jueves, 28 de agosto de 2008

Do not get old in The Netherlands! / ¡No te hagas viejo en Holanda!


A few days ago I was in shock while reading this news on DutchNews.nl:

The health inspectorate is to begin an investigation into a care home in Amersfoort which does not resuscitate the over-70s unless they have specifically stated they want to continue living.

(...) the director of the St Pieters en Bloklands Gasthuis care home said people’s records are always consulted if they are in need of resuscitation.
So, let's imagine the situation for a moment: I'm a person of 74 years old who's living in a care home in Amersfoort. I'm happily walking after playing cards with my also old fellow mates when suddenly I feel terribly bad. I'm having a heart attack!! And while I am fainting I see the nurse trying to open the database and exclaiming "oh shit, this damn computer!!!" and I hear the classic Windows rebooting sound. My last words would be "Oh God, I am fu...!!"

I think the best solution would be to wear a t-shirt saying "I wanna live" or maybe to tattoo "Resuscitate here!" in big letters in the middle of your chest. (My goodness... a new world opens up before my very eyes!! Right now I have discovered that many people have a "Do not resuscitate" tattoo in their chests!!!)

Versión en español

martes, 26 de agosto de 2008

Our support / Nuestro apoyo

A short post dedicated to Spanair plane victim's relatives. Wishing them enough strength to get through (if that can ever be possible) this tragedy. Wishing the survivors, who are still recovering from physical injuries and will have a long psychological way to go, all the best.

We have been traveling quite a lot lately and usually you simply don't think about this possibility. I took a train the day before 11M attacks and I took a plane the day after this crash. So, though it might sound cheesy, I just simply want to thank God for giving me another day to enjoy life with all of you.

Versión en español

sábado, 9 de agosto de 2008

Short summary / Pequeño resumen


Photo: Pichí's new brother, Bacardi.

It has been strange these last weeks around here. A lot of new things happened. I will try to stick to the chronological path.

  • I started "working" in a company like one month ago. The quotation marks are because I'm actually doing my thesis project there, thus I am not an employee but an intern. It's a good project, even more related to what I wanted than I expected. It's also a good company and an international one, so english is the official language at work. Alas, at lunch I am almost the only non-dutch speaker and then, as lunch is not "working hours", they speak in Dutch. As I don't understand any Dutch I seize the opportunity to think about stupid things like "what if music ends due to the end of notes permutation?"

  • We have the craziest weather this summer. Dutch weather can be described as having four seasons in one day. It can be rainy and foggy in the morning, then sunny in the afternoon and windy in the evening. For example, I was caught by a heavy storm on Thursday and when I got to the office my hair was dripping wet as getting out of the shower. Later on it was completely sunny, as if nothing had happened... except my hair was still a mess :-(.

  • Our friend Edu left the Netherlands one week ago. We don't know yet if it's going to be permanent but he decided to spend with us his last days here. Honestly, I don't know if it was due more to logistic matters than sentimental but we toasted with mojitos and played "WoW". Edu is completely addicted to WoW and we are trying to make him go to rehab but he says nooo, noooo, noooo (easy joke).

  • Our friends Óscar and Yolanda passed by Amsterdam during a trip along France, Belgium and, naturally, The Netherlands. It was quite a surprise because we didn't know they were here and we managed to arrange a nice evening for all of us (Edu and my brother included) in Haarlem. Thanks for saving some time for us friends.

  • We have adopted another cat!!! (see photo). This is really recently news 'cause it just happened a few hours ago and Pichí (our cat) will have to get used to the fact that she just had a little Dutch brother. She is snorting right now... humm, I guess that's not a good sign but we have to give her time. "Bacardi" (beautiful name, huh?) is a one and a half years old tabby cat and he seems very well-behaved, so far.

And that's all, folks. No holidays in Honolulu or Bahamas for the time being :-), not even in Spain. Just work, gym (did I say we go to a gym?) and cats.

Versión en español