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Yesterday I reached home early when my nephews and niece were still around in our place for dinner. During the chat, Mum was telling me that my nephew who finally enter Primary one on Monday behaved well.
"Your nephew very kuai in school, lucky got a maid to bring and fetch him back from school."
"That time you only brought me to school, after that I can go back my own and no longer needs anyone to bring or fetch me back." I said to mum.
"You're different. Anyway that day I went to pray bla bla bla for your nephew."
I don't know if my mum said 童子、孔子, anyway it doesn't matter. The interesting part was actually the offering made for the prayer. According to mum, you have to bring two items as offering and they are 'cong' & 'tau gua'. Basically the cong sounds like 'cong ming' so that the child is blessed with intelligence for his study. And the 'tau gua' where the gua sounds like officer in Hokkien, so as to bless that the child will excel in his study and becomes a 大官 in future.
I was a little curious and asked if mum did the similar prayer for me. She nodded and as far as I know, I do have a little intelligent, so the offering of cong works. However, I became a little suspicious as I'm not an officer or holding any government official post. So I wonder did mum forget to buy tua gua or was it sold out that it only brought cong over for the prayer? And then I couldn't stop but wonder what if it was a replacement? You know like the Chinese Hokkien says...
没鱼虾也好
So was it possible that tua gua was sold out since everyone wanted to buy one as an offer to bless their child on that particular day? And then those who didn't get to buy Tau Gua, would have no choice but to choose other option like Tau Hu (always kena eat Tau Hu by ppl), Tau Pok (the face complexion just like Tau Pok), Tau Hui (turns Al Lian Ah Hui when grow up) or even Tau Gay?
Perhaps that solves the mystery of why I turned into an Xmen...
to be continued...
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| You know some people like to raise their eyebrows a few times and making that weird smile as they have prepared something which they thought fantastic, amazing, breath-taking. At the same time, they wouldn't leave and stay probably a meter to two away from you, earnestly waiting to see your reaction.
And do you know what you will get when you don't behave or speak like Xmen when you are in office? Well, you'll get surprise, and some surprises are within your expectation (because you are smart, sensitive and observant enough), while some surprises just make your whole jaws drop right to the floor.
Well, that's exactly what I experienced this morning the moment I sat down on my office table. Right infront of me were the back cover in blue of two different sizes calendars. Just then, a colleague was standing discreetly diagonally behind a partition, peeping straight towards my direction. I read the yellow note placed on top of the calendar...
To Boost Yr Monday
Nice Calendar
How sweet I thought and I know just exactly what he was expecting. I looked at his direction and gave a sweet smile and moving my lips and jaws creating a "thank you". He didn't leave, and continued to stay. And just then, he was repeatedly turning his head down to his left shoulder a few times. I sensed that he wanted me to flip over the calendars.
My boss was opposite me, so I looked at him, pointed my finger directing opposite me which was hidden by my front LCD screen; an angle that only he could see it. Then I moved my lips saying...
"I will see later..."
He shaked his head and eyes opened wide, expecting me to flip it over now...
Well, not to disappoint him, I flipped it over and trust me...
If any of the Xmen would to see it, be it shark-head or mushroom-head, it will never want to sing Mari-kita again in the morning right after waking up.
My head fixated to the calendars, eyes opened wide and looking at his direction, faking an immediate "WOW" facial expression, and then with a naughty look, then ended with an exaggerating moves by twisting my lips with a "Thanks"
Out of courtesy, I smsed him a thank you note for being so sweet...I regretted somehow, yes I shouldn't have sent the sms
SMS (monster):
Wow!
There were Papaya, Water-Melon, Honey-dew
Thanks for the FRUITFUL monday.
SMS (Colleague) :
Welcomed! I knew you would like it!
I got another in animal prints,
I'll leave it on your table later yah!
To be continued.....
( Read more... )
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| For those who forgotten or wanted to know the lyrics...
12 Days of Rismas
12 month probation
11 day safari
10 sponsorers
9 English lessons
8 khaki jins
7 credit cards
…from 6 different people
5 leopard preens
4-giveness
3 piece bigini
2 polar disorders
…and a diploma in hospitallity
to be continued... - Tags:song
- Mood:cheerful
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It began a fortnight ago when I went dinner with my close Xmen friend.
To be able to try different specialities in the menu, we do what we used to do; order more and share together
In between, there's using of fork to feed my friend when I ate something really delicious and that's really normal to me. Vice versa when he ate something really good too.
And during the footing of bill, as usual, we will fight to make the payment and taking pictures.
Last night, I decided to bring my army mate to celebrate his belated birthday at the same restaurant. Since I had a great meal last time and pretty good service, so why not right??
I shouldn't!!!
The moment i stepped into the restaurant where my army mate was standing besides me, the same staff that served me last time smile brightly and approached us. More like shooting a bullet at my chest, except that it didn't hit the heart, but I already sense of heart attack.
"Hey it's you..." smiling politely
"Yes, back to try other stuffs." I returned a polite smile
"That cute and charming guy didn't come with you?"
/*Bang Bang!!*/
I leaned over to my str8 army mate's ear and whispered to him...
"My friend and I already strongly suspected that she like my friend during our last visit, so it's true..."
"No wonder...and I thought..."
I didn't give my army mate a chance to continue what he wanted to say as that might not be a sentence that will favor me in any way. I pretended to show excitement and asked the waitress politely to bring us to our seat.
"It's the comfortable sofa seats, exactly the one you had previously, comfortable and cosy for two. I'll leave you two to have some sweet chats while I will come back again later for your order."
/*Bang Bang!!*/
I couldn't believe that she had this photographic memory and instead of feeling impress with her capability, I sort of freak out as I simply couldn't predict what's coming up next. It was a fortnight ago and she seemed to remember everything. Or was it because since then until now we were their only sole customers?
"Is this spinach pizza nice?"
"Oh it tastes good Sir."
"In that case I'll take this and this (pointing to the menu), while my friend would like to have this (pointing to the menu again)."
"Excellent choice for sharing together, how about the same lovely cherry juices for both of you?"
My army mate friend returned a bewildered expression where the waitress continued...
"Oh the last time this gentleman was shar-in......."
"Oh can I have this tiramisu too? And that's all, please hurry as we have a movie to catch."
I prevented her from triggering her lethal weapon further. She made us sounds like a couple and I could see the weird facial expression of my army mate when she was trying to relate about the cherry juices, even though I pretended to be studying the menu. In one way I was buying time to change the situation by saying something convincing...
"Oh yah, the cherry juice, my friend and I weren't sure if it's good previously, so we decided to order a glass and try it out...."
And that was indeed the true fact, my xmen friend and I weren't sure of the taste and decided to share it. It sounds so solid and convincing of how I relate it, it would probably be diaster if I would to allow the waitress to speak on my behalf.
Finally we finished the meal where my heart was pulsating rapidly as in time to time she would walk over to check if we were pleased with the food served and I always have to express a satisfied look and followed by faking a little voice by saying "Fabulous." before she could utter a word further. Then came the bill where she had her final launch of missiles when my army mate felt that he wanted to buy me the dinner instead as I have offered my help to him in some of his work stuff...
"Fight for the paying again? How sweet..."
"Oh yah, of course! Friends of mine are all very sweet, see how he insists to pay this meal and you will know."
She came back with the receipt and the change and you probably thought that that's finale for sure. Wrong! She lean forward and upper body bending down and smiled to both of us...
"Would you like me to take a picture for you two, for sweet memory to look back in future?"
to be continued....
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| Tsk, i'm bored. Yet very lazy to go out. And that's because going involves many steps: bathing, thinking of what to wear, travelling, thinking of where to go, what to do there, what time to come back and travelling back. So, i've actually spent the whole day - surfing net, creating folders for next semester, finishing my national geog magazines, watching tv, reading newspapers, eating, sleeping.... heh;p It's already 2010. In a few more months, i would be posted to school to teach, and in 2015, i would have finished my bond.... and what's next after that? I dunno. Approaching 30 is something I find extremely hard to come into terms with. If I really need to make a new year resolution, i want to be Peter Pan and live in Neverland. Aging is synonymous to growing up and is an inevitable phase of life - something I want to escape from.  Growing up comes with many consequences and implications that involve conforming to social norms, which ineventually lead to social pressure, and any attempt to sway away from the notion of conformity and traditionalism will only lead to yourself being stigmatised; being labelled as anomie, normless. Career, getting a life-partner, making babies, working hard to make sure your offsprings get a good education are part and parcel of life. However, life is always not as simple as we think it is, or it should be. Getting a good job is not easy. Fnding and committing oneself to a life-partner means sacrifices need to be made. Making babies will set your life into another level beyond comprehension because the child may or may not be borned healthy, and even so, it may not be filial to you. Once you set up a family, your lifeview starts to undergo another major transformation. You need to slog the other half of your life away and make sure you earn enough to cover your outflows which include loans, insurance, taking care of the elderly, etc, etc, etc... And by the time you retire, you would be too tired or even too sick to backpack. Doesnt sound very optimistic right? Aging gracefully is really an art, and it is also as if it is an utopian vision. We are not in Japan. I suspect the cultural and environmental conditions there enable the people there live longer. And from the way I tend to over-react to things and how easily psych up I would be at the slightest things mean my heart would give up on me anytime. Thus, how to live longer is almost out of the question. More importantly, how to live longer happily. Or rather just how to live happily. I really hate to grow up. Because society has a very interesting way of marginalizing the aged. They start to see you as pests, useless, invalid, conservative, slow, stupid, naggy, ............. And while the people around you are slowly 'conforming to social norms', (and if you dont) you would at the same time, slowly fade away from the world deems real by the majority. And if Durkheim is right, you will succumb to anomie suicide. I do not know if i'm born like that, or if i just have the knack to go against the norm. But I do know the importance of 'moving on'. Moving on means different things to different people. And i must know how to move on smartly. Leaving the DB team 2 years ago left me with no regrets. Because life cannot revolve around just dragonboat. I do look forward to the next time I could get into the boat and paddle; but yet at the same time, i must admit that the time of the past has to end; which is also why people who paddle for donkey years and still talk, eat and sleep dragon boat put me off, seriously. Dont get be wrong. I am not imposing my values on these people. But I am one who strongly believes that a chapter in a story book cannot be too overwhelmingly lenghty for it only bores to poor reader to a painful death. In fact, the whole book might just become too shallow and hollow. Oh well, who knows I might have one super big chapter of my life devoted to teaching? It's still too early to tell. For now, I only want to work really hard for my final semester. Be very nice to friends who have been tolerating/accepting my nonsense. And make sure my parents can age gracefully. - Mood:calm
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"How come you are here?"
She was surprised to see me standing outside the door, while I was smiling without uttering a word. I waited for her to walk slowly over to open the gate and she was half exciting when she kind of saw that both my arms were filled with things.
"Come in and sit, I'll go and get you a drink"
"No, I've got everything here, see?"
I lifted up both arms, holding up the paper bags and plastic bags and giving a naughty smile. She was delighted for sure and quickly sat down like a little child waiting eagerly for me to remove the things from the bags.
"Why are you here, you should be out celebrating with your friends?"
"I figured that you have already waited 90 years and I have yet to celebrate an English new year with you. Besides, I can always celebrate with my friends some other years."
"Aiyo, Ah Ma only celebrate Chinese New Year, Ang Mo Year, Ah Ma just treat it like normal day."
I took out a bottle of red wine, a small mango cake, 1 tub of chocolate ice cream, 2 packets of dessert (Ou Nee & Cheng Teng), a box of pineapple tart ( which I asked my colleague to buy it from Malacca), fish porridge (bought at Chinatown) and a packet of seedless grapes, and a packet of Pu Er tea. And lastly something that i have to wrap a few layers of plastic bags and then put into a paper bag. Her eyes open so big and when she smiled, those big eyes of here suddenly turned so small...
"Oh durian!" She was like clapping her hands behaving like a little kid.
I opened the bottle of red wine, and pour a little for her which she rejected initially. After a second thought, she grabbed the glass of wine and happily took a few sips.
"Now Ah Ma, it's no good to drink empty stomach, have some fish porridge. Also, after this small glass of wine, I won't serve you anymore, you will need to take Pu Er tea after that"
"Can I take durian instead?" Her chin was down like a guilty kid while eyes looking up innocently and waiting for a reply.
"Take a few spoon of porridge, then you can take your favorite durian."
It was a few hours before the countdown, but I know Ah Ma couldn't wait that long as she probably needs to turn in early. I took out the mango cake from the little box and placed a lighted candle onto it and insisted ah ma to make a new year wish before we blew the candle together. She playfully asked if she could have a little more of red wine for celebration and I nodded and pour her a little more into her glass. She had another few sips before I walked her to her bed. We finished up everything on the table except the pinapple tarts and grapes.
"I'm going to do all the packing and cleaning and you have a rest on the bed first yah."
She was smiling and after washing up everything, she was already in dreamland. I silently switched off the light and closed the door. It was already 10pm plus where I decided to head home instead.
To be continued....
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Ludwig Van Beethoven to his "Immortal Beloved"
Letter 1
Good morning, on July 7
My thoughts go out to you, my immortal beloved
I can live only wholly with you or not at all
Be calm my life, my all. Only by calm consideration of
our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together
Or continue to love me, never misjudge the most faithful
heart of your beloved.
Ever thine.
Ever mine.
Ever ours.
to be continued...
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That night I caught Avatar with a group of friends. I was impressed with the effects and the creativity of the movie. Imagine James Cameron and the production group spent 15 years to invent a 3D camera and produced this movie. It's almost like grooming a child to a young adult.
Speaking about creativity, I have my fair share to voice out something, as I simply couldn't help myself to have wild thoughts, yet again with Avatar's physique.
No. 1 :
I think James Cameron has a maid to take care of him when he's kid then.
Not just ordinary maid, but maid that came all the way from Nanyang, known as MA JIE
And that's how Avatar able to connect their pony tail with any living creatures in Pandora
No. 2 :
James Cameron is probably a huge fan of the Pink Panther
That ultra lean body and that tail is exactly like Avatar
Perhaps because James wanted to attract major audiences
Not just Xmen, so he decided to change the color from pink to something else
No. 3 :
And strongly suspected that he also like to watch the classic SMURF.
that explained the color of avatar...
Additional
It takes 15 years of Production, so in between free time,
James must have love to watch America Next Top Model
Which is why the lead actress Avatar looks like
Tyra Bank!
 
I thought Sigourney Weaver would drove this to do some fighting scenes
She drove something similar to this to fight an Alien in her Alien series
 
And lastly...
I think Male Avatar got no dick, because...
No. 1 : Usually native got huge one (based on Discovery Channel, National Geographical Channel), but throughout the 2hrs 40 mins movie, you couldn't even find a single jingle bell swinging around.
No. 2 : they will be confused if they have dick, cause basically we are talking about 3 TAILS, and during critical situation, they may use the wrong TAIL to connect to the living creatures at Pandora
to be continued....
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| This evening just wanna share some pictures, and shall let pictures explain everything....
Preparing material
 Making the pattern Cutting the pattern Hand-sew and embroidered the face features Creating the blanket bag Teddies waiting to be adopted by new parent Sleeping Teddy on his way to meet new parent
 Wake up Teddy excited to meet new parent
That's why there's a little red tongue sticking out to be continued.... | |
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| Another big thing to look forward to next semester...  | |
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| Yesterday supposed to make two chicken, but unfortunately one of them 'committed suicide' before i could cook it. The chicken was blown away by big wind and smashed terribly. Fortunately the other one was secured and whoever tasted it simply couldn't get enough.
Of course good food must share right?
The steps are simple but the process is a bit long...
A. Showering The Chicken
1. Buy a whole chicken, and I chose the one from Japan; available in NTUC.
2. After washing the whole chicken, remove the feet & head.
3. Boil a pot of hot water (3/4 full of water and the pot big enough to hold a chicken) and cut about 3 limes and squeeze the juices into the pot. Throw in the lime after that.
4. Add in one stick of 桂皮，and a piece of 八角. Add in about 2 teaspoons of honey.
5. The process is call 'showering the chicken'. Then dip in the whole chicken when water is boiled. Shower it for about a minute and remove it from the boiling water and hang it to drip off the excess water.
B. Marinate the Showered Chicken
1. Start with grinding the ginger.
2. Then add in 5 spicies powder,
3. Some sesame oil, salt, pepper, wine.
4. Mix them together. Start applying it into the inner body of the whole chicken and the outer layer skin.
5. Leave it for 15 to 20 minutes minutes to allow the chicken to absorb the marinated stuff.
C. Dehydrating the chicken
1. Hang the chicken for 8hrs, best with some sunlight tanning it; not too much
D. Fried the Chicken
1. Fried the chicken till well cooked, leave it for 1/2hr before chopping into pieces.
2. Then garnish with honey tomato, cucumber.
If u make it right, it's very TOK GONG lor...
P.S: No matter how long u leave the chicken, it will taste very good even when it turns cold
to be continued...
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| im leaving.
hopefully by the time im back, i would feel so much better.
vietnam; im leaving all my emotional baggage behind and coming back to a brand new year.
to those ive talked to recently, i will be happier!
happy new year guys :)
and enjoy the 12 days of christmas!
- Mood:exhausted
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| Now i shall devote some time blog down about our winter quasi-backpacking trip to Seoul. (i know suchin is waiting to read them!)
Refer to facebook for photos, i wont be posting many pictures here.
This entry will focus on some of the key things to take note / things that are good to know.
1. SOME koreans are not very friendly. They will walk through you in trains without saying sorry. (I suspect the word 'sorry' is not in their dictionary, seriously)
2. Currency: S$1.20 is about 1000 Won.
3. Like taiwan, they have the keep Right policy while travelling on escalators; and you cant find dustbins on the streets.
4. The major shopping distrcits - Myeongdong and Dongdaemun - are as busy as Taipei's Ximending.
5. Salespersons will (continue) to speak to you in korean even when it is very obvious that you do not understand their language.
6. Body language doesnt work in Seoul. You will forever be lost in translation.
7. Fret not, because a lot of PRC work in Seoul and they could recognize you are from Singapore instantly.
8. Dont buy those kimchi (kept in boxers) sold US dollars (from the Incheon Airport) to Singapore - because the packaging will be bloated and will spoil the box containing them (any idea if they are still edible??); i hope its due to air pressure and nothing else.
9. Do not hand-carry in those instant porridge else you would need to donate them at the customs.
10. Dont bother going Dongdaemun cos there's nothing there... its a mega place for wholesalers to get their goods and sell them at Myeongdong.
11. Skiing - Dont bother going to some skiing resort unless you are really good at skiing or if you can coordinate your skills very well. Skiing is super dangerous (imagine the blades stuck in snow with your ankles twisted all over place). But then again, if you are really good, you wont want to ski in artificial snow. period.
11. Skiing attire - you might be required to rent some skiing gears; ours were not included in the package, so you would need to fork out additional 10000W for a top and bottom - which i think is not necessary. Just make sure you wear some waterproof jacket (e.g. goretex) or some pants (relatively thick yet waterproof), and a good pair of gloves.
12. You need a winter ear-muff if your ears cant take the chill... I personally think ear-muff & leather gloves are a must! (unless your beanie can cover ur ears). You also would need lip balm and tons of moisterizer.
13. Faceshop - you might want to spend a large amt of your budget on cosmestic/facemasks cos its dirt cheap there (1S$, and some even 30cents a piece compared to 3 for S$12 or S$10 in Singapore).
14. Faceshop (again) - do not wait until you are at the airport to buy (its either too rushed, or you'd forget and think you could buy it after you check-in). In fact, there's no faceshop boutiques inside the airport after you check in. If you want to get it from the airport, you should get it before you checkin, it's somewhere near Starbucks. Anyway, just buy it the first day you touch down.
15. Tax refund is possible once you spend more than 30000W. The process is not seamless though. You have to checkin, declare, go to some counter, they will stamp on your receipts, then go to another counter, queue up, get money. (for our case, we didnt show the goods, so i suspect you can check in your stuffs and just show the receipts)
16. To backpack in Seoul, you need to do your homework first, if not you can forget about navigating your way around - since 99% of the people there dont speak English. You would need a subway map (and mind you, it's one of the most complicated in the world, even more complicated than london tube).
17. You would need to get a subway card from some convenient stores (e.g. By The Way) - which cost 30000W (non-refundable). Its called T-money or T-card (cant remember). After getting the card, you can go to some topup machine to deposit money into it. Every trip (regardless of stations) is about 900W. If more stations are involved, then it would add up to 1000W.
More to come in later entries! | |
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| Again, i'm the last to know that the results are out (on 22 Dec).  Anyway, after 7 semesters, this is what i have observed - i.e. if you want to have good/impressive grades, you must: - Wear jeans and shirt into the exam hall - Wear my favourite cK briefs - Not wear pe attire (shorts and pe tee) to take the exam - Not be the first person to look at your grades after it finish loading - Not think you will do well - Have nightmares before the release of results - Be super paranoid And for the not-so-lame part: - Continue to be anxious and stressed nearing the exam (stress+anxiety has direct relationships with grades/results) - Hard work pays - Dont choose topics to study, study everything - Be original (if you write things that everyone will/can write, you will get the grade everyone gets) And Xmas present comes a bit early this time! I didn't do splendidly well, but i managed to meet my goals. I expected 3 Cs (and my reasons, if i were to rant abt them, would be logically and rationally justifiable) - for these modules: ACL401, APA402 & AMX301. So surprisingly and very amazingly, i did pretty ok for the module on Differentiated Instructions as well as multi-cultural studies. And for Clara Tan's APA402, i think i must have been very lucky; or the lecturer is nice. So, the worst module award goes to APA402. With 4 good distinctions, i shouldnt be complaining. I'm now looking forward to next semester! And im very determined and motivated to end my final semester with a blast! * oh, and to add on to the above list of Musts: ...must - Check results outside Singapore.  That was where (Myeongdong, Seoul) i checked my results with Colin and my backpacking mates. And he did pretty well too! | |
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| Sometimes you see LJers locked their entries for friends viewing only. I don't lock mine, and I'm wondering should I do it as....
Last Sunday I received a SMS from this old friend, rather secondary school classmate. I came from a boy school and thinking back, I doubt there's any Xmen in my school. No, I really don't think there was any. All right, perhaps there were, but definitely not someone I know, and for sure not from my class.
I chanced upon your blog
It was happy to read all your entries
entertaining and interesting
I tot i was the only Xmen in school
You are not alone...
And just last night, I received a SMS thread from another old friend, my poly classmates. Of course, when I recalled earlier, I couldn't figure any Xmen ever exist in my engineering department. Nothing...ZERO...
Poly Classmate : I love to read what you wrote, so nice...
Monster's reply: (Act blur) huh?
Poly Classmate: Your blog I mean, funny. I happened to discover it when I was googling
Monster's reply: Oh ok...
Poly Classmate: I know you would think that I used to behave very tough, but actually I'm a Xmen
Monster's reply: (Jaws drop!) Oh...that is err....nice...
Practically I ran out of words to say or rather I didn't know what to say when I didn't ever ever expect my poly mate, nor my secondary school classmate to suddenly transformed into Xmen, like as if all this while they have been buried deep in some shit hole, undiscovered or something. Was it because of my blog that leads to one another to confess their true identity, or was it because Christmas is approaching where one will automatically tell something that they have hide deep inside for ages?
So should I really lock my entries, before I get more heart attack for the coming new brand year? I wonder...
To be continued
- Tags:blog
- Mood:cheerful
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