wishing Well.

Tonight, there is no shortage of things to talk about. Boa eh!

You know, Pádraig is on full board, all inclusive. Three meals a day, all you can eat. All you can drink. Room service. So today we went all out, we decided to get the menu and go for it: we ordered the whole lot! Well, one meal. We asked for the pureed dish which, when it arrived, looked a bit like what our friends across the water (thank God we’re surrounded by water:) call ‘bangers and mash’. Turned out as proof for the saying that not everything looks like what it is. This was ALL pureed. The sausages were just very finely minced meat put back together to look like sausages, the potato cakes were mashed potatoes, and the third item was like a minced vegetable cake – all served with a lovely sauce. A meal for a man. He loved it. Didn’t quite manage to finish it (for from it), but he had a go! And Pat and I really started to admire the chef!

The biggest news today is (no, it’s not WOA:) – that Pádraig got a new ‘Kanüle’  and not just a new one, but a different one: much shorter and without the balloon that served to block the airways into the mouth and nose. It’s the last step (maybe the second last?) towards ‘dekanülierung’, taking the tube out all together, we were told. The only reason, as far as we know, stopping the ‘Dekanülierung’ now is that when he puts his head back, he has problems breathing, especially through his mouth. Which is something I have too. I pointed that out to the therapists, suspecting it might be an anatomical difference, rather than a consequence of the accident. They want to take it step by step, and do this with every possible care, just in case it’s not anatomical but lack of muscle somewhere in his airwaves or throat or chest. I am sure we’ll find out. In the meantime, Pádraig will get special training for all and any muscle possibly involved in breathing.

I had forgotten to mention the huge number of cars on the motorway the other day heading for Wacken. What? Wacken? WOA. It’s the worlds biggest open air heavy metal festival. It takes place in a little tiny village between Hamburg and Tating (closer to Tating than to Hamburg), in the middle of nowhere. It’s so famous, it attracted a Korean film maker to do a documentary about it and there are endless hours of videos on the web about it. You need to wear black, preferably have a bit of a belly, drive a Harley, and wear leather with a head band covering your thin but long hair. For years, I’ve been looking for someone, anyone, to join me going for the 3 days over the first weekend in August to Wacken, but they all chickened out. (I also tried the Karl May Festspiele in Bad Segeberg, equally unsuccessfully – which made me think that it might have been the company rather than the event that made the difference:) The highlight of the festival is the grand opening, by the marching band of the Wacken Voluntary Firemen. Pure Genius! Where but in Wacken Open Air – W:O:A?

Sneak preview: The coolest and darkest, the most dangerous and most RISKY, the one with the highest stakes, the one not to be missed if you love the risk and enjoy to win! Poker Night for Pádraig Schaler! Saturday the 23rd of August at 7.30pm https://www.facebook.com/events/478688752267844/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=hosting – More details tomorrow!

Today’s Music Tip
Wacken – Ein Dorf sieht schwarz. A documentary by the NDR (North German Broadcast Authority). It’s in German, but the language of this movie is universal: you’ll need an hour and a half, good headphones (or an empty house and good speakers:), loads of beer, and no inhibitions.
What’s hot
Bangers and mash
What’s cold
Beer, literally
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Boah eh!