With both eyes wide open!

Working the arm trainer he was never supposed to use.

I had an interesting conversation today about ethics, right & wrong, knowing it, doing it, what to do about it. The other person saying ‘when I was young I was very idealistic”.

Have you ever asked yourself whether it is worthwhile to stay, if not young, then at least idealistic?

Or would that be stupid?

It’s a history day today. For different reasons. All involving Germans.

It’s the Armistice, of course, that dominated the news today. Ceremonies all day long. I had to think of my grandfather who had been shot and a bullet lodged in his lungs during WWI. No idea how he had survived. Neither him nor anyone else in the family really talked much about it.

And then, Borussia Dortmund beat Bayern München in an epic match today, 3:2. Borussia fans even sang the Bayern ‘anthem’ after the match. “Wir sind aus München, wir sind die Bayern. Wir sind die, die immer wieder feiern.”

The event most on my mind today, however, was the 5th anniversary of Pádraig and myself leaving Beaumont Hospital really early in the morning in an ambulance for the airport where an air ambulance was waiting to fly us to Hamburg. The physio in Beaumont had started in the middle of the night to prepare Pádraig for the journey and there was good wishes and holy water from the staff sending us off. Little did I know then that this was only the beginning of a long long journey.

If you feel like it, listen to one of the first anti-war songs, I Didn’t Raise My Boy to be a Soldier -sung by the all-male PEERLESS QUARTET.

A typical Saturday: a bit of shopping, a walk, a visit, meeting some friends (completely out of the blue), mass, dinner together watching Ireland winning against Argentina in rugby.

One of the nicest parts of today was the morning.

The house was completely quiet and the rain was lashing against the windows. It was one of those days that wasn’t really too sure about whether it should get going at all. Hesitant about starting up something new. It’s a new dawn, a new day, it’s a new life, for me (and I’m feelin’ good) – mmmhhh, not really sure about this one…

We don’t have these moments that often. There’s always something going on, always something coming up. Doing nothing feels like loosing out on the opportunity of doing something. Ticking off one item of this endless list of things that really have to be done. That list that doesn’t let me relax, only collapse at the end of a busy day, wondering whether my efforts were not all in vain because that list was never getting shorter, no matter what.

When we went to the hospital this afternoon to visit a well-recovering family member, we met two old friends and started chatting about what had happened in our lives over the past years, since we had last met. They had started up, with us, a new swimming competitive club, based in Dublin’s north inner city. Training sessions started at 5am almost every day of the week and went on up until 7am. And we loved it. Can you imagine?

And isn’t this a big chunk of what life is all about? Going out. Visiting people (especially if they are sick). Running into old friends you hadn’t seen for years. Catching up with their lives. Sharing our lives with them.

None of this happens when you’re sitting inside or, more seriously, lying in bed all day long.

Although the day started on a slightly hesitant note, it turned out like a new dawn, a new day, ia new life, for me – for us, and we were feelin’ good!r

Now, if you have a quiet moment, maybe on Sunday morning (or Saturday night:), go to “The Sky is crying“, turn it up, close your eyes, and let the song take you away to a different place. It really has that magic …

I had heard about it. i had watched videos about it. This week, it all became really concrete.

Brain computer interfaces – BCI.

Thinking ‘left’ ‘moves’ the sound being played via the earphones to the left. Thinking ‘right’ moves the output to the right of the earphones. Pádraig will have another seven session, practicing. If this worked…

Think of the possibilities!

There is a huge number of exercises you can do on a floor matt. Pádraig is discovering a new one almost every other week. Check it out!

And while what he is doing is, by itself, pretty spectacular, what is even more amazing that he manages now, with the help of his physio and helpers, to pick up a new exercise in two or three weeks – what previously had taken months.

It all seems to happen at the speed of light rather than on a slow train coming.

I just had enough cash on me to buy one beer which we shared. The Arena was more than half empty and while we were drinking, very slowly, we could see people arriving. People we’d never see on ordinary days. But this was no ordinary day. It was a beautiful day.

It was a beautiful night, and like most beautiful nights, it came completely unexpected.

I was not supposed to go and jumped in when Pádraig was about to leave and the person who was supposed to go with him could not make it.

I had seen U2 decades ago in Croagh Park, Dublin’s super-sized inner city stadium. This was The Point, or the Three Arena as it’s now known, and the setting was spectacular. Nothing like anything they could have ever done in a stadium. It was almost intimate.

But apart from the out-of-this-world show and showmanship, it was the evening with Pádraig. We shouted our hearts out, at least that is what I felt. All the frustrations and annoyances and pressures disappeared into the night.

“You don’t know me, but I would like to buy you a drink” was one of the magic moments. Which led to us having our second shared pint. At times, Pádraig’s eyes closed, but only for moments. Never have I seen him staying awake that long and being alert and interested over such a long period.

Last time we were in The Point, for the Kodaline concert, just after Pádraig had returned to Dublin, he could not very well take all the noise and was completely exhausted half way into the concert. There was no sign of this last night. It was magic. It was beautiful. And it was Pádraig’s company that made this the best night I’ve had in a long, long time. And I think he thoroughly enjoyed it too.

This is life. This is being at the helm of the Dreamboat. One Life on a Beautiful Day.

Too late to write. I’ll catch up tomorrow. Just to say that a pretty normal day, with some bad surprises, ended up like no other: pure brilliance. And to make it all even more special, this angel came up to Pádraig and myself and said: “You don’t know me. But I would like to buy you a drink.” I don’t remember anything like this happening to me ever before. In my life. Well, it happened in what once was The Point, at a concert like no other.

More tomorrow.

It looks straight forward and simple, ‘no big deal’ you might say. If that’s what you’d say, you’re wrong. This was a huge deal today. Standing up, moving his head back and forth. Not just two or three time, but around a dozen times, for a few minutes.

Head control is one of these things we all take for granted. Loose it and you’ll be wondering how on earth you ever managed without.

The dreamboat continues its incredible journey! With Pádraig at the helm!

We met friends. One of Pádraig’s, one of mine. And we saw queues. Thousands of birds on the beach (you can see them in the distance just on top of Pádraig’s head) and dozens of people in front of the coffee container at the end of the bridge out in Dollymount.

Meeting friends is always nice. Even nicer when it is unexpected. So when a young man shouted ‘Schaler’ and came over to greet Pádraig, the enthusiastic greeting and subsequent conversation put a huge smile on Pádraig’s face. When, later on, we met an old friend of mine with his sone, Pádraig smiled too, politely, but had to be patient because we spent a little time catching up on our lives.

There were thousands of birds on the beach, just along the waterline as the tide was coming in. It looked as if they were having their dinner. Their calls and the sound and smell of the water were magnificent. Being able to walk along the sea shore so close from your home is brilliant – and completely underrated here, because it’s such a ‘normal’ thing.

What we both didn’t quite understand were the people queuing to buy coffee while checking their phones. Mostly ignoring the spectacular scenario mother nature was offering.

You have to stop and do nothing from time to time to become aware of what is going on around you.

This was serious navigation. Pádraig’s wheelchair is, like himself, a little longer than average as it is. Today, he was ok to try out a wheelchair trolley in the supermarket where we did our weekly shopping.

The trolley attached to the front of the wheelchair doubling its length and increasing the weight of what had to be pushed as we were passing shelves and fridges, working our way through our weekly shopping list.

There’s loads of stuff Pádraig has been doing for the first time again over the past months and years as he has been recovering from his injuries. Today’s tour d’supermarché was a first for me – most definitely something I would not have done in the early days after Pádraig’s discharge home when I had problems pushing the wheelchair on the footpaths, never mind in supermarkets.

Now, as today showed us, now we are a great team working together on all sorts of daily chores.

Who would have thought, we’d be doing stuff like that together, trying out new gadgets together, sharing the weight?