Lindy Hou OAM » 2010» July
April is when we have the International Guide Dogs Week (26 April to 2 May). This is when the whole world takes notice of the wonderful work we, the Guide Dogs, do to help our Vision Impaired Human to get around.
April is also when daylight savings finishes and we get an extra hour of daylight in the morning. Lindy can now see the footpath to run with the FIT group. I on the other paw, just keep on sleeping on.
In this issue:
- MS Mega Swim on the 1st and 2nd May
- International Guide Dogs Week (26 April to 2 May)
- Violin Lessons
- Blind Courage Cycle from
- Dawn Service on ANZAC Day
Lindy’s training is going really well. She managed to swim a whole 2 kilometers without hitting the lane rope. If you are in
Thank you to many of you who have donated to Lindy and her FIT team for their MS Mega Swim. They are leading the charge in the donation department for raising funds for people affected by Multiple Sclerosis. If you wish to donate and have not done so, you still have time. Just follow the link http://events.megaswim.com/?lindyhou
Apart from supporting a good cause, you can also take the opportunity to get a tax deduction for 2009/2010 tax year.
This is one week of the year that we, the Guide Dogs, get to be recognized for the work that we do for our Human Handlers. My 4-legged work mates and I are sending out the message to the public about “Please do not disturb” us while we are working.
How come you humans don’t walk up to a police officer and pat he or she on the head while they are in uniform. And yet you come up to us, the guide dogs, and pat us on the head while we are in our uniform! Sometimes we wonder what you humans are thinking.
We also try to educate the public about keeping their pet dogs on the lead and not to let them walk right up to us while we are working.
Jay, a
I have been busy checking out the Guide Dogs Reference Manual and can’t find anything about supervising music lessons. Well, I know when I took on this job with Lindy that she did mention about extra duties. However she didn’t say anything 6 years ago about wanting to learn violin!
Lindy’s family bought her a violin for her BIG birthday. It is something that she had always wanted to learn since she was a little kid. So being the wonderful Guide Dog that I am, I will just lie here and put up with the awful noise!
That violin thing is only just starting to make some sensible noise now, and I overheard her teacher say that Lindy will be able to start playing some tunes next week. Oh please! Please! I can only put up with the noise for so long.
I certainly will demand a big bonus at the end of the year to compensate for all these extra duties.
Lorin and Dean Nicholson have embarked on an epic tandem bike ride, “Blind Challenge” to raise $300,000 for Vision
The Brisbane-based siblings departed from
On Friday, 23rd April, they rode from Gundagai to
The group then met another 8 tandem and single bikes just on the outskirts of
The diary of their journey can be viewed on http://www.blindcourage.com/
Please support the riders and the work of Vision
For those overseas readers, ANZAC Day – 25 April – is probably
Lindy & I attended the Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial on Anzac morning. We got up at
It was a beautiful morning with a sky full of stars. We were among the 20,000 people who attended the service. The service only took 30 minutes but it was one of the most moving 30 minutes that Lindy & I had experienced.
I was amazed to see how many young people were there to commemorate the men and women who gave their lives for
The lady who sat next to us on the shuttle bus, told us that her father was in the Light Horse Brigade during the 1st World War. When they came back to
ANZAC Day certainly is not a day to glorify wars, but rather a day to reflect and commemorate. If only the human race could be nice to each other!!
On this note don’t forget:
“Be nice to each other and treat others like the way we want to be treated”
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Woof Woof
+61 (0) 2 6156 2964
+61 (0) 402 113 836
I love March because this is when I get my birthday present. There is no better present for a Black Labrador then a huge bone. For those of you who don’t know, I am now eight years old, that is 56 in human years. I am finally older than Lindy, however I am not sure what she means when she says I still have a bit of maturing to go!
Since my last newsletter, I have been busy helping Lindy celebrate her birthday. I guess a huge milestone needs a whole month to get through.
In this issue:
- Paws Camp for Dogs
- MS Mega Swim
- Training for
- Speaking experience at KL
- Website updated
Early this month, while Lindy went to the Gold Coast for a family holiday, I was enrolled in the Robinson’s Paws Camp for Dogs.
This is the K9 version of a fitness program. It is like Boot Camp for humans, except this is a lot more fun! We, Robbie the white
Lindy has joined the FIT (Females in Training) 24 hours Mega Swim team to raise money for MS. Oh! Don’t be alarmed, she is not going to swim the whole 24 hours. She will be one of the 24 FIT members who will swim an hour each.
This will still be a feat for Lindy as she has never swum for an hour non-stop. The last time she did a long swim was before I was born, back in the early 90’s when she was able to see. Now she can just make out the black line in the pool (sometimes!) Doggie Bets is taking bets on how many times she will swim into the lane rope.
The MS Mega Swim aims to raise funds for people affected by Multiple Sclerosis. MS is the most common disease of the central nervous system and affects over 18,000 Australians. We were surprised to find out that the average age of diagnosis is 30 and MS affects three times as many women as men.
Some of us probably know someone who is affected by this condition. Lindy knows two people, a cousin and a Triathlete friend. If you would like to support Lindy and her FIT team or to find out more about the Mega Swim, you can go into the following website.
http://events.megaswim.com/?lindyhou
Lindy has been busy training for the Canberra Half Marathon. Di, the president of FIT, has been her main guide with the help of many other FIT members. When it is really dark in the morning, Di and Lindy hold on to a short rope so Lindy does not head off into the bush or have another lake experience. Once it is light enough and the surface is OK, they can drop the rope and Lindy just follows another runner in the group.
Thanks everyone for doing such a great job as this certainly relieves me of guiding duties while she is out running. I have actually checked out the Guide Dog Duty Handbook and have not found the bit about being a Running Guide Dog.
There is talk at the
Alright! Alright! The cat is out of the bag. Yes, she is going back to do triathlon – the sport that she first took up in 1989. Back then she was having more and more trouble seeing the balls in squash, softball and hockey, so she decided triathlon was the go. She had to learn to swim and got herself a bike. Back then no one told her that it helps to be able to see well to corner and go down hill properly. She finally had to stop her triathlon because of her reducing sight.
It has now been 14 years since she competed in an Olympic distance triathlon. It was the 1994 World Master Games in
I get tired just listening to Lindy making her plans, but I will try to keep you informed of what is going on.
Early this year, while I went to the Carter’s holiday farm, Lindy went to
It was a conference for 5,400 people. I was a bit nervous for Lindy, as this is the largest audience she has faced without my help.
Lindy has spoken to larger audiences such as the Thank You Speech on behalf of the Paralympic Team in front of
I am glad that Lindy’s Presentation in KL was a success. She received great feedback from Charlie Oropeza the CEO of the company.
His comments were:.
“It was very inspiring to hear how you managed to rise above the challenges that you faced. This could have been a “heavy” presentation. Your humorous
and down to earth delivery was very effective. We will keep you in mind for future engagements and share your information with our colleagues around the
region”
This certainly is a great way for Lindy to launch her Speaking Career. Her next talk will be at the Capital Region BEC Networking Breakfast on the Tuesday 6th April. The details is on the following website.
Lindy’s website has been recently updated. It now has a number of video clips. My favorite one is of her Sky Diving. You can all share her experience through the video. Lindy may not be the prettiest Sky Diver around, but I am still proud of her. After seeing the look on Lindy’s face, I am glad that I didn’t have to guide her through the Sky. I would have passed out once we jumped out of the plane!
Other clips are
- Lindy’s Promo
- Interview with Lindy
- SBS World News
The most important part of her website is the Blog that contains all my previous newsletters.
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“Attitude determines success”
Woof Woof
+61 (0) 2 6156 2964
+61 (0) 402 113 836