I had enough. (Pat had long past that point.) You need to know that our bedroom is also my office to understand this. I feel lucky, because it could also be our kitchen. Working after breakfast would be fun (nice smells of coffee), working after cooking not so much (smoke filled air?). But, no matter what, you have to be able to move through the room. I wrote, some weeks ago, about the three page letter and contract I received from German Telekom, just because I had opted in to International Calls (you pay a bit more but get free calls to many different countries).

That was the beginning. Of. Forms. And. Contracts.

Some weeks later, and our bedroom and with it my place of work, turned into a jungle: just imagine all the trees that had to die to make all this paper. Briefe, Bescheide, Anfragen, Bestätigungen, Beschlüsse,… had I really grown up in this country of paper work? You need a personal assistant to do the filing for you! And lately, they started to send reminders. We had not answered their original queries. They want to show us that we can’t get away, there is no place to hide, wishful thinking that they might just forget about us is just that: wishful thinking. How do they do this? How do they find the time to follow up on all this really, at the end of the day, completely and utterly unimportant stuff? Today was the end. I decided to become a real German, and i mean real, de verdad, and filed. For the whole morning. I won’t ever in my life find the papers I am looking for again. They’ll be hidden in one of these huge files that I produced this morning. But – alles hat seine Ordnung. Und Ordnung muss sein. Right?

Fewer numbers, more details. Less drama, more reassured foreword looking confidence. He had a date, in the rose garden, in spring time. Today, this became two. Second day without oxygen, none whatsoever. A leg that looks like normal, with the swelling down from the thrombosis (though he is still getting blood thinners). No antibiotics for ages. Almost everybody saying that they had seen him moving his arms, hands, legs.

He had physios with him today, Occupational Therapists, Respiratory Therapists, and Music Therapy. A really brilliant nurse had organized the viva-la-Thekla for him. By the time visiting started in the afternoon, he was absolutely and completely exhausted. What a programme. While we never understood why therapy stopped over the weekend, today was the first time we thought that taking off Sunday, getting a day of rest, was not such a bad idea.

I don’t think anybody ever promised Pádraig a rose garden before. Now, he has two dates. And he’ll better keep them!

Rosenstolz – Wenn Du jetzt aufgibst

Today’s German Music Tip
Rosenstolz, Wenn Du jetzt aufgibst (2008).
What’s hot
Dates
What’s cold
Loneliness
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Da muss doch wohl ein Ausweg sein…

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.or
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

Can’t wait for tomorrow
Can’t wait for the future
when there won’t be no sorrow
no sorrow no more.

Why sing about lovers lost
or summer dreams ended
in the fields of gold

Why sing about getting old
or growing apart
in your castle to last

Why sing about pain in the past
Can’t wait for the future
When there won’t be no sorrow
no sorrow no more

When there will be
Just carefree joy of life

Things are happening. The effort Pádraig is making causes red patches to appear all over his upper body, so much so that last night the nurse got worried thinking that he might have an allergy. He doesn’t. He is just trying so hard. He moved his right arm up again today, not very far, but very clearly, a few times, and when we asked him to do so. The arm came back down when we asked him to relax.  None of this is a major break through, and the progress is really tiny. But the joy we are feeling is no tiny at all. There will be set backs again. But these days, Pádraig is doing well. Very visibly trying. And you know what happens when he is trying really hard.

It had happened before. That the plastic tube got disconnected from his trachea and with it the oxygen. In Beaumont. Not to worry, we were told. Didn’t do any harm. Easily reconnected. Today, though, no accident. Purpose. No oxygen. No tube connected to the trachea. Another first.

More friends coming over the weekend. No one here can believe this. From Ireland? Irish music is taking over. Kila and Colm are playing (we finally got a CD player going in his room), youtube got a competitor, waiting for the Bonnymen to arrive!

Check out the events on http://www.caringforpadraig.org – non-stop swimming is coming up: swimming a mile with Ireland’s best swimmers in TCD, swimming a mile with Ireland’s newest master swimmers, swimming off the coast of each Irish county with a coast!

And then, the Dublin Women’s Mini Marathon, and the Hamburg Marathon.

Time, Pádraig, to get up, to swim, to run, to have fun. Right?

Today’s German Music Tip
Konstantin Wecker, Empört Euch (17 Oct 2011). Something like a new Brecht-Song, though the music is ‘nicer’ than Weil’s:)
What’s hot
Swimming
What’s cold
Looking back
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Das kann doch gar nicht sein, oder?
“Wir zahlen Steuern und sie setzen ab”
“Empört Euch, gehört Euch, und liebt Euch, und widersteht!”

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

I’ve been thinking about countries. I am so fed up sometimes that I loose hope: they say every country deserves the government its citizens elect. Well, I haven’t elected any of the people or parties in government. Do I still deserve them?

An then, I remembered that Pádraig had found the solution to this problem (as he had to so many other problems). The solution was obvious. Lag auf der Hand, so to speak. It was so obvious that you wonder how you didn’t think about it yourself. Like all brilliant solutions and ideas, when you hear them, you say: YES, this is it!

He looked it all up, researched it, went to websites, wrote letters, made enquiries, rang up people, checked out the UN, the papers, even auctioneers and printing presses. Why?

Well, he was going to buy an island of the west coast. Declare independence. Check it in with the United Nations. Print his own money (and then burn it). And invite his friends in as citizens. No elections required. Only if you don’t know Pádraig would you say now that this is an invention of my imagination. (If you know me, you’ll know that I am far too boring and middle of the road to come up with something like this, even in my imagination.) – In Pádraig’s case, this was not a ‘fixe idea’, it was very, VERY, serious. He was getting ready. Not sure what it was – but he got distracted, something else really exciting happened and his beautiful idea, of this beautiful new island nation sprung off this other beautiful, but slightly adrift, island nation, got lost.

So – should we pick this up again? It would be so much more exciting to create a beautiful counter balance to the sometimes infuriating reality of current politics, rather than becoming another sad revolutionary, declare what’s going on to unimportant to be important, and just start something new, positive action rather than revolutionary fervor?

Today, Pádraig was definitely there: loads of squeezes, moving his arm, moving his head, even moving his leg a bit. He sat out about four hours in the viva-la-thekla. The respiratory therapist was with him, and the physio explained to us that there is no wheel chair around that could bring Pádraig out to his date in the rose garden. So what are they going to do? Next week, measures will be taken, or rather: measurements, and then they will built him a custom-made wheel chair! It’ll take a few weeks, but – with a bit of luck – it’ll be ready for his Namenstag, St Patrick’s Day! If not, then not much later. They mentioned something about the cost and the insurance, but whatever happens – we’ll make sure, he’ll have that date! There was such a presence there today, that he’ll definitely make it, if he keeps it up!

Anybody ready to join a run for Pádraig in the Hamburg Marathon?

Today’s German Music Tip
Dreigroschenoper (Berthold Brecht), Wovon lebt der Mensch (1930)

"Ihr Herrn, die ihr uns lehrt, wie man brav leben
Und Sünd und Missetat vermeiden kann
Zuerst müßt ihr uns was zu fressen geben
Dann könnt ihr reden: damit fängt es an."

What’s hot
Marathons
What’s cold
Standing still
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Leergutrückgabe

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

I am following the news from home about the trial of the three Anglo bankers who have all pleaded not guilty to sixteen charges of providing unlawful financial assistance to ten customers of the bank to buy its shares in 2008. Apparently, they believe that they did provide the loan for the good of the Irish banking sector and the Irish economy. And apparently, David Drumm had received the approval from the Financial Regulator to provide this loan. Berthold Brecht comes to mind who said something about banks… Meanwhile, multinationals keep paying practically no tax, leading economists to compare Ireland with Bermuda. Whether this comparison is fair or not, I am not sure, but surely, Ireland has its own ‘triangle’ where the health services slowly but surely disappear into nothing.

Today at the weekly team meeting, they agreed Pádraig should get a wheelchair. Now, they can’t just pull one out of the depot and bring it up to the ward, it’ll have to be set up and prepared so that he fits in there properly. It’ll gradually replace the viva-la-Thekla, which means that he will be able to sit out, even when the Thekla is in use with another patient. On the other hand, the nurses won’t be able to just push/pull across him from his bed to the Thekla. But he could, if he managed, and the nurses and therapists do manage, sit up on the Bettkante and swiftly move across into the wheelchair. Today, when the nurse was moving him back into the Thekla, she needed him to lift his knee up and move his food closer to his backside – which he promptly did, showing a bit of muscle in the auld leg, according to the nurse, who was surprised how well he cooperated. – ‘Like the stillness before the hurricane begins’ are the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem singing at the 30th anniversary concert for Dylan in the Madison Square Garden….

Another bit of news is that more and more nurses have now seen Pádraig moving and reacting to what is going on around him. Today, he got a date in the rose garden, as soon as the weather will get warmer. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

A few days ago I heard that 04 May will be the day of the 29th Haspa Hamburg Marathon. In a moment of madness I thought whether I will join Haile Gebrselassie and do a run for Pádraig. With a deal between the two of us. I’ll think about it until tomorrow.

Today’s German Music Tip
Hildegard Knef, Seeräuberjenny (1969). This is not ‘nice’ music – but talk about some powerful stuff: …und ein Schiff mit acht Segeln… Think about it: this performance was recorded 55 years ago!
What’s hot
Justice
What’s cold
Banker
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Knacker rot (crunchy wurst in Lidl)

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

Pat has this story her father told her. It’s really not a story, or rather a non-story. Yet, it’s quite unbelievable. Something we are all too young to have experienced. It’s not a story of war or hardship. It’s short. And here it goes: There was this Sunday, many years ago. Sunny. Warm. Quiet. He switched on the radio to listen to the news. The hour came, the familiar voice of the newsreader went on air, the whole nation could hear him, and he said, in his familiar newsreader voice: “There are no news today. And here is Met Eireann with the weather forecast.”

Hey Thekla, Viva-la-Thekla was out again. It was really good to see Pádraig sitting out again. Brill oxygenation, all perfect. Almost no medication, except for the thrombosis. Very little oxygen. Therapist had been with him in the morning, working on his swallowing and the respiration. He closed and opened his hands a few times, held a ball and let it fall into my hand, stuck out his tongue a bit when I asked him – all really small but significant things. Good. Right direction.

There is going to be a swim. A full mile. By some who did not really swim that much before. That far. – Did I tell you about my sea swim last spring? No? Well, it’ll be a bit like that (with ‘perdón’). But all for a good cause. On 04 April at the Swim Ireland ‘Swim a Mile (!) Challenge’. Go Lynn Go! Go Irene Go! Watch this space!

Listening to the 30th Anniversary Concert for Bob Dylan in Madison Square Garden while writing – and Willie Nelson is coming up. Putting 1 (sport) + 1 (Willie Nelson) together made me think of what Willie once said about Lance Armstrong: “I think it is just terrible and disgusting how everyone has treated Lance Armstrong, especially after what he achieved, winning seven Tour de France races while on drugs. When I was on drugs, I couldn’t even find my bike.” Classic.

Today’s German Music Tip
Nena, In meinem Leben (2010). Yes, there is more than 100 Bunte Luftballons!
What’s hot
Swimming a mile
What’s cold
Water
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Krass!

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

People are talking about the language barrier. There is no such thing. Pat and I met in Spain, so we speak Spanish (check it out here, just ignore the pictures…:). I grew up in Germany, so I speak Spanish to our ‘kids’. Pat speaks English (why English?) to them. They got their primary and secondary education through Irish, so (most) speak Irish to their friends. The kids speak German to my family, English to Pat’s family. Pádraig was regularly giving out about those people living for decades in Ireland and not speaking a word of Irish, looking at me with a twinkle in his eyes.

Yesterday, around 10,000 people demonstrated for their right to speak their language in their country. Not in Kenya, not in Tibet, but in Dublin. People said they could not go to doctors who spoke their language, they could not buy medicine in pharmacies where employees spoke their language. The language commissioner Seán Ó Cuirreáin resigned in protest over the failure by Government to implement legislation protecting the rights of Irish speakers.

i guess the Irish government doesn’t see Irish as the ‘language of enterprise’, doesn’t believe Irish is attracting foreign investment, doesn’t see that it brings in money. Last summer, the news were packed with reports about all these wonderful entrepreneurs filling up Dublin hotel beds attending the web summit, while hardly a word was lost about thousands of Irish people having immense fun at the Oireachtas in Killarney.

Language matters. In our family, Pádraig is the only one speaking German to me. He knows how much it matters to me. Over the past months, I have learned how much Irish matters. Lá Mór na Gaeilge – every day.

Today was another for Pádraig getting ready for his big day. Nothing special, but in relatively good form, judging by the numbers: blood pressure, pulse, oxygenation. He seems to have a bit of a problem with his indigestion, but that is hopefully something that will pass soon. Fifth day without the Thekla, probably a mixture of a bad stomach (not a good idea to sit outside with that) and it being Sunday (a bit more complicated to get enough staff involved).

There will be a Lá Mór for Pádraig one day. The day we have been waiting for. And when it comes, we’ll have forgotten all this waiting and worrying.

Just in case you missed today’s Coffee morning at Aideen Cassidy’s, here is it – when did they start baking, I wonder? It looks fantastic!

Last, but not lease, we heard from friends that Scoil Mobhi in Glasnevin, Pádraig’s primary school, did some fundraising during their recent cake sale. – I still remember when I first went into the school: it was amazing. The atmosphere there was incredible. You couldn’t have met nicer teachers, kids, and parents. We were so lucky our kids had the privilege to spend some of their most formative years there, because what they learned there (and I am not talking about maths or geography primarily here) has been staying with them ever since. With Pádraig, well, I am convinced he discovered his love for Irish here.

No language barrier. (If only people were prepared to respect the fundamental and universal human right of people to communicate in their language.)

In fact, no barrier. (If only people were prepared to respect the fundamental and universal human rights of people, if only there was justice and equality and peace.)

Today’s German Music Tip
Frida Gold, Liebe ist meine Rebellion (2013) – Not a German song originally, but nonetheless…
What’s hot
Cup Cakes
What’s cold
Apathy
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Raucher sterben nicht an Lungenkrebs, sie erfrieren draussen vor der Tür. (From a German postcard.)

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

Pick a word. Think of a word. And then start writing about it. It’s a game. It’s a competition. When I was about to become an interpreter for the European Commission, a job I got offered but didn’t accept (yes, I am an idiot), the last hurdle was a 10 minute talk about a topic they pulled out of a hat. At 10pm. After more than 12 hours of interviews and interpreting sessions. – Routine.

Of course, it can be boring. You don’t have to think about it, nor do you have to concentrate. You just do it. You don’t even have to like it. It’s routine. You get over and done with, and then you move on to the interesting part of the day. Routine is what you can rely on, you know it inside out, it almost doesn’t require any effort, there is no risk, it’s very predictable. But boring. Germans are good at it. In Ireland, on the other hand, there is no routine. Everything, and I mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, is like as if you were doing it for the first time. Bus drivers, who have been driven the 45A for the past 20 years, never ever drive at the same speed, never ever arrive at the same stop at the same time, never ever get bored. They do have a timetable, but sure, every day is different, so how could a bus trip be the same? Trains officially ‘are on time’ if they arrive within half an hour-ish of the scheduled arrival. What? While my own job is not quite exciting as that of my public-service colleagues in CIE, there is some variety: routine, being able to rely on something, do something that would have a predictable outcome, would just get in the way of variety, excitement, the spice of life.  In Ireland, the only thing that is predictable is how life is going to end – and you could probably even do something about that if you rang Joe Duffy.

Being all of a sudden confronted with a routine that hardly changes, is a challenge. It’s a challenge if you are (just over half) Irish. It must be hell if you are Irish Irish, like Pádraig. I am convinced that this whole routine thing is so, but soso boring and so intolerable for him, that  he will not be able to take this much longer. He is no man for routine. Nor for boredom. I am sure he has long run out of patience and is just figuring out how to get out of this ‘splace’, mentally and physically. I know I would, and while I am usually not particularly patient, in comparison to Pádraig, I am Job.

His day will come, soon.

Just in case you can’t wait to have a good coffee in the morning, hang in, there is just one day to go:

16 February Coffee Morning for Pádraig Schäler
Aideen Cassidy
12h00 – 15h00
26 Iona Drive
Dublin 9

Today’s German Music Tip
Stella Jürgensen, Kafe in Pariz (2012). Stella Jürgensen is a singer and professional reader/speaker (she reads the news on ARD TV, Germany’s News on One) and produces, together with brilliant musicians Ralf Böcker und Andreas Hecht, new jiddisch music. Quite different and extraordinary.
What’s hot
Job
What’s cold
Hermine: “Er ist so ungeduldig wie sein Dad“, grinste Hermine.
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Rathaus

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

Klick here and listen while reading.

In a previous life, I was a travel writer. One year, my German Hamburg-based publisher asked me to write a book about Australia. It was a follow up on Ibiza. Easy. Both were islands. Both were kind of hot. Both were fun. Both guides were to be 98 pages long. Exactly. Piece of cake, I thought. So I went to Melbourne, saw my sister in law and her family, flew to Tasmania for a few days, back to Adelaide, then on to the Indian Pacific Railway. First Class. Courtesy of my Australian Family. Steak for Breakfast. In bed. In my single berth, shower-equipped super-deluxe compartment. It was unreal. As was the landscape passing by. I had wanted to see Australia’s wildlife. The dramatic country side. The reality was that for two nights and three day, each time I looked out the window, the country passing by looked exactly the same. Exactly.

The highlight of the trip was the longest straight section of railway in the world (478 km, or 297 miles). There is a youtube video capturing the excitement of this trip in 1:42 minutes – it’s far too long, because nothing, absolutely nothing ever changes. On the way, the train stops in Cook (named after former Australian Prime Minister Joseph Cook) a town so desperate to attract people that the put up a sign saying “Please get sick. Our hospital needs your help!”

The Nullarbor and the Indian Pacific are the opposite to the roller coaster. They go on. And on. And on. And on. Until you surrender. Time disappears. Vast space morphs into never changing pictures. You are tempted not to even expect anything different.

Today was such a day. It could have gone on forever. Valentine’s Day. A visit to Whitfriar’s Church in different times with the whole family (nobody had received a card back then either:). It’s a matter of “keep going”. Staying strong. Beir Bua. No change today. Tomorrow, the world will still keep spinning, keep changing. So will we, so will he.

16 February Coffee Morning for Pádraig Schäler
Aideen Cassidy
12h00 – 15h00
26 Iona Drive
Dublin 9

Today’s German Music Tip
Tangerine Dream, Das Mädchen auf der Treppe (1982). An absolute classic. It was one of those moments on TV you’d never forget. And the music! Tangerine Dream is, along with Scorpions, one of the few German bands who became famous internationally – well… 🙂 The full Tatort film, “Das Mädchen auf der Treppe” from 1982 with Schimanski and Thanner, my favourite Kommisare (yes, one is a bit macho, the other not less stereotyped, and both are a bit too much, but what the heck).
What’s hot
Schimmi und Thanner; Brecht und die Dreigroschenoper
What’s cold
Banks
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
“Was ist ein Dietrich gegen eine Aktie? Was ist ein Einbruch in eine Bank gegen die Gründung einer Bank?” (Die Dreigroschenoper (Druckfassung 1931), III, 9 (Mac). In: Ausgewählte Werke in sechs Bänden. Erster Band: Stücke 1. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1997. S. 267)

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

No two days are the same, and if one day is really really good, you kind of can guess that the next day won’t be like that. I know someone who would not go to the same place twice, a place where it was really nice, just in case the second time might not be as good as the first time, which would take away the good memories. Personally, I would take the risk – and, there is a chance that the second time might be even better. On the other hand, since you know this one is good, there’s no need to try again – you’d be better off trying something different, it’s more fun, more adventurous, more exciting. Repeating what is good becomes routine: it’s safe and predictable, but, essentially, boring.

Pádraig has been and is anything but boring. He’d go for something new, exciting, unknown, adventurous. (But then again, someone wrote saying he was playing the same two songs for one full year again, and again, and again, NONSTOP. And he had witnesses! – at least that is what he said.) So, today was not like yesterday – no surprising and encouraging hand movements today. (We all knew this was not going to happen again today, right?) But I showed RTE and German TV news to him, and, for whatever reason, I felt he was following the pictures with his ‘good’ left eye. He even opened the right eye for a good while. I could have been just the light coming out of the iPad shining into his eyes, but even a reaction to just the changing light from the small monitor would be brilliant.

And then, when I turned around, there they were. They looked really odd. Strange. But hand made and fitted. If you were in Beaumont when Pádraig got the ‘mitten’ to protect his hands, and compare these to the high-tech, hand-fitted, tailor-made Terminator-style arm and wrist protectors, you wonder (or maybe not).

I wrote the other day about the three ‘projects’ I was going to work on over the coming weeks (J1 insurance, open season on cyclists on Cape Cod, and lack of rehab facilities in Ireland). Today, I added a fourth ‘strand’ to the mix: I am going to plot a revolution in Ireland. From abroad, as any decent revolution is. If you think about it and look back in history, it is also what any self-respecting-forced-into-exile-patriot used to do.

Ireland? – Bermuda?

There were two items in the Irish news, which broke the camel’s back: one was a new study finding that “US firms ‘paid effective tax rate of 2.2% in 2011’”, prepared by comrade Prof James Stewart of the British-protestant Trinity College, and as published by the equally Brit-dominated and Ireland-hating tabloid The Irish Times yesterday. The study even suggested parallels between Ireland and Bermuda – which went a bit to far I thought. Ireland and Iceland – maybe (the only difference between these two is the ‘c’) . But, come on, Ireland and Bermuda??? Hello???

Never mind the people trying to convince you that the tax is “much higher” , or that it was next to impossible to establish what it effectively is; it’s not that difficult to establish, and it is quite well known. The other bit of news was that more than 2,500 children are waiting for HSE mental health services, 413 for more than a year – more than a year.  Sounds so familiar. It’s time to stop complaining and to do something positive.

Are you in?

In the meantime, and just in case you’d be looking for a nice coffee on Sunday, in even nicer company (you could spread the word there):

16 February Coffee Morning for Pádraig Schäler
Aideen Cassidy
12h00 – 15h00
26 Iona Drive
Dublin 9

Today’s German Music Tip
Christina Stürmer, Engel fliegen einsam (Lebe Lauter Live Tour 2007).

What’s hot
craft
What’s cold
machines
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Na, wenn es sein muss…!

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

I was going to add another few “RollercoasterRoalercoaster” just to see how long of a title you can put into this blog before it decides to cut it off itself. Well, that is one reason. The other reason is that Pádraig’s ride must be a Guinness-Book-of-Records roller coaster ride.

Today, it was up. – Was it because I was all on my own with him? My Karma?

When I arrived today, I had a long chat with the Occupational Therapist, they call themselves Ergotherapists here. She explained to me that Pádraig is getting 45 minutes a day of Physiotherapy/Occupational Therapy and respiratory therapy – each. Physio and OT are given simultaneously, as there is not much difference between the two for patients such as Pádraig. She also told me that a ‘Schiene’, I think it’s called a ‘splint’ in English, arrived today for each of Pádraig’s lower arms, wrists, and hands – though they had to return one of them as it did not fit properly. Take note: these splints had been *made* especially for him. And then somebody had checked and returned them, so that they would be re-done. The anti-thrombosis stockings which – take note – are also *made* especially for him are not ready yet either but should arrive within a few days…

So I had close to five hours ahead. We started with some music. Then it was time for a turn during which I went out for a break. Back in, I did a few simple hand and arm exercises with him. Then I read him out some news from home.  I noticed some trembling in his lower arms. He was sitting up in his bed, with his back almost as high up as it would be in the Thekla. His arms folded into the centre. One over the other. The trembling came from the enormous effort he made to lift his lower left arm.

He then did what we had not seen before: when I asked and encouraged him to lift his arm higher, that’s what he did, with his hand reaching up to his upper chest. I then asked him to lower it back again and to rest it a little. Then I asked him to do this again. He did it again. And a third; and a fourth; and a fifth time. With breaks in between. When I asked him to move his tongue out, he did it too – not too far out, but enough to disperse any doubt that he had moved it by accident. He did this a few times too.

I know, this is tiny, in the big scheme. I know, it was not my karma either that made him do this (imagine: me and karma). He was just up on the roller coaster. But I was with him. And from up there, we could see beyond the horizon. And what a wonderful, wonderful sight it was!

It was Happy Birthday all over again.

Finally, a short note on an event that friends in Iona are organizing for Pádraig. Please let your friends and family know about this, and join if you feel like having a cup of coffee with some friends on Sunday!

16 February Coffee Morning for Patrick (Pádraig) Schäler
Aideen Cassidy
12h00 – 15h00
26 Iona Drive
Dublin 9

Today’s German Music Tip
Sting sings Brecht, Die Moritat vom Räuber Mackie Messer, Music by Kurt Weill, Dreigroschenoper.

What’s hot
Roller Coaster
What’s cold
Up
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Winter Barbecue

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events