Category: Necessities

March in a nutshell!

Here we go again! Another month just flew by!

I thought February was a busy month, but it was nothing compared to March…  I sure hope April will bring a little more relaxation… well I can hope, can’t I? 🙂

My step-mums move is finally over, and I believe that the things she needs me for is mostly done. Pictures are hung, office is installed, machines are connected, curtain rods are up, furniture in place, TV and internet – check.. the only thing I know I have left to do is to fix up her entrance door, but that has to wait for warmer weather as it involves paint and oil.

Spring seems to finally be on it’s way, I think.. maybe! Plants are thinking about popping out of the ground, but there are still the occasional waking up to a bit of white outside, so I’m not quite sure 😉 The weather right now is beautiful Easter weather and I’m hoping this is a sign of how the spring season will go, as that would mean a lot of days outside.

But, let’s get back to how I’m doing with some of my goals.

March in a nutshell!

Declutter
As most of you know, I’m in the middle of a pseudo packing party, so far I’ve done my bathroom and bedroom, and I’m currently working on my living-room. I’m sure you all wonder if this little project it’s wielding anything out-the-door! Well, yes it is, a black bag full of stuff went out-the-door yesterday, and I will tell you all about what the stuff was. I just need to sit my butt down, sort through all the pictures I took and actually write the post 😉 

But as you all gathered by now, unfortunately it’s not counting as March out-the-door, as yesterday was April 🙂

Activity and exercise
Hmm, sport wise I did pretty shitty during March, but I sure was active… between cutting and trimming fruit trees in my step-mums allotment garden, hanging curtain-rods and pictures, lifting heavy boxes, moving furniture, working in my own garden and actually getting the occupational walk in, I averaged 3 times a week. Still not quite according to plan, I’ve gotta do better, hopefully now that the weather is perking up…

Only buying necessities
I’m on schedule. But what about my allowances?

  • Books – none
  • Eating out – we are still doing pretty poorly, like I mentioned before, with all this “working for someone else” it’s hard.  Now that this moving business is out of the way, hopefully we can do better…
  • Flowers and plants – no purchases
  • Buying a non essentials – yes, one purchase, I got myself a new casual top, a thin cotton hoddie, to replace a couple of ragged tops I had

Other financial goals
Mortgage: After my one time lump sum payment, I won’t be doing anything on my mortgage other than pay the monthly interest. But, on a happy note, with my extra payments the last few months (I had a lump sum payment last year as well) my monthly interest payment is now half of what it was 7 months ago 🙂

Other activities/projects this year
Hmmm, now that the move is over…  I have nothing 🙂 But I’m sure that won’t last long.. so stay tuned 😉

Well, that it for now, see you around in April!

February in a nutshell!

I can’t believe I’ve almost forgot to post February’s summary!

I’ve been a bit on the busy side, it’s getting down to the wire when it comes to my step-mums move. They are working like crazy to finish her new bathroom, and we’ve been working on putting up lamps, painting and putting in storage shelves. This weekend we just finished putting in new bookshelves, today we are putting up blinds in the bedrooms, cleaning up the new place and packing the last bits and pieces, as the movers are coming tomorrow.. oh yeah, and I have a dishwasher and a washing machine to disconnect….

Since I will be occupied with the move and sorting things out for a few more day (ok, probably more than just a few), I figured I would give you a quick summary!

So here it is – my February in a nutshell!

Declutter
Yes I did actually get a few things out-the-door during February, my Wii, a bunch of clothing and a few books! 101 items all together 🙂 

Activity and exercise
My activity plan really didn’t happen much in February. Between work, treatments, running around sorting things for my step-mum and not to forget the rain, that blasted rain, I averaged only 2 times a week 😦

Only buying necessities
I’m on schedule. But what about my allowances?

  • Books – none
  • Eating out – not doing to well in February either, like I mentioned in January, when we have been working at someone’s house, I sometimes just need food “now”, or we are to tired to bother about making food and we eat out.  So it racks up! Hopefully when this moving business is out of the way, we can do better…
  • Flowers and plants – no purchases
  • Buying a non essentials – yes, one purchase, I finally found something I have been looking for, for the last couple of years, I’ll tell you about it in a separate post!

Other financial goals
Mortgage: Due to how the interest rates are doing, I made a one time lump sum payment, which I told you about a few days back… I’m really chuffed that I’m now down to about a third left of my mortgage 🙂

Other activities/projects this year
As I mentioned above, the focus is getting my step-mum into her new house…

Oh, yeah, and I did a plastic trash challenge in February. I have to admit, it was an eye opener…

I guess that’s it for now, I told you it would be quick 😉

January in a nutshell!

Ha, bet you thought I had fallen of the face of the earth now, didn’t you?

Well that’s OK, you are forgiven for thinking so 😉  I am after all the the one who has been a bit on the quiet side!

I’m not sure why, but it’s been a slow start this year with the things I have on my agenda, which is why you haven’t heard much from me lately! Thankfully it seems like I’m finally getting my butt back into gear, and I’m sure I’ll pick up speed going forward…

So what have I been up to in January?

The most important thing is that I’m back at work, ever so slowly, half a day a week – yeah I know, stupid really, all I get done in those few hours is pretty much show up for lunch, have a meeting, chat with people and then I go home 😉 Hopefully I get more done when I start up with two half days a week, mid February. And I’m hoping I’ll step up more, after I see my neurologist in March, but we’ll just have to wait and see what she says first.

I gave you a list of goals a couple of weeks back? This year around, I think I’ll give you guys a monthly sum-up, of how I’m doing with those goals, and not just a tally of my decluttering, like I did last year.

So here it is – my January in a nutshell!

Declutter
Have I decluttered anything in January? Well, yes I’ve been working away at it the last couple of days (finally got my act together) and a post is on its way 😉 It will have to count as a February shed though!

Activity and exercise
I have a plan to be more active this year, and so far this month I have been out on an average 2,5 times a week… Not a lot I know, but the weather have been really shitty, and I took a spill on the ice a few weeks back, which kept me out of the walking loop for a few days 😦

Only buying necessities
I’m on schedule, so far so good. But what about my allowances?

  • Books – bought 5 dollars worth of e-books (3 I think it was)
  • Eating out – we’ve done pretty shitty in January, as we have eaten out 10 times. There have been a few reasons for why. Like, we have been working at someone’s house and I just needed food “now”, and a few times we have been meeting people helping them look at stuff and ending up eating in the process. And one of the days I was hanging out with someone at the hospital all day, and just needed a quick bite…  So it racks up! Regardless, we will have to do better in February.
  • Flowers and plants – no purchases, quite the opposite, I gave away a couple of my plants to the neighbour instead 🙂
  • Buying a non essentials – yes, one purchase, but it was really a replacement purchase of sorts.. I’ll tell you about it later!

Other financial goals
Mortgage: I paid my yearly down payment, 10 days ago, and I’m now finally under half left of my original mortgage, phew 🙂

Other activities/projects this year
We finally got the job done at my sisters place, installing the heaviest ceiling lamp on earth, over her dining table (it’s still hanging.. I think…), installed a ceiling lamp in her hallway, and we got her very long TV network cable hidden away (she has the TV at the opposite side of the room from where the plug is), I have to say..  her place is coming along really nice and she seems happy with the job we did…

Other stuff? Well, there are still a few things on the agenda at my step mums new place, but that is going to have to be a February thing!

That’s it for now.. see you in February 😉

Plans for 2015?

We are halfway into January, and you’re wondering, do I have any plans for 2015?

Yes, off course 🙂

I have plans within the areas of decluttering, finance, exercise and life in general! Why don’t you let me tell you all about it 😉

Declutter
In 2014, the focus was mostly on decluttering, and I’m afraid I still have ways to go 😦 Seems like decluttering and getting less stuff, inspires me to want less and less. So I will continue this in 2015. Last years goal was to declutter one item a day (365 items) and I far succeeded that, so I thought maybe I should try that one, one more time.. I think it will be harder this year to find the 365 items, but I’m sure gonna try 😉

I don’t know if you remember! Just like I’m reading myself out of my bookshelf, I’ve decided to watch myself out of my movie collection, and I also have this big, actually huge, photo project which I mentioned for you guys in November, that I will be spending time on this year.

My declutter goals for 2015;

  • 365 items
  • 100 Movies – that’s half of my collection
  • Cut my physical DVD series collection by 30% (yeah, that’s a lot, I have a lot, a lot of series)
  • 34 books –  I did 82 or something like that, out-the-door last year, but now I’m getting into more of the books I love…
  • Photo collection – oh lord…  I can’t even tell you what my goal is for this year! Half maybe?
    My overall goal is to keep key photos as physical photos, scan the other ones I’d like to have access to, and get rid of the rest. Now having several thousand photos, this is a task that will take time, and most likely spill over into 2016…

Only buying necessities
My focus last year on only buying necessities ( I want, I want – I want it now!!!) served me very well, as I had to spend quite a bit on medical treatments instead. It served me so well, I think I’d like to continue the focus this year. But with a small change compared to last years – I will add an allowance;

  • Books – I can still buy up to 10 books/magazines – preferable as e-books
  • Eating out – We did pretty good last year – we will try to squeeze even more this year, by reducing another 25% on last years results.
  • Flowers and plants – stay at the same level of last years result
  • New allowance: I can buy up to 10 non essentials throughout the year 🙂

Other financial goals
Last year I managed to pay off my car (a few months early) and I’m pretty happy with that 🙂 My ultimate goal on the other hand, is to have my house mortgage paid off, in 16 years or less, compared to the 25 it was originally. I’m 7 years in and have almost halved the mortgage so far, which is phenomenal! But it’s getting harder now that I’m on a severely reduced pay due to not working so much. Every January I pay a lump sum towards the mortgage, so my goal for 2015 is to save up 60 000 NOK for my lump sum in January 2016. If I manage that on my reduced pay, I’m doing very well.

Activity and exercise
Due to illness I have not been the most active person the last few years, every time I think I’m ready to start exercising, I’ve managed to screw that up somehow, and I’ve gotten worse again. Now on the other hand, I’m feeling better than ever and I think it’s time to give it another shot. But this time around I’m going to be careful about it and take my time!!!

The goal for this year is to build up to, by the end of the year: 7 days of activity a week, with 3 of these as real workouts.

  • By activity I mean something that gets me up and going and preferable out of the house, like a walk in the neighbour hood, work in the yard, run around playing with kids… just about anything that gets me out of that couch, gives me some fresh air, and brings me into a moving state 😉
  • With real workout I mean an activity like for example going to the gym, yoga, biking, running, Rollerblade … you get the drift.

Other activities/projects this year
I have a few other things on my agenda 🙂 Like; travel, projects in my yard, other projects, throw a garden party, ++
But these, I think I’ll tell you more about, as we move into the year 😉

So that’s it for my 2015 goals… enough don’t you think?

 

Finally back at work… sort off!

As some of you know, about half a year ago I made a decision to take a two month hiatus from work, for health reasons.

My neurologist and me, had made a 5 month plan, where the focus was on treatments, rest, exercise and a slow reintroduction back at work. I’m not sure if you remember my “wonderful” plan:

5 month plan

From the headline of this post, you can probably gather, that things didn’t quite go according to my original plan. Turns out my two month hiatus turned into 6 month off work!

We can have the best intentions, but sometimes there is no rushing the body, it seems to take it’s own time, regardless of what we want! And that’s pretty much why this has taken much longer than I thought it would do.

So what’s been going on, these 6 months;

Medications:
I followed my original plan when it came to medication and that seemed to kick-start my body into getting a little better.

Workouts:
Have not gone according to plan, at all! For some reasons the treatment I started, aggravated an inflammation in my hip early July, and I’m still struggling with it (going in for an MRI on the 19th) so it kinda put a dent into my workout plan. I have done walks and stuff, but no gym 😦

Treatments:
I’ve done extensive treatments these last 6 months. As I’ve earlier mentioned, I started going to an osteopath. Turns out I ended up switching between two, since they did different things.. as one have specialized in cranial osteopathy.

To be frank with you, the progress has been excruciating slow, and my original osteopath actually had to throw in the towel. But I have continued to work with the one that does cranial manipulation, and he is still hanging in there 😉 and during the last few weeks, we are finally seeing some good progress.

A couple of months into my hiatus, my neurologist and me decided it was time to try medical Botox. It’s a know treatment for people that suffers with chronic migraines (you can read about it here), and we decided that maybe it would be worth a try for my 24/7 tension headache/migraines. It’s a treatment you take every three months and I was really lucky and got an appointment quick. My first round of medical Botox I got early September, and my second treatment I had just a month ago, in early December.

It seems like that second treatment is actually doing something for me! 🙂  As my osteopath treatments is having much better effect than ever before. My daily basis headache (the one that is present 24/7 – yes that’s, 24 hours a day, every day) has gotten better and better, to the point where this is the best it’s been since August 4th, 2010. And my migraine attacks seems to have reduced some as well the last couple of weeks. Woohoo!!!

So I might finally be on the mend 😉

And therefore, I think it’s time to get back to work (been kind of antsy to get back)!

My neurologist on the other hand, wants us to reap the benefits of me feeling better, a little longer before I get “hot and heavy” at work again, and she didn’t really want me back quite yet. So we compromised 🙂

Tomorrow I will start back at work, but only one half day a week! Yes I know, sound puny, but that was all she would allow me to do. And it gives me a chance to clear my mailbox, say hello to people, catch up a little with what’s going on, and get to know my new department (we were reorganized as of January 1st).

Then in 5 weeks time (February 16th), I will start work two half days a week, and do that until I have seen my neurologist again, end of March.

And hopefully by then I will have had even more progress with my osteopath, and maybe if I’m lucky, even had a day or two without a headache? My world, wouldn’t that be grand 🙂

So you can see, this is slow going. But guess that’s always the way isn’t it, there really is no rushing it. It’s probably taken a long time to get bad, and it needs a long time to get good.

In hindsight I do realise, I should have not pushed my body as much as I did. When I originally started feeling bad early 2010, I should have taken it easy right out of the bat, instead of what I did, which was to continue to work as hard as I could. If I had know then, what I know now… sheesh… I would have taken 6 months of right away… and maybe never have ended up in all the trouble of the last 4,7 years…

So if you are out there, struggling with health problems! Listen to what the body is trying to tell you! Slow down! Take care of yourself! Your health is the most important thing in your life… without it… well we all know how that goes!

And here I am, about to start work again, if ever so slowly! And this time around, I HAVE to be better at paying attention…

PS:
nite to self

My 2014 goals – how did I do?

In 2009, after having lived in the US for two years, I came home with enough stuff to fill up a entire house (after having furnished an empty condo in Houston), and I already had a house full. Since then I have slowly but surely gotten rid of stuff, and I’ve dwindled it down to one household again. But as good as I had been at it, I felt that there was still more that could go out of the house. Which is why I decided a year ago that I would make 2014 a year to declutter and living with less.

And to be accountable – I started this blog 🙂

I decided my main goal, would be to get rid of an average of at least one item a day, all through 2014 – yepp, 365 items!

I also made a second goal, a promise in my post I want. I want – I want it now!!! – to make an effort to buy only necessities, needs rather than wants.

Have I managed what I set out to do? The short answer – YES!

So here it is – my MAIN goal;

2014 tally of items out-the-door  – 634 items, 2200 bookmarks and 14485 emails 🙂

Curious about what items I shed? Check it out;

  1. January tally – 63 items
  2. February tally – 45 items, 2200 bookmarks and 2450 emails
  3. March tally – 12 items and 7535 emails
  4. April tally – 58 items and about 4500 emails
  5. May tally – 126 items
  6. June tally – 22 items
  7. July tally – 22 items
  8. August tally – 45 items
  9. September tally – 103 items
  10. October tally – 7 items
  11. November tally – 23 items
  12. December tally – 108 items

My second goal – only buying necessities; 

I did better on this during 2014 than I did in 2013 (which was the first time I tried this). I replaced broken items, only if I had too. I used up before replacing or even did not replaced at all.

I did really good at not buying anything but necessities, until my trip to US in September, when I ended up buying some clothing I didn’t really strictly “need”. I do however have an excuse as my luggage was lost for several days, and I got sick of walking around in oversized men’s clothing that I had borrowed. So I caved and bought some ladies things 😉 And it’s not like the clothing won’t come in handy, when I wear out my older stuff…

Other than that, as far as I know, there are only a few other items I got, that were strictly not a necessity. 1 small box set I thought was really cute, that I really haven’t found a use for, yet! And then I got a a few cheap IKEA wine glasses for my birthday grill party, as I did not have enough glasses for the champagne toast! (thinking about it, I believe this could be considered a necessity 😉 )

I did have some allowances for the year! Things I could do and things I could get that aren’t really necessities;

Books – I could buy up to 10 books/magazines – I bought one physical book, and two or three e-books

Eating out – the goal was to cut down to half the amount of times we (a friend and I) eat out compared to 2013 – we didn’t quite manage, as we only cut 39% on times. But what we did manage was to cut the amount we spent, with more than 50%, which was ultimately the goal.

Flowers and plants – The goal for 2014 was to cut down to procuring less than half of what I normally would – Done 🙂 I did even better than half as I cut my procurement of plants for the garden closer to 70% compared to any other years.

So all in all, I would say that I passed my goals for 2014!

Did I pass with flying colours? Hmmm, probably not, I’m sure I could have done better, but I’m pretty happy 🙂

 

Preparing for the Holiday season!

It’s that time a year, where everyone is scrambling around like “Looney Tunes” trying to get everything done before the holiday starts.

And I can’t say I’m any different. Just a week ago, I thought I had all the time in the world, all I had to do was clean the house, wrap some presents, buy some food and a Christmas tree, and decorate a little and I would be done. But somehow, somewhere along the way, I’ve ended up with, not enough time, before Christmas.

It might have something to do with doing errands for everyone else BUT me! Let me explain;

It’s coming down to the wire at my step-mums new place, the people that are doing the renovation should be more or less done. So much so, that we have had to go down several times this last week, just to keep an eye out and point out the things that are missing or that we are not happy with. For some reason, ever time we are there, 2-3 hours goes real quickly.

While hanging around the new place, I was told that I had promised that I would fix up the new front door with some teak oil! I can’t quite remember that, but I’m sure it must be right, guess it slipped my mind 🙂 Giving a couple of things that the workers have not done up to specifications,  I can see a few other tasks that will be coming my way also, right after the holidays… among them, putting the kitchen fronts (we picked them up this week) back on the cabinets.

Yesterday, the family all had lunch together, and somewhere during the conversations it seems like I got another handyman job or two for my step-sister as well…. there was some lamps that needs to be hung, some TV cables that needs to be extended and hidden?

Even a bed frame I needed to pick up at a store because her car is not big enough!!! And for your information, I drive a convertible, a huge car, not… and hers is bigger than mine… I think they found out that if I took the top of it would work out perfectly  for the transportation. I’m telling you, there is nothing that will be transported in my car as long as it’s raining outside 😉

So you can see how I went from thinking I had all the time in the world, to suddenly not… I did however find the time to get a Christmas tree, one for me, and one for my step-mum 🙂

Today though, I’m putting my foot down!

I need a day to sort out a few things, to; clean my house, change my bed, wash some clothing, iron, in general tidy, wrap some Christmas gifts and maybe even consider starting to put out some of my few Christmas decorations.

So that’s what I’m doing today! And now my washing machine is yelling at me that it’s done, so I gotta run…

See ya!!

 

An utter mess…

With all these small projects I have going, you know… the photo collection, my dads boxes, DVD project and collection all sorts of stuff in boxes for my neighbour to have a look, before I get rid of them, my house is in shambles. Serious shambles! And I just can’t procrastinate any more (which I have done a serious job at the last couple of days), and today I just need to get it done.

Do you ever find that you have so many things you are working on at one time, that you are suddenly overwhelmed with stuff?

Well that’s been me (and my living room) the last week or so. Right now I have so much photo stuff stacked around my living room table that I can hardly get to my sofa any more, without stepping over piles. Or for that sake put down my morning tea, without having to move several stacks away..  even just writing this post I have to dig out some space on my table for my pc…

Well enough of that, I’m going to put everything back where it came from, clean up the place and start over, one item at the time, one box, one album!

I might not have the same progress on the projects (you know – out of sight, out of mind) but at least I’ll have some piece of mind when I’m sitting in my living room.

Oh yeah, I should probably let you in on one more incentive! My neighbours mum is coming over on Friday for a cup of coffee… another good reason to get my house in order, wouldn’t you say? 😉

It’s decided…

that today marks the start of my two months hiatus from work! 

You might have noticed that my posts have been far and far between the last month and a half… and there are reasons…!

What most of you don’t know is that I have some health problems that stop me from going to work full time. Mostly because my work entails a lot of time in front of computers, and if there is one thing I shouldn’t really be doing… it’s spending a lot of time in front of the computer! (Which really “sucks” when you want to spend time on your blog 😉 )

Let me backtrack just for a second to get you up to speed!

Early 2010 I was working on an really stressful project at work. Throw in a general problem with back/shoulder/neck, due to poor posture and a couple accidents over the years, loads of laptop work in meeting rooms with non-adjustable chairs, and you have a receipt for disaster. And before I knew it, I found myself with some tense and painful shoulders “up around my ears”, and even as slow as I can be when it comes to health, I decided I needed to do something about them.

In a roundabout way I found myself at a physical therapists office, August 4th the same year. And I have no idea what the heck she pushed, but she just about put me in the hospital, with the worse headache/migraine I had ever had in my life (and I suffer from migraines). I was pretty much a basket case, barely knowing my name, waking up the next morning, it was that bad! And unfortunately, since that day, August 4th, 2010 I have had 24/7 headaches.

Fast forward and I have tried all sorts of treatments, medications, shots and working part-time. It’s been slow going and today I’m way, and I mean waaaay better than where I started. But I’m still longing for the day when I’ll have a full day (or even a few hours) without a headache 😉

Lately, I’ve come to realise that I’m heading in the wrong direction again! Since around Christmas I’ve slowly been getting worse, with a substantial change the last couple of months. All I can do as soon as I get home from work is pretty much sleeping away the rest of the evening, and that’s no way to live!!!

So I’ve made a decision! To prioritise treatment and training over work the next few months.

My neurologist and I have decided that I have 5 “priorities”, which are (no specific order):

  • Treatment
  • Training/workout
  • Work
  • No medication
  • and some energy left over for me personally

As it is these days, I can only seem to partly do 3 out of 5 (and unfortunately, not even well).

So today I’m starting up with a new scheme (can’t give up you know 😉 ) I’m back on medication for a short while, I’m starting up with an osteopath, I will still continue to go to my naprapath, and I have arranged some training with my personal trainer at my sports centre.

My neurologist made me a 5 months plan for my priorities (I have done a quick redraw to put it into English):

5 month plan


So why am I telling you about this?

Well I’m not really sure, maybe it’s to explain why I have been doing so poorly with my blog lately. Why I’ve done nothing about clearing out stuff in June. Maybe it’s a part of moving forward and realizing that health and well-being should be a high priority in one’s life. And maybe I’m even telling you about this, as a gentle nudge to others out there, to not get themselves into this type of situation…

I’ve been struggling with the decision of prioritizing me over everything else, including work. I’m one of those (idiots) that have work as a number 1 priority in life, at the expense of a lot of things including me and my health.

Enough is enough, and on my minimalistic path, I’ve done some thinking about what things add value to my life, and what things are not worth keeping.

Now I’m not saying that work should go out the window (I do need that pay check), but I’ve come to realise – not at any cost, and definable not at the cost of my health. I shouldn’t need to be on medication and sleep my evenings away, just so that I can go to work as much as I do.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my job a lot, and that is part of the problem, I like it so much I have not listened to my body’s signals to slow down, until it was too late. And here I am, 4 years later and still not back to 100%. And I can promise you, that nobody at work is ever going to thank us, for sacrificing life for work 😉

It’s time to find a better balance! And for all I know, my better balance might be only working 50% days. Or maybe taking this break is exactly what I need, to turn a corner and get back to healthy.

I don’t know the answer, but for now, I’m giving this a try.

And for all of you out there who are prioritizing everything else but health!

Do not, and I mean do NOT be an idiot (like me) ignoring your body when it’s trying to tell you something. I did, for too long, and see where it has gotten me! Absolutely nowhere!

Ignoring excessive stress/pain for too long can result in poor health, chronic pain, loss of life quality and not to mention that it also most likely will give you loads of medical bills and can even affect your income down the line.

So please, please – take care of yourselves!

 

Out with the old – in with the new!

Ice cream with silver specks? Nope, no more, absolutely not!! I’m done, my dear old ice cream scoop, I’m done picking silver paint out of my ice cream.

You have worked really hard over the years, spooned tons of ice cream, to me and my friends, and I really appreciate it, but it’s time to let you go.

I’m sure you don’t mind, me swapping your worn body out, for a new green shiny ice cream scooper thingy 😉

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