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Using the accent of Arnold Schwarzenegger (and incidentally Austrian Death Machine): “I need your heart, your liver, your bone tissue!”

This week it is donor week in the Netherlands. If you have ever seen any serious medical TV series, you may realize that organ donation is a controversial topic. It is not something we like to think about, death. Aside from the metaphysical questions about what happens after one dies, the realization that ones life will eventually end gives me the creeps to be frank. It is also not a pleasant thought to imagine a doctor coming up to you, asking to cut open your very recently deceased loved one to harvest his or her liver, or heart, or eyes.

On the flip-side however, suppose your loved one has a serious heart condition that can only be treated with a heart transplant. Personally, I could understand, but would not appreciate another persons choice not to give up the organs he or she has no use for any more in death. Luckily, thus far I can only imagine such a situation. The reality of the matter however is that there are many people around the world who do not have the luxury of simply imagining this. Their loved ones are dying. Even more people now live with the loss of a friend, parent, spouse or a child because no organs were available at the time. Or worse, the organs were there, but they were eventually buried or cremated because the deceased never even thought of donation or ‘never took the time to register’.

I am a bit ashamed to say that I am the latter person. I never took the time to register as organ donor. I am not religious, I do not believe my organs have any value whatsoever after death, I am not concerned for the people at my funeral having to look at a body that has been emptied. I also understand how important organ donation is, how many lives even one organ donor can save, and what impact this has on the friends and families of the recipient. But I never took the time. Until this week.

Registering for organ donation felt like a really good thing to do. Well, when filling out the form, and after submission that is. Pressing the actual submit button that made my registration official did give me the creeps a bit. One misconception about organ donation is that doctors refuse help to a severely injured person, just to harvest the organs. And I must honestly admit, for a split second that thought did cross my mind when I moved to submit my registration form. Then again, that is a trust issue that is always present when going into a hospital, isn’t it? When you go in for a surgery, any surgery, there is always risk of complications. Even with an appendectomy (removal of the appendix) there is a risk of death. So one has to trust the doctor to do his or her best to not let you die. Still, people go in and have their appendix removed around the world, every day. Is it therefore not logical to place the same level of trust regarding a physicians’ assessment whether you are dead or alive?

In any case, I am proud to be wearing the tag of organ donor. And to any friend or family member reading this, even though it is not something pleasant to think about, I really do not wish for anyone to interfere with this decision should I die. I believe I could be content if the roles were reversed and the death of someone I loved may have helped in saving one or more lives.

The donor week kicked off with a 12 hour radio program, where every hour another DJ stated his or her views on donation (all in favour I reckon of course). By the end of the day, almost 9000 people had registered, against almost 900 who decided not to become a donor. If you wish to know more about this campaign, more information can be found on http://donorweek.nl/ (in Dutch).

It takes a couple months, but it yields results in the end ^^

The plants survived a hot summer, and later on a cold one, stood through a couple of decent storms, and they’re still standing. Only now they’re fruitless, litterally.

Below are two pictures of the harvested bell peppers and one red pepper (the other peppers were already harvested, and are either drying, or have already been cut up to make some delicious massala chicken). The rest of the plants are going to enjoy a couple months rest inside the house (most of them can’t withstand the cold). Tonight I’ll be enjoying some (hopefully) incredibly rich tasting vegetables though ^^

To start with a cliche: It’s hot. It’s been over 30 degrees for the past few days, and there’s not much decline of temperatures in sight. Strangely, I find myself able to better cope with the weather than in previous years. It must be mentioned that spending a nice afternoon in the shade with the missus, a couple of cold beers and a few nice topics to talk about helps with the coping a lot.

Yesterday however, through quite a coincidence, we found ourselves surrounded by horses, damsels, swords, dogs, hell, even a true African owl. It turned out that there was a Knights’ festival in the city park. Despite the rising levels of hotness we decided to go check it out, after all, how often do you find a medieval festival right around the corner?

Honestly, I was expecting to find a handful of medievally clad people, a couple of tents and some shoddy ‘knights’ in plastic armour. I was pleasantly surprised. The ladies wore beautiful gowns, the knights wore authentic replicas of medieval armour, and there were many people just sitting around their tents surrounded by authentically made pottery and carpentry. We even got to find out how chain mail was made in the olden days.

There were also a couple of demonstrations, like a bird-show, a hunting demonstration, and the most exciting of them all, a jousting event. There would also have been a melee fight between knights, however, due to the heat, they opted to cancel that particular event. Fighting hand-to-hand combat, when the sun is at it’s highest, wearing full armour weighing at approximately 35 kg ís of course a tad bonkers.

After surviving the hottest part of the day happily sipping Murphy’s from lovely glazed earthenware (which you were allowed to bring home, yay), júst when we were about to leave for home, the jousting event started. As expected, this turned out the be a very exciting show, where the opponents’ shield shattered lances more often than not.

It was a good day.

Knights’ Festival Gallery