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

This is another short post after an amazing and long day. I’ll remember it as the beginning of An Saol because of the generosity and trust of someone that, so to speak, pushed me over the edge and, in her own words, got me to a point of no return. More later. (Isn’t the suspense almost unbearable?)

Pádraig is doing extraordinarily well physically and, it appears, has really established a good connection with his OT – I get the feeling they are both amazing each other. They are finding ways to communicate and connect.

Once I get a bit of time, I’ll write up a short plan for the first twelve months of activity for An Saol. I’ll also start a register of jobs for anyone who wants to help. Too late tonight to do this, but hopefully by the end of the week, I’ll share it with you.

Today’s German Music Tip
K.I.Z., Hurra die Welt geht unter ft. Henning May. Another group I never heard of. Another rapper. The title is a little misleading. It doesn’t celebrate the “Weltuntergang” per se, but the disappearing of the world where money is everything and people come a distant second. Not a bad song and makes me think whether rap ain’t as bad as I always thought.
What’s hot
Doing
What’s cold
Waiting
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Des Teufels liebstes Möbelstück ist die lange Bank.

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

Back in Dublin. Tired.

It’s late and I am too tired to write.

Pádraig had a brilliant day today. In the morning, he surprised his OT with a level of co-operation she had never expected him to be capable capable of. A huge improvement.

More tomorrow.

There are people who plan. And there are people who don’y.

When Pádraig traveled, he was a Dreamboater, floating down the stream. Exploring. Allowing for surprises. The unforeseen. No plan.

Today I tried the impossible: find my way through mountains of paper, organising them in heaps, stapling some of them together, punching holes into them, sorting them in arch lever folders, as one does in Germany. I failed of course and didn’t finish this mammoth task. But I am determined and will finish it tomorrow morning before going to Bremen and on to Dublin for the weekly visit to the building site.

Pádraig had a busy day today. After a physio and speech therapy, he had two visitors from Dublin, old friends, and great company. The visit is so special as we all know how much it costs both in time and money to make it out to Hamburg. Each visit brings back home the reality that Pádraig is not where he should be: close to his friends, close to the poetry, the music, the chat, the craic, the company. Won’t be long now.

We were thinking about putting a lift into the Conradh. Getting tickets to next year’s festivals. And in the meantime, cinema nights, readings, sessions at home. There ain’t no limits!

I have started to think again a bit more about An Saol. Also talked about it to people. While the aim is to have a house an land where persons with severe brain injuries can meet, get therapies, where there’s a respite service, where people who can’t stay at home can find a second home – work can start right now. The ‘house’ will come at some point.

In the meantime: we can provide information to families and victims, we can organise courses and educational activities for families and professionals alike, we can share sustainable therapy services across families who need them at home, as well as affordable and sustainable caring services, we could establish a register of caring, nursing, medical, and therapy professional who’d be happy to help.

If I am not wrong, you could employ a full time therapist capable of servicing 3-4 families for what you would pay individually if you paid for five hours of therapy per week, or just one hour per day. While the HSE pays 1,600 (in some cases +300) euro per week to nursing homes, home help could be organised for a fraction of that. Wouldn’t that make sense?

These days, a lot of Dreamboaters are on Tour. On the Road. On the Camino, caminante no hay camino. Traveling. Exploring. Going down rivers nobody went on before. In rainforests, on mountain tops, on long walks and endless bus and train trips. Sharing their dreams. Save travels!

Today’s German Music Tip
Rosenstolz, Wenn du aufwachst. One of Pádraig’s favourite German musicians.
What’s hot
Dreamboaters on Tour
What’s cold
Taking the well-trodden path
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Aller Anfang ist schwer.

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

Last Saturday, a card arrived from one of Pádraig’s friend with a wonderful picture on it but an even more wonderful, great quote.

Today. What a day. One to remember.

Not because something extraordinary happened but because normality came into town. Nothing more boring than normality. The three of us and two friends having brunch. Getting into the car. Having a spin around town. Going for a walk around the Alster, Getting wet while walking the streets during a rain shower. Having a few scoops of real Italian ice-cream (and an expresso) in a nice Café.

A really normal Sunday afternoon in Hamburg. Boring.

Boring? – Everything but!

Today’s German Music Tip
Christina Stürmer, Was wirklich bleibt. Und irgendwas gibt Dir die Kraft wieder aufzustehen… – a really nice ‘unplugged’ version of a good song by Christina Stürmer.
What’s hot
A lazy Sunday afternoon.
What’s cold
Notstand
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Otto Normalverbraucher

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

Just one minute before noon did we make it into the Husum Tax Office where we were to collect our tax numbers that we needed for some paperwork we wanted to arrange today. It was the most wonderful experience I’d ever had in a tax office. The people there were so nice and so helpful. But then, Husum is not Hamburg.

We were away.

We had a full day with meetings and things to be sorted out in Tating and Garding and Husum before we made it back to Hamburg. Last night we went for a pint in Lütt Matten in Garding only to find our precious pint glassed on a table saying ‘please take one’. We took them, and two other pint glasses. The pint I had was not a pint at all but a 0.4l glass of Guinness – with a clover leaf ‘painted’ on the head, but otherwise pretty dull black stuff. Another reason to get back to Dublin soon.

Both Pat and I woke up just after 3am last night, ready to turn Pádraig. It’s strange how you get used to an interrupted sleep.

We were thinking about this drive back into Hamburg on Sunday afternoons last year when we were always wondering what had happened to Pádraig in the Schön-Klinik while we had been away in Tating. – This time, we knew that he had been perfectly ok. Pat’s sister had been keeping us uptodate and we knew that if anything unusual had happened, she would have told us.

When we came back to Hamburg, Pádraig had a surprise visitor, an old friend who had planned to come over in a week or so but had a change of plan and decided to visit today. There will be more visits over the weekend from Dublin. It’s amazing to see how loyal Pádraig’s friends have been. How fortunate is he, with all the bad, terrible, and uncertain times he has been through, to have friends like he does.

He is still away, but at the same time so close to so many people all over the world. You know that. He knows it. There is a connection that is so strong and that has lasted for several years now. That connection will not fade away, to the contrary, it will get stronger and it will survive time itself.

There’s a great quote in Into the Wild by Christopher MacCandless: “Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don’t want one.” People used to get all consumed by their careers – I think they begin to realise that what is much worth than their careers are their family and friends. Myself included.

Today’s German Music Tip
Fard, Laufe & Laufe (Bellum et Pax Official Video). Back to German rap. This time it’s a song for runners, in a way. “Wichtig ist, dass Du nicht vergißt, wo Du herkommst.”
What’s hot
Running
What’s cold
Forgetting about your origins
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
HauHauHa! (expression from Nordfriesland)

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

Pat’s sister is with Pádraig, Pat and I went up to Tating in the afternoon, back tomorrow. It’s almost unreal to be here and it’s like having travelled back to a different time. We went out to get something to eat and then had a pint in Garding – well, it wasn’t a pint but 0.4l. They were about to get rid of our beautiful pint glasses and we got there right on time to rescue them.

Terribly tired tonight, a tiny bit disoriented, but happy to see that we can have a day off together.

Pádraig is fine, is clothes are dry again. We thought, that big shower the other day was the first opportunity he got the get wet, to feel the rain on his head, his face, and his whole body. – There’re more exciting things to re-discover.

Today’s German Music Tip
Joris, Herz über Kopf. From Boris’ debut album published in April of this year, phenomenally successful and beautiful.
What’s hot
Rain on your cheeks
What’s cold
Being deprived of senses
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Passaufbaimausteigen!

An  Saol  Live your Life , An Saol eile

It’s a lovely evening, following a day that was so full and packed I have trouble remembering how it started – maybe that’s just a first (?) sign of me being older than I sometimes think I am, or wished I was!

Anyhow – I got a power supply for my laptop. And thank you to all who offered to drop one by the house last night within minutes of that post going online! I could not believe it. That was some reaction.

Today, some of the pipework went in and will hopefully be finished tomorrow. Then the floors go in and on Monday week the bricks will be laid. That should take just 2-3 days which means that, with a bit of luck, the roof can go on the same week. To me, that sounds really fast. It also makes our trip back to Dublin seem quite real and not so far away, not so much just like a plan but like a reality.

I also got a few phone calls today. Both interesting in their own way.

The first came from Boston while I was driving back from the NCT (this time the car passed!!!). It was a lady from the Civil Rights Division of the Office of the Attorney General of Massachusetts whose office I tried to reach last week and for whom I had left a voicemail. She had never heard of Pádraig’s accident and her system did not show the receipt of any letter by myself. So I just faxed it to her again. She asked, had we filed a complaint with (I think) Internal Affairs – something nobody had ever mentioned to us before. We’ll see what happens.

The second call came from a gentleman working for our medical supplier who had just dropped by the house to leave some additional pieces for Pádraig’s wheelchair. But nobody had opened the door so he was wondering whether we were in. Eventually I got Pat on the phone who had run for shelter with Pádraig when it started to rain while they were on a walk. They got all soaked, she said, as they started to walk back to the house. When I rung the gentleman from the medical supplier to tell him what had happened and that Pat and Pádraig would be back in 10 minutes, he confirmed that, indeed, he had just experienced the ‘end of the world’ while sitting in his car. It must have been some rain ‘shower’. – But, isn’t it great that this kind of stuff is starting to happen to Pádraig again? Nothing like being caught in a shower! Wonderful!

Early start tomorrow. Getting a slot in Dublin airport must be really cheap at 6am:)

Today’s German Music Tip
Well, it’s not really just German – it’s more international. I found it, when I was looking for ‘Regen’ on youtube: 10 hours of ‘Regen’ with an unbelievable 6.2m hits!
What’s hot
Summer in the city
What’s cold
Raindrops keep falling on my head…
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Das kann ich mir gar nicht vorstellen!

An  Saol – Live your Life – An Saol eile