CHAOS seems to be the theme of 2020

Once again it feels like just the other I sat down and got stuck into writing a blog, but in reality it’s been awhile since my last one. For me life had been in this weird space of both carrying on and being on pause. While we in New Zealand have seemingly successfully navigated Levels 4 and 3 of our Covid Alert system; the sun rose each morning, yet so much of life was “on hold”. And now we have moved down through Level 2 and now after several weeks of Level 1 some sense of “normality” was happening before New Zealand had a “second waves” cluster/s appear in the last few weeks.

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Out for a walk. Level 4, Covid19 Alert

I’ve finally dragged out the GoPro and been taking some footage here and there. This was us getting out on a “government approved exercise” walk on the 23rd April. Assistance Dogs NZ Raven is still getting used to this route and where the barking dogs live. I needed to get my editing groove on again, so put this together…. I hope you enjoy.

Nice day for a walk with ADNZ Raven!

Stay Home, Save Lives.
Antnz

WOW in the last couple of months the world went a bit wonky!

It seems like yesterday I was writing a tribute to Assistance Dogs NZ (ADNZ) Ben, then next thing I know; the world is looking a whole lot different! ADNZ Raven is here and our entire country is in a state of emergency on “Level 4 Covid 19 Alert”; which is essentially “only leave your house for essential services like food or medical care, or your employment is classed as an essential service, the borders are now closed”.

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Life is a Series of Chapters; A tribute to Assistance Dogs NZ Ben

Its time for one chapter to close, and another to open.

If you have met me over the last 6 or 7 years you will have also met my sidekick, Assistance Dogs NZ Trust (ADNZ) Ben. ADNZ Ben has been with me through many ups and many downs over the years, but the reality is that he is now 10 years old, he’s done an amazing job for me over this time but he is retiring. He will be rehomed with a long time friend of mine who will give him a relaxed retirement, where he can just chill. She is also one of the few wheelchair users he will sleep behind so I know he trusts her. I have also been matched with a successor through ADNZ.

A close  up of my left foot and ADNZ Ben's right rear foot.
Together our feet get us there
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January started quietly then ramped up!

It’s been an intense couple of weeks that’s for sure!

So after taking it easy for a few months it’s time for me to start putting my toes back in the waters of Enabling Good Lives and being more active again in taking control of what I can control and try to let go of the rest. Which is hard, I seem to be “hard wired” to just get in there and make it happen. I also have a lot going on with the “medical” side of life coming up so I’m prioritizing what I do and how much I take on this year.

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I know I said I’d be more posting more regularly…. then I went AWOL. Now it’s a new decade!

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions shared in this blog are my opinion and written from a personal experience. My opinions do not represent any organisation that I collaborate or work with.

Well I know that I said I would be posting more regularly in my last blog, then I promptly seemed to fall off the planet. Honestly though whanau; I had a mental breakdown at the end of August. It’s taken me until now to get my head together again enough to write. It’s been a case of surviving so I can once again thrive.

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You may have noticed some changes!

If you have been following closely to this page you may have noticed some changes recently. Although I have been incredibly busy with Enabling Good Lives, a lot of things have still been on the go behind the scenes.

One of the things that has been going on is a bit of an update, refresh and upgrade of this page. The bulk of the “foundation” work is now done but some additional bits and pieces will be continue to be quietly updated over the next few months. We’ll be tweaking a few things, adding more photos and I will be trying to write a little more regularly now that I have a more “Antnz friendly” interface to be working with.

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Road Trip Feb 2018 Part 3

It’s taken awhile, editing a slide-show with voice over is a lot harder than editing video, as you see me state in the video I was a bad vlogger and took lots of pics but no video! A full blog that goes alongside this video will be added shortly.

Part 4 shouldn’t be too far away! Transcript below video.

Enjoy!

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First post in awhile

It’s been a pretty busy few months!
 

This is my first post for a couple of months. I’ve been busy, and then really sick with that flu that has been going around and then really busy again.

I put together a bit of a video of spur of the moment footage I took at the Mana Whaikaha Expo and Information day. (I will transcribe as soon as I get a chance!) The footage nor the editing is flash but I wanted to show people what we are up to.

Find the video here: https://youtu.be/HB-of_aLQY4

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