Wednesday, May 28, 2008
i've decided to move my blog to wordpress.reasons:
1. it looks interesting
2. i'm bored with my current blogspot
3. too many advertisement linked to this blog and it kinda frustrated me
that's really the last straw
anyway..
adios blogspot. you've been faithful.
new link: http://keepwalkin.wordpress.com/
• • • • •
Monday, May 26, 2008
i haven't declared how overjoyed i was (and still am) to have david cook as the latest idol winner ^^well, i'm not going to post anything about him here again, but instead, the other man of the night.. the ever charming george michael singing the classic praying for time...
These are the days of the open hand
They will not be the last, look around now
These are the days of the beggars and the choosers
This is the year of the hungry man
Whose place is in the past
Hand in hand with ignorance and legitimate excuses
The rich declare themselves poor
And most of us are not sure
If we have too much, but we'll take our chances
Cause god's stopped keeping score
I guess somewhere along the way
He must have let us ALL out to play
Turned his back, and all god's children
Crept out the back door
And it's hard to love, there's so much to hate
Hanging on to hope when there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above say it's much too late
Well, maybe we should all be praying for time
These are the days of the empty hand
Oh, you hold on to what you can
And charity is a coat you wear twice a year
This is the year of the guilty man
Your television takes a stand
And you find that what was over there is over here
So you scream from behind your door
Say what's mine is mine and not yours
I may have too much, but I'll take my chances
Cause god's stopped keeping score
And you cling to the things they sold you
Did you cover your eyes when they told you
That he can't come back
Cause he has no children to come back for
It's hard to love, there's so much to hate
Hanging on to hope when there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above say it's much too late
So maybe we should all be praying for time
• • • • •
Sunday, May 25, 2008
it doesn't feel right if i don't complete my story.well we spent our day 9 (monday) in odaiba, tokyo.
it's really a pleasant place. personally, i was pretty impressed with the train that goes through the rainbow bridge.
afternoon was spent lazily.. walking around, trying to enjoy our last day in tokyo peacefully.. the shopping centre specially for ladies (venus fort) was pretty nice.. the ceiling was painted like a sky, just as how it is in macau.
that's where i managed to do my last minute shopping as well ><
anyway we ended the day by taking the ferris wheel.. well.. i requested for it. i'm pretty sure that it's the same ferris wheel that was in 'honey and clover' .. thus it felt kinda amazing being in it.
the last dinner at harajuku. the last kirin toast. the last day spent at ueno park. the last train ride and the next moment, we're back in hot spore.
LOL
fast forwarded.
i think i just can't wait to end my post on the trip.
well. i am very thankful that i travelled with a bunch of great companions =)
it was a very pleasant and memorable journey, how we tried to acommodate to one another's request and waited for one another, just enjoying, just having fun. it does bring smiles from time to time.
after more than a month, 5 of us met up again yesterday. decided to try the ramen place 'santouka' at central. it was supposed to be the same with the one that we tried in kyoto. lol. well, quite close except for the fact that we were not as tired, as hungry and feeling as cold as we were back then.
susi has finally quit her job and that really worth a celebration..
anyway, really look forward for more trips in the future.
i may not be the best travel mate, but i can read maps very well.. haha.. so do 'jio' me if you're planning to go exciting places ^^
as for japan, i will definitely go there again. one day.
• • • • •
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
day 7 - tokyothat would be sat.
susi, song and i decided to go for disneyland while the other 2 guys explored akihabara.
we set off early to have brunch together and i think that was also the day that we discovered the magnificient chou's puff ^^
back to disneyland, it is exactly as how i imagined it, which is good.
they're celebrating their 25th bday that week so you can imagine the crowd, especially since we went there on sat.
we lost song not long after we stepped inside, so susi and i decided to have girls outing =p
she was totally frustrated with the queue though. well i can't blame her. with more than 2 hours queue just for a 3 mins peter pan ride.. who wouldn't?
and you had to queue for another 2 hours just to take a pic together with mickey mouse..
at the end, we only managed to take a few rides, BUT we certainly had lots of fun with the shooting game (which i won haha) and the roller coaster.
ended the day with short shopping time and the night parade.
met up with song again at the castle entrance, it's really very beautiful at night.
i guess the biggest disappointment for us would be the cancellation of the fireworks due to weather. i was really looking forward to it.
oh well.
i left the place somehow feeling unsatisfied. reunited with the 2 guys for coffee at ueno before we all went back together.
and one day just passed like that ><
day 8 - the day that i had operation suicide
we knew that we were going to harajuku that day so susi and i decided to dress up a little bit like the jap gals- dress and leggings..
it was a wrong move.
we started the day at asakusa to visit the so called famous lantern. it was raining again and the weather was really really cold. i began to regret not wearing jeans.
we had our next stop at akihabara. it was too cold that i couldn't really enjoy the 'anime land' fully. i couldn't wait to hide inside the building... lol.. nevertheless, it was quite an amazing sight seeing all the anime goodies that they have there.. i was very much tempted to buy some. and yes we could see some guys were actually having cosplay..
from there, we took a train down to harajuku, takeshitadori to be exact.
i was very much amazed with girls who wore mini skirt, i wonder how they endure the freezing wind? well, i was pretty much half dead so i decided to buy a coat. LOL.
spent some time there and managed to buy a few cheap stuff. i thought it was a very fruitful trip. susi would definitely agree with me.
next, we stopped by at shinjuku for a while. i bought a nice small black umbrella haha.. it has never left my bag until today.
our last stop was ropponggi. the temperature kept going down and i could hardly feel my fingers by then. but anyway, the place is quite fascinating. we could see tokyo tower ><
and that concludes my coldest day in tokyo.
haha. no more leggings. ever.
• • • • •
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
do you have regrets in your life that sometimes you feel like going back to the past and redo everything?i just finished a jap series titled proposal daisakusen. it's interesting how the main character fought his best to change the past but at the end decided to face the present and fight for the future instead. it was really heartwarming and put something to my thought.
first, those who think that there's tomorrow are idiots.
sounds harsh but true.
as he kept on hesitating and holding himself back, time passed. and all left for him is regrets.
second, about facing the truth and fight for your life at the present.
not to dwell on 'if only'. there's no way to turn back the clock so don't dwell on it.
similarly, i was reminded on a verse from the bible-
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
in my walk with God, there are many things that i should have done or perhaps shouldn't have done. but failures and mistakes are steps to success and they motivate me to press on toward the final goal. whether it's my ministry or other aspects of my life.
looking forward is the way. and look at it positively. life feels better that way =)
***
i woke up at 6 am this morning. lol. felt amazing. maybe i should start waking up early everyday.
anyway, i had a great weekend.
after the discouraging friday, i spent my sat celebrating germs' belated bday. few of us went to partyworld, sang some songs (mostly forced by the bday gal) lol. it was pretty fun.
then we had dinner at cuppage level 2 (i can never remember the restaurant's name).
that would be the 6th time i celebrated her bday, it's just scary how time flies.. well at least i didn't throw up for 4 times after the celebration this year =P
sunday was a long day.. joseph opened up his place for bbq followed by a night hike at mt faber. i didn't know why i agreed on the latter activity. lol.
we started around 10 (pm) something, from vivo climbed all the way up to mt faber. seriously, i had no idea where we were as i was just following the guys. there were 12 of us in total.
from faber, i think we followed the trail to canopy walk.. kent ridge.. or something.. it was really dark and humid..
i have to say that despite of the tiredness (i have never perspired that much before), it was an enjoyable walk. just like what jo said, it was a good time of bonding as we spent time talking to one another or simply enjoying one another's presence. something that we can't do during movies.
we ended everything around 1 am? lol. a good shower was desperately needed.
and i slept through the whole monday...
lastly, i gotta thank God for His intervention this morning as well. i really really prayed for everything to be fine between my colleague and i. so i went to her first thing in the morning and we had a good talk. i know that she didn't mean to be 'mean' to me, personally i had my fault too. so we kinda apologized to one another. lol. it was pretty funny.
anyway, i am sooo glad that it turned out well. i can't work well knowing that someone is hating me.. especially she's someone that i do care a lot as well. that feeling is terrible.. more than boss' scolding.
suddenly everything seems great now =)
• • • • •
Monday, May 19, 2008
kinda lost my momentum to continue the stories in japan, but i don't want to do things half way.. so..day 5 & 6 - hakone
i was there specially for the onsen (hotspring) as for some others perhaps for the torii gate on the sea. i like the small town even though there's nothing much there and it turns to a dead place after 6 pm.
we took the shinkansen back from kyoto to hakone on thu morning. it was raining heavily again when we reached.
after finished checking in, we decided to go for ropeway which was a pretty stupid decision haha. the train conductor had this strange look on his face and we understood why once we reached sounzan station (the ropeway station), the place was closed and there's no one up there. it was empty.
-_-
we should have checked on the timing first.
anyway, the weather was unbelievably freezing and sent us all to the toilet.
so..
the long journey from train to cable car..
went all the way up to sounzan..
all just for the toilet. HAHA.
it's just hilarious at that moment.
well, we had no choice but to go down to the town again after that. not even a single shop or restaurant was opened (except for 7-11), so we had to eat in hotel.
and to make things more interesting (or worse), merv had a fall. obviously he didn't die but ended up with some bruises >_<
to end the fateful day, susi and i decided to go for late night onsen. so we wore the traditional bathrobe, braced the freezing weather and went to the hotel's open hotspring. it was a very funny experience, though there was only 2 of us, we had a hard time going in. lol. it felt like going into a cooking pot.
we spent some time inside, imagining if there's 'sake' to accompany us. i told susi that my mission in japan was accomplished, sakura picnic + onsen.
after a while, the headache came and that's the sign to get out of the pool. to faint there is the last scenario that we wanted to happen.
that night must be the most relaxed time for all of us. the room was really good. the guys woke up really early the next day, it's their turn to use the onsen. i decided to take a short walk around the hotel, there's a small river just outside =)
once we're ready, we took the same train again and visited begonia garden first (by susi's request), the place was totally full of flowers..
continued the journey to cable car and ropeway. stopped by at owakudani station and had our lunch there. everyone was really quiet, i guess the place made us think and move like a pentium one.. extremely sloow and peaceful.
we took the sightseeing boat along lake ashi from togendai, sadly we couldn't see mt fuji as it was a cloudy day.. and it was really freezing, but nevertheless the place was beautiful and i did enjoy the ride.
reached the end of our cycle, we decided to catch a bus to hakone glass museum. that's how we ended our hakone journey.
i think this was the day that i discovered how good i am in time scheduling. haha.
well, the next moment, we're back to tokyo.
dinner was omu rice at shibuya (i'm amazed that i still remember this) and yes i remember the flashy information center that they have there. with loud music and all.. no tourist would find it hard to find.
smart =P
• • • • •
Friday, May 16, 2008
just when i thought things got better.situation in office has been pretty weird.
one of my colleagues from my ex-dept is actually angry with me for causing her to do more work since i transfered (so i heard), but, my own head is going to explode too with things that i need to do in my new department.
okay, she's more busy now. but so do i -__-
now she is ignoring me even when i tried to make an effort to talk to her. if she needs help, can't she just say it out? no matter how busy i am, i can try my best.
i can't remember the last time i'm being treated totally invisible and i thought only high sch students would do that. sigh.
i couldn't care less about her. as if i have time to entertain this nonsense.
this thought came to my mind for a while.
but. that's not what i suppose to feel.
i have to say that the fasting came at the right time. though i've been suffering from gastric pain, i can feel that God's presence is with me more, definitely more in tune with the spirit.
to stay calm and joyful, even when my boss blamed me for giving the wrong price to customer (which at the end turned out to be right, boss is the forgetful one) or when overseas colleague blamed me for writing the wrong address for delivery (which turned out to be right as well, he's just being super blur) or when one of my managers just called me and gave me a long speech on somethin that can really ruin my weekend.. i think these are all the answers for my prayer on having more challenges in life.
i wanted to ask God why all these are happening, but i should have known the answer. LOL.
i can only pray that things will somehow work out well after the long weekend.
i still thank Him for being there. and of course for my family of God.
i had a 'fight' with one my good friends yesterday, feels like laughing about it now. anyway, the problem is settled >_<
when i ask God to intervene, things get better.
the best gift that God can give to me is His very own presence.
jia you livi!
• • • • •
davids are in the final!something is really really wrong if he doesn't win next week.
david cook is totally my idol and i'm soooo thankful cg will be on fri. HAHA.
• • • • •
Thursday, May 15, 2008
fasting day 3i began to ponder more and made a decision to let go of certain things more.
there are so many things going on in this world, why should i focus on the meaningless ones? seriously.
life goes on and eventually i just need to account to God.
keep a light and joyful heart and life will be much better.
last sunday was mother's day.
the testimony that was shared by one of the mothers from family group is amazing. i think she quoted romans 4:20 which happens to be one of the few verses i've been holding on to.
do not waver.
it's her perseverance and trust in God that truly inspired me again. believing that unlimited strength and comfort comes from the Lord.
how can i forget after all those times that He's been there for me?
on another note, ps jeff shared a really powerful message about honouring parents. think again, even though the relationship in my family is very close (though we don't stay together, obviously) but i haven't really spent time talking to them about normal daily things.. apart from how's my job and whether i've found someone..
it's true that praying for them alone is not enough. i need to put in more effort for the day that our family can serve God together. i don't know how. but. there will be the day.
well.. hopefully our family holiday will be on next year.
it's time for me to check the travel guides again..
• • • • •
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
it was pouring like mad just now and as unwilling as i was, i had to go for my appt with my eye specialist in tanglin.i was about to go out with my small black umbrella when my colleague stopped me. she 'advised' me to use the office umbrella instead as it's big enough to brace the crazy storm. so i did.
the umbrella, mind you, is really HUGE. perhaps the biggest i've ever seen that i felt pretty amazed. LOL. i'm pretty sure that it can shelter 4 people if it's just a normal rain. but today's rain was abnormal. i saw many ppl getting wet even with their umbrellas, but not me.
at that moment, i was so thankful to God for the 'advice'. it may sound small, but this is God's protection for me as well >_<
with all the migraines that i've been having, i can't afford to get drenched too.
it was funny how ppl on the street looked at me though. a small person carrying a ridiculously huge red umbrella. i bet that it's quite a sight.
• • • • •
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
it was a strange day.i woke up with my whole body aching, there's a huge feeling of unwillingness to go to work.
since i transfered to the 'sales' dept, my colleague kemmy has been guiding me.. and today she's no longer there. well.. she's there.. but not really there.
it's complicated.
anyway, i ended up with a pile of work and all my bosses and directors were in office.. plus i realized that customers can be big bullies.. they showed me no mercy.
at that moment i missed my old position.
but think again, how can you appreciate weekend if there's no monday?
how can i grow and learn something new if i keep on staying in my comfortable dept?
it is the very existence of bad days that makes you love good days.
the day didn't end too badly actually. met elaine, sarah and 2 friends for dinner. it was meant to celebrate elaine's bday in advance cum sowing time. lol. we certainly had a good time of eating and talking. the snowman cotton candy rocks.
• • • • •
Saturday, May 10, 2008
it's saddening to read the news nowadays. the updates about myanmar is getting from bad to worse. thinking about how i was there at yangon exactly one year ago... it's really impossible not to feel anything for them when you see the pictures and read the stories of how bad the condition is right now.
sigh.
my colleague said that the end is really coming. but before that, life still goes on. and that's why we gotta make our life counts.
and i still have to do recollection on my japan trip.
9 apr 08
day 4. wednesday.
it's getting harder to recall what happened then.
okay we started the day by making a trip to fushimi inari shrine, somewhere in the southern part of kyoto. long before the trip, i had already planned to pay a visit to the shrine. saw the pics from website and the thousand pillars (torii gates) really attracted me. thankfully my travel mates accomodated me.
anyway, it's really a nice place. peaceful. and.. well.. it's just nice.
i simply enjoyed the long walk. it's in fact one of the places that i enjoyed the most thru-out the trip.
strangely, we met pris n chris there.
japan is huge, kyoto is huge, the shrine is huge.
but yet, we could meet there. LOL.
anyway, the next stop was kiyomizudera- another famous temple in kyoto.
susi found a great accessories shop along the way and i think 2 of us spent pretty long time inside.. haha. they really have nice stuff! how could we resist?
so after making the guys wait (thank god for them), we entered the extremely crowded temple.
there's a love stone. one said that you can find love if you are able to touch both stones (far apart) with eyes closed. it's pretty powerful considering that justin really found a new love there ^^
on our way out, we saw this beautiful small pond filled with sakura. it's really nice.
the rest of the day was spent for shopping along gion and shijo area.. my shoes were in a really bad condition due to the long walks for the past 3 days, so i decided to throw them away and bought a new pair.
susi and i decided to have a nice ice cream before we reunited with the guys. then we all had dinner together with pris & chris. they brought us to a very nice ramen place (perhaps one of the best) just around the area. the soup and the egg. tsk. now i feel like eating ramen.
that concludes the day.
i'm sure it's the day that some of us enjoyed the most and we surely took a lot of pictures.
• • • • •
Friday, May 09, 2008
i can't remember if i have done this before. was browsing thru blog and found this:
http://www.quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx
Your view on yourself:
You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.
The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:
You are not looking merely for a girl/boyfriend - you are looking for your life partner. Perhaps you should be more open-minded about who you spend time with. The person you are looking for might hide their charm under their exterior.
Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.
The seriousness of your love:
You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.
Your views on education:
You may not like to study but you have many practical ideas. You listen to your own instincts and tend to follow your heart, so you will probably end up with an unusual job.
The right job for you:
You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.
How do you view success:
Success in your career is not the most important thing in life. You are content with what you have and think that being with someone you love is more than spending all of your precious time just working.
What are you most afraid of:
You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.
Who is your true self:
You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.
LOL. perhaps 99% true.
• • • • •
Monday, May 05, 2008
time to continue the journey - part 2*pictures are taken from all different sources.
8 apr 08
after the horrible rainy monday, tue was fortunately a bright sunny day. we were definitely overjoyed to see the sun's out and shining.
decided to make our first stop at kinkakuji, supposedly one of the most famous temple in kyoto. it's covered in gold.. i wonder if it's real. maybe it is.
it doesn't really matter to me.
the weather was good, the place was beautiful and i managed to eat dango, including sakura flavor. perfect.
once we're done, we wanted to go to arashiyama- the place famous for its bamboo forest, but God really knows how to direct us. we stumbled upon an unknown shrine (hirano) as we were walking to the train station. could see sakura from outside soo we decided to go in and take a look.
lo and behold, the place was gorgeous....
the sakura!! everywhere.. fallin on us..
and we even had lunch under the trees. God granted my sakura picnic wish! LOL.
this is the place that we had our one and only decent group pic as well.
and...
susi forced me to do something unthinkable..
but i love this pic. so. oh well. HAHAA.
anyway, we finally reached arashiyama!
it's a very nice place but we definitely walked too much and got lost at the end. i'm very amazed with the amount of walking that we did that day.
ended the day with dinner at gion again. i had a really really nice cold soba and that's also the night that we had our first sake together.
good for the cold weather and of course for our friendship too ^^
• • • • •
it's time for beautiful moment. or to some, depressing moment.that's nobuo uematsu's masterpiece (don't we just love him?)
the famous 'to zanarkand' taken from FFX opening has been transformed to something sooo beautiful yet so sad.
not that the original is bad, but to me that piece up there is ultimate.
Tour de Japon
livi lies flat on the ground.
*those who want the mp3 can look for me.. i am listening to it all nitee...
• • • • •
Friday, May 02, 2008
journey to the land of the rising sun - part 1it is finally time for me to put down my thoughts on my previous trip to japan. further delay may cause inaccurate recollection. LOL.
6 apr 08
that's sunday.
our flight was at 6 am but we decided to meet up in airport way earlier. to save transportation fee (cab), i took the last bus and reached airport around 1230 am. jus, merv and song were already there.
i certainly looked dead considering that it was a long day on sat with unit outing and stuff.
anyway, song brought scrabble travel pack.. woohoo.. so we ended up playing scrabble all the way till susi came (which was about 4 am). i got the lowest point, but seriously i didn't care. i was too tired to think and i fell asleep even before the plane took off. meals were taken in half consciousness.
fast forward >> we finally reached tokyo!
and the best part is.. we couldn't find the hotel. haha.
it is so hilarious thinking back about it now.
we walked around the area for about 3 hours. it's meant to be very near the station but we just couldn't find it.
anyway there's this vietnamese guy who's willing to help us (though he seriously scared me off in the beginning cos he kept looking at me in the station). the problem is, he didn't know the way too -_-
so he made us even more lost.
after a long exciting adventure at minami senju, God showed mercy on us and we finally found the place.
though the guy was not the best guide, we were still thankful to him, so we allowed susi to give him her email address plus a picture together. HAHA.
after dropping all our stuff in our super small rooms, we decided to follow lonelyplanet and had a sukiyaki + shabu2 dinner at shinjuku. i was seriously tired and cold, maybe that's why the meal was heavenly... the grilled beef dipped into raw egg was superb... and i loved the onions.. ultimate.
well.. the meal costs us a bomb.
but it was our first day in japan.. so i guess we're forgiven =P
7 apr 08
that's monday. obviously monday comes after sunday.
we woke up early to take the morning shinkansen (bullet train) to kyoto. i had to say that i was pretty excited. a shinkansen. LOL. it looks exactly like how i watched it in anime.
we spent more time sleeping again on the train and reached in the afternoon.
to our horror, kyoto was raining.
thankfully we didn't have problem in finding the inn this time and it was definitely more comfortable than our rooms back in tokyo.
dropped our stuff.. did some research.. and off we went to find our first ramen in japan and yeah it was really good. no joke.
unfortunately, walking in the rain (even with umbrella) was not fun. kyoto was freezing cold.
we decided to visit gion since it was pretty late. the shrines were closed but we managed to see the 'famous sakura tree' at maruyama park - just behind yasaka shrine. i'd say that it's pretty mesmerizing.
i was craving for okonomiyaki so we had our dinner at this cool place selling it. the owner put a guitar as decoration. lol. and the toilet was definitely amusing.
*pictures compiled from 5 cameras are available on my flickr.
• • • • •
Thursday, May 01, 2008
goodbye slipperslast sat we had a team munch at janet's place. as i was walking around khatib and tried to figure my way out, my loyal slippers that i bought from myanmar snapped.. and yup i was in the middle of nowhere.
can imagine how i stood in the middle of the road stunned. lol. nothing else could be done, so i walked barefooted to the central area and hoped to find any shop that sells slippers... i walked around and round with so many ppl staring at my feet (perhaps i looked amusing) and FINALLY i found watsons! i never knew that watsons sells slippers.. well they do. for only $3, it's actually quite decent.
this is the best that i could find. i was pretty pleased actually.
reached team munch late to realize that they're all still busy watching alvin and the chipmunks. hahaaa.. i didn't miss the lunch.
overall, it's a good time of gathering with God's people =P
on another note, i'm so glad that today is public holiday. work has been really tiring nowadays. well maybe confusing is a better word to describe it.
taking over a new role + still keeping the old role.
i realized that i am not very good in multitasking (thus concludes my identity crisis), beginning to feel like an old man with me forgetting lots of things and all.
anyway, i had a breakthrough yesterday! haha. boss asked me to translate 15 pages of materials from english to chinese within one day. my manager managed to help me on that by writing the chinese down on the book, but i had to type everything in.. so i brought everything home and started my amazing journey with hanyupinyun.
thankfully it ended well. i have to give credit to xiaowen as well =)
plus, last nite a bunch of us in cg went to watch iron man together. hey the movie is really not bad.. really really not bad.
to end this, presenting to you Kotaro Oshio's Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence
• • • • •