After a train journey of nearly 24 hours, we finally arrived in Lourdes at around lunch time.

Getting onto the train yesterday was really special. Even getting to the train was. Someone from the therapy centre gave us a lift to the train station and because we were a bit late packing up all our stuff and getting Pádraig ready, the owner of the therapy centre had prepared a huge food bag for Pádraig and us. Getting onto the train was again humbling. Everybody was so so helpful. And there were so many familiar faces from last year who were all so happy to see Pádraig again and who wanted to know how he was doing. When we got into Lourdes we hadn’t finished talking.

Pádraig is staying in the Accueil Notre-Dame, a hostel for injured and sick people of which one part has been taken over by our group: 50 sick and injured people looked after by around 60 helpers. The rest of the train, around 300 people, are staying in different hotels around town.

The same brilliant man as last year will be looking after Pádraig together with a new helper, sadly our friend from last year couldn’t make the trip this year. So Pádraig is amongst people he knows and who know him.

Lourdes is a place like no other. The atmosphere, the people, the surroundings – you wouldn’t find any of this anywhere else in this concentration. It’s wonderful to have had the time to getting here slowly. I have to think a bit more about what it is that made us come back. Equally, what it was exactly that brought us here in the first place. I know that the answer isn’t obvious.

Very briefly, on the way to Lourdes, stop in Toulouse, with some kind of internet connection… More when we’re there!

Our last full day in Pforzheim was a day of documenting Pádraig’s therapies and the way he is working with them – including two very recently hatched ducks. Pádraig worked really well not just with the therapists today but also with the film ‘crew’ (of one:). Can’t wait to see the footage. Cut.

If everything goes according to plan, the first of the short videos we are going to release will be ready within a couple of weeks, ahead of the launch the An Saol Project on 18 June. Have you booked your tickets for the film, “Would you rather be dead?”, and the launch with international experts as well as Headway Ireland and ABI Ireland yet?

Tomorrow morning we’ll be packing and head for Karlsruhe at around noon to catch the train to Lourdes at around 2pm. It’ll be another amazing journey.

Just back from a day of filming in the Therapiezentrum Burgau, about 2 hours’ drive from Pforzheim and supporters of the An Saol project. After Pádraig’s therapies this morning, my two friends collected me (driver and film maker) and off we went. It was a truly amazing day.

It’s late, so here are just a few pictures of the day – with a huge ‘thank you’ to Prof Bender, Herrn Ott-Schindele (in charge of therapy), and Christiane Knorr (deputy therapy lead) for the time they took to share with us their enthusiasm, energy, and dedication to persons with severe acquired brain injuries. A big ‘thank you’ also to my two friends who I will meet again tomorrow here in Pforzheim!

When you believe in something and you have decided to go for it, you are embarking on a journey full of traps: things that attract your attention, want to absorb your energy, look really attractive – if you fell for them, they would ultimately mean the end of what you stand for.

Sports people know this: they have to be careful with what they eat or drink, and late nights out on the town, no matter how attractive the ice cream, the cold refreshing beer, and the good looking boys and girls are.

There are plenty of traps on the way to An Saol. Why not look after Pádraig first and foremost and exclusively, it surely absorbs all of our energy? Why not follow the example of most of the other parents we’ve met? What about all the plans of all the people in all the enterprises and organisations promising care and therapy and rehabilitation? Convince them to do something! Fight the health system! We deserve better!

These are all attractive and reasonable questions and beliefs. In the context of An Saol, however, they are traps. If we fell for them, they would distract and they would absorb all our energy, make us helpless and dependent victims.

Which we are not because we are Dreamboaters. We know about all the stuff going on around us. We know about “keeping all our options open”, “not rocking the boat”, “working the system”. We know that the options are dire, the boat is sinking and the system is broken. We know that we need to create an inspiring example of what can be done for persons whose life changed beyond recognition from one second to the next.

Because that is what you do in a civilised society. The right thing.

The way to the realisation of the An Saol Project is full of traps. But we will sail down that stream with all those Dreamboaters ready to join. We won’t get trapped.

Pádraig is keeping well and showing very small but definite signs of better keeping his posture. I can’t believe that it’ll only be another two days before we leave here on Thursday. Tomorrow, I’ll meet a new friend and an old friend and together we’ll be going to the Therapiezentrum Burgau to interview and film Prof. Andreas Bender. This will be the beginning of about two weeks of interviews and filming for the An Saol Project – documenting what needs to be done.

“Whether you say ‘I can’ or ‘I can’t’ – you’re right. — Pádraig was enjoying a re-play of last night’s Late Late Show and especially this quote by Fergal Quinn. I kinda liked that too!

Sunday night in Germany is “Tatort” night. It’s when all Germans are watching one if not the longest running detective series on TV world-wide. Forget CSI or The Mentalist. They might be clever, but Tatort is German. Which is probably the reason why I have never managed, over several decades, to convince the rest of the family to join me watching it. Just heard that I’ll either be watching it on my own or not be watching it at all. Such is life. Full of choices.

I have this plan to get prepared really well for the Dublin Marathon. Not having been able to ‘run’ the Hamburg Marathon this year (it was on the day we flew to Frankfurt – what a brilliant excuse:), I want to be really well prepared for Dublin. But I can only train when someone is with Pádraig. So I’m quite a bit behind. Although I’m a bit behind, today I decided to stick to the plan which showed a 16km run. As it happened, I left a bit late and. by the time I got going, one of the hottest days of the year so far was well on its way.

I managed to get back up the hill to the Centre, just about, around lunchtime. I drank more than two litres of water which were just “absorbed”. After an hour or so I had recovered and we headed off to Pforzheim’s “Wildpark”.

Today being Mother’s Day, it was packed with families and loads of small kids running around. The only animals we saw were varieties of dear and goats – though some of the goats were labeled as “Alpaca”.

When we saw the picture of a young girl on a fence, we first thought that it was some kind of a memorial. On second thoughts, it seemed unlikely that – although she looked very young – one of the goats would have mauled her. When we looked closer and read the text beside her picture it turned out that Opa and Oma had bought here a bronze Wildpark sponsorship and the park had, as a ‘thank you’, put up a picture of the little girl for all her friends to see. Germans.

We kept walking and eventually hit a wood that was just perfect.

Somewhere around here, a long time ago, little red riding hood must have met the big bad wolf on her way to visit her old and feeble grandmother. I am saying ‘long ago’ because these days its lads on their super dooper mountain bikes who ‘inhabit’ the woods it seems – more dangerous than any bad wolf could ever be. Notwithstanding, we had a really beautiful afternoon out. It was, almost, a perfect day. (Though I’m still drinking water with absolutely no urge whatsoever to get rid of it again. I have no idea what’s happening with all this water.)

The new super junior minister, Finian McGrath, has been on the news pushing for the rights of people with disabilities – today, the six o’clock news also had Martin Naughton, one of the most enigmatic wheelchair users you could meet, demanding that the new disability act should be signed into law. – We change things! Right?

Neither the October Revolution nor the Oktoberfest take place in October, but I thought that May is a bit early for having what looks and feels and tastes to all intends and purposes like an Oktoberfest. But, as we already knew, everything is possible in Pforzheim.

Taking advantages of the glorious sunshine and scorching temperatures, Pádraig and I made our way down into town to join the crowd for the Pforzheim Beer Festival – in May. To be honest, it felt a bit like an excuse to drink and eat a lot. But so what!? It was a great afternoon, seeing so many different people, smelling all the different foods on offer, feeling the warm sun and the cooling wind on our skin.

On the way back we passed by a Kaufhof Department Store where they were selling gift cards with really funny translations into English of German sayings, Sprichwörter.

Any idea of what this means???

=> Don’t forget to book your film ticket here and your An Saol Project Launch ticket here… AND to tell everybody in your ‘circles’ about it!!!

You’ve heard of them. I had. Mostly bad stuff.

But yesterday, on father’s day, how appropriate!, I saw one in action for the first time. A flying camera, basically. Unbelievable. You can fly the drone 5km away from where you are and watch through the eye of a high resolution swivel camera on your iPad or on virtual reality glasses what the camera sees. Then you can press a button and it flies, by itself, back to where it took off. It avoids obstacles automatically and returns to you just before the batteries stall. Here is a 3:20 mins. clip to give you a taste (there’s no sound).

https://vid.me/LMxE

Today marked the end of the last full week of us here in Pforzheim. And Pádraig marked it with a few ‘firsts’ during his speech and language therapy: he ate his first half of a Hanuta (a chocolate biscuit with nuts), he had his first drink with a straw and he enjoyed two full strawberries. Brilliant.

In the afternoon, the weather was so nice that we had ‘Abendbrot’ (‘dinner’ would not be the correct translation:) on the balcony. Really really nice, warm, relaxed with dozens of birds singing into the evening.

This weekend, the Pforzheim beer festival is taking place and some of the people here went into town to check it out. We’ve kept that adventure for the weekend:)

Again, it’s much later than I wanted it to be. It’s not really a good time to write. But the days are so busy that I feel very much like as if I was running out of time. It’s Vatertag (father’s day) today which is the day when males, fathers or not, take out a ‘Bollerwagen’ and several crates of beer and head for the parks or woods to have a good time! What could be better than spending a long afternoon in male companionship and beer somewhere in the middle of nature? – At least that’s what I thought when I was around twenty.

No ‘Bollerwagen’ nor beer for me today – but a wonderful afternoon out in the most amazing home of the couple running the therapy centre here for ‘Kaffeetrinken’ with Pádraig who had a great time eating ice-cream in the sun. I don’t think we had spent as much time out doors as today. It was a brilliant day and it felt like a short holiday. A completely different world, just 3km up the road.

Pádraig’s ankle is still swollen but it’s looking better. We toned down the therapy today a bit to give the ankle a chance to recover.

Our new friend I so far only met over ‘hangout’ has booked his flights from Los Angeles to Germany and Ireland. He’ll be filming and interviewing here in Pforzheim and hopefully in Burgau, and then in Dublin, putting together material that will promote the An Saol Project. I still don’t believe that this will be happening. What a difference visual material will make to our efforts!

Another good bit of news is that both Headway and ABI Ireland will participate and contribute to our events on 18 June. Check out the ticket information here and pass it on to all you know. Get your tickets as soon as possible – there is only a limited number of them available!

It’s such an old, 20th century concept. Which makes me feel even older than I really am. Imagine – I remember the day we got our very first telephone and a line we shared with a neighbour. It was either us or them – never at the same time. Today, although theoretically I still have a telephone, it is not connected to any wire and I mostly use is for apps, browsing the web, and to take pictures – not to make phone calls.

Over the last couple of days, I ‘hang out’ (the Google word for Skype), on my “phone”, with the cousin of a very close friend of mine. This cousin is a film and film music maker. Myself trying to stay awake in the evening, him ‘hanging out’ in sunny California. The result of all this is that he will be coming to Pforzheim on Monday or Tuesday to shoot some footage of the centre here and of Pádraig. With a bit of luck, we’ll also be able to interview some of our German supporters of the An Saol project. And a week later, we’ll be doing some filming in Dublin trying to interview others affected by sABI. The idea is to create a video to promote the An Saol Project and our fundraising efforts on the web. – My head is spinning.

Seems like Pádraig twisted his ankle in the bootcamp. It’s swollen and sore. I tried ice today and an anti-inflammatory but this hasn’t shown any relief yet. Hopefully, after a good night’s rest it’ll all be better in the morning.