Tonight will have to be a short update, I’m afraid. For some reason this was one of those days when work just did not stop. Being alone in the apartment doesn’t help. There’s no one here to make sure that certain things stop and others begin. Balance is what it is all about.

At 4:02 pm this afternoon, I realised that I had received a message on my German mobile this morning. For some reason, it had decided to switch itself off during the day – and it wasn’t even the battery. Not sure whether you remember the KitKat ad on the TV, or whether it even ran in your country. It’s worth checking it out here. Because what happened to that poor photographer was exactly what happened to me today, except that the photographer only waited maybe an hour until he took the break and missed the ‘shot’ he had been waiting for; in my case, I had been waiting for this call almost three weeks – until my phone decided to take a break and I missed it.

At 4:03 I rang the number and heard the voice of a nice lady telling me that she was delighted to hear that I had called but that, unfortunately, I was calling outside of their normal business hours, which is 7:30 am to 4:00 pm.

So, I’ll be getting up early tomorrow morning to call the Genossenschaft and to find out what the news are about this apartment we applied for – because that was what the call was all about.

Pádraig and I had some time for a long chat, we went out onto the roof garden (in the cold, bbbrrrrr), we went through the mouth hygiene routine, and I tried out my hot towel shaving skills (no cuts this time). At the end of it all, the nurse remarked about how nice he was smelling (and he did). I am sure that when I left Pádraig said “Gute Nacht” and I hope that this is what he is going to have tonight.

Shopping at Lidl is always an adventure. Some of the stuff is to similar to what they say in Ireland. Some of the stuff is really different – like the “Irländer”!

We listen to the early RTÉ morning radio, then Morning Ireland, and the news most mornings. This morning I thought that there was one murder, one raid, one bomb disposal after the other. The German news are really tame in comparison. As if nothing really news-worthy was happening. What the Irish news are missing in ‘good’ stories, the Germans are missing in ‘interesting’ stories.

We had hoped to have heard about the apartment by now. We had hoped to have heard about the move to the UKE for the operation by now. Neither of it did happen. We’ll have to be patient.

Pádraig has been really alert and awake over the past days, including today. He is getting really stable again now, and will have plenty of time to demonstrate to everybody how he is getting not just stable, but better.

Wednesday, 03 December is the official launch of the Dreamboat, the Amhrán do Phadráig, in Dublin, in The Grand Social. Be there!

I wish…

Can I tell you or would that wish not work if I did?

Mmmhhh – I know. I’ll tell you about one wish I have. If that wish should not be granted because I told you about it, then I’ll just keep my wishes for myself.

I wish to find out about this apartment; and not just to hear about it, but to get good news about it. Initially, we thought we’d hear about it last week, then this week, now it’ll be next week…

I also wished my Irish was better. In case your Irish is a bad as mine (practically non-existent) you’ll have wondered what last night’s blog was all about. I thought, I’d try what the Irish Government did with its website promoting the 1916 Easter Rising celebrations: getting it translated using Google Translate. [In case you don’t trust Google Translate, but still want to find out what the ‘original’ was, I’ve copied the original text to the end of this blog.] I just thought that it was hilarious that they first get a Minister for the Gaeltacht who does not speak Irish (but is, apparently, very keen to learn the language), and then get the website for the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising translated by an online machine translation programme. It’s pure genius.

(In case you didn’t know and were wondering what is going on here, “it is a primary objective of the Department to support the implementation of the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 and, within that context, to promote Irish as the main language of the Gaeltacht.”)

There is a bit of good news (this has got something to do with the wish I didn’t tell you about). Pádraig’s main doctor here told us that they did another EEG and it turns out that especially that part of his brain that was less injured is beginning to show what would be considered to be ‘normal’ activity on the scale they use. Is this a sign of things to come?

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If the Irish Government can do it, so can I. You might have heard in tonight’s news that the official Irish Government website for the 1916 commemoration was translated into the first official language of the country by Google translate. It’s incredible. Thank you Google. Thank you Irish Government. You make technology work!

I won’t be writing that much tonight because I’m not sure about how much of what I’m writing will be understood by the fantastic programme that has now replaced human translators, even in the Irish Government offices.

Und warum schreibe ich überhaupt auf Englisch? Und übersetze das dann auch noch ins Irische…

Patrick ist heute offiziell ein Hamburger geworden. Er hat seine leichte Erkältung so weit hinter sich gebracht und wirkt insgesamt sehr viel gesünder.

Bueno, voy a dormir. Será otro día mañana.

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This is not Libya or Iraq, it’s main street in Hamburg and the police is obviously getting ready – for what I’ve no idea, but it seems pretty serious!

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http://www.amhrandophadraig.com

http://www.amhrandophadraig.com

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Más féidir leis an Rialtas na hÉireann é a dhéanamh, mar sin is féidir I. D’fhéadfá a chuala i nuacht na hoíche anocht gur aistríodh an láithreán gréasáin an Rialtais oifigiúil na hÉireann don chomóradh 1916 isteach sa chéad teanga oifigiúil na tíre ag Google aistriú. Tá sé dochreidte. Go raibh maith agat Google. Go raibh maith agat Rialtas na hÉireann. A dhéanann tú an obair teicneolaíocht!

Ní bheidh mé ag scríobh go bhfuil i bhfad anocht toisc nach bhfuil mé cinnte faoi cé mhéad ar cad tá mé scríofa a thuiscint an clár iontach go bhfuil ionad anois aistritheoirí  daonna, fiú sna hoifigí Rialtas na hÉireann.

Agus cén fáth a scríobh mé ar chor ar bith i mBéarla? Agus a aistriú go ansin freisin go Gaeilge …

Tá anois Patrick bheith go hoifigiúil hamburger. Tá sé ag a thug a fuar beag go dtí seo taobh thiar agus rinne a lán níos sláintiúla.

Bhuel, tá mé ag dul a chodladh. Is Amárach lá eile.

https://www.facebook.com/amhrandophadraig?notif_t=page_invite_accepted

http://www.amhrandophadraig.com

 

 

I almost missed it.

There was a brown envelope on Pádraig’s desk today. Packed. I ask you, what do you do with a packed brown envelope? Make sure no-one else sees it and you’d put it away in a safe place? Or would you ignore it altogether?

I decided to open it.

And inside, inside were five copies, wrapped in protective plastic, of the new Christmas No. 1 CD, Amhrán do Phádraig.

I played it a dozen times and thought that Pádraig was singing along. Is it only just a dream?

I had heard so much about it, had seen the pictures on the website, holding the cover in my hand and listening to the poems, songs, and music was something else.

Even if I wasn’t who I am (and who knows who I am:) I would buy a box of these CDs and give them as a present to all of my family and friends. It’s incredible stuff. Absolutely incredible.

Pádraig was humming along, and it was a sign of things to come.

If there is one thing you’ll be getting for your family and friends this Christmas, make it the Christmas No. 1 album, Amhrán do Phádraig.

I got up in the middle of the night. It was dark and cold outside. We made our way up to the hospital. It was completely deserted. No-one to be seen. Until we got up to the ward. A therapist had come in at 5am to get Pádraig ready. Over the weekend they had given him a ‘bath’. He looked his best.

There were many people on the ward who wouldn’t have been there on a regular Monday morning. They were there to say good-bye to Pádraig, to wish him all the best, to pray for a safe journey. Good people. Decent people. The ones who would do things differently if they were in charge.

Not the ones who wonder why on earth people are even thinking about brining their loved ones to a place where they’d get timely and appropriate treatment and care; not the ones who tell you that, sure, the only things your loved one need are “medicine, sedation, and a PEG”. Try to make this up – I’m sure you couldn’t.

Here we are. A year ago, tonight, I was trying to find a place to stay. I came that prepared. A&O beside the train station. On my own. Pádraig on a respirator in the Schön-Klinik. Between then and now, he nearly died, at least once. But he also started to eat (little and soft), to communicate (yes/no), to breath (no O2 most of the time), to use an unblocked cannula / speech valve (all the time); he rarely has infections, no bed sores, no dislocated shoulder blades. He receives therapies every day, including physio, OT, music, and, I think too little, speech. He has been seen by a dentist several times, a urologist, a surgeon, and a dermatologist.

He most definitely needs more than medicine, sedation, and a PEG.

And so do all the other people in Ireland who are in a similar situation to Pádraig’s.

On a different note, and before I forget. For some reason, I thought of Saints when I was walking to the apartment tonight. The strange thing is that I’m not even sure whether I believe in Saints. What I thought was that, maybe, Saints are not the ones who do all the good stuff at all. Maybe it’s the ones that make us do good.

What do you think?

To finish off, here is a short video clip that looks and sounds like taken straight out of a science fiction movie. In fact, it’s a message the Irish Government wants you to hear just before you leave the country.

Last night, Pádraig’s oxygen levels apparently went down quite a bit, to a level where they thought that maybe he had had another set of seizures. They added a bit of oxygen to his air for a few hours, not a lot, just to keep him comfortable. In the morning they did an EEG and that turned out ok. No reason to worry here.

They also did blood tests which turned out ok too. He has a bit of a temperature but all still within acceptable limits. I think he might have a bit of a cold. Same as many people around this time of the year when the temperatures change.

It’s so hard though to find out what is going on. It’s not as if there was anyone who wanted not to tell what’s going on, I think they genuinely don’t know. Which makes you think.

Eventually, we met the new Stationsarzt who will look after Pádraig as part of his day-to-day work. He explained what had been happening and that there was nothing to worry about. They just ran tests to make sure there was nothing serious going for which the low oxygen levels could have been a symptom.

It’ll be exactly a year since Pádraig and I arrived here in Hamburg tomorrow. What’s a year? What does it mean? Is this a lot? Is it really no time at all? I don’t know. I thought that I knew what time meant. Today, I’m convinced no-one knows.

I played Rónán Beo@3 for Pádraig this evening. The songs, the poem, the interview with Maitíu. Pádraig was wide awake. I had doubt but he believed… It floated like a dream…

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Dreamboat

Check out the Amhrán do Phádraig / Song for Pádraig Facebook site
Get a copy of Amhrán do Phádraig / Song for Pádraig here

 

Intro: G———Em———–G———Em———— (same chords for all the little interludes!)

Vearsa 1
G—- D—– Am——D——
Am—-Em—-Am——-C——-
Am—-D—Bm —Em—
Am— Em—Am- Bm- C———

Chorus
C—- Am—- G —- D—–
Am—- D—–Am——G
Am—– D—– Em—– G/b—
Am—–D—-Am—-G—

Vearsa 2 (direach mar an gceanna le vearsa 1)
Chorus 2 (direach mar an gceanna le chorus 1)

Choir aaah’s
Am—– Em—- Dm—–Em—-
D—– Em—– D———– x2_
Floated like a dream outro
Am——F—–Em——D—–
Am——F—-Em——D—-
Am—–F—–Em —-D—-
Am—-F—–Em—————

• (Véarsa 1)

Built a boat yesterday
In one early morning half dream

Tú féin ag cabhrú liom
Craobhacha a bhaint de chrann

Ghreamamar le chéile iad
Le drúcht ó na ribí féir

Is báidín gleoite í
lán de dhóchas ó mo chroí

(curfá)

and it floated like a dream
on those waves just you and me
is it a sign of things to come
lets just sail and have some fun

agus sheol sé le gaoth
ar bhruach na brionglóidí
An dea-thuar é seo tá romham
Ragham ag spraoi ar bharr na dtonn

(Véarsa 2)

and the time it had come
our little boat of dreams

would it sink or would it swim
would it sail down the stream

Is diompar don trá é
Idir uisce agus agus spéir

cá dtabharfadh an sruth í
I had doubt but he believed…

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