Most times, Padraig opens just one of his eyes, the left one. Today, while he was having a short break from an early therapy session, he opened the two of his eyes, both of them. I don’t yet fully understand what the reason for opening both eyes is, but I guess it must have got something to do with his energy levels and the attention he is paying to what is going on around him.

It was our second day today and Pádraig’s second day of walking. While it was a little new a more difficult yesterday, today the ‘walk’ went much smoother and we began to develop a ‘feeling’ for balance and coordination: Pádraig himself, myself holding him from the back and a therapist moving his feet. Meaning that with the help of just two people, Pádraig can walk.

Tonight we had an early farewell dinner for another Irish family who’ll be leaving Pforzheim this coming weekend to go back home. They had ordered in an Irish stew which we all enjoyed this evening.

Also talked to a German family today about the therapies their son is getting, who is in a similar place as Pádraig. The short answer is: 9 units of therapy, including physio for his lungs, special neuro physio, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. And there is no limit to that. It’s prescribed by his local GP and the public health insurer pays for it.

You’d be forgiven to think “Peng” is a Chinese name (I think it is), but in Germany ‘Peng” is what a balloon ‘says’ when you stick a needle into it. Which is what Angela Merkel did to the opposition leader and their leading candidate Martin Schulz over the past few weeks. The way all this was translated into the title of the latest edition of the Stern magazine is really brilliant, I think. And the expressions on the faces of the two contenders are just priceless.

I’d like to stick a needle into this balloon that says ‘rehab for sABI survivors is a waste of scarce resources’ and deflate it. It’s an argument that was used in Germany 25 years ago when a father set up a hospital to help his young daughter to recover from her severe brain injury.

And recover she did. PENG!

Pádraig had a brilliant and eventful day. His physio from Ireland is here too working with us for a week. It’s such a positive, can-do approach, hard work, huge efforts – but great return.

Sure what else would you have but a Schwarzwälderkirschtortenstück in the Black Forest?

All meaning that we arrived. We got here. Exhausted but ok. We had what the Germans call “Abendbrot” the term itself indicating the distance between German and irish evening meals. But we all enjoyed it a lot. Pádraig had some especially minced meal, followed by a piece of cake, followed by a few strawberries, followed by a full glass of Apfelschorle.

We met the other Irish family that is here at the moment, leaving at the end of the coming week having that Abendbrot. It was good to catch up and to hear how they had been getting on.

Pádraig then had a shower and went off to bed, to rest before an early start and a busy day tomorrow. We’re about to follow him!

Paris – oh Paris! To be honest, we are a little bit in the not-so-attractive outskirts right beside a motorway in an IBIS Budget ‘hotel’.

Just now we managed to sit down (thought there isn’t really that much space in our ‘room’ to sit down:) and we are absolutely and completely exhausted.

So it’s ‘bon soir’ for now!

En route to France on the Oscar Wilde whose cabin doors, as it turns out, are just that little bit too narrow for a wheelchair.

Though they made an exception and gave Pádraig, just this time, a special cabin at no extra charge – just this time. Not sure what we’ll do on the return trip…

We’re just loosing sight of land so I’ll better post this now!

Ahoi, Dreamboaters!

PS: news about today’s viewing of “An Saol on Sea” and, separately, of our meeting with the HSE tomorrow. – All good and exciting stuff!

It’s late and another crazy day is about to finish. Tomorrow is going to be even better.

I was in Limerick today for the oral PhD examination, the viva, of my last PhD student. It was such a pleasure to follow her presentation and the way she handled the questions and the discussion with her examiners. It moved me to bit to hear the external examiner who had come to UL from the University of Salamanca saying that he was honoured and proud to be at the cradle and the world centre of localisation teaching and research. The last time he had been here he was still a Masters’ student attending our localisation summer school…

Hardly spent time with Pádraig today. He was in good form, enjoying the good weather and getting ready to go to Germany tomorrow via Rosslare, catching the boat to France and then driving to Germany over two days.

Tomorrow morning, just before we’ll have to leave, I’ll be having another meeting with the HSE.

While a group of supporters and (potential) funders will be checking out the Bray Head Hotel – or: An Saol On Sea: SMARTlab at the Lighthouse Living Lab. Wouldn’t that be absolutely mad, weird and wonderful? Bringing together sABI survivors, technologists, musicians, therapists, artists, researchers, carers: Dreamboaters of the World Unite!

Sometimes you have to be mad to make the most incredible things happen. This would be big. Real big. A game changer.

Ok, it probably wasn’t him but the Irish monk Brendan who ‘discovered’ (whatever that means) America. Or was it the Vikings?

What is for sure though is that it was him, Christopher Columbus, who said something worth of a Dreamboater:

 You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

The past few years have felt like as if I had been preparing for this journey. When I would loose sight of the shore. When I would truly believe that this ‘boat’ would really float. When I would go on board, cut the ropes and sailed away.

What is the use of playing it safe, doing what you’re expected to do, making yourself dependent on other people’s expectations, complying, when, in reality, the wise Columbus-like decision would be to forget about any ‘baggage’ and do what needs to be done.

Have you done this before? Does it require courage? What difference does it make?

What a beautiful day! Wow! And where else would you enjoy it but in the National Botanic Gardens! Which is where we came across this.

In our garden, the best we do is to cut the branches of daffodils and tulips. The pros in the Botanics, being pros, go for the root ‘n branch approach. And since this has been referred to so often in the media here in Ireland recently (though not so often in the context of flours and the Botanics), I became curious and looked up what it actually means, “root ‘n branch”. Here is what I found:

a. (adverb)
entirely; completely; utterly
b. (adjective)
thorough; radical; complete
Related adjective: radical

I think I like the idea behind this.

There were some other, really brilliant news today: Both Prof Fins and Prof Goodman agreed to become Advisors to the An Saol Foundation! Prof Joseph J. Fins is the author of what I’d call the ‘bible’ of severe acquired brain injury and its ethics, “Rights come to Mind – Brain Injury, Ethics, and the Struggle for Consciousness”; Prof Lizbeth Goodman is a long-standing supporter of people with disabilities and particularly active in assistive technologies. I don’t think I could overestimate the incredibly valuable contributions those two world-leading personalities will make to the cause of the An Saol Foundation.

Pádraig’s got all the foot and legwork under control he’ll need when to walk: he can lift his foot up front and back, and he can move his legs forth and back – even against resistance which is, as we know, futile:)

Here are two really short clips recorded today. Looking at this out of context it’s not really that spectacular. Knowing the effort Pádraig put in to get to a point where he is in control of his feet and his legs, this is pretty extraordinary, in my mind.

First off: the footwork.

“The best ever” is what Pádraig’s physio remarked when he moved his leg back today when sitting in his wheelchair ‘swinging’ his legs.

His physio also asked him how many people were at his ‘party’ yesterday and he ‘bleeped’ 13 times – which is what I would have said. And I’m sure, as he was pressing that switch for each of his friends who had been with him, he was thinking of their names and seeing their faces in his mind.

All Dreamboaters.

It wasn’t really a party but it was a great get together of Pádraig’s friends who joined him to celebrate his upcoming birthday for which he won’t be in Ireland – but in Germany for another four weeks of intensive therapy. (Pity An Saol isn’t up and running yet.)

It was a really exceptional afternoon. In so many different ways. With so many really exceptional people. I think I mentioned before that Pádraig once wanted to set up a new country off the west coast of Ireland. His friends here today would have been the people to he would have loved to live with him in this country, full of fun, empathy, and love.