Blutspende Zürich

Also Blutspenden ist ja nicht wirklich spassig, aber der kleine Schmerz beim Stich wird kompensiert durch eine angenehme Atmosphäre und sehr nettes Personal, welches einem aufmerksam umsorgt. Und anschliessend kriegt man sogar noch ein kleines Frühstück und kann dabei in aller Ruhe Zeitung lesen.
Also tut man etwas Gutes für andere — und für sich selber auch.

I’ve been a blood donor for quite a long time now, and I thought that I should keep doing it even though I moved.
This one has actually pretty old appliances, but as far as I’m concerned I never had any issues. Looking around I’ve noticed that the machines are checked periodically (that does make sense for medical stuff), so, well, that’s totally safe I guess.
You just don’t get the fancy lights and stuff to watch. That doesn’t make much difference for blood donations which are pretty short and have smaller devices anyway. But for plasma, you can’t really see when it’s going to end or what is the speed of the blood flow (OK, I’m a geek…).
They will ask if you want something to read, but have only German magazine, you may want to bring something along if you don’t read German.
The more you come the more stuff you get, like a loyalty system, so far I receive a microfiber cloth and a USB stick (you can always choose between two items, the second time it was a stick or a torch key-​chain).
You can (and need to) get basic food after any donation (main «courses are hot dogs but not always, you may only have sausages.). There are some chocolates and beverages, and also a large choice of teas and cheeses too. the bread is actually good. The «waitress» may not speak French nor English (but most of the staff does either know one of those in addition to German) so you will either have to jabber in German or to help yourself (which is no problem).
Last time my shirt was stained with blood, they offered to «clean it» but I don’t really know how, and I did not have the time so I’m afraid I’ll keep it like that…
So, you who like helping, give blood fellow Unilocalers, it won’t be too much hassle and you may help (or save) someone !