Eaton Park 80th Anniversary Celebration on 15th June

Sorry for not posting for ages.

Just re-adjusting to a newborn baby in the house and every spare minute is filled, regrettably not by sleep which we all crave!!!

If you are looking for something worthwhile to do on Sunday 15th June, why not go to the 80th annivesary celebration at Eaton Park, Norwich?

The event is from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

There is model boating, extreme frizbee (whatever that is), line dancing (also extreme in my view!), bug hunting, tennis and football.

Don't forget the miniature railway, live music at the bandstand , a raffle and lots of childrens activities.

The event will be opened by the Lord Mayor of Norwich at 12.15p.m.

You are invited to bring a picnic but not barbecues. Refreshments are available at the Cafe Essense at the South East Pavilllion.

The event is organised by the Friends of Eaton Park and Norwich City Council.

Raise money for charity by web searches with VeoSearch.com

Received a comment following my post on the free eco search engine called Ecocho, letting me know about a search engine that supports sustainable development charities.

Veosearch gives money to a number of Sustainable Development projects through the online searches made via the site. It has just launched in the UK having started in Paris.

Their press release is available here.

Every search generates advertisement revenues. 50 % of these revenues are distributed to the charities on the site.

The searches are in partnership with Google, Yahoo, Ask, Exalead so should be pretty good.

The charities are engaged in at least one of the three main pillars of Sustainable Development: social work, environment protection or sustainable economics. The list of charities can be added to and can be found here.

For more information on Veosearch works visit the FAQs area, and to support specific charities, you need to register an account. After that, you support the charities you want by clicking on “add” or “+” on their own pages. These will then automatically be part of your selection and will remain until you change your selection.

Looks like a good idea and I will get round to changing the search engine on my blog to help generate revenue for one of the charities. More info on how to do this or other ways to show your support for Veosearch and its fundraising follow this link.

Norwich to get Connect2 pro-cycling funding for river crossing between city and Whitlingham Park

Sustrans, the UK sustainable transport charity, have been successful in the People's £50 Million Lottery Giveaway for their Connect2 project.


Sustrans will use the funding to invest in walking and cycling UK-wide as part of the 5-year Connect2 project in partnership with local authorities.


One of the Connect2 projects is up to £1 million to benefit Norwich by providing a river crossing from the City to Whitlingham Country Park.


The planned route would stretch from Whitlingham Country Park over the River Yare and River Wensum and behind Norwich City Football Club. Photos of the event to launch the Norwich bid can be found here.

The Tour Norfolk site has good information about Whitlingham Country Park and its facilities.

The former gravel quarry is now an excellent centre for water sports, and a great place for walking, cycling and wildlife. The official web site Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre is here.

Sustrans are the charity behind the National Cycle Network, Safe Routes to Schools, Bike It and TravelSmart.

This might inspire me to pump up the tyres on my old bike and brave cycling again after more than 10 years!


I came across the excellent Norwich Cycling Campaign web site, which provides useful information to promote cycling and cyclists in Norwich.

NCC are also campaigning against the insane decision by Norwich City Council to pilot the use of our cycle lanes by HGV's, which I previously blogged about.

Liberal Democrats can't spell, but support the lorry ban

The Liberal Democrats have been doing their best to fill up my recycling box with numerous leaflets and newsletters.

Mind you, so has Labour.

I had to post this article from their Norwich Mail newsletter. Not because of the worthy campaign to block lorries from using the cycle lane on Newmarket Road.

Rather the fact that the current Councillor for Eaton is holding a makeshift sign that has a spelling mistake on it. Can you spot it (and no, there is no prize)?

Yes, I'm being pedantic. It does not inspire much confidence though, as the inability to spell or quality check your communications when you plan to abolish one tax and replace it with another.

At the last general election, I checked out the Lib Dem's new tax proposals and my household was significantly worse off. We aren't well off so that wasn't an attractive proposition.

Much as I agree with some Lib Dem ideas and have voted for them in the past, I am concerned about whether they really know what they are doing. In this case it may only be forgetting to spell check a road name.

I do hope that lorries will be kept out of this cycle lane, not least as it was only recently that a cyclist was killed on Newmarket Road.

Fingers crossed that the 500+ signatures handed in to City Hall by the Lib Dems will end this bad idea before it is given a trial.

Are children safe in the UK or are we exaggerating and worsening the risks?

I was reading the Observer yesterday, which had an excellent Climate Change issue with Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead as the guest editor.

He helped launch the Friends of the Earth "Big Ask" Campaign, to lobby the government to bring in a 3% carbon reductions year on year to reach the 60% reduction needed by 2050. Watch an interview with him here.

In amongst it was an article about what could be the greenest city in the world, namely Freiburg, Germany. I remember going there in my teens on a school trip in the late 1980s and thought it was great. There were a few mediaeval bits that allied bombing in WWII had not completely destroyed, and a brilliant tram. Trams were a novelty to me then and now, although I did use the one in Sheffield when I was studying there in the 1990s.

What struck me most about this article was not the climate change angle and public transport options. It was a picture with little toddlers, not older children, playing in a woodland on bits of plank and felled trees. It was called "an adventure site" an was largely Freiburg's answer to a children's playground.

How can this be? Where is the health and safety? What about splinters? Is this irresponsible?

The kids looked like they were having a great time but being a father to a toddler myself, I could feel my concern rising as the planks and log was in no way secured and looked like something I would have put together when I played with my friends in the 1970s.

But isn't that the point?

Don't get me wrong, I am a Dad and have baby number 2 on the way. I worry about my kids and my natural instinct is to not let any harm come to them.

What I struggle with is letting my son grow up and explore the world around him. I'm pleased to say that he has a cautious head on his shoulders and still gets cuts and bruises as evidence of him trying new things out and learning about his environment, and maybe having some fun along the way.

Should we be protecting children or should we be teaching them to spot potential risks and manage them?

The Noise To Signal blog has collected together some info on the old child safety films that many of us grew up with. It is amazing how long this tough line in parenting has been going with children made to see a little squirrel, Tufty, narrowly avoid becoming road kill by a wise owl, or the scary tales of the unfortunate Charley the cat.

Tim Gill's is an expert in this area and you can read more at his site Rethinking Childhood .

Maybe we are playing it too safe? Before I became a parent, I thought that there was a lot of scaremongering.

You hear about flashers and worse near children's playgrounds as if it is worsening problem. The fact is, bad people have always been around and there are probably no more around now than in the past. My Mum surprised me once by recounting a story of being flashed by some pathetic man in the 1940s when she was growing up in the country. She was so matter of fact about it and even managed a cheeky joke about saying how "he had nothing to boast about"! ;-)

What I want is for my children not to be scared, be in control and to be able to deal with what life throws at them and hopefully have good lives.

Wrapping them up in cotton wool, fitting GPS devices to their clothing and even locking them indoors is not going to help them.

As Tim Gill would say, adults worry about children (which is ok) but where we probably go wrong is by trying to make childhood zero risk.

Wouldn't it be even better if we taught our children how to manage risks not to always avoid them?

Maybe they would grow up better able to deal with life and have a great childhood in the process?

I did, although the thought of my son climbing and jumping out of trees is starting to give me palpitations.....

Plastic bag free day - 28th March 2008

The Norwich Carbon Reduction Trust, known also as CRed, is running a series of events over the year with a Plastic Bag Free Day in Norwich on 28th March.

On 28th March, if you are shopping in Norwich, or indeed wherever you are on that day, why not ask yourself, "Do I need another plastic bag?".

According to CRed, most plastic bags have on average a lifespan of 12 minutes and yet take over 400 years to degrade in landfill sites!

Each year in the UK, 13 billion plastic bags used in a year in the United Kingdom.

Norfolk is taking a lead on this issue. Already the market town of Aylsham is trying to become the first plastic bag free town in Norfolk.

So join the people of Norwich - both traders and shoppers – and support the Norwich Carbon Reduction Trust in saying no to plastic bags on Friday 28th March – make that the day you start to use a bag for life and prolong the life of the earth.

If you want to take this further and get better at managing the waste you produce at home and recycle more, why not get inspiration from Almost Mrs Average at The Rubbish Diet?

Prime Minister Brown and the Bags of Doom

Got an email to say that Number 10 has responded to the online petition to put a tax on plastic carrier bags.

You can read the Number 10 response here. The original petition "Introduce a tax on plastic carrier bags" was signed by 1,964 people when it closed on 28th February. May not seem a lot but it does at least give you hope that a few like minded people with a worthy cause are occasionally listened to by the government.

Hopefully we will soon stop seeing these bags flapping around in trees and discarded on our streets and countryside. We shouldn't wait for the government to act though, and keep on leading by example by reusing bags, refusing new ones at supermarkets if they try to pack for you, or using non-plastic ones.

Fairtrade Fortnight 25th February - 9th March 2008

Fairtrade Fortnight started on 25th February.

More of us are concerned about where our food and goods come from and the circumstances of their production, the human rights, ethics and environmental aspects.

You can get lots of ideas about how you can get involved and raise awareness over the next few weeks on the Fairtrade Fortnight website. There are resources available to help put up displays and hold events at your school, workplace or within your community.

Go to the website to download the Fairtrade Fortnight 2008 Action Guide and get more information.

A list of events taking place in Norfolk are:

• Sheringham Quaker Meeting House: A Fairtrade sale selling merchandise and locally produced organic produce will be held at Sheringham Quaker Meeting House, Cremer Street, on March 1, 10am-noon in aid of Practical Action and Quaker Peace Projects in Northern Uganda. There will also be tea, coffee and biscuits available, all using Fairtrade ingredients.



• Dereham Baptist Church: To celebrate Dereham Baptist Church becoming a ‘Fairtrade Church’ it will be holding a ‘Fantastic Fairtrade Fare’, including a cafe serving Fairtrade tea, coffee, chocolate and homemade cakes, and stalls selling Hatti Hand-bags, Traidecraft and Stop the Traffik. March 1 from 10 am-12.30pm at Dereham Baptist Church.



• The Forum in Norwich: The Forum in Norwich is marking the end of the fortnight by holding a day of ‘Fairtrade festivities’ with local and national stalls selling fairly-traded produced, family entertainment, games and music – including the Norwich Samba Band. Saturday 9th March from 10am to 5pm.



• Wells library: 'Wells Action for Fair Trade’ is holding an exhibition throughout the fortnight at Wells’ library.



• Ethika, Timber Hill, Norwich: The shop which sells ethically sources, fair-trade and locally created clothes and homewares is holding a photo-graphic exhibition in the Timber Hill entrance of the The Mall in Norwich during Fairtrade Fortnight. The images will show how some of the shops produce is made both locally and in the developing world, including Rajasthani women creating the striking hand blocked tiger linens, wood turners and weavers in Thailand and East Anglian artists and crafts people whose work is also available at Ethika. From February 28 to March 8, 10am to 5pm daily.

Even if you don't want to go to any of these events, if you go to your local Co-op, you will get 20% off the price of all Fairtrade products.

Time to bulk buy on those goods you like to cut down on the number of journeys you make.

Chocolate for me then! ;-)

Join the "Stamp It Out" Campaign

It is my view that there is only one race, the human race. And yet we see and experience inequality and discrimination.

In the UK we are lucky that we have a voice and most people recognise and increasingly speak out against racisim and inequality.

One of the most subtle forms of reinforcing false difference, and promoting inequality is the use of language.

This is most dramatic in its effect when you consider the work of charities such as Survival International. They and their supporters fight for fair and equal rights for tribal peoples around the world.

The power of the media can be a force for good and if innappropriate language is chosen instead, the media can be a force for harm.

Using words such as "primitive" or "stone age" are more than innacurate or insulting - they can be a way of building a campaign to justify the supression and persecution of contemporary tribal peoples.

If you are like minded, please visit the Survival International link to get involved in the "Stamp It Out" campaign.

This campaign is just over 2 years old and I think it is worth me giving it some promotion, and getting involved myself.

Survival's Stamp It Out campaign aims to challenge racist descriptions, however unwitting, of tribal peoples in the media.

Several examples are cited by Survival and perhaps suprisingly, although regrettably, the UK is not exempt. A UK example of such innappropriate descriptions and language in the media is the article entitled 'Face to face with Stone Age man' in the Daily Mail on 21st July 2007.

Visit the Survival web site to get involved and find instructions on how to send one of the Stamp It Out postcards or e-cards to make a real difference to people's lives.

Make your town climate-friendly with the Greenpeace EfficienCity

Greenpeace has just launched a natty 3D interactive virtual city called "EfficienCity".

Its aim is to show how we in the UK can fight climate change, although it is being blogged about all over the world like at the excellent EcoGeek site.

It is a fantastic resource with a huge amount of information on the different options available to us, from saving energy to generation from renewable sources.

The way it is presented and the large amount of photographs, videos, and technical presentations make it a brilliant educational resource for individual citizens, schools, and the workplace.

You can even download the whole thing to run it offline with a PC version (51.5MB) and a Mac version (53.6MB).

You can take it further than just learning and you are invited to join Greenpeace's campaign to put pressure on you local council to find out what they are doing about climate change and securing a sustainable energy for the future. You can encourage your council to work with experts in Greenpeace to increase access to decentralised energy generation.

Whatever your views on Greenpeace, this is an excellent educational resource about the options we have to respond to climate change. Tell as many people as you can about it.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

Get ready to join in this weekend for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

Over the weekend of 26th and 27th January, you are asked to spend an hour counting the birds you see in your garden or maybe your local park.

The instructions are these:

Taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch is simple and fun.

All you need to do is watch your garden or local park on either Saturday 26 or Sunday 27 January 2008.

Simply spend an hour counting the birds, recording the highest number of each species seen in your garden (not flying over) at any one time.

It's important you don't count all the birds you see because some birds will return to your garden many times in the hour. Seeing the same blue tit come back 10 times does not make 10 blue tits.

You can do your Birdwatch in your garden or a local park. Either way it's best to decide on a place where you can see the birds well and where you can sit quietly so they are not disturbed.

Even if, like me, you know very few birds and are not a birdwatcher, you can this opportunity to try to learn some new ones and spend an hour doing something relaxing, and a bit different.

The RSPB site gives you all the info and lots of advice.

You can download and print this sheet to help you count the birds you see.

Support the Save our Puppet Theatre Campaign

The Evening News newspaper has been running a campaign to save the Norwich based Puppet Theatre following the planned cut to Arts Council cuts.

These cuts are tantamount to what has been described as "cull" for arts in the region, and may be the death nell for the Puppet Theatre.

The strategy appears to be to kill off arts at smaller venues and centralise it in larger metropolitan cities.

As only one of two such theatres in the country, this is essentially killing off a national treasure that has over the years given children and families pleasure and has fed their imaginations.

Information about the campaign, the petition, and video news items can be found on the Evening News web site.

Last weekend saw an event organised with hundreds of people attending and staging a march in the city to show support for the theatre, and protests against the cuts and the shambolic and questionable way in which decisions appear to have been reached on the funding.

You can watch a video of the event here.

You can download and display these campaign posters from the site.

Poster 1

Poster 2

Save our Puppet Theatre - Norwich Puppet Theatre under threat

I read in The Independent about the Arts Council cutting funding for many organisations, including all of the fudning it gives to the Norwich Puppet Theatre. You can read the Atrs Council Chief Executive's comment on the reasons behind the cuts here.

There are only 2 of these puppet theatres in the country and we have been looking forward to taking our son there when he is a bit older and able to appreciate it. Here's a bit of background about this innovative use of the old church of St James Pockthorpe.

The cut is £60,000 and represents about 35% of the Theatre's funding. As this Evening News article says, not surprisingly, the staff are shocked.

What is the world coming to that we devalue such things so easily, not least in the run up to Christmas when they are most likely to be popular and visited by many families?

This isn't some rubbish outfit. The theatre is a part of the community, and is a custodian for an art form and profession for the whole of the country. It even runs courses and workshops via the Norfolk Adult Education programme.

Proof of the regard in which this theatre is held at a local level can be seen by the support received by Norwich and Norfolk Councils. Why is the national importance going to be ignored?

The Arts Council is looking to support excellence, and yet they do not recognise the clear importance of Norwich Puppet Theatre.

The theatre acts as an Ambasador for the UK both abroad in touring in countries like Finland, Spain, Mexico and Canada, and as a host to touring companies from overseas.

Through the art of puppetry, the young can have their minds and imaginations opened to different ideas and cultures from around the world.

At a time when anti-social behaviour is seemingly on the increase and we are told that government is spending tax-payers money on preventative schemes to provide more effective, long term solutions, why are we trying to kill off Norwich Puppet Theatre when it has the potential to educate children and their families about the world beyond East Anglia and the UK, and perhaps foster greater understanding and tolerance?

Shame on the Arts Council.

No doubt their big favourite theatres in London that receive support won't suffer.

Norwich Puppet Theatre has a Friends scheme, which I will try to find out about and will post the details.

You can find out more about becoming a Friend of Norwich Pupprt Theatre here.

Even if you do not leave locally, you can still, like me, feel strongly about the need to keep places like this going for the benefit of UK culture, and could still become a Friend.

Plastic bag tax - sign the petition

Plastic bags are useful and are a menace to the environment.

If we use them then we should pay for this.

Apparently in Britain, we use an average of 300 plastic bags every year. Each bag lasts up to 400 years, spending the vast majority of that time in a landfill site or strewn across the British countryside.

Other countries have been more active and successful at sorting out this problem.

In Ireland, a tax of 15cents per bag resulted in a 90% drop in plastic bag usage, and raised 3.5 million Euros which was spent on environmental projects. Bangladesh has banned polythene bags altogether while Taiwan and Singapore are taking steps to discourage their use.

Paying for what has been free and has caused us to be wasteful and thoughtless might start a change for the better.

Paying 10p or so for any plastic bag might encourgae us to start reusing them, use longer lasting bags, boxes or non-plastic bags.

If you think that it is time to pay the price for our wasteful, thoughtless use of plastic bags then sign this petition at Green England.

If you can go out and spend some time gathering signatures, a document version of the petition is available here.

They have hit the 10,000 signature target and it is still rising!

Volunteering - Friends of Eaton Park

I have been thinking about whether there is something I can do in my local area to help the community.

I don't have much time and I am lucky that my employer has a very progressive and supportive policy on paid leave for volunteering.

We got a flyer from some political party and what caught my eye was a group called the "Friends of Eaton Park".

My family visits this regularly as it is our nearest one and it is fantastic with its football pitches, skate park, basketball court band stand, model boatiung lake, miniature steam railway and children's play area.

You can visit the Friends of Eaton Park web site and find out about the history of this the largest park in Norwich, and how to get involved to keep this park special.

For example, the Annual General Meeting is at Eaton Park Community Centre on Thursday 29th November from 7 p.m. At 8 p.m. there is a guest speaker: Terry Baine from Norwich in Bloom.

I hope to be able to do some voluntary work in the Park, starting on Wednesday 5th December, 10 to 3 pm.

The volunteering opportunity is as follows:

Wednesday 5th December, 10 to 3 pm: 'work-in' with Norwich Fringe Project to help thin out and coppice a small piece of woodland in the park. All welcome - training, tools and refreshments will be provided. The Friends hope as many people as possible will come along and help with this practical work. Meet in the top car park (near Colman Road). For further information contact Judith Lubbock on 01603 504126.

Why not get involved with this or some other volunteering opportunity in your area?

If you visit the Do-It.org.uk web site and type in your postcode, there will be lots of volunteering ideas and options for you.

Norwich's largest "No Cold Calling Zone" to be launched in Eaton

After inviting Eaton residents to vote on the issue, on Wednesday the 7th November, Norwich is going to launch its largest "No Cold Calling Zone".

At 11 a.m. on the 7th November on the corner of Norvic Drive and Leng Crescent, residents are invited to the launch and to show their support for the scheme, which will be attended by a Trading Standards Officer.

This scheme means that this area of Eaton is a specified zone where the residents, supported by Norfolk Trading Standards, declare they are not willing to accept uninvited callers.

A "No Cold Calling Zone" is a designated area where the resident community declare they no longer wish to accept traders calling at their homes without an appointment.

The zone is designated via the installation of signs at the entrance and exit to the zone and residents are supplied with educational and advice information and door stickers.

Nationally there are 427 "No Cold Calling Zones" with many more planned.

This deterrent to unwanted callers has its benefits, particularly crime prevention.

In Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire have recently evaluated the success of their established zones. Cambridgeshire report an 11% drop in distraction burglary rates and Bedfordshire a drop of 23%.

Previously, the first scheme in Norwich was set up in George Carver Close in Northfields and was reported on the BBC News web site.

If you want to set up a similar scheme in your part of Norfolk you need to download this form and send it to Norfolk Trading Standards.

More information on "No Cold Calling Zones" can be found on the Norfolk County Council web site.

UK's Top 20 Green Blogs 2007 - please vote for me as the "People's Choice Award"!

I was amazed to receive an email from the Jim Jay of The Daily (Maybe) saying that I had been listed in the Top Twenty Green Blogs 2007. Wooo hooo!

His email said:

Hi,

This is the second year of the the UK's Best Green Blogs
which has just been published in Iain Dale's Guide to Political
Blogging and was compiled by myself, Jim Jay, at The Daily (Maybe)
where you can read the entire list.

http://jimjay.blogspot.com/

I'm
just sending you a quick message to let you know you're in the top
twenty, congratulations. As a side benefit this also means you're in
with a chance of the coveted "People's Choice Award" too, where readers
vote on who of the top twenty is their favourite read.

Yours,

Jim

Not sure whether this is good or bad as Mr Dale is a Conservative supporter! Oh well, someone has to be I guess. ;-)

The Daily (Maybe) is worth a look though, even if you don't vote for me.

Fair at the Forum on Sunday 7th October 2007 for Norfolk Mental Health Alliance

There will be a Fair hosted at The Forum, Millennium Plain and St Peter Mancroft on Sunday 7th October.

It will include Music, Stalls and Street Entertainment.

Radio Norwich Presenter Helen McDermott will be opening the fair at 10am.

Entertainment includes complementry therapies, kids games and much more.

It will be raising money for the Norfolk Mental Health Alliance and the event is being held between 10am - 4:30pm.

Green real ale, or is it blue?

Went to visit family in Ipswich on Saturday and got the chance to go the 25th Ipswich Beer Festival.

We are spoilt in Norwich as the Beer Festival every October half term (most of CAMRA members in Norfolk are teachers I am told!) is brilliant and is held in the grand cathedral-like setting of St Andrews Hall. Serious setting for serious drinking.

As it was lunchtime and I would have to drive later, I was on strict orders to only have one pint. This meant two half pints of course as it would be a big mistake to sample only one pint of over 200 real ales on offer.

The Corn Exchange behind the Town Hall in Ipswich was fine as a venue. Small but well organised. The festival was supporting St Elizabeth's Hospice, which was established in 1989 to meet the needs of those living with an incurable illness in East Suffolk. Needless to say, I donated my unused tokens to the charity.

Being an Ipswich Town Supporter, I had to try some local stuff and had a great half from St Judes Brewery. The St Francis Pale Ale and Gypeswic Bitter were great.

For those who are interested the name Gypeswic or Gippeswic, meaning a city on the Gipping, and is the old English name for Ipswich. I bought a bottle of both and I have to warn you that the St Francis is quite fizzy and was a bugg*r to pour, so my pint had a head on it as if it had been served at the Rovers Return in Coronation Street!

The brewery is a micro brewery and tries to be as green as it can. That is great but I would like to warn them against pursuing their blue beer fantasy.

Apparently their Suffolk Blue Punch (Suffolk Punch is a breed of horse, also on the badge of Ipswich Town FC), is a blueberry beer introduced mostly for women and the alco-pop market.

Don't get me wrong, blueberries are great. We have a small blueberry bush that produces lovely berries each year. Blue beer though? Fruit in your beer? What's that all about? I had a tiny taste and is was revolting.

I wish St Judes Brewery well and will buy their real ale when I can. You can buy it online.

One last thing though...

Green brewing, yes.

Blue beer, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Focus on life - Pentax and Organ Donation

Recently I was lucky enough to have saved enough to buy a Pentax K100D. It is great and I'm really pleased that I can still use my old K-mount lenses.

What suprised me most about the camera was that inside there was a leaflet called "Focus on Life", which was an invitation to join the NHS Organ Donation Register.

I'm assuming that it was Pentax that have decided to support this excellent scheme rather than Curry's Digital, where I bought the camera.

What a great idea and well done Pentax! How much effort is it to include such flyers for good causes inside the packaging for products? Of course, not much at all so why don't more companies do this?

An amazing statistic is that when asked, 90% of people say they support organ donation, but only 22% have registered their wishes.

I've been on the NHS Organ Donor Register for years and carry a Donor card. My family also know my wishes.

It's not morbid and don't put this off.

Register now and do an amazing posthumous act when the time comes, make sure you give someone, if not several people the gift of life. How fantastic!