If you put the songs on this blog in a playlist, they sum up to almost 80 minutes. That’s exactly the length of an audio CD and they would fit on a good old C90 tape too. What started as a playful addition to the messages became some kind of sport – I admit that I felt a certain urge to find a suitable song to every post. One reason for that was that Nadine loved the surprises and the songs. Another reason was my nerdish perfectionism…

But in the long run I won’t be able to keep up the standard of a song for each post. Honestly speaking, I’m quite surprised that I found so many suitable ones to last for a whole month or the length of an audio CD – I expected myself to run out of ideas sooner. Okay, not every song matched with the content of it’s post exactly and some relations were a bit far-fetched. For my excuse, let me quote Damon Michael Gough, a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy:

“songs are never quite the answer, just a soundtrack to a life”

And that’s what they are supposed to be. A soundtrack to Nadine’s life that gives her comfort and energy and can be used during chemotheraphy and other tasks.

Today is Nadine’s birthday – at 2:55 this morning she turned 47. We are going to have some family around for the day and will celebrate in a small circle. Anybody else who wants to visit can do so on Sunday 31 between 2 and 7 p.m. We will be at home then and have some cake for you ready…

If you decide to bring a gift, which you don’t have to, non-perishable organic food items would be best. We definitely need no books, crockery, candles, gadgets or other ‘nice things’. Remember; Nadine decided to simplyfy her life, not to complicate it…

47 is not enough – not by far. So let me use one of my all-time favourite musicians, who died way too early himself, to bring my wishes: “Happy birthday darling dear, I hope there’s many more to come”!

Reading books isn’t an option for Nadine to entertain herself right now. Her eyesight is a bit troubled at the moment, so staring at her Kindle or into a book is too demanding. But being still keen on stories, she has switched to listening to audio books on her iPhone.

Concentrating for a long time on complex plots is also a heavy task. That’s why she’s mostly choosing children’s novels. She prefers stories her grandma Erika read to her when she was a little child. The reason might not only be that a known plot is way more easy to follow. I guess she’s also able to relive some comfort experienced during her childhood that way. Well, let her have that fun – there is no need to read the Ulysses day in day out…

She also loves listening to songs that tell stories. Here is one of her favourites: