In Germany, there is one way of doing things. A right way. And a wrong way. There are loads of laws and regulations, contracts, signs, warnings, police, bureaucrats, and little green and red men in traffic lights to help you find out what is right and what is wrong. That’s why life in Germany is so easy. And that’s why the country is so well off.

That is also why I screwed the handle of our pot back on the right way, the way it was when we got it. It was easy. And pretty obvious the way the handle had to go on.

Unfortunately, the handle always became loose again after a day or two, no matter how hard I tried.

Then, just a few days ago, Pádraig’s helper, who is from Poland and who has thick glasses, decided to do some good. He organised himself a screwdriver and screwed the handle back on to the pot.

Only that he did it upside down..

I was going to talk to him about this – I like things being done properly. The way they are supposed to be done. And there is only one way of doing things right, which is easy in the case of handles to be screwed on to a pot – unless you have thick glasses,  I thought.

Then I noticed that, for a few days now, the handle didn’t get loose anymore. Upside Down works!

I’ll leave it up to you to get the lesson….

Last night, Pádraig had a few uninvited visitors: almost a dozen wasps had somehow ‘invaded’ his room. Pat managed to get most of them during the night and I got the remainder in the morning. Really strange, this wasp business. Pádraig himself was well today. He continued to make sounds when he wanted to – for example when his uncle from America rang. He’s also doing really well with his three meals a day.

We had planned to go up to Tating either today or tomorrow, just for the day and with Pádraig, but the weather is incredible with loads of wind and more rain, as well as thunder. So we took a walk around the block instead…

Today’s German Music Tip
Deichkind, So`ne Musik. Wirklich – so’ne Musik!!!
What’s hot
Up
What’s cold
Down
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Na hörnsema, wenn das jeeda machen wüade – wokämenwadahinn?

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

Well, talk about stuff happening.

Last night, Pat had a bad night, because it was her turn with Pádraig and, no matter what she tried, he didn’t sleep and, “worse”, he didn’t keep quiet. I put “worse” within quotes because Pádraig making all those sounds on one hand prevented Pat from having a quiet night’s sleep; on the other hand, well on the other hand, we would give a kingdom if Pádraig started to use his voice again.

That’s what he did today. He is, clearly, becoming more aware of his voice, and he is learning how to use it.

Then, and we “blame” his OT for this one, he is now clearly helping when we put a cup into his hand and support him bringing it up to his mouth. Even better, because he is bringing the cup up to his mouth himself, he is more aware that liquid is about to enter his mouth, which in turn makes it much easier for him to swallow.

If proof was needed that therapy is more than just an expensive largely useless maintenance programme, here is (yet another) proof to the contrary.

Here is to progress!

Dreamboaters never give up because they know that even little signs are signs of things to come as long as you believe in your own strength!

Today’s German Music Tip
Roland Kaiser, Warum hast du nicht nein gesagt (feat. Maite Kelly). In case you ever wondered why rap is so popular in Germany, listen to this more ‘traditional’ German “Schlager”. Oh mein Gott! They are blaming each other for not having said ‘no’ to you-know-what.
What’s hot
Voice
What’s cold
Silence
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
I thought, a “Bild” says more than a thousand words. Here is the first of a few pictures from Germany’s worst, but most widely read newspaper, the “Bild-Zeitung” on what is “typisch Deutsch”

 

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

Pat came across a few really witty designs in a Spanish newspaper. Luckily, I found them on the web because by the time I wanted to take a picture of that paper, it had magically disappeared.

I haven’t followed closely Spanish politics in recent times but from the little I know there are very significant changes on the way. ‘Podemos’ does not just mean ‘yes, we can’, it also became the name of a new party. And they have come up with a very smart way to promote ‘revolution’ – with love at the centre (I had to look twice before I saw it).

Thursdays in Dublin are getting-up-early-days. Ryanair leaves Dublin for Bremen at 6.10am. Today, however, it was pure luxury. A good friend had offered to give me a lift up to the airport, so I did not have to worry about getting busses. So much more relaxed, less stressful!

Pádraig just had home made spaghetti with home made pesto. Although he seemed to be as tired as I feel, I finished a full portion – not a huge portion, but a good portion. And he enjoyed it. His day has been pretty full: physio and speech therapy, MOTOMed, and a long walk in the park.. Looks like an early night for all of us tonight.

In Dublin, I went through the Irish Times of the last weekend. There was a long report there about a young man who had been awarded around 10m euro on top of approximately 5m euro he had received earlier in a case of medical negligence that left him with a severe acquired brain injury. 15 million euro. That is what the court decided and the parties agreed will be necessary to look after this man for the rest of his life. Also were told to listen to today’s Brendan O’Connor Show. He discussed the lack of funding with the mother of someone who had suffered a brain injury at birth. Well worth listening to.

The monthly cost of a nursing home plus an hour or two of therapy a week for their sons and daughters is around 8,000 euro, or less than 100,000 euro a year, for the families we know, a cost that is in most cases paid for by the HSE. If that young man in his thirties (if I remember correctly) lived another 40 years, lets say, his total cost for the nursing home would be 40 x 100k, or 4 million euro.

That is about a *quarter* of what the court felt was necessary to look after someone with a severe acquired brain injury in its opinion, an opinion backed up by many expert reports! How can that be? – Also, unlike many health professionals in charge of our health system, the court did not feel that this amount (that will have to be recovered from either the tax payers of by insurance companies recovering this money via our policies) represented a bad return on investment and should therefore not be ‘wasted’ on a hopeless case.

I wonder whether anyone sees the sad, terrible irony in this judgement when comparing its outcome to the ‘normal’ limited and inadequate treatment of persons with brain injuries in nursing homes?

Another week is almost over. Block-laying should have started today! It’s all downhill from here onwards – in the German, freewheeling way of looking at the world:)

Today’s German Music Tip
Matthias Schweighöfer, Fliegen. A song about making anything possible.
What’s hot
Yes, we can. Courts acknowledging the need of persons with severe ABI.
What’s cold
Lack of therapy
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Wenn Unrecht zu Recht wird, wird Widerstand zur Pflicht. (Berthold Brecht)

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

There is a scholarly article about the implied non-reader. Yes. No mistake. It is not about the ‘implied reader’ which is an old hat, really, but, indeed, about the ‘implied non-reader’. In essence, the article is about the craze to publish in the academic world, even if you haven’t really anything new to say. Anyway, no academic publishes anymore because they have anything important to say, but because they need to collect brownie point, nowadays called h-index or impact factor. So they publish and then make sure they get cited. The focus has shifted from the content, to strategies to grow your h-index.

When I started to write this blog, I wrote for the implied ‘non-reader’. I didn’t really think anyone would read this. Then when I realised that there were actually people reading it, I got a bit nervous and self-consious. Your writing is better when writing for the implied non-reader because you just write for yourself the way you feel and the way you see life and the world. Once you start writing to the implied reader, you start worrying about other people, what they think and what they feel, and you start not writing certain things because they are private or could be offensive, or even libel.

Patrick today had another session with his new speech therapist and it almost seemed like if he had decided not to cooperate. As if they didn’t get on with each other. As if they didn’t connect. We’ll give it another go and the re-consider. Out in the park Pat discovered that a good Innocent smoothie is still a favourite – no bother even drinking it out of the bottle!

Progress with the building work has been slow last week. When you look at the picture your first thought might be that they put up the block, but in the wrong place and without any cement. The thing is that they did not start yet laying the block. That will happen tomorrow. It’ll be finished in 2-3 days. Next will be the roof. And it’ll be downhill from there!

Today’s German Music Tip
Gregor Meyle, Keine Ist Wie Du. This is what you could call ‘schmalzig’, but I kind of like it, what Joan Baez called ‘nostalgic’ in Diamonds and Rust.
What’s hot
Blocks
What’s cold
Looking back
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Volle Pulle!

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

I promised myself a German tour before the end of the summer. Before returning home. Home. Connecting with previous lives. Saying good-bye to it. Not forever, maybe, but for the foreseeable future, most likely.

Today it was Cologne, the first ‘stop’ and just for a few hours, between the time my train arrived and the time the only affordable Ryanair flight out of Germany to Dublin today was going to leave. You could be in different minds, I guess, about whether doing something like this makes sense at all. Sometimes we all do things that don’t make sense. But feel good and feel right.

Back in Cologne, for a few hours, I went back almost 35 years in my life. Studying. Kinda. Without a bother in the world. Carefree.

Just arrived back home. Earlier than I’d thought because I got a really nice surprise lift from one of our daughters. Almost couldn’t get into the house because of all the blocks waiting to become the walls of Pádraig’s new rooms. So great to see them!

On the plane I talked to a German woman who is coming over to Ireland for a week’s holidays. She is a Biodancer instructor. She told me about her work and the effects of biodancing, how biodancing can be used to express yourself, to communicate, to experience others in dancing. She said that physical contact, touch, is so important for our well-being.

Whether you believe in coincidences or not, I think there was a very valuable lesson here for Pádraig and for us when caring for Pádraig. The important of touch and physical contact for his physical and mental well-being.

When I left this morning, Pádraig had just woken up and was getting ready for the day. He had a good day, with his usual meals and the walk in the park. There is almost a sense of routine, or normality.

Today’s German Music Tip
GENETIKK, Wünsch dir was. Das Leben ist kein Wunschkonzert. Du musst dran glauben und dann erfüllt sich was. Super Rap on a Mission.
What’s hot
Timetravel
What’s cold
Being stuck in time
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Hasse keinen Frisör deme das erzählen kann?

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

50 years. It’s 50 years ago to the day that – what? Guess.

Well, music changed and acoustic went electric and one of the most influential songs ever was recorded based on notes written with pencil on paper that was auctioned off not too long ago for several million dollars.

How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone

Someone wrote a whole book about it. The song about a woman that was really about the feeling of a whole generation, the feeling of being free, independent, and alone.

We had a another good day today. With some home help that made me think several times how useful (or not) it is to have help at home. It’s a funny kind of thing: they are taking away my time with Pádraig, I could do what they do far better (that what I think, it might not reflect reality), so in a way I resend them being here – but at the same time, without their help, life around me would have collapsed.

Today the weather was almost ideal. Nice and sunny but not too hot. We went for a walk along the street we walk along almost every day. Into the shop we go into so often. Looking at the papers, at the stuff they sell. And found two real gems.

Look at this. It’s not what you think it is.

Because it’s not a drill. It’s a Dr. Vac ear cleaner. Look at the woman on the picture. She’s not drilling a whole into her head. She is cleaning her ears. With a smile on her face. Now tell me, who on earth would come up with something like this? And more, who would be buying it?

The second picture we came across is something that was ‘inaugurated’ recently by two senior members of the Hamburg Senate to celebrate diversity in the city, in preparation of the Christopher Street Day (CSD) Parade in Hamburg that will take place on 01 August. Here you go.

One of these is a Lesbenampel, the other is a Schwulenampel. Not to put any ideas into our ministers head…

We have been a bit like rolling stones, how does it feel to be without a home, without a direction home. But all that will change and tomorrow night, late night and via Cologne  because Bremen is out-of-reach expensive, imagine that, I be back home, to meet the builders.

Today’s German Music Tip
Cro, Einmal um die Welt. 27m clicks can’t be wrong.
What’s hot
Directions home
What’s cold
To be on your own
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Anfangen ist leicht, Beharren eine Kunst.

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

We are both tired. In a good way.

The ‘routine’ in the morning can take some time, especially if you’ve got it. And it’s nice to have it. No rush. Nobody waiting. No knock on the door. Yet, we got the three meals in, the Stehbett, the Viva la MotoMed (remember that one?) – for the legs and for the arms (!), we went out twice – the first time we were just outside the door when it started to rain so we went straight back in, we watched the silliest German TV programme wondering how they have the cheek to do stuff like this, and I read out loud the next few pages of the guidebook to Alaska.

Cathal Murray is still on holidays it seems (how many holidays do they get at RTÉ???) so it was another Sunday morning with Carol Moran on the Weekend on One playing beautiful music. One of the first songs she played in the morning was The Dutchman. When I heard it, it stopped me right in my tracks and I texted her this. – Earlier in the year, a brilliant documentary was broadcast on Tipperary man Liam Clancy which is really worth watching (and in which he reveals that Bob Dylan stole his girlfriend).

When we went for a walk today, we saw what looked like a new telephone booth. Who on earth would bother putting up a new telephone booth, I thought. So we went to have a look. Turned out that what looked like a telephone booth (Telefonzelle) was, in fact, a book exchange (Bücherzelle). Isn’t that ingenious: the idea is that you can bring your books or CDs and leave them there for others to take it. Volunteers check regularly to make sure that the place is kept in order.

In case you were wondering: we still got no acknowledgement of the receipt of our letters to the Attorney General or the Governor, never mind an answer.

But today, I won’t worry about that. Because I’m tired. In a good way.

Today’s German Music Tip
Johannes Oerding, Alles brennt. Zwischen schwarzen Wolken seh’ ich ein kleines bisschen Blau… Alles wird gut… This song got almost 5m hits – where have I been? Just heard it for the first time…
What’s hot
Let us go to the banks of the ocean
What’s cold
Long ago I used to be a young man
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Des Teufels liebstes Möbelstück ist die lange Bank.

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

While getting Pádraig ready for the day, I was listening to RTÉ. Someone announced that Ireland had decided to take on 600 refugees over the next two years.

Later on, while having breakfast, I looked through the Hamburger Morgenpost, Hamburg’s Irish Times, from last Tuesday, someone had left it behind, with a few pages on the refugee crisis in Europe and in Hamburg. There are between 200 and 300 hundred refugees arriving in the city of Hamburg alone. Every day.

Caring for Pádraig, on your own, is really nice, in one way, and really tiring, in another. After the morning routine, I cleaned up the place a bit, we had a small lunch, went out for a long walk, got porridge and a steak in the shops, back to have a bit to eat, some exercises in bed, and the day was almost over.

Two things happened today for the first time.

The first was that I fried a bit of steak, minced it and shared it with Pádraig. Very little. It was full of flavours and texture. Steak. The first time in over two years. – So, he had beer, now a steak. What’ll be next?

The second was me trying to read aloud a book in English. I’m not good at reading out aloud. Never mind in English. In this case, Pádraig didn’t have a choice. It was from a very special book one of Pádraig’s friends had brought with her on her last, recent visit. It was a guide book to Alaska. It was good that I read it out aloud. Because every word on that first page trying to capture the essence of Alaska made you want to go more, and more. – It’s a pipedream. Well, let’s see.

By the way, the blocks have arrived in Iona Road and will be laid starting on Monday!

Today’s German Music Tip
Leyk & Lockvogel, Ne Sekunde Sommer. Du im Urlaub, ich im Regen… Aus dem Asphalt weißer Sandstrand… Techno it’s called, I think. The video has a really well-made opening!
What’s hot
Alaska – there’s no place on earth like it.
What’s cold
Australia – it snowed there today. Can you imagine?
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Entschleunigen

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

This could be a really nice summer’s evening. I’m sitting with the doors wide open and the warm air is floating through the apartment. Sitting beside Pádraig (who is listening in) I was looking for good music and came across a song from way back then.

Here is one of my favourite songs from forty years ago. I had almost forgotten about it. It’s amazing that it got 5.5m hits because it’s not a song that people watching youtube would have heard much about it, I would have thought. The song is Diamonds and Rust and its by Joan Baez, who wrote it about Bob Dylan (not sure whether he ever wrote one about Joan Baez?). When I was listening and reading one of the comments, i learned that there is also a version by Heavy Metal group Judas Pries of Diamonds and Rust and, although I’m not really a fan of heavy metal, this one ain’t bad.

Pat left in the morning to spend the weekend with Pádraig’s older sister. His younger sister is walking the ‘camino’! So, it’s quiet here and it will be a weekend to spend time together with Pádraig, without work or any pressures.

We started this in the afternoon, took it easy, went for a walk, shared a really healthy home made soup.

It is a really nice summer’s evening, all diamonds and no rust.

Today’s German Music Tip
Andreas Bourani, Engel fliegen einsam. This is really a Christina Stürmer song, but it’s not a bad version of it! Du und ich gemeinsam…
What’s hot
Diamonds
What’s cold
Rust
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Wer rasted, der rostet. (There’s the ‘rust’ again:)

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

As I said, the extension is making progress. Next week, it’ll be very visible, once the walls will be going up. – None of us can wait…

I wanted to share a picture of the front page of the very popular (and very entertaining) German newspaper die Bildzeitung.

Angela saves Greece, the paper writes in big bold letters on his front page, only to add: with our hard-earned money. What a fine sense of humour!!

The Germans are having a great time living, but a hard time supporting weaker economies, for the time being. They are negotiating pay rises for their own workers of 4% and they are paying for it with the interest from much poorer countries. – Anyhow…

I’ve made my mind up. For decades I didn’t know where I belonged. On Tuesday when a friend collected me from the airport and gave me the country’s official marathon shirt as a present, it was confirmed, if that was needed. There are still many other more important things to be sorted out but this will definitely be one. I want to be amongst all those people in this big hall and become a fellow country man.

Pádraig had his usual physio today, a half an hour go on his bike, a long walk on a warm summer’s afternoon. I am looking forward to the weekend and time to catch up with him. The days during the week are so busy for all of us, it’s incredible. His doctor wanted to come today before he’ll be on two weeks’ holidays but then didn’t manage to. In reality, it didn’t matter that much, Pádraig is ok.

On Monday, however, a dentist will be calling to the house, the first time for some time for a dentist to see him. We haven’t told Pádraig yet.

Today’s German Music Tip
KC Rebell feat. Moé, Bist Du real. This is pure pop, with a huge following.
What’s hot
Warm summer afternoons
What’s cold
Being busy to be busy
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Pustekuchen

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile