We’ve just had two mates join us for the weekend from London – and it reminded me again that we are actually living the most fantastic adventure! They arrived on Thursday morning, and spent the day missioning around Zamalek (the island in the middle of the Nile), and then headed to Khan el Khalili (the most enormous market – which is famous for the amount of haggling you have to do).

 

As soon as I finished work on Thursday evening, we jumped on a felucca and had sundowners and snacks while sailing down the Nile. This was the start of a rather enormous night, which included dinner at Sequoia (an open air restaurant perched on the edge of the Nile with big white couches, specializing in sushi and sheesha), drinks and dancing at Mojito’s (an open air bar on the 32nd floor of the Hilton Hotel with a view over the roof tops of the city and the Nile) and ended up on our balcony at home. This is where it ended for me, but the boys walked down to the Nile and watched the sun rise from the banks, and then decided that breakfast at the Four Seasons would be a fabulous idea (I hate to think what they looked like!).

 

We went quad-biking in the desert the next day – but quad-biking with a difference: no rules (no helmets, no liability release forms, no speed / direction limitations) – and we were quad biking through the desert past the step Pyramids (the oldest Pyramids in Egypt). Unbelievable – the best hangover cure in the world. (We also drove past 2 missiles that were poised and ready for firing in this fenced off area – one has to wonder what else is hiding in these deserts!)

 

The rest of our weekend included a pool party at a friend’s house in Katameya (the golf course similar to Dainfern on steroids), a trip to the Citadel and a tour of Coptic Cairo. All in all, we got to do some really awesome things, and it just reminded me that even 6 months into our adventure we haven’t even scratched the surface of what Egypt has to offer!

 

This week we have a fashion show to attend (everyone is very excited about the fact that there is a dress code: casual chic!) and then we head to the Red Sea for a weekend of scuba diving (there are about 20 of us who have hired a live-aboard for someone’s birthday – bring on the cake and champagne!)

 

So yes, we have a social life (have tapped into the expat world of British Gas, Vodafone and embassy officials). Luke is playing soccer this evening at the British Embassy (which is next door to our house) and we are heading to the Queen’s birthday ball in June (black tie – sooo excited to whip out my ball dress!)

 

On the work front – we continue to bash our heads against brick walls, and spend a lot of time breathing deeply (to prevent seriously injuring various colleagues). So that is not so cool – but again, this is all part of the experience, and it comes with the territory. Moving on has certainly crossed our minds, but for now we are staying put…

Between Luke and I, we have a lot of family and friends to visit when we pop to the UK for 5 days… So it ended up being one of those trips where we needed a holiday to recover from our holiday…

We jumped on a plane and headed to Heathrow on 29 April, where we promptly missed our bus to Southampton (do not trust Egypt Air – actually do trust that they will run at least 2 hours late, no matter where they fly to). So at midnight, we had to mission around and hire a car and figure out directions to mum’s house in Hamble. This was actually surprisingly easy – it’s amazing how accustomed you get to things being incredibly difficult in Cairo (I didn’t even suffer one sense of humour failure – surprising, considering the highway that we had mapped out on a large piece of paper with the help of a very patient dude at Avis, had been closed, and then Luke decided to show me “an amazing British institution”  (a petrol station) en route – which meant we got in at about 2am).

We arrived to a beautiful house over looking Hamble river filled with 4 people on about bottle of wine number 5. No problem – we joined in, and managed to get enough wine down our gullets to ensure a headache the next day…

Hamble is the most beautiful little village – completely dedicated to yachting (I had the best chocolate brownie at the yacht club cafe – a little room filled with yachties covered in water-proof everything, as it was bucketing down, and they insisted on pretending that they didn’t notice). I managed to get my hair done and have a facial without having to get in the car! 

Mum lives next door to some famous football players from Portsmouth (sorry, wish I could tell you their names, but I’m just not that into it), and thought it was quite funny that Mike regularly craps on them for parking outside his front door!

Luke disappeared to visit some of his family the next day, and I went with mum and Mike to be officially introduced to Tom. Tom (or Tim, as some like to call him for no particular reason other than to wind various people up) is Stu’s horse – who is really cute! Stu popped him around some cross country jumps, and then stuck him back into his pink and grey lorry (it even has a double bed, kitchenette and dining room table) and took him home.

Then we popped off to check out Badminton - which is amazing! We watched some of the dressage, and walked the cross country course – which is just beautiful! I have never seen such fairy tale grounds before in my life – Vergelegen looks like my back yard in comparison! Absolutely breath taking, and really quite exciting to be shown around by someone in the know (not sure how Stu does it, but everyone that looked sort of official would say hi…) I also managed to purchase the most beautiful pair of woolly leather boots / wellies – and can’t wait to go somewhere cold enough for me to wear them!

Then we dashed to a pub for dinner with…. wait for it – Luke’s dad, stepmum, two half brothers, my brother, mum and mike…. So much easier to lump everyone together – and it was fairly festive.

I spent the night with Luke’s family. We went go-carting the next day (I whipped Luke’s ass – he will deny that), and then proceeded to play with Luke’s brother’s ferrets with them while Luke went to a meeting.

And then (phew, I’m getting tired just writing this down) we headed to London – picked up Dave en route in Oxford, and arrived at Brussels’ house in time to be very fashionably late for dinner with a whole crew of mates!

We ended up having the most enormous night (we both let our hair down properly – hadn’t done anything like that for a while, and it was just too much fun to be around mates again!). We were a very sorry sight heading to the airport the next day (don’t drive in London – it is not advisable if you love the person you are going to fight with when you get lost), and perhaps even sorrier when we arrived at work the next day!

But what fun!

 

I am battling to get back into the swing of things, and so many things can change so quickly when you are not watching…

Dad and Margs came to visit – we spent 4 days being tour guides in Cairo (well, 2 days and 2 evenings being tour guides). It’s quite strange having to do that – I wasn’t sure what to show them – there’s just so much out there. We ended up sending them to the Egyptian Museum, where they managed to pick up a good tour guide by chance, and then sent them to the Pyramids for the day with a tour guide that was recommended to us (note a day at the Pyramids is not for those scared of heat and dust!)

The rest of the time we went to our favourite restuarants, had a picnic sailing down the Nile, and played some golf.

Then we were treated by Dad to a week at the Four Seasons in Sharm el Sheikh – sheer bliss! It is a green oasis of an hotel in the middle of a vast desert, with views from the rooms through palm trees onto a sea that is such a startling blue that it doesn’t look like a sea at all.

We spent our time scuba diving and lounging at the pool and eating and drinking and sleeping.  

I never thought I actaully liked scuba diving (thought the effort of getting to the bottom of the ocean far outweighed the enjoyment once down there), but I have never experienced such hassle free diving with such a large reward at the end of the rainbow (rays, amazing gulleys of colourful corral on either side, stone fish, lion fish, glass fish - all things that look cool to an amateur diver)

It also helps that at the Four Seasons they make diving so hassle free – all you have to do is walk to the beach and present yourself so that someone can pull your wetsuit on for you and gently lower you onto the bottom of the ocean.

We spent a day as the Ras Mohammed national park on board the Four Seasons boat (I will remember her name – I will, I will). It was the most opulent day ever – and I loved it!

But generally a brilliant week, with lots of down time to relax and take stock of things…

(I can’t remember exactly what I meant by saying that things change so quickly – probably something along the lines of the fact that I came back to a new boss… Apologies, this post was started a while ago, and never published – and now I am playing catch up again!)

I want to tell you the story of two of my Egyptian friends – because it epitomises how women in this country are still seen as second rate citizens. This story is particularly interesting because these friends of mine have lived abroad (in Europe) and according to me, are exactly the same as me – we like to do the same things, we talk about interesting topics, we are from the same LSM, we travel, we go night-clubbing until early hours of the morning etc etc.

Let me start with Reham’s story (not her real name):

She is a divorced single mother aged 30. She got engaged to her previous husband, and with that was given an apartment (in her name) by her mother (who is Egyptian, but lives in Edinborough with her second husband). Up until then, Reham had been living with her grandparents.

When she started to notice signs that perhaps this guy wasn’t her night in shining armour, she told her mother that she didn’t want to marry him after all. Her mother’s response was “You will marry him, otherwise you will not be given your apartment”.

So they got married (that was the only way she was going to be allowed to move out of her grandparents house), had a baby and a month later he walked out (after being an absolute psycho and someone that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy).

Since then, Reham has been living in her own apartment and bringing up her son on her own. She is frowned upon by neighbours because she lives alone, but her mother lives abroad and her grandparents have downgraded, so there is no other option (luckily for her). 

She cannot take her son out of the country without getting the father’s permission – which he refuses to give – so she is stuck in Egypt. The father used to pay LE500 per month (about R700) for the son, but hasn’t paid anything for at least a year now. The law is of no use, and cannoy help Reham in any way – these things cannot be changed.

On top of this, for the first time in ages, the father has contacted Reham’s uncle and said he wants to see his son for 15 minutes on Thursday. She was completely against it, but her uncle said it was the father’s right, and she had to let him see his son. She went ballistic and maintained that the father had no rights to his son considering his past behaviour. Reham then had to take Thursday off from work, so that she could watch over her son (who is looked after by a nanny at her house) because she thinks her uncle would let her ex-husband see his son behind her back. (I mean wtf!!!)

Reham then met a friend of mine (we’ll call him Karim) at a dinner party at my house. They hit it off, went on a couple of dates – and then last Thursday they broke up becuase they had a fight (he got annoyed because she wanted to come out for dinner with a bunch of us and he couldn’t make it, so he wanted her to stay at home and wait for him).

By the Saturday, they were back together and …. engaged!  

This, to me, is just absurd! But Reham has said that Karim is willing to wait for her as long as it takes, so they have set the wedding for October – WHAT???? That is 6 months away – which means that she is going to get marrried again (pressured by their families) within 8 months of first clapping eyes on the guy! (and this is after they broke up after their first fight!)

Well, this is absolute madness according to me! And I have actually said as much to Reham (you will remember that she is a very good friend, and we go partying together), and she says yes, she knows, but this is the Egyptian way…

Well, what can you say to that other than I wish you the best, and may you guys be happy ever after…

 

 

I wish I had the discipline to update my blog more often, but life in Egypt is starting to feel normal, and with normal life comes busy-ness and less time to write!

We had our first major adventure (I call it an adventure, because it entailed us driving ourselves) when we went to Moon Beach for the weekend about two weeks ago.

Moon Beach is a seriously cool place – and is famous for it’s kite surfing. Apparently it’s because the wind blows constantly in one direction, and there are masssive lagoons so the water is as flat as a pancake – great kite surfing conditions by all accounts. If anyone is interested in a cheap outdoorsy holiday, I can highly recommend it (check out www.moonbeachretreat.com for more details). You can sail, winsurf, do yoga, kite surf, paddle – all in a sea that is clear blue and laps onto the beach. (Still very strange to get used to the desert joining the sea – absolutely no greenery to be seen!)

What is really interesting about Moon Beach is that it is only a 2.5 hour drive out of Cairo, and expats that live in Cairo spend almost every weekend there. There is a little bar on the beach which is like expatville! They all keep their sail boats and canoes on the beach, and they know all the other expats working there, as well as the dogs! Kids seem to think it’s their second home, and they run around independantly and in complete safety! I met more expats living in Cairo at the Moon Beach bar than I ever have in Cairo!

But the most exciting part of our weekend was the driving! We got Amr to drive us out of Cairo, and to stop on the Sinai road. Cairo is really confusing, and the traffic is hair-raising, so we thpought we’d spare ourselves that trauma on the way out. (He just pulled up on the side of the highway, and jumped out to catch a taxi home!)

Once on the Sinai road it was fairly easy going in terms of direction – straight! The other cars on the road drive so badly, that I shrieked all the way there! When it got dark (big mistake) it looked as though there were cars in our lane coming towards us. There were also a lack of lines on the roads, and some roads were one way (there would be another road parallel to the one we were on, except it would be on the other side of the sand dune, so we wouldn’t see it) , and some were two ways – we were never entirely comfortable about whether we were driving on the right road, never mind the right side of the road!

The way home got more interesting when we decided to try to navigate our way home through Cairo. We got so hopelessly lost that we ended up having to stop a taxi and explain that we wanted him to drive us home, but that we would just follow him (not such an easy task to explain that to someone who doesn’t speak a word of English!)

But we did it, and for the most part we were smiling :-)

We are heading back to Moon Beach this weekend to continue with kite surfing school. Let’s hope the drive is not quite as traumatic (or maybe I will be more numb to the oncoming traffic!)

 

Whoever said that Dubai was fake got it so wrong! After spending 4 days there over the long weekend (Thursday was the Prophet’s birthday by the way – not a long weekend because of Easter!) I realized Dubai is as fake or as fabulous as you make it!

We arrived at 3.30am on Thursday morning, and caught a taxi straight to Ryan’s flat. Ryan was in Mauritius (the life of a pilot – pretty damn amazing if you ask me), so he just left his keys at the desk down stairs, and we picked it up from a sleepy looking guy, who didn’t think twice as to whether we were really the people who were meant to be picking the key up.

Ryan had organized special flowers from Bangkok for us (in the living room, next to our bed etc), had bought magazines (girls ones for my side of the bed, boys ones for Luke), put hotel shampoos and creams in our bathroom, and stocked his fridge with lots of bacon. Still can’t get over how spoilt we were (and how my hosting skills leave a lot to be desired!)

We had a kip for a couple of hours (post a bacon sarmie – we just couldn’t resist, even at that awful hour!), and then headed for the most monumental shopping trip of my life! The Mall of the Emirates has some really cool shops (and restaurants and a ski slope!). After an entire day, 10 pairs of shoes, a new laptop, a new wardrobe for Luke and a hair straightener (I have finally succumbed) we made our way home to drop off the takings for the day…

Then we headed to Barasti and hooked up with Sammy-Jo and Ronnie for dinner. I can’t even begin to explain how excited I was to catch up with them – and proceeded to drink far too much and let out all my frustrations and have a good giggle!

The next day we went to a really cool restaurant called More for breaky, and then spent the day on the beach with them (Ronnie is an avid kite-surfer) – which was just so great! Honestly, it reminded me of Cape Town days. A whole bunch of boys made friends and played touch on the beach, and we swam – absolutely blissful and so far away from life in Cairo – it was good to get out!

We had a dinner at The Meat Company in a place called Madinat, which was fairly similar to Monte Casino. I even ate South African cow J Then we headed to 360 for a drink (absolutely awesome outdoor night club over the sea, with an incredible view of the Burje hotel).

The next day we had a late breaky at The Lime Tree (very similar to Melissa’s) and headed to the beach again. A spot more shopping in the evening, and dinner at Carters in Wafi City, then bed!

Our flight home was delayed from 3pm to 6.30pm to 8pm (have to love Egypt Air) so we only managed to get home at midnight last night (although it did mean we had some time for lunch and to pop into Marks + Spencer and a cool bookshop at Festival City).

What a great weekend! So good to get a slice of normality, and especially great to catch up with mates (Ryan came home on Saturday morning). Think a trip to Dubai may be on the cards at more regular intervals going forwards…

We also found out that Egypt is a kite surfing hot spot – so we now plan to head to Moon Beach on weekends to check out that scene (apparently it’s only 4 hours from Cairo)…

 

So watch this space – bring on the kite surfing!

I am part of an international community! This revelation comes after my trip to Dubai, where I went to visit some mates and to compare notes on life (more on the trip later – suffice to say that I love Dubai!) I find that I have this unique perspective on life – that I have taken a step away from what was expected of me (by myself, my friends, my family) and am now looking at things from a completely new and different view point. If I am being a bit wishy-washy, it’s because I am nervous to admit that I am looking at nesting options (ie. one day where do I want to settle down) – and South Africa isn’t the only option any more.  The more I think about it, the more I think that for me it may not be the best option either. So, in an attempt to sort out my own mind, here is a list of my options:  

  1. South Africa – I would truly love to nest in SA, but at this particular moment in time the country has got me a little rattled (crime is not something I want to have to get used to again)
  2. England – good work opportunities, and family will always be around. But oh boy, that weather could make me suicidal!
  3. Dubai – a very cool life, but not sure if it is family oriented. Maybe for a couple of years, but don’t think it could ever be home.
  4. Australia – hey, why not? I have never been there, it sounds cool (beaches and sunshine) – and it seems to be a favourite place for SAfrican’s to emigrate to – can’t be that bad! But, no family around – for miles…

 Hmm, decisions decisions… I was complaining to Luke on the flight on the way home last night that I am so big and grown-up. But it’s actually quite fun to be able to look at life and have these options to choose from. How on earth can I complain?

I can’t believe it has taken me three months to get to this place! Wow – it is incredible!

Yesterday afternoon Paula, Meral (a turkish expat) and I decided to head to this market – famous for the sheer size of it, as well as the amount that tourists get ripped off in it!

So armed with Amr, our driver, and his friend (who knows the market well) we set out. The first thing I noticed was how colourful everything was – bright fabrics, sheesha pipes, statues – all overflowing out of a million stalls with a million people telling you to “Come and see this never before seen – one minute – just follow me” – and then being whisked away against your will to buy something you really don’t want!

But because we were armed with some locals, we managed to get away fairly unscathed (people that approached us quickly realised that we were not to be messed with – have I mentioned that my driver is my hero?).

Our first stop was at Abd El’s shop (Amr’s friend). We had to buy something from here, so we started some negotions, but realised they would never end, so we said we’d come back later.

I bought two long strings of pearls (real ones) for LE300 – which I thought wasn’t bad, but technically I could have gotten away with a lot less had I tried (very obvious that you haven’t bargained hard enough when the seller accepts your offer straight away!)

Then we found a shop that had all kinds of granite, onyx and other stoney things like vases, bowls, boxes and jars – really cool stuff! So we spent ages in there, and the man that was selling to us was just so great. He was old and dignified, and not pushy and incredibly patient (you can imagine how patient he had to be with 3 girls in his shop!) – but we bought lots so he was happy!

Our final stop was back at Abd El’s shop, where I did the most magnificent piece of bargaining (by the end of the afternoon we were having competitions to see who could get the most discount…). I wanted a sheesha pipe – and the price tag of the one I wanted was LE1650! After about 45 minutes I got away with paying LE330 – only to be told at dinner last night with Egyptians that I was horrendously ripped off! (A sheesha should only cost LE50 max!) Grrr!

On the way out there was this tiny kitten (honestly about 6 inches high) just sitting in the middle of the pathway – it was so cute, was so tempted to take it home with me! Someone saw me looking at it, and offered it to me for LE5! Pity Luke is allergic to cats, otherwise it is likely that kitty would have been rescued!

But Khan Khalili was a pleasant surprise for me – I was expecting dirty smelly roads, and lots of poverty – completely wrong! The whole area is pretty clean, and there are loads of sheesha cafes squeezed inbetween the stalls, and lots of people bustling around…

Can highly recommend it to anyone :-)

A KHAWAGA’ STALE: You know you’re a Cairene when…By Peter A. CarriganFirst Published: February 3, 2008

You know you are a Cairene because you read Khawaga’s Tale every Monday in Daily News Egypt.

You know you are a Cairene when you leave the airport and sign your name as Donald Duck in that book administered by a lonesome policeman, who records your vehicle registration and destination.

I mean really, what is that register of vehicles leaving Cairo Airport all about? There must be hundreds of those dusty journals back at police HQ dating back to Agatha Christie. I wonder if she was the first to write down Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse.

So, are you a Cairene? Following is the Khawaga’s Tale’s check list to whether or not you can consider yourself truly immersed in Cairene culture.

You know you are a Cairene when you don’t care for haggling with taxis and just take the airport limousine service. Your bawwab pays for your ride when you arrive home and your luggage is brimming with pork products.

You know you are a Cairene when your phone rings in the cinema. You have a friend in Maadi who you’ve been meaning to call and you’re unsure whether Palestine is a State or a state of mind.

You have a delivery menu from your neighbourhood fuul and ta’amiyya spot. You have sushi home delivered for dinner parties and your morning coffee is also delivered on weekends, when you answer the door in your pyjamas.

You know you are a Cairene when you have eight random phone numbers of black & white taxis saved in your phone. You don’t know who Ahmed, Mustafa or Jane is, but you also have their phone numbers. And you have left a phone in a taxi, restaurant or on a felucca.

You are always busy when invited to Maadi for lunch or a genteel afternoon tea. You have attended more leaving parties than you have friends and you’ve been to Aswan, Luxor, Siwa and Dahab, but prefer Moon Beach.

You know you are a Cairene when you say you support Al-Ahly after realizing the Club is based in Zamalek, but feel you should be supporting Zamalek because that is where you live.

You always nod with authority when asked if you have read Max Rodenbeck, Robert Fisk or Noel Barber. You have two or three Arabic language books on your bookshelf, but spend most of your time weighing up whether or not to have both Showtime and Orbit.

You make an effort to go to historic Cairo and Khan Al-Khalili when you have visitors, but send your visitors off to the Pyramids by themselves.

You know you’re a Cairene when you have kissed a diplomat, fallen in love, fallen pregnant because there is something in the water here and fallen out at After 8.

You have a wallet full of unused bar tickets from the Canadian Club, BCA, Rugby Club and the British Embassy’s Phoenix club.

Reading Al-Ahram Weekly makes your head hurt, though you have heard it is more entertaining in French.

You know you are a Cairene because you wear shades inside, you think it is rude to be on time and you’ve finally realized that IBM is not a computer brand. You’ve stopped flicking the wing mirror in after parking as you’ve also realized that you never use it and you need constant noise to get to sleep.

You pine for the African Cup of Nations. You can’t remember that sailor’s name from Alexandria’s Spitfire bar and you have finally realized that you could never leave your cat and couldn’t afford quarantine anyway.

You write a blog with a hip name like; whatzzupegypt.blogspot, for expatriates. You have started a cottage industry and gotten lost in the Mogamma.

You know you are a Cairene when you are wearing your blue jeans inside your knee high boots. You have one blow heater which you carry from room to room during January and you are wondering whether or not to join the exodus to Dubai.

Though, you realize you have been in Cairo too long because you remember your home country through rose tinted glasses; where politicians were honest, the streets clean and the service brilliant.

You have a thousand and one taxi stories. Your weekend starts on Wednesday night and you’ll never get used to going to work on Sundays. Your apartment has the ugliest chandelier in Cairo and your maid must have drunk that second bottle of gin!

And of course, you know you are a Cairene, because you never miss reading Khawaga’s Tale every Monday in Daily News Egypt.

Another long work week! Aaargh!

Not entirely in the mood to be honest, it just seems like an unbelievable mission right now – Thursday is sooo far away! My to do list never gets any shorter, and it is not very often that I get to cross things off… Most of my time is spent chasing people to do things that they said they would do – the problem here is that everyone just says yes, yes, and then nothing ever gets done – literally! A completely exhausting way to exist!

 A simple example – I was given the opportunity to publish an article in a magazine – great, free PR. But because I am in marketing and not PR, I had to hand it over to PR to write. So, because my English is better than anyone else’s here and I actually understand the product, I wrote the damn article and sent it to PR – so they could check it and send it out as their own (which they were very grateful for, by the way). I did this on 3 Feb.

I then followed up on 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14, 18, 19, 20 Feb (email trail, phone calls, and personal visits to PR debt, escalating etc), and on 21 Feb (our deadline was 20 Feb) I received a rewritten article that now included incorrect facts, bad english and spelling mistakes…

This is just so typical of Egyptians! They drive me completely crazy! I have at least 5 situations like this arising every day, which may have something to do with my lack of inspiration.

Another thing that drives me crazy, is that I have to get Legal to sign off my marketing material – fine, makes sense, fair enough – but what really grates my carrot is that they start to correct my spelling, and changing the words I use… What part of ENGLISH IS MY FIRST LANGUAGE do they not understand, and where do they get off changing my message in my ad. Their job is to make sure my ad is legally compliant, not to change “Win a trip for two to England” to “Win too FREE tickets to England” (spelling error included)… Aaaaaaarrrrggghhh!

 Just to give you an idea of the English I am dealing with here, check out this email (it takes me longer to try to work out what this guy is trying to say than it is worth). He also had a spelling mistake in his signature on his mail (maneger)… I eventually plucked up the courage to tell him, and he deleted his signature but didn’t even acknowledge my carefully worded email…

Good day all. Hope this find you well.With reference to the above mail subject I did went to maadi site yesterday with the company representative for the new auto mailer machine for testing the availability of packing the booklet with the statement automatically .The result end to that we can go it but still we have lots of damage copy from both statement and booklet.The site is not yet finished means it is under constructions and the environment is not good conditioned to production.End results we have to follow the manual process.Future results :They can provide us with the specks the suet the machine  for out packing if the site is get ready after constructions is completed. Regards  

 It stops being funny after a while…

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