#131: The Ninety Niners

Welcome to Blind Guys Chat, where this guy, Oren o'. Neill.

Hello.

And this guy, Yan Bloom.

Hello.

And Mohammed Lashear.

Hi there.

Talk about the A to Z of life.

Hello. Hello, everyone. It's a true takeover now because it's happened twice. Welcome to episode 131. No whispering or. No whispering behind the house. We talk about this.

He's grumbling.

Yeah, grumbling and whispering. And I hear Jan as well.

Yeah.

Hey, Mo, welcome. Nice to hear your voice again.

Yeah.

It's been long. Two weeks. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah, yeah.

No, you're brilliant, Mo. You're really, really great.

Don't make me.

He got a pay rise, I think, you know, I.

You know, I can travel on my own now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Without your balls.

Yeah, yeah, no, that's true. It is.

Although, funny, we did not get any feedback on your. On your story at all.

No, no one is interested.

You had the opportunity, you know, you could have scored at least two women in ber.

Exactly. Yeah. But his window, you know.

Your window, far too picky.

Yeah, that's true, that's true. Now you must be. Of course, we didn't.

We didn't talk about your holiday, Yan.

Oh, yeah, yeah. My. My window. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That broke everyone.

That was quite a story, Oren and Clauda. Yeah, because we went. Yeah, it was quite. We went by car to the. To the south or. No, to the north of Spain, in the area of Barcelona. We went to a Canon. Yeah, Barcelona, Salao also. We went. We. We spent there a nice week at the boulevard, in a hotel. But. But first of all, Chantal had an. Well, she has driven, I think, for a long time without any damage or whatever. Also no stones on the window and no broken glasses or screens, etc. But now. Yeah, just before we were leaving, I think it was the first day we were leaving on Sunday and on Thursday to her work bong. Why? Things happen Now. We went up to the car glass here in. In the Netherlands, in our area, and they said, okay, it is more than the coin of a two euro thing and then it should be repaired or, you know, because you're not allowed to. To drive with that.

You have to replace the windscreen, Right?

Yeah, but unfortunately there were no replace screens available at that location at that. And she said also if we would repair it without. Yeah, they could do a repair. But then they were also scared with these Tesla screens that they would break it. And with no alternative. Yeah. Available. They. Well, would not like to do it even Though we were planning to go on holidays, you know, on the Sunday. So they put some harsh inside, you know, to, to.

To.

To get it a little bit repaired and to avoid. And the lady said well, you know, it. It is okay. And. And we will make already an appointment for after your holiday and then we can replace it so far. Yeah, okay. But yeah, this was on my side so not on the driver's seat, you know, but on the other side.

You don't drive. Yan.

It is. It is an English. It is an English. That is true. That is true. That's true, that's true. But. But you. You make me nervous now. But that was on that side. And then we started just to drive and then. And then also in. On. On our way down to. To Spain everything went fine. Et. There was another stone on the. And that was on the. On. On Chantal side. This is quite exceptional because it happened for years. Well, her whole driving career was nothing. And now at two in one week. Can you imagine Murphy's Law. Yeah, Murphy's Law. Yeah yeah, that's right. And then you know, at the camping, you know, we did not drive much etc. And but. But we saw. Yeah, it was not that hot in. It was nice 30 degrees. Etc. So but yeah you hear also. Yeah, so that was quite. But you hear also the stories 40 and 45. That was not. Fortunately not.

But.

But we loved it and you know it was a nice swimming pool and it was a beach and at the. At the. So we enjoyed very much. But the crack they. They were growing. They went top to bottom almost and there was a funny thing they were going to. They probably liked each other because that. They were really making a bridge going.

Forward to each other.

Yeah so that was also not really that annoying but when you are driving into the sun or. Yeah, then it was really mirroring and she said also, you know, that area was quite doable. But to drive we were supposed to leave again to the north because our location in France was in the northeast part. So that was a two day trip. So then you don't want to have those broken screens at all. So we called Car Glass because we had already an appointment and with Car Glass and then yeah you could connect with the international team of Car Glass. Now they. They called me back and etc. And the Salao they had even a center in the area of Salao but they were not. Well they were fully booked and they had almost also one in Barcelona now. So we closed one day earlier in Salao and then we went To Barcelona. And yeah, we were able to go there and there they were able to also repair it. But the funny thing was that you need to be really fully loaded with. For the. For the battery, but also with all the updates. And of course, when you can imagine having an update at. Yeah, you always update your unit when you are on Vivi. But yeah, on the hotel, in the garage, there was no vivi at all, etc. And then I ended up in the end to connect the car to my local hotspot on my phone and then to update it and there was quite an. Yeah, it wasn't a challenge because it took a while in the end. Also, we were able to do it at the car glass station because they were really keen. Yeah, you need to have that done because otherwise we are not allowed to do it, etc. Okay, and good. All good, I would say because yeah, it was repaired and it was finally done and we could drive up without any issue to the. To the northeast part of France. But it was quite a challenge also to get it all done being in control, to organize its things, you know, because they are not calling. Well, you. You have an international number but they don't call you. But they are not. They have not all the other people waiting for you. So. So then they want to call you back and then they don't call you back and then they make an appointment and then the people don't know and oh my God. It is not a relaxing part of. Of your holiday, but it's also not a relaxing part to have this broken screen because you're right, Mo. It is not an easy job, I think, for the driver to look for difficult. No, no, no. And I learned also in. In Germany and in France, they even when the police sees it, then they get you out off the road and then, yeah, you're not allowed to drive in a way. So. But we had a lovely time really, on. In Salao, especially on the beach in a hotel. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was very good.

Well, do you know what, you know in what kind of trip? This wouldn't be a problem if you were to cycle up from Mizzen Head to Melonhead, you wouldn't have this issue because there is absolutely no windscreen on a bicycle.

Exactly.

That's very.

So maybe that's what you should do next time.

In fact, maybe six, we should go.

Cycle from Mizzen Head to Melonhead.

We can do that as a team. The team of blind guys. Chat.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's a Great.

Guys, chat squad.

I notice Orange being spectacularly quiet there.

Oh, really? Oh my God. Is it. You know, Oren, you don't, you don't play a big role in the kitchen. What is your role on the tandem? What is that?

Powerful legs.

Oh, wow.

A fine pair of GAA calves he has.

You know those bikes with the, with the little things in the front of them, you know, with the electric engines. No, no, where the, where the, with the mother or father is pushing the kid and the kids are in the front.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, those things in Dutch. In Dutch we call. These are buck feets.

Buck feet, yeah, yeah, yeah.

My friend has one. My friend who lives on the corner here has one and once we went to the gym together and he picked me up in it and I said buck, and I was like, hey. I felt kind of strange, but you know, it was electric. So fortunately for him, because otherwise it would have been way too hard. But those things are fun to ride in, I tell you.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

But.

But do you have them also in Ireland, Oren?

Yeah.

Ah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And electric driven already also, or.

I don't know if there's electricals. Can you.

I think you can, but they're not as. They're not as common because they're so expensive, you know.

How many case is this? Is this tour, guys?

Well, let's hear from Mr. Eamon Lin. A fundraiser for Irish guide dogs. And to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Guide dogs, we thought we'd have a little chat with him. Eamon has set, over 20 years ago.

A cycle between Mizzen Head to Melon Head. Yeah.

How long is that? How long of a trip is that?

About 625km, the way we go along the west coast. The wild Atlantic Way. Amos Way, as they say. Amos Way, Yeah, because I could do it up in a day. No, no, we break, we break it up. We break it up over a week because there's a lot of nice spots. We'd like to stop off for refreshments as well every evening.

So Mizzen is in the south then, and Mallon is in the north. Is that correct?

Yeah, yeah, it's the, It's. Mizzen Head is the most southern point in Ireland and Malen Head is the most northern. We just pick them two coordinates and we go up the wild Atlantic way.

How did this all start? I know it's in the memory of your father and your father was a guide dog owner. Did he have many guide dogs?

He had two guide dogs. Dogs before he died. And the night he died, we were actually talking about doing a fundraiser for the guide dogs. And another thing is my wife is. Her mother set up the Irish Guide Dogs branch in Swords.

Oh, wow.

And they actually helped fundraise to get my father his first guide dog. A year or two after my dad died, we actually put the plans in place and we headed. We started in Malenhead because I thought it was downhill all the way down to Cork. Basically, that was the joke because the next year we did that and we said, no, that's. There has to be an easier way. So the following year we started in Mizzen Head and we said we go up the coast and that was a lot better. But we went along the west coast.

You do this cycle over a week or so, is it?

Yeah. What we normally do is we start in Mizzen Head and cycle to Killarney. And I used to hate passing by the hotel in Bantry because we knew we still had another good few hours on the bike. So the next year I decided to do was we do the. We start the evening before, bring the cycle forward in the evening and we just do Mizzen Head as far as Bantry.

Yeah.

And then the next day, cycle from Bant, from the hotel straight to Tralee. Lynch's hotels used to sponsor us a few years in the early years. Now that was a whole new story how we started off cycling, but they started cycling between their hotels and their hotels were kind of in Tralee, Kilkee, Ironmore and then Brafy House.

Yeah. And that's very familiar with lynch hotels.

Yeah, yeah. So I used to kind of cycle there.

Cycle from hotel to hotel.

Yeah, yeah. And that was. That was the whole idea. So one year we actually decided to do, instead of Mizzen Head to Malin Head. I said to the Lynchers that I'll cycle around all your hotels as a fundraiser for the guide dogs.

As I said, yes.

Yeah. So we started in Waterford 1. One year and did from Waterford all the way up to Castle Bar.

Can you describe the Wild Atlantic Way for our non Irish listeners?

Oh, it's very wild.

I know the Wild Atlantic Way. It was. It was a great tourism thing that tourism in Ireland, Discover Ireland, I think was over something like that said, you know, how can we bring tourists to the. To the west coast of Ireland and show them the attractions? So what they did is they just made a sign with the WWW which is the Wild Atlantic Way. And it covers the whole coastline from practically just short of Mizzen Head all the way up to Malan Head, basically. So Everton on the west coast is known as the Wild Atlantic Way.

And what kind of landscapes do you see like when you go from Misenhead all the way up to Malenhead? Is it mostly cliffs? Is it.

You have a mixture of.

What is it?

Everything. When you leave Mizzen Head on a bicycle, it's the only way really to see the country because you're traveling at a slow pace but. And you're looking at through over the hills and over at the sea because you normally always have the sea on your left hand side and then you know you're not going wrong if you keep the sea to your left. And when we have a lot of visually impaired people on our cycle and I used to cycle tandem myself, it's great for them because you're on your bike but you're communicating with them and you're trying to explain what we can see on the tandems and everything like that so they can visualize, you know, what we're going through and the terrain we're going through. And if we're going through mountainy area, well they'd know because obviously you get to feel the pressure on the pedals as we're going up hills. It's just, as I say, it's spectacular. They're seeing me going up the west and then when you come into Clare, go across on the car ferry is Shannon Ferries are very good to us and sponsor us. We go across and then you try and kind of flat, flatish lands and then you come down into the Boron and the fever for the people who don't know about where the Boron is, it's on the west coast. But it's, it's like a different planet. It's just all rock and rocks formations and it's just beautiful, spectacular. When the weather is good and the sun is shining, there's no better place to be.

Place to be. How many people would you have in each year cycling with you?

Over the years it's changed. Like the first year I think we had 12 people and the next day, next year we could have had about 20. The last two years now we've had over around the 60 mark.

Wow.

I've had twin brothers from Canada, from Toronto. I've had loads of people from America doing it. I've had people coming from Australia to do it. I've had people coming for the last three years from South Africa to do it and I've had two, two young fellas from Switzerland.

That is Amazing. You're getting so many people from different countries to do this.

Yeah.

And England, I've got a good few from England as well come up to do it as well. So it's, it's built up over the years, a lot of 99ers. And I opened up the event this year and within three days I had 85 slots filled up.

Any idea how many of those people over the years would have been, you know, tandem cycling would have been visually impaired?

Oh, well, we've had. We've had anything from. Mostly we've had probably one or two tandems on the event. This year we had six. And at the moment I've eight down for. For next year's event, I've had on the bike Pat Kelly from Drop from. From Dundalk and Bailey, Shannon from Turles. And he did a. He was on. He was on a first. He's done a few of them. And we've had Geraldine Looney from Cork, I mean, on a tandem with her. And I had Maura Doyle from Ring's Ant, who's passed on. She was another vip. And so they've all. I've done all my, my roads on the tandems with them, so. And I've done it in solo.

When is the event held?

Typically in the summer, the third week in May.

Okay.

All right. So you're usually going to get good weather in May.

Well, before that's. We've always done it in May and I'm afraid to change it to any other month because we've always been lucky a couple of bad days. But, you know, in. In the 23 years of doing this, about 23 years events, and we've actually. I could say we've had seven very bad days. That's it.

It does sound pretty cool. I mean, I would like to come one a year.

I mean, it's the only way to see the country on a bike.

Does it generally go well, Eamon, or are there any major accidents or issues or what stories have you got from the years?

Well, touch wood, we've had only one cause for an ambulance to. To come up and unfortunately that's just as we crossed into County Clare. Just there at Money Point, there's a big corner where the Money Point Fuel power station is. Yeah. And a big gust of wind came from the land towards the sea and that's right onto the Shannon estuary there. And one of my cyclists was blown against railings.

Oh, gosh.

And she was injured there. So we had to get an ambulance and brought her to Galway she had to an operation on her eye and a few cuts and bruises, but she actually was so keen to get back to us that she, she. By the time we got to Sligo, she was back with us on the, on the trip, but obviously not cycling.

And did your dad ever. In his youth or any. Did he ever cycle or.

No, no, it's first time he got on a bike. My dad went blind at 57 years of age and he was with the National Council for the Blind and they were, they were going to South Africa. So he said, okay, I'll take you on the tandem. So we got a tandem then and we started training and get my dad out and we went to South Africa then in 96.

What are your memories of guide dogs and how did they help your dad? Did you see a major difference when he got his first job?

Total. Yeah, total, Total change. And my dad, when he got Presley his first guide doctor, the independency addict, he. My dad didn't let the blindness get to him. He just said, look, there's two things I can do. I can sit down on Mopar, get up and do something about it. So he insisted on doing something about it. And he used to do courses for blind people and he made the wardrobes at home and did the gardening and had a greenhouse and everything like that. And he was teaching VIPs fishing prep people how to do their plants. And we made drilled holes in Perspex and all that so you could space the seeds out so they could feel it and put the seeds down so that they'd come up, things like that. So it was. Yeah, totally. The guide dogs just really gave him his independence. Dad was a very tall, broad man and it was very hard to get a dog to match him. And that's why for his second dog, Zeke, it was nearly two years. I think to get a dog was just capable of looking after me dad and that was. Yeah, he was just so delighted then when he got Zeke. And unfortunately my dad didn't last too long after. After he received. Zeke passed away then in 1999.

How much money have you raised so far for. For guide dogs, if you mind me asking?

We are around the 2 million now. Wow. I reckon we've just hit 2 million.

Explain to me a little bit how this fundraising works. So you just have sponsors or do you raise?

Yeah, what we do is every cyclist has to fundraise X amount of money to target at the moment is 1800. That covers the hotel expenses. And the hotels have been good to me because I'VE used the same hotels for years and all that, so they've been keeping their rates down. And we're looking for corporate sponsorship now for next year's event, which Iona and the Guide Dogs are looking into, to try and get companies to sponsor a stage. And that means that every penny, every cyclist and support crew raises next year will go straight to the Guide dogs. The expenses would be covered by the stage sponsor.

And then do you get people donating as you're going along on the road?

When you stop at a town, it's brilliant. People have been very good with the donations along the routes. When they see us coming over, they actually know that it's time of year because I try to keep the cycle at the same time every. Every year and people know that. Oh, the. The 99ers, that's our nickname of. Our group name for the cycle is the 99ers because we love ice creams. I love ice cream. I couldn't pass. I couldn't pass by an ice cream cone on the road. So it's another funny story at the. At the very beginning, when we did our first cycle from Mallon Head down to Mizzen Head, and we had a big check and we wrote down 35,000 was what we had or something for the first year. And someone said, what's their names? What's. What do you sign it? What? You know, what's. What's the name? And I said, we don't have a name. We never thought of it. And someone shouted up. Amen. You stopped at every ice cream cone the whole way down from. From Donegal to Cork. It has to be a 99. So 99ers, that's. That's what we're known as ever since.

So.

Well, at least you cycle so you can eat ice cream.

Yeah, but now I can't do it anymore because I've had a triple knee replacement and my leg won't. Won't go around on the bike.

Won't allow you to go. Yeah, no. So you're following.

It's easier in the car. Yeah, well, I'm the lead car. Yeah, it's easier.

You're shouting abuse.

Correct.

But.

And some of them listen, some of them don't.

But, you know, it's obviously something you love. So, like, what does it mean to you to be. To be making this contribution to guide dogs celebrating their 50th year?

Yeah, it's just work. When I go down to the guide dog center at the start of every cycle, you know, I drop in and say, Hello. And I just love seeing the work that the guide dogs do and the preparation and the guide dogs in training and everything like that. And it's. And then when you actually see VIPs down there and see them working with their dogs, it brings back memories of my dad being down there and how the place has grown since my dad was first down in Model Farm Road. So you see all the pictures on the walls of the past, guide dogs, owners and all that. It's. Yeah. You know, it's close to the heart.

Yeah, Close to that. Of course it is, yeah. And you have no plans to give it up? You're gonna keep going for as long.

No, unfortun, unfortunately, this is my last year. Next year is my last year. Physically, I've had four knee replacements, one on the other side as well, and hopping in and out of the car and all that. And by the end of the week, I just, physically, I can't move. Everything is in place, it's set up. There's someone willing to take over. For the last five years, I've been saying it's my last year. And like, even though all the cyclists, because I've had repeat cyclists coming back a year after year after year and they said, look, I'm going to be doing this as long as you're doing it. I'm not going to stop total fundraising for the guide dogs. I have another plan in action which will just, just maybe give Mizzen to Mallon a break. The plan is to a Hub and spoke event, which means that I'm going to pick a hotel somewhere down the country or some in the west coast, some in the south coast, some in the north and somewhere in the east, and do a hub and spoke cycle, which means that people, you know, the fundraising will do two cycles on a weekend, maybe do a 50 kilometer and 100 kilometer cycles. The way I'm looking at for next year after, well, after last 26 will be our last missing to Merlin and then maybe 20, 27, I'm going to try this Hub and Spoke and see how that goes. Then that means that we could have maybe two or three events in the year instead of just the one event. People are not taking a week's holiday, it takes a week. So people are giving up a week's holiday of their annual leaves, you know, instead of being with their family or something like that. Like, they're doing it for Mizzen to Mallon, which, for the guide dogs, which is a week's. Whereas if I do the Hub and spoke, it Means people will just have to take one day off. Say take a Friday off or the Monday off and two, two or three spins cycles.

You must be so proud. And it's a great legacy for your. For your father. And I would. I will say, as somebody who has a guide dog, thank you to everyone, including yourself, especially yourself, for organizing this cycle over the last 25 years. And I know that the next venture at the Spoken Hope will go very well and I wish you the best. But thank you for doing what you've done so far. If we didn't have people like yourself to help fundraising for guide dogs, we'd probably have a lot less guide dogs in Ireland. Thank you so much for doing it.

No problem.

It's a fantastic thing you're doing. Thank you. Yeah. And you were saying before we started recording that you've done something similar.

Yeah, well. Well, not similar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we have in. In the Netherlands also. Yeah. We love biking. But here in Netherlands we have some tours and. And they are the. The biggest one I did was the. In the northern part we have. In winter it is done. It's called the Frisian Eleph Steden Doct.

And tour of 11 cities essentially.

Exactly. Thanks very much, Mo. And. And that's in the wintertime. They. They do it by the. Over the frozen lakes and the frozen channels and the frozen rivers, etc. Yeah. No, no, no. Ice skates. Yeah, ice skates.

It hasn't happened for a long time. Like the last time was 1997.

Yeah.

Because we don't have cold enough winters anymore now.

No, no.

Oh, that's not good news, is it?

No, it's terrible. It is really not nice. But. And the. So you had really famous ones. 1963, washing, you know, it was. You can imagine in those days you had really cold, cold winters, you know. And they start in. In the early of the day because a one day tour and yeah. They finish then in the end of the afternoon. But. But yeah, it is a big fun. But you. Since the lack of ice that we do also. Well, they found also alternatives. They do it walking and also by. By bike. And also they do it swimming and also canoes. Yeah. So. So they do it in all kind of variants. But. But I did the cycling, the tour, I think three times. And that is a nice. Yeah, a nice thing. Yeah. On the 10, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he was sitting next.

Yeah. Because on the T. He was steering.

Yeah. On the back you always fear, you know.

Yeah.

Because do you pass also Real mountains.

Then our mountains aren't. Most people would laugh at our mountains. You know, we think they're great, but they're not really all that big.

Really.

We wouldn't, you know.

No, because our.

Howard, you don't have mountains.

I suppose the only mountains I have here close to me are the, the bumps in the road where they, you know, make the car slow down. Those are our mountains.

And we have a nice song at the Dutch mountains from the niche. You know that's also the end of Dutch mountains.

Yeah.

And when I.

Some hills in the south.

In the south that, that's also. We had the Amstel Gold race. You know, that's real professional tour on the Sunday and on the Saturday they have the, the tour for the. Yeah, for the, for the. For the normal people. And I did that tour also a couple of times. And. And then you have the. Really some steepy hills, I would say. But yeah, downhill that is quite nice because then you reach 80, 90k per hour. But. But up we, we, we. We walk, you know, because it is, it is so steep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The. The single bike had the solo bikes, they go easily up. But. But this is really heavier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We are not able to do that or. Yeah, some. Some hills you could do. But the. Also the Cowberg, that's the Finnish mountain that is possible. But the, and, and all the others. No, they are, they are not to do. They are too, too steep.

Yeah, you go over a few mountains on this one. It's at the Tonawali Mountains, which is a great name. Which is near kind of Lockeski. It's kind of.

And when is it done, Claude? In what time of the year?

It's usually in the summer, I think.

For some it's in May, I think end of fern.

May.

Okay, so the end of spring. No, and that's. They're the biggest mountains. Like do you guys know what a 99 is?

No, they haven't.

No.

No, don't tell them.

Oh my God. You don't know what you're missing. No, a 99 is. It's an ice cream cone with soft serve ice cream on it and a flake. Do you guys have flakes? It's a chocolate. Yeah, so it's a chocolate.

Oh, a dip.

No, it's not a dip. It's a. It's a like a chocolate bar, but it's. It's a half size one.

Oh, a bar.

I don't know how to describe it.

Okay.

Yeah. And it's stuck into the ice Cream. That's, that's what makes it a 99 probably because it used to be 99 pence but now they're like 3 quid or 350 or something.

Now they're 99 Euros with all the information.

Yeah. And. And chocolate is really increasing there. Well, my God, it's really in.

Yeah, really expensive.

Yeah.

Coffee and chocolate.

My God. I must congratulate as well actually what I think of it. The Netherlands won the Aga Khan Trophy at the show jumping in. In August in the Royal Dublin Society which is a. It's an annual show jumping event that goes on always a horse show and horse show. And there is a. There has been for many, many, many years a Diaga Khan. You know, the, the Prince. Isn't he in the Middle East? But he's dead. But he sponsored, you know. Oh, he sponsored many years ago at the event. So it's called the Aga Khan Trophy. And with the Aga Khan event and all countries, well, a lot of countries, not all countries, but a lot of countries for four riders and horses take part. And this year the Netherlands won on. Okay, the Netherlands team won, so fair play to them.

And was it done in Ireland?

Yeah, it's in Dublin.

Dublin.

Oh, right in the center of Dublin. Oh, okay. It's a lovely place to be.

Yeah, it's gorgeous. I used to go everywhere.

I was not aware of it.

It's. Oh, it's good fun. It's good fun. It's expected to go every day. More expensive now than it used to be. Yeah, they. It's on for. It used to be on for a week. It's on. Yeah, it's for five days, isn't it? Five or six days, I can't remember. But anyway, I used to go every single day with my cousin because we were very into the horses and we'd. We'd wait, we'd hide in the stables at the end of the day, like would close up around half five and we'd hide in the stables.

Okay.

Get kicked out finally at about 7 or so. This is when we were like, you know, 11 or 12 or 13 or so.

Okay, Right, right, okay.

Are you riding horses then also, Clauda?

I would have when I was a kid, when I was. Well up until I was in my 20s. Yeah, I would have been okay.

Did you ever ride a horse, Jan?

Yeah, when I was on the middle. On the secondary agricultural school. I was forced to do it as part of the. Yeah, I don't like them.

Against your will.

I'm scared of horses, to be honest.

They're beautiful, gentle animals. I love them.

I rode a horse as well a couple times.

Okay.

It's pretty cool. I like it.

Yeah. I fell off.

They're powerful, like, but they're gripped with your knees.

Okay.

Yeah.

When poor Larry is going through the wars again, you know, and we're. We're giving him tablets and he's getting. He's learning all our tricks. So it's now got to a stage where Oren has to straddle him so that he doesn't. But he can't. He can't back away. You know, a grip with his knees on his little waist so that he can.

So he's riding Larry now.

All right, he's riding Larry. Obviously he's not sitting on him, but he's just. But it's just. So I keep going. Grip with your knees.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like he's a little pony.

But how is he doing now? Improving.

I mean, the paws are improving, but he's. His form isn't fantastic. He's kind of not. He refused food for the first time ever in history last week, and he's now on this wet food, which is really stinky and he loves. But he. Even this morning, only at half of his breakfast. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what's going on with him.

Antibiotics are upsetting his tummy and his routine.

And how about your new dog, Adventure Oren?

How.

What is this progress?

So I haven't heard anything since. It's probably in about a month, I'd say.

Okay.

I'm presuming that I am still on the list. I know they have a meeting every month. They told me to assess people who are on. Who are. Have requested. So we will. We will see. Yeah, yeah, but you weren't on the.

List the last we talked to them, that you had to be approved and then you'd go on the list.

I think.

Yeah, but I think. I think that's. It's.

But this is not really a good condition for Larry. So I assume you have more high priorities then.

Yeah, I mean, I think the scenario is really that he's gonna have to retire a little earlier than we expected because he's not really working too well. And if he's unwell with his paws and that we. We need to let him be. Be a doggie and get all the love. Yeah, well, let's hope.

Yeah, let's hope he feels better very, very soon. And with that, you'll hear whether he feels better in two weeks, okay?

Hey, guys, many thanks. And then until. See you all in two weeks time, man.

Definitely yes.

Okay.