Skin Conditions Challenge - Task 1

Before I start this post, I must DECLARE that NONE of my hubby's photos had gone through editing to try to make his skin conditions look better.
These photos are as RAW as they can be.
Did not use professional camera.
 Only my Samsung Note 2 phone camera.
Unless you consider THAT as a professional camera too. *slap forehead*

By the way, if you know me long enough.
You know I would not do things that will tarnish my reputation.

Being the straightforward me, 
if something works, I will say it works,
if something does not, I will say it did not work on me.

No point cheating and lying.
Do not see any good in doing such things.

Alright, enough of all that.
Get down to the main purpose for today's post.

Hubby thinks its fun to have half of his face looking nicer than the other half. *laugh*
So you can always treat us to a cup of coffee, *laugh* and check him out in person, if you are those who need to SEE the real thing, TO BELIEVE that it is true.

This year, I am determined to improve my hubby's skin. 
As he will be turning 40 soon, his skin condition reflects the signs of aging significantly.
Not that I am against aging, but if there is a way to let one age "nicely" WITHOUT harming one's health, why not, right?

Having wrinkles, dark spots are not in the "nice" group definitely.
So I took up a Skin Conditions Challenge which I set for myself to try to improve hubby's skin.

Knowing that he, like most men, is lazy when it comes to skin care, I had to think of a way that is SO EASY, he will STICK TO IT!

Once in the morning.
Once at night.

With his cooperation, results started to show in a week!
But I was not convinced.
You know, I am that type of people who will try almost anything and choose to trust whatever that was said is true, when it concerns improving skin conditions.

So I will buy and I will try.
Without trying, how would one know if it works, isn't?!

I do not like to prejudge.
I do not like to make a conclusion WITHOUT trying it.

However, hubby's signs of aging is more significant than mine, so I chose to try on him first.
*laugh*

As usual, hubby was supportive.
Oh well, what has he got to lose anyway?
If it works, he has better looking skin.
If it does not, just stop.
No big deal.

Like I had said earlier, results started to show after 1 week.
However, I was still not convinced.
I gave myself a 1-month challenge.
So had been keeping quiet about this until yesterday, officially 1 month after the date he first applied..

The following photos were taken yesterday. I started working on the LEFT side of my hubby's face on 28th March 2014:

Can you tell the difference in the DEPTH of his wrinkles?

Cannot???

Let me CIRCLE them for you..........

To me, the MOST obvious part was the deep lines on his forehead.
Hubby is probably one of the cheekiest man I had met thus far.
With him making all sorts of naughty facial expressions at me every now and then, its understandable why he has such deep lines when he has not reach his 40s yet.
*giggle*

Alright, enough of his side views.

Here's the front :

The difference between the lines on the right and left of the forehead become more obvious after I included the line in the center.

As I looked at the above photos, one thing struck me.
HIS DARK EYE RINGS!!!!

Skin Conditions Challenge - Task 1 - Wrinkles.
Done!

Next, Dark Eye Rings!
Let's see if my next challenge will work on his panda eyes....
Hhhmmm.....
*fingers crossed*

=======

Actually, this has been going on in the Market for years already.

My friend used it on her droppy-wrinkled belly after child-birth.
It firmed up her belly.
Stretched marks were lightened significantly too.

Another friend's friend used it on his dark-protruding scar and it lightened it up!

I have photos of those, but because of Singapore's rules, I cannot post on my blog or any of my social media accounts because I am not the owner of the photo.
Well, I guess that is fair.
But if you are curious, can always let me know and I can show you the photos privately.

======

Giving myself 1 month again to make his panda eyes lighter....
*Game Face On*


Skin Conditions Challenge - Task 1

Review on First Visit to Jem

Heard so much of the latest big shopping mall in Jurong East : Jem
So we went there for lunch on purpose and took a stroll inside as well.

We were at the Jem junction at 2:12pm yesterday.

But before we could even get in, we were stuck in the 'car queue' outside Jem, waiting to get in.
We thought the carpark was full, but after waiting for 14mins and could finally enter, we saw a number of empty lots in the carpark.


 I wonder if there is any miscommunication somewhere between the staff who was on the road preventing cars from entering the carpark and the staff who is watching out for empty lots in the carpark.
I am sure there is miscommunication somewhere, because when we entered, the screen showed "Lots Available : 68".
 In fact, we found empty lots just NEXT to the travellator that leads us to the shops! Those are what I call "Prime Lots", very difficult to get.

I hope they would settle this problem soon as it really irks shoppers who drive there; well, it did make us want to drive out of the long car queue and just drive off to the nearby IMM which has ample parking lots during this time of the day : Past 2pm.

=========

Well, we persevered and finally got in.
Finding a place to sit in the Cook House (foodcourt at level 5) was easy, but the waiting time to get our food was tough!
It was a terrible experience from the pasta store, the wait was way too long for us. From not hungry to hungry!

Though the kids' food did not need to wait as long as hubby's and mine, the kids said that their fishball noodles did not taste nice.
Maybe the choices we made yesterday happened to steer off the track.
*shrugged*
 
So it was Thumbs Down for our experience at Cook House.





The stroll in Jem was ok.
Nothing really made us go "Wow" though.
We were just very surprised to see a couple of brands which have shops in JCube are also in Jem too; when the two malls are just an mrt track plus a small stretch of road away. Isn't that too near? Lack of variety for shoppers in Jurong East, I feel.

But I must say that I like the variety or brands of restaurants that were in Jem.
I liked 90% of them!
*wink*

We started off on the wrong foot with the long car queue outside Jem.
Did not expect to end it with another problem too.
The car infront of us had problem with the carpark barrier. It just refused to raise to let the car exit.
So we went to the other barrier next to it, same thing happened to us.
We had to drive forward and backward a few times, then insert and re-insert our cashcard into the IU a couple of times, before the barrier could FINALLY raise to let us go.

Hubby said: "If there isn't a need to be here, I would not want to come here again."
Sad to say, I agree.
Though I may like the selection of restaurants here, but they are also available at other shopping malls that give shoppers who drive a more pleasant experience.

So unless they solve this 'car queue' issue, we will not be going there again.....

First Time Using Daily Disposable Lenses

Over the past few months, my eyes had become very sensitive.
Totally no clue as to why or what is causing it.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with a swollen left eye.
The white area of my eyeball was puffed up.
It looked as if someone had injected liquid into it.

The black area of my eyeball was still in good condition.
Thank Goodness!
Or else I would have been half-blind the whole of yesterday.

The white part was so swelled up that I had problem closing my left eye.
When my eyelid drops down, it felt like it was the bread of a sandwich, with the white part as the fillings.
GROSS!

I felt so and so did my boys.
Exact same comment "GROSS!"

It was not painful nor itchy.
It just felt uncomfortable.

A friend of mine saw my condition and believed that the culprit might had been my contact lens.
Hhhmmm... which reminded me that it was probably overdue!
Ooops!

Ever since I started wearing contact lenses more than 20 years ago,
monthly disposable contact lenses were my only choice and I wore them every single day.

It was only towards the end of last year that I stopped wearing them on a regular basis.
I wore my glasses more often instead.
In fact, I hardly wear contact lenses anymore, probably twice a week or thrice at most.



Thus I thought it would be more practical and economical to switch to daily disposable lenses.
Bought them more than one month ago but decided to keep them till my monthly disposable ones ran out.

As if to welcome me to the Daily Disposable Lenses group, I received this cute hand towel from the sweet optometrist.
What a surprise!
Guessed I would not be using it to wipe my hands, 'cos too cute!
*laugh*

My swollen left eye took ONE WHOLE day to recover.
It only got well this morning after many drops of EYEMO yesterday.

At 8.15am today, I could finally close my left eye without having the feeling of it being like a hamburger, with a thick meat in the center.

However, the strain was still there.
Not painful type of strain, but tiredness type of strain.

Before we went out for dinner just now, I decided to throw away my overdue contact lenses and tried out the daily disposable lenses for the very first time.

The 'fitting' did not feel as good as my monthly disposable contact lense, but hey, it definitely felt 'fresher'.
*Thumb Up*

Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

--> Ooohhhh....this took way too long to get out of my draft box.
I think its almost two months overdue.

Ever since I saw the robotic vacuum cleaner advert on TV, I was already shouting inside, "I must get one of these!"
However, the price of the super robot held me back for many months till I chanced upon this 'Inova Robotic Vacuum Cleaner' at a shopping mall which I had not visited for years.


This, made in Taiwan product, costs only $189, about $200 lesser than the ones I saw on TV and on those coupon sites; and almost $600 lesser than the branded ones sold in reputable mega malls.
Yes, the brand is not the same and some functions are different or lacking in mine compared to those.
However, my focus is I-Want-To-Try-Out!

I do not care if its made in China or made in some third world country, nor do I care if its a Korean brand, Japanese brand or other ku-cheng-ku-rak brand, I ONLY CARE IF IT WORKS to meet my requirement.

I would not want to spend $700 to try out something or anything for that matter, if it did not meet my requirement.
If it failed to deliver what I want, then it would truly be a waste of money!

However, I think $189 for a try-out seemed ok for me or for us.
Yes, buying any home equipment should be a family thing, not an individual thing.
We often ask each other's opinion and wait for a nod before we buy anything for home.
*smile*

Months BEFORE purchasing this, I came to know another friend who had already bought one robotic vacuum cleaner (different brand) from one of the coupon sites. Her review was, "Its good. Really clean. However, when it comes to long hair, there is some issue getting into the suction unit."

I remembered what she said and we were thrilled when the shop owner suggested, "Come in, I can do a demonstration for you." I was happy to find long strands of hair in the suction bin after the robotic vacuum cleaner did its trial run. *thumbs up*

There was also another model (same brand) that charges itself automatically whenever the battery is running low, but we were not interested. We wanted to TRY-OUT, so were not willing to pay another $100 more.
Thus without hesitation, we bought this Inova Robotic Vacuum Cleaner for $189 right after the demonstration was over.

==========

Oh my!

1st try and we LOVED IT!!!!

Though it takes 4 hours to make it move for 50mins seemed a little off-balance, but hey, it does what its supposed to do within that time frame and DOES IT REALLY WELL!

Look at the result of our first vacuum :~

By the way, the floor had just be cleaned a couple of days ago only.

It does its trick best at those HARD-TO-REACH places or often neglected areas of the house.
The 'reflex' at the front is so sensitive that a simple touch is all it takes to make it change direction.
NO Scratch on my furnitures or wall skirtings whatsoever!
love Love LOVE!
But what I love best is the NO-FALL-OVER function! *smile*

My in-laws came to visit us at our rented flat a couple of weeks ago and hubby put the 'little bug' to work and the old folks LOVED IT!!!!
My FIL was so funny! He remarked, "Hey, it knocked my feet and didn't say sorry!"
*Huge Laugh*

My MIL told us to buy one for her.
We were more than happy to give the old folks some sort of relief from their housework in their BIG House. They stay in a JUMBO unit, the BIGGEST unit you can find in a HDB flat, other than the Maisonette in Jurong, with their eldest son's family of 5.
Only the two old folks are taking care of the cleanliness of the house, not easy.
*salute*

You know, how some old folks are not receptive to new things... well, we were very happy when they were willing to give this a go.
We wanted to give them as a present, but FIL insist on paying us back.

Oh well, so long as they are happy......does not really matter who took the trouble and who paid for it I guess....
*smile*

Now, their "spider", that is the name my FIL gave it, works hard for them on alternate days in their 4 bedrooms, 1 kitchen and HUGE living room. I called it "my FIL's pet" because he WATCHES it as it works, unlike me, I leave it to do its job.
He would lock it in each room for 5 mins each before he allows it to roam around the living room till the battery runs out.
He is having fun alright. *giggle*

He too, remarked that his "spider" cleans better than him.
*laugh*

However, my 3rd niece was not as happy as we are.
She said, "If it can charge for 50mins and move for 4 hours, that would be better."
I replied, "Why don't you invent one? I'll definitely buy from you!"
*wink*








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Fibre Broadband, is it really better? ~ My Experience

At the first hour of today 5th July 2012, we managed to get it working. Yes at 12+am it worked, even though it was sent to us at 2.25pm yesterday.

Why did we take so long to get it to work?

Well, because we did not know anything about Fibre Broadband and though the M1 staff gave us lots of details on the monetary side of things, there was none on the technical side of things. To me, terms like Fibre Optic Broadband, Fibre Broadband, OpenNet, FibreNet, are so confusing. Are they the same? I really do not bother. All I care about is will it work better than cable broadband.

My hubby and I are price-driven kind of people, but when it comes to technical stuff, we prefer to seek advice before we decide and NOT look at price to make a decision.
We are far from being labeled as 'Internet Savvy'. Allan is happy knowing how to get to his emails and Facebook games, while I am happy so long as I can work on my blogs and communicate with friends and loved ones through Facebook, Skype and MSN chat.

After putting up a question on OpenNet on my Facebook, friends started contributing like a river.

***With the privacy of my friends in mind, I decided to take away their names and profile picture for this post.

So after 'hearing' so much, we decided to sign up for M1 Fibre Broadband service.

When we were at the M1 shop about a week ago, I remembered that the ONLY technical question I asked the M1 staff was, "So after the installation, I can surf the Internet immediately, right?"
The smiley staff said, "Yes."
 Errrrmm..... only half true for us.

With just the modem provided by M1, ONLY 1 PC/Laptop can be used with a cable connecting the two devices.
We needed to buy a router in order to use Fibre Broadband on all the devices at home which includes 1 PC, 1 Laptop, 1 smartphone and 1 iPad.

And the router is NOT provided by M1.

We need to buy from those IT shops.

And its NOT any router, it MUST BE an N Router.

Maybe to some of you, this is common sense.
But for us, who are totally aliens to such things, we had NO IDEA MAN!

So we decided to buy the N Router when we fetch our younger son from school at 6pm.
That costs us another $69.00 and did I mention that the startup cost is REALLY HIGH for Fibre Broadband compared to Cable Broadband?
In fact, even when one decides to stop using the service, even after contract is over, there is still an amount to pay.
Hhhhmmmm.......

We did not need to pay a cent when we sign up at the M1 shop, as the charges will be reflected in our bill. I am still waiting for my bill to come. He said lots of "pay this and that", but we did not really pay attention to the details, because we knew we wanted this service, so we had to pay whatever that needs to be paid. So seriously, errr.... I do not really know what is the damage like.

Would probably come back later to update this post after I received my bill. *shrugged*




I signed up with M1 when they were having the $39-a-month promotions for 100Mbps.
They gave me a free fixed phone line.
With this free fixed phone line, I can cancel the Singtel phone line, which I am paying about $20+ every 3 months.

And M1 also threw in another mobile broadband plan of $5 per month for 1GB, which is perfect for me because my monthly usage hardly reaches 1GB and I was paying $36.38 every month for Starhub's mobile broadband plan.
Thus with this, Starhub lost one customer. I called to cancel the service the VERY Day I signed up with M1, and replaced the Starhub sim card with M1's into my HuaWei Mobile WiFi gadget.

Though the one time startup cost might have been on the high side, but in the long run, I save more money with the 'throw ins' that came with this M1 Fibre broadband promotion.
Whoo-hoo!
*clap clap clap*

Ok, so is Fibre Broadband better than Cable Broadband?

In my opinion, yes for speed, but no for space! *laugh*
There I go again.... for most things in life, there is always good and bad....

Now we have to make space for two gadgets instead of one previously.

In the past, we just pluck the telephone line into the router and Ta-Daa, can connect to the internet, for everyone in the house.
But now, we need to have the modem AND the router and none of them stands up vertically, so I need to make space for them to lie flat.
Hhhmmm....

The MOST AMAZING PART WAS..... *drum roll* 

I could upload my videos onto YouTube at a much Much MUCH FASTER SPEED!!!

This might sound crazy, but its truly my experience.
For the past few months, a five minute long video can take up to 3 hours to upload!!!

And today, I uploaded 11 videos of average length of 3 minutes each and it only take 15mins!!!

*Jaws Dropped*

Just by this alone, I am happy with my decision!
Yeah!

As for Allan, the downloading of his online videos and his Facebook Games also load up faster too.
Yeah!

So its Double Yeah for Us!
Yes, it has been less than 24 hours with my Fibre Broadband, but I am already LOVING IT!
*wink*

Does Evian Water Improve Skin Complexion?

This is the follow up of the test I did in this post "Evian Water is Good For Skin, True?"

From then till now, I had tried using it in 3 different ways:~

1. Using it as a Toner only
2. Drinking and using it as a Toner after every facial wash
3. Drinking alone

and eventually not drinking nor using it at all!

Experiment 1: Using it as a Toner only
I have the tenancy of getting rid of my blackheads or whiteheads whenever I see them, right after facial wash. When all the squeezing or pricking is over, my face would appear red and slightly blotchy, which would usually subside after approximately 24hours. But when I use Evian on a cotton pad and wipe my skin after the 'self-blackhead-removing-treatment', the blotchy-ness subsided in 2 hours! Amazing!

Experiment 2: Drinking and using it as a Toner after every facial wash

The result was simply amazing! I had no more acne outbreaks, only very few small pimples, which gets 'matured' very quickly and hence was easy to get rid of. And these small pimples only appear like maybe one pimple in 10days. In my case, it is considered wonderful!

I used to have acne outbreaks very frequently due to my late nights and especially when the time is near to my menstruation period. After drinking and using it as a Toner after every facial wash, even with late nights, I do not have anymore acne outbreaks. Hooray!

The best part is, whenever my pimples or acne subsides, the scar remains on my face for months; but after trying this Experiment 2, pimples scars disappeared in a few days. Pretty miraculous! I think partly also due to the size of the pimples, as I have mentioned earlier, which were much smaller and easier to get rid of.

Experiment 3: Drinking alone

No more acne outbreaks but pimples scars take a much longer time to subside.

Last Experiment: Not using nor drinking it at all

It was HORRIBLE!!!!
Everything came right back to how it used to be!
I did not want to be dependent on Evian water, but after stopping completely for almost 2 weeks, my face looks terrible now!
4 acnes came out in a single day!

The scars did not clear up nor lighten. Yes, I admit that my late nights lifestyle is a crucial factor to my skin complexion, but I did not change my lifestyle when I tried the first 3 experiments. I continued the same diet, the same sleeping time, the same more stressful life because lots of changes were going on in the family and house.
Now I am so sick of my face and I am going to attend a friends gathering in 2 days time. *scream* It looks so bad now!
Its not even two full weeks yet since the day I stopped using or drinking Evian water and the difference is so drastic!

My Verdict:

I really cannot stand the face I am looking at when I stand in front of the mirror and I do not think I want to leave it as it is. So I think I will go to the supermarket later today to get my Evian Water skin treatment back. The only sad thing is the expense I have to spend on my face.
If there are no promotion, one big bottle of Evian water cost around $2.60, multiple that with 30 days would give me a damage of $78 per month. Wow! *heart pain*

Maybe I will try to make one big bottle of Evian Water last for 2 days instead of 1 day. Then the cost would be lessen by half = $39 each month. Hhhmmm... that sounds better.

How my face looks, directly affects my self esteem. I am already unhappy with my features and with a bad complexion, it just brings my confidence level even lower and I am NOT going to let that happen. Humph!

Alright, that's it for now. For those my blog readers who had been asking me about my experience with Evian water, here you have it! All in one post! *wink*

Hope this helps!
Cheers to great complexion!


***This is NOT a paid post.

Evening Gown For Wedding Dinner

Evening Gown for Wedding Dinner

Oh yes!
Finally the search is over!

Never thought it would be THIS tough, just to get a nice dress, a presentable evening gown for my sister's wedding.
Now that my parents are no longer with us. We are each other's only kin. It Almost feels like my daughter is getting married. *laugh*

First I went through Daniel Yam's collection and those which caught my eyes were way off my budget. Well, you can say I am stingy. Yet, to spend nearly $200 for a dress which I am pretty sure I would only wear ONCE, is definitely off my scale of sensible shopping habits.

Then I went to Far East Plaza and combed every single shop. Found a purple shimmering evening gown that was SIMPLY PERFECT!
Perfect fitting other than the length is too long. Oh no, let me correct myself, because I was too short, so alteration is required and the seamstress cum boss of the shop insists that I pay extra $50 for the alteration of the length, on top of the so-called discounted price of $180.

*faint*
Evening Gown for Wedding Dinner

Of 'cos, I walked out of the shop without hesitation.

Throughout the whole time, I have been going online to search for my 'Perfect Evening Gown', but no where near...

If you are thinking that my expectations are too high, why don't you judge for yourself?
I want an evening gown that is:-

1. Not too loud, NO crystals, NO sequins, NO lace, NO embroidery of any sort. Just fabric, fabric and fabric alone.
2. I need it to be long because I would be 'running around' entertaining guests and doing all sorts of errands, so the last thing I want to worry about is whether I have bent too low in risk of revealing my undies. I just want to be comfortable running around with it.
3. Does not cost more than $150

Yup! That's it!
Its that too much to ask for?
Well, I thought it was not, but I was wrong, it seemed that its TOO SIMPLE to be found. *faint*

Then I went Dress Sense. A place where you can rent, buy or rent first and buy later if you like the dress so much, that you want to keep it. To my shock! EVERY single piece of long dress has glitters sewn on them! No way will I wear them! Too loud!
Evening Gown for Wedding Dinner
Just when I have given up hope as I walked out of Dress Sense, I turned my head slightly and saw OCCASION!
A smaller shop with a totally contrasting soft coloured shop layout as compared to the dark coloured Dress Sense shop outlook.

Loved the service,

love the dress selections,

love the price because they ONLY had discounts for Mastercard holders and I have nothing except ONE Mastercard! *laugh*

And as if my lucky day was not lucky enough, I found a matching pair of shoes, which was the LAST PAIR available and it was MY SIZE!!!

The heels were just high enough to lift the dress off the floor slightly so that I would not tripped over when I walk. Hooray!

To make my day even better, the price of the shoe was slashed from $98 to $38!!!

So in a single shop, I settled my Evening Gown and my matching Shoes as well!!! *Super clap clap clap*
or should I say Jump for Joy! Jump for Joy!

Alright, after blubbering so much, here's THE Evening Gown I bought for my sister's wedding:

 

 

Seafood in Johor Bahru

Although we had a disappointing Wedding Anniversary Lunch at Friends Restaurant @Jelita, the celebration was well compensated by our sumptuous Seafood Dinner at Johor Bahru.

First time driving in on our own without anyone guiding us and able to get home safely after being lost for more than 2 hours, is simply fascinating! The sense of satisfaction we felt is beyond words can describe.

Read about our Adventure in my parenting blog under the blog post "Anniventure"

We are so determined to go back again and we believe, this time we have finally figured out the right way there and will not get lost again, but yet to be tested. So once the route-in-our-heads has been proven, I will share the route with all of you. *smile*

After parking the car on the sand-cum-stone open space, we were greeted by a tree with beautiful flashing lights and lovely night view of the sea.

Picture of the eating area was taken while we were walking across the long wooden bridge towards the restaurant.

Picture of the tree was taken from our seats. The row of orange-y lights is a reflection of the wooden bridge which separated the parking space and the restaurant.

We could see the 'very vacant' competing restaurant from our seats.

If you are hoping to get food standard like what Jumbo Seafood restaurant serves, then you would be disappointed with Restoran Todak. In my opinion, the food is tasty but not super shiok, except for the Black Pepper Crab. We intend to try their Chilli Crab on our next visit.

Ordering the fish was hilarious. 

The nice waitress in her early 40s were telling us all types of fish available. 

Then she asked, "Do you want fish reared by us or from the sea."

We gave her the 'blank' face.

Then she continued to explain that there are different categories of fish-from-the-sea.

We gave her 'blank' face again!

*laugh*

In the end, we simply said, "Deep fry the shi-ban without any spice or chili, because the fish is meant for the kids."

She smiled and jot down without hesitation.

 

Deep Fried Fish in soya sauce.

Cereal Prawn

Mayonnaise YouTiao

Black Pepper Crab

I love the Prices more than anything else. But it has been said that they would raise the price during Weekends. Luckily, our Wedding Anniversary this year fell on a Weekday.

We were very lucky to be seating right next to the mini washing basin. The kids find it amusing that the 'dirty' water from their hands goes straight down to the sea.

When we were there, it was still low tide. We could see the sand or sea bed very very clearly. In fact, you could walk on it (if you dare).

While we enjoyed our dinner, we witnessed the disappearance of the seabed. By the end of our meal, the sea bed was totally buried under water. It was easily 1 to 2 meters deep. Our 'Kelong Seafood' restaurant sits on a wooden platform, which is about 3 to 4 meters from the sea bed.

Our first visit cost us approximately SGD$50+ for the food and drinks.

Restoran Todak, we will be back real soon! Cheers!

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