A few awesome things happened today.

We are getting a much better hold on premises and have Dublin City Council, the HSE and the archdioceses looking for possibilities. On Friday, we will have a meeting where we might make considerable process. None of it would have been possible without the help and the presence of our German friends and supporters from Pforzheim, or our Irish friends who are going out of their way to help.

Then, Pádraig went out on a walk into the wild Irish country side – in the middle of Dublin.

And, finally and best, he worked on cognitive exercises of various grades of complexity and difficulty. The most significant of them was that he not only identified the right logos, not in colour but in black and white, he saw them, and he managed to point them out with his finger. Something he has never done before.

Not an easy task – and confirming that not just his cognition and motor skills but also his eye sight is working ok. Awesome.

And then – there is the mass on St James’ Day, our walk on the Camino and the homily I was invited to share – and of which the Irish Society of St James have created an incredible website.

Tomorrow we’ll take a day off our quest for premises – we’ll go to the west, explore the wild Irish Atlantic Way, and visit a family with an sABI survivor on the way. It’ll be a great day.

We were driving through North and North County Dublin checking out premises today. Having had tons of conversations with estate agents, they recommended industrial premises as the ideal home for what we want to do with the An Saol Project, our Day Centre. Something like a high-end warehouse.

What I realised today is that warehouses, even the high end ones, are very often terraced and on very functional roads with no room for anyone getting out to get a bit of fresh air or taking in some sunshine.

And then there are industrial estates that look more like remains of the post-industrial age – rough.

We talked to one developer who will build an industrial building of the size we are looking for and who is prepared to take on our suggestions and make them part of the design – or at least to consider it. That building will be detached and have space for car parking and some nice outside area. Really promising. Maybe just over five minutes drive of the Donabate exit of the M1. In the country but accessible.

I’ve also contacted the Archbishop’s Office (who will consider a meeting), and contacts who are working with the HSE and the Council to see if there are suitable premises.

400-500 square metres – just in case you have connections you can get involved.

We’re also still working on the Bray Head Hotel – it has been bought by an investment firm and they are, as we all know, always for ideas to turn their developments into something special.

I have learned an awful lot today about what we are looking for. And what not. If this is an indication of what the rest of the week will bring, we’re doing good!

I regret not being able to spend time with Pádraig today – but I’m sure our efforts will take off.

Fingers crossed!

Pádraig had a Sunday morning session with some exercises lying on his side, supporting his upper body with his arm, one leg across the other – and he thoroughly enjoyed it. All made possible by a good friend from Germany who has been in Dublin for a visit (with a friend of hers) and has taken some time out to visit and work with Pádraig. Something quite extraordinary.

Later in the afternoon, I went out to the airport to collect two friends from Pforzheim who will be helping me this week to identify suitable premises for our day centre. We have made some considerable progress with the development of a service level agreement with the HSE which will make renting premises and hiring staff so much easier. All going well, the paperwork should all be finished in a couple of weeks – in other words: in no time at all. It is all going so well that I’m beginning to believe in miracles. It is all so encouraging!

Oh – I know I asked this before, BUT – if you happen to know a place where the An Saol Project could get/rent premises, please let me know. With the HSE service level agreement (soon) in place and the help of our friends, it should all be much easier than before to find a suitable location…

Portmarnock is one of the most beautiful beaches in Dublin. This is where the 1.5 to 1.8 km sea swim took place today.

A great day. One of may yet to come.

The end of a very eventful week.

Tired.

But happy.

Would you believe it?

Listening to the distant noise of the city asleep in the distance, on an open window.

In management training as well as in social pedagogy coaches sometimes use provocative and solution-oriented key phrases to get participants thinking. One of these is: ‘Whatever you fight, you are making stronger’.

It also absorbs most if not all your energy, I would add.

Think about it.

Wouldn’t it be so much better to concentrate on finding and working on a solution?

This morning, we had one of the most amazing therapy, exercise and learning sessions with Pádraig in a long time. He managed to do things we never thought he’d be able to do.

He was on an exercise matt on the floor, lying with his stomach on a peanut-shaped exercise ball. He then lifted his upper body up and kneeled (all with considerable help but nonetheless), holding his head up high all by himself. Another exercise he did completely by himself: while lying with his stomach on that ‘peanut’ he stretched out his right and then his left leg, lifting his knee up from the ground and gently letting it down again, several times.

We were all exhausted after this morning but we had unbelievable fun. We all realised that we were experiencing something truly sensational and unexpected. We had two therapist, supported by myself and, at times, by Pat working with Pádraig, encouraging and supporting him with his efforts. And while he was working so incredibly hard, he was smiling, sharing his humour with us, and very obviously enjoying what he was doing.

It just shows what is possible if you try and if you have the support you need to make the ‘impossible’ happen. How happy, how proud of himself, must Pádraig have been this morning. How much hope and positive energy these achievements must have given him.

I decided to go organic. Or, maybe, it was just an online shopping spree – with the excuse of healthy living.

On one site, I ordered organic vegetables and fruit, on another seeds and fish oil. If, what they told me, is even partially true, I’m now going to live a few decades longer and, perhaps more importantly, much healthier and happier. My heart, intestines, blood pressure, lungs, brain will all be infused with energy and strength. I’ll be running marathons and won’t ever again forget appointments. A bit like superman without kryptonite.

But even prior to that new healthy living approach, soon to arrive at our doorsteps, Pádraig got a taste, a sneak preview, of that power injection. The therapist who looked so well after him in Tating is over for a visit, exploring with us different and better uses of some of the equipment Pádraig has – and in the process solved the mystery of the bath tub.

I had tried to figure out for the best part of a year how we could get Pádraig safely into his super dooper jacuzzi jet stream extra long bath tub, how to support him, make it save and enjoyable for him. I had asked experts and visited trade shows in search of a solution. Without any luck. When we were pulling different cushions and other bits and pieces of material out of their bags, she had a brain wave. Which we swiftly tried out with me being the guinea pig. So I stepped into the bath – and, incredible, it seemed to work! Brilliant and ingenious!

Having made the ‘dry run’ work today, we’re thinking of doing the real thing over the week-end. Can you imagine: a warm, nice smelling bubble bath with jet streams massaging you body, after four years – what an explosion of sensation that must be!

PS: Before you even think about it: no, we did not take a pictures of today’s dry run in the tub!

From our kitchen it sounded as if someone was having a party somewhere outside. And in a sense it was.

Three of Pádraig’s friends had called over to see him after his long absence and had each brought their favourite biscuits. Pádraig’s job was to do the ‘tasting’ and determine which were the better biscuits. A terrible job for the teeth. But fabulous for the taste buds. His verdict was very clear (but won’t be revealed here:)

Pádraig also got it right when Pat asked him this afternoon whether he had been exercising on the MOTOMed earlier today – and I, when he said ‘yes’, initially contradicted him, thinking that he’d getting it wrong. Until, and only after Pádraig had insisted in his calm but determined friendly way that he had in fact been on the bike, I remembered… he was, of course, right. And I had been wrong. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Remember Haiti? The earthquake? How the world discovered more than 550 years after Columbus this small poor island in the Caribbean and rallied to help those poor people who had been forgotten by the world until the earthquake hit?

I know a charity that offered services to the Haitians that were never used and that were (probably) of no use to them. But the disaster of the earthquake put this charity on the map, made it known world-wide and allowed it to recruit hundreds of volunteers, not to mention the fundraising it made possible.

Disasters make charities. Nothing wrong with that, really, unless it’s done in that pretty cynical way I witnessed in the case just described.

On the other hand, there are true disasters happening all the time, every day, and they are not even on our radar.

There are people who are struggling along, working really hard every day until they are absolutely and completely exhausted – and who are ignored and left behind because there is no lobby, and they don’t hit the headlines.

Tactics, cynicism is not their style.

Which, in a twisted way, makes them loosing out double.

Today was one of the most special days in my life. And it will take some time to really sink in.

There were two big, solid, strong men, who talked about Red Hugh O’Donnell, Danny Sheehy, and Pádraig in one single breadth. As heroes. In their own different ways.

I thought about how much fun those three men would have had together had they ever met.