Normcy: The Newly Weds.

My friends Norm and Lucy, hereon known as Normcy, had their wedding day today aboard the Sunset Bay, a yacht moored at Coal Harbour. Though the weather was grey and drizzly, the atmosphere aboard the yacht was anything but. Family and friends of theirs came together in one place to celebrate what would be their happiest day of their lives.

I had made a video montage of Normcy using pictures they had approved of, compressing their lifetime in pictures into a four minute video with John Paul Young’s Love Is In The Air as the soundtrack. At last minute, I managed to add pictures from Norm’s Bachelor Party from the night before in the photo mix. Pictures of Norm in a sundress wrapped around a lamp post in cling wrap in front of Megabite Pizza on Granville Street raised a few eyes and chuckles from invited guests. This video played in loop during the ceremony.

I struck up a conversation with Mark, the official wedding photographer hired by Normcy, when I saw him with a Canon 5D Mark II to make him feel more inclusive of the wedding. When Echo and I were sitting together at a table, Mark had asked us point blank if we were a couple as well. Echo and I looked at each other, looked back at Mark, and responded with a “no” and “yes” at the same time, which naturally, required further explanation. “we’re siblings” she went on but I’m not sure if he bought it.

Echo and I went outside to the bow of the yacht as we were passing under the Lions Gate Bridge to admire the scenic vista of the natural wonders of the Pacific West Coast. Mark came around and we asked him to take a photo of, ahem, my sister and I. Echo’s chuckle and my failure to keep a straight face must have further confused poor Mark. I later went to check out his website at marksphoto.ca and was impressed with what I saw.

Happy Birthday, Echo!

After weeks of planning Echo’s surprise birthday celebration with Joanne, Jay and others who were invited, it very nearly crumbled when Echo herself got spooked by her own speculation that something was up. Joanne and I panicked by her adverse reaction and finally came to the inevitable conclusion that we had to spill the beans.

Wrought with sadness, I made that fateful call to Echo and let the cat out of the bag to comfort her. She reversed her decision and was shocked to learn that Joanne was in on the secret all along as Echo had lunch with her earlier that day and asked Joanne to be “the fall back plan” in the event that I should ever ask Echo to have dinner with me et al at Les Faux Bourgeois on Friday.



With the fruit cake I ordered from Veneto’s, I made my way to the French restaurant with Jay and Norm to where I had made reservation over in the private room. Lehli called me to let her know that she had to bail for an SOS, but in her place, Tracy showed up! Shortly after, Dane and Echo arrived. The tea lights were lit, the flowers were arranged, the pork bellies were served, and a bottle of Cabernet were poured as the evening progressed with much merriment. Joanne, after a long day at work, managed to join us in the end and had a plate of assorted cheese.

Desert time came around, and the last bit of surprise came out from the back of the kitchen; the fruit cake! The birthday song was sung and the presents were revealed. From Joanne, Echo took out a small box from a Holt Renfrew bag and shook it before undoing the ribbon. Inside were two golden seals which were chopstick rests stolen from the Jade restaurant from a few weeks ago at Echo’s brother’s wedding ceremony. I had laughed when Joanne first revealed it to me the day before over dinner. After a laugh over the gag gift, Echo unwrapped a larger box from a BCBGMAXAZRIA bag and found a frumpy pink dress with a white belt inside. So Echo! :D From Norm was a picture of Echo at the stern of a ferry from last weekend’s Kayaking trip printed on a canvas which turned out really nice.

For the final surprise, I took out my MacBook Pro and delivered a special video message from Marc and Emma which I received only this morning. As they couldn’t wish Echo a Happy Birthday in person and join us in the celebration of her loss of youth (hahaha!), I had asked them to send a video which was a silhouette of them standing in front of the bright lights radiating from The Mirage hotel in Vegas. As least the audio came through clear. :) And with that, I made my closing speech with “You may be expired and no longer desired, but at least you got laid on your birthday!” as I placed a lay around her neck.

Jones Lake.

Not letting my broken arm stop me from having fun, Joanne, Echo, and her nieces went to Jones Lake for a weekend camping trip and I was more than happy to tag along.

We found a great spot by the lake and immediately unpacked, setup tents, lit the citronella candles on fire, and sprayed ourselves with deet.

The day was a scorcher so after slapping on some sunscreen, we went down to the lake to cool off. I took cover in the shade of the trees and watched from the shore. When evening rolled by, the sun was quickly replaced by the thickening grey clouds which brought on the rain, and thunder and lightening soon joined the ensemble. As it took us all by surprise, we had hastily collected a bunch of sticks and branches to support the tarp strung above our tents for support and constantly removed puddles of rain water accumulating on the tarp so that it wouldn’t collapse on us under its weight.

Day two opened with the kind of sunlight you would expect after a storm and as it rose, it shone its rays of light on the mountains around us illuminating everything in its path.

Like what we had for lunch and dinner the day before, breakfast and lunch was a serving of hamburgers and hotdogs. With our bellies full, we took advantage of the sun and lake again. I even walked in to the lake this time, knee high, and bathed in the sun while.

Heading back down the rough logging road on our way home was a challenge for Joanne’s Chevy Blazer as the brakes were overheating due to her riding the brakes down the steep gravel guardrail-less decline. When the smell of brakes entered our nose, we pulled over to cool it down and worried about wether or not we should attempt the rest of our decent down or abandon the SUV and hop into Echo’s Grand Vitara instead. While we debated and gave the Blazer time to cool off, other motor vehicles of all types and condition came down the road, many travelling at unsafe speeds.

After twenty minutes or so, Joanne attempted to start ‘er up again and make a slow and cautious decent to the base of the logging road. The rest of us were waiting for her down below with our fingers crossed. Minutes passed. Other vehicles passed. Then Joanne’s SUV came to view and we let out a collective sigh of relief.

That was our weekend excitement.

Adrift in Tokyo.

Echo and I found each other in the long lineup in front of the Pacific Cinematheque this evening to catch a screening of a Japanese film called Adrift in Tokyo but nearly found ourselves adrift in Vancouver when a theatre operator came out to apologise that tickets were all sold out. “Oh no!” we gasped as we looked at each other and at everyone else still lining up with a quizzical look. Some people left the queue but Echo and I stayed put, hopeful that the theatre operator miscounted the number of seats actually sold. While in line, we quickly befriended a petite woman our age and asked her if she would like to join us in formulating a Plan B if we couldn’t get in. With less than $20 in her pockets, our dining experience was restricted to McDonalds or Wendy’s so the prospect didn’t seem so appealing.

Humming and hawing as the hamster wheel in our heads spun at speeds too slow to measure, more and more disenchanted patrons left the queue until only a handful of us were left standing by the doors. Just then, the theatre operator came back out to announce that there were indeed more seats available! Elated and glad that our patience was rewarded, we purchased our tickets and found our seats. There were no two seats available side by side so I was stuck beside a humungous sad excuse of a man feeding his porker belly with popcorn. And he spoke throughout the movie. People like him shouldn’t even exist.

The movie itself was wonderful and Echo seemed to have enjoyed it more than I did. As we exited the theatre, we found Jay there waiting for us to come out. As we so often do, we defaulted again with having dinner at Stephos before calling it a night.

Rekindling an old flame.

Open houses. Beach fire.

After having Sunday brunch with Jay, we went to a number of open houses to check out the real estate scene in the West End. I was most impressed with the bachelor suite I saw on Burrard and Davie for just under $300 grand as it was a corner unit built only a few years ago. It didn’t fit my bill of wanting a 2-bedroom suite however, so we continued looking. Among others, The Barclay residences were pretty nice as well. This was initially rental apartments but had since been redeveloped and renovated to be sold for ownership. It had an open floor plan which I liked with the ground floor suites with a closed off patio.

I appreciate Jay’s effort, help, and company in helping me, a first time buyer, get settled in with what to expect. He’s a good friend.

For this evening, I got together with Aaron, Jenn, and Ian and went down to the 1001 steps to have a beach fire and talk under the stars. It’s something we hadn’t done in a long time. For me, it’s been at least a year! Where did the time go? This was something we used to do on a weekly basis when we were in our early twenties. This and weekly movie nights at Strawberry Hill or a DVD night at someone’s place. We’ve all drifted away and found busyness in our own disconnected lives with work and school, but I’m glad we haven’t completely lost touch. Jennifer is off again shortly for more travelling around Scotland and Ireland so we won’t be seeing much of her for the rest of the year I take it.

Carpe Diem.

Les Misérables.

Meeting up with Echo, Jay, and his lady friend, Sherry for dinner at Café Salade de Fruits, we indulged in an assortment of cuisines offered on the menu and their house wine this evening. The cafe had a very nice ambiance and our server, fluent en Français, was cordial.

Our group of four proceeded to move on to the Stanley Theatre shortly after satisfying our hunger for a performance of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables which we had been looking forward to seeing for months. We were seated at the very front row with the stage floor at eye level. We had initially thought that there would be some obstruction of view but after sitting through the first act to the intermission, we all looked at each other with wide eyes, amazed by how vivid and encapsulating it was to be so close to the actors. You could see the sweat beading up on their foreheads and read their facial expressions! And at $25, we felt almost guilty for not paying as much as we were willing or as much as they were deserving.

24601 continues to play in my head.

Kamome Shokudo.

I was at the Pacific Cinematheque with Jay and Lehli for a movie called Kamome Shokudo, part of the Kibatsu Cinema film fest. A Japanese woman opens a small Japanese diner in Helsinki and characters with very distinct personalities drift in and out. I was particularly fond of the local Finnish young man obsessed with all things Japanese as was expressed by the t-shirts he wore from day to day ranging from Japanese cartoon characters to geisha.

There was magic in this film, a quality rarely found in modern Japanese cinema that I’ve seen in the past, and I quite liked it. I loved it actually, and my two friends also agreed.

I’ve got to find out more about this Gatchaman anime.

Galiano and the nasty fall.

Jay, Echo, and I had intended to cycle around Saltspring Island this weekend but by the time we got to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, we had literally missed the boat. Capable of making quick adjustments to our plans, we took the next sailing to anywhere else we hadn’t explored yet, and that was to Galiano Island.

It was hot out and the afternoon sun was beaming down on us as we got off the ferry and began our cycling adventure. With my tent, air mattress, sleeping bag in tow, along with my DSLR on my back, I battled the steep uphill climbed and was relieved when I crested. As a reward, I wanted to take advantage of the downhill slope and get some wind in my hair and live life to its fullest, so down I went. I managed to reach speeds in the 50 km/h range and was loving the ride on my new Specialized Rockhopper. Sadly, that was a short-lived moment of bliss when it all came to a crashing halt when I under-estimated my speed and distance to a bend in the road. I had slowed down to 30 clicks but this was still too fast for my own good and as a result, I skidded on loose gravel along the side of the road, slammed into a road sign, hit a tree, and rolled into the ditch.

FUCK.

I landed with my left arm in a position I’ve never seen before and though I could move my fingers, I couldn’t control my arm. A woman from a car travelling in the opposite direction saw the entire accident and was the first on scene to see if I was okay. Jay and Echo came down minutes later.

Never loosing consciousness but disappointed by my unresponsive left arm, I managed to crawl out of the ditch to higher ground, took off my helmet with my right hand, and rested on my back until the paramedics arrived on scene. The woman in the car was quick to diagnose exactly what I had broken: my humerus bone. Amy and Lucas, the paramedics who clam-shelled me and hoisted me into the ambulance confirmed that I had broken my humerus bone. Apparently, Amy had received a page from dispatch during her tennis game and left straight away to my need so I apologised for my stupidity on such a lovely day and joked with her about how there is nothing humerous about a fractured humerus.

I was whisked away to the island’s only walk-in clinic to see Dr. David Beaver, the island’s only on-call doctor for morphine and a temporary sling. The clinic had no x-ray machine. As I layed there on the bed, Dr. Beaver made calls to see if I can be air-lifted to Victoria General but as it turned out, they were tending to more life-threatening injuries. All I had was a broken arm and I wasn’t in any excrutiating pain. A special ferry service to Victoria General was also looked into but they too were tending to more serious injuries and couldn’t ferry me across. As a last resort, Jay and Echo rented a Toyota Matrix from a shady character (by their description) and I was finally on my way to Vancouver General with special clearance.

We pulled up to the ferry terminal and were given priority service to lane 1 ahead of everyone else. Then on the ferry, a first-aid attendant from BC Ferries came to the window of our car and made sure that I was doing alright. He too had a mountain biking accident as it turned out. Once we reached Tsawwassen, we were the first to leave. Everywhere I went there were nice and helpful people along the way. I felt touched!

It was well into the wee hours of the morning when a lovely resident doctor by the name of Dr. Andrea Simmonds (who bore a very close resemblance in mannerism and voice to my CS friend in Seattle also named Andrea) made a cool fibre-glass hanging cast for me. She was so impressed by her good work that she asked me to pose for her in my new adornment as she took pictures with her iPhone to show her colleagues. I gave her a thumbs up in the pose, my left thumb sticking out of the cast.

Daylight was about to break again by the time the three of us retired back at Jay’s abode where we fell asleep instantly.

This was definitely not the weekend cycle/camping trip we had expected. But then again, we’re capable of making quick adjustments to our plans.

2012-07-25 Update: Scanned in and posted a pic of a LEGO scenario which I thought was most suitable for this blogpost. The resemblance is humorously uncanny. Thanks, James!

Beer festival, fireworks, food, and friends.

What a fantastic weekend I had! Saturday was the Canada Cup of Beer at the Thunderbird Stadium where Jenn and I spent the bulk of the day drinking away like a fish, sampling about a dozen different varieties from the advertised two-hundred brews offered from local and international taps. There we were in the sunshine pouring, swirling, sniffing, tasting, and grading each one with descriptive notes on its percentage of alcohol, appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste, and suggested food pairing. We were able to taste a sampling of white ales, pale ales, lagers, and wines from all over the world including Tyskie (Polish), Peroni (Italian), Menabrea (Italian), Hells Gate (Richmond), and Red Racer (Surrey), but the one I found most satisfied with was Central City Brewing Company's Red Racer White Ale. The fact that this was the very first beer I had downed at the festival may have had the advantage of leaving me with the strongest first impression, but this straw coloured ale with its crisp and smooth qualities really hit the spot for both Jenn and I. We both agreed that something like a roast beef or chicken sandwich would pair well with this. The other one we were both impressed with as well was Barefoot Wine's Zinfandel and Pino Grigio. For the extremely sweet Zinfandel with its fruity and floral aroma, we had fruit salad, strawberry shortcake, and potato salad in mind. As for the Pino Grigio, sauté butter prawns came to mind.

And that's exactly what I had ordered at The Cellar on Granville to share between the two of us.

We hurried on back down to White Rock afterward with the intention to walk across the border to Blaine to catch the Independence Day fireworks. With white chocolate macadamia nut cookies in hand, we were trying to beat time and quickened our pace along the railroad tracks meandering through crowds of others who had set up folding chairs along the coastline. Though we didn't make it down by foot to the actual site in Blaine when the fireworks started at 2230h, we found a log on the beach on the White Rock side with an equally gorgeous view.

Sunday came around when I woke up from Jenn's day bed. In the late afternoon, I met up with James, a friend I hadn't seen in years, at the Museum of Vancouver where we went to see the Velo-City exhibit: a history of bikes in the city. Squeezing in as much as we could see in the thirty-minutes we had before closing, I was thoroughly impressed with the exhibit of DIY bikes, hardcore downhill mountain bikes, road racers, a wall of candid photos of people on bikes with quotes, and videos.

We were at The Mill Bistro on West Cordova and got together with Jenn and Ian for food and drinks before retiring at the Christ Church Cathedral, cleansing ourselves from our sins with Gregorian chant and service.

It's back to work tomorrow.

Not so surprising surprise party.

My friends threw me a not-so-surprising birthday anniversary party for me today. We were atop Jay’s rooftop garden grilling up hamburger patties on the portable BBQ while looking out to the downtown core and beyond. I had invited my HS friend, Royden, whom I hadn’t seen in many years and was pleased that he could make it out for my 28th party of this sort.

Galloping Goose Bumps.

Three road warriors, Norm, Jay, and I, took to the trails on our bikes and successfully completed the 170 km roundtrip trek on the Galloping Goose this weekend. It was exhilarating, exuberayting, and exciting and worth doing again.

From Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal, we began with a paved path leading into a residential neighbourhood and crossed over acres of farmland. The path continued along the shoulder of a road which lead us to yet another residential neighbourhood, before we got to the mouth of a beautiful tree-lined dirt path with the fresh scent of the trees and mulch. Overhanging tree branches, interconnected with one another, formed a splendid tunnel vision like a pathway leading to an enchanted garden and provided shade with cooler climate. Sunlight shimmered between the trees as we cycled along.

I was stoked from riding my new Specialized Rockhopper but about a quarter of the way through, my legs were giving out until I finally had to take a break from the repetitive motion of cycling. I couldn’t even stand on my two legs after I dismounted as they felt like they were made of jelly. Rehydrating my system and giving my legs a good 5 minutes rest, I was back on again and persevered through the majestic trails of the Goose, trailing both Norm and Jay. Then a miracle happened: like Elliott carrying E.T. in a basket, I flew! Sure, my two wheels were still on the ground, but I no longer felt pain in my legs and my stamina level shot up to a hundred percent! It felt like I broke through a brick wall. From behind, I passed Norm and Jay and just kept on going and going and going.

When we got to our camp site in Sooke, our reserved lot was occupied by two neighbours; to our left was a fifth-wheel on our fire pit and to our right was a young couple chugging booze back on the picnic bench. They were nice people who welcomed us right away and offered beer from their cooler. They’ve been drinking since the morning apparently.

As it turned out, because of the landscaping changes still underway at the campsite, a few lots were moved to any available parcel of land or wedged in between existing lots. None of us were very impressed about this arrangement by the campsite administrators, but our neighbours moved their trailer and picnic bench around to accommodate us and our bikes.

By evening, the young couple to our right had brought some friends, and they had brought with them more booze from the liquor store. It turned into quite an interesting night when a particular friend of theirs’ started misbehaving, creating a riff between him and everyone else. Norm, Jay, and I were in our sleeping bags inside the tent by midnight but the “party outside” continued on for several hours after. Fuelled by alcohol and testosterone The conversations transpired outside the tent turned even more interesting when a few guys “whipped it out” to compare sizes as they talked about chicks and becoming a teenage father.

When we crawled out of our tent the morning after, the campsite as we had remembered it bore little resemblance from the night before. Our neighbour’s tents were blown away, newspaper debris were down the embankment towards the lake, and crushed beer cans were strewn everywhere. There were a pair of legs sticking out of a crumpled tent, and a guy laying next to a Honda. He was the first to wake from his sleep as we were packing up to head back along the Galloping Goose.

Overconfidence brought disaster to me. I fell off my bike badly tearing my left knee cap and left palm as I tumbled down a gravel hill. It was not very nice at all. Jay tore a strip out of his towel and wrapped it around my knee as a bandage to help clot the bleeding.

I should have expected to have an accident like this happen to me. This weekend bike excursion would have been too perfect to be believable otherwise.

Specialized Special @ Simon's.

After my initial introduction to Specialized bikes at the EP!C Sustainable Living Expo, I went busy with researching various makes of bikes including TREK, Kona, Norco, and Louis Garneau, and made a decision as to whether I should go with a road bike, a mountain bike, or a hybrid based on my future aspirations. The specials on last year’s models at Simon’s Bike Shop sealed the deal for me and I chose the last remaining Specialized Rockhopper in bright yellow. I took it out for a spin around the empty parking lot out back, climbed over parking cement blocks, bounced around testing the feel for its RockShox suspension, and fell in love. I mean, LLLOOOOVEEE.

Excited by my purchase of my new two-wheeler, Jay and I got on our bikes today and made a trek from downtown Vancouver to Steveston, Richmond. Cycling along Granville begun with a steady uphill climb and my legs were getting tired. I pushed myself, however, and at 37th Avenue, it peaked, and it was all downhill from there. The next half of the journey down along Granville was made easier after I made a pit-stop at a petrol station and realised that my tyres were under-inflated.

We went over the Arthur-Laing Bridge, entered Richmond, and continued our way to Norm and Lucy’s place. They took us along the Richmond Dyke which turned out to be a really nice path for bikes and walkers and took a rest once we got to Garry Point in Steveston. All four of us ordered fish and chips from Pajo’s and then ordered ice cream from the shop right next door. Savoured the explosive deliciousness in my mouth and every moment of being outside under the sun.

Back on our bikes again, we continued our path along the dyke north, turned a right, and followed River Road. YVR didn’t seem all too busy from across the water. In fact, Richmond had a certain calmness to it today, maybe because we avoided travelling on major arteries. Separating from Norm and Lucy in Richmond, Jay and I cycled back into town, taking the same path along Granville. A nice woman waiting at a crosswalk had a box of cookies with her and offered one each for the both of us. Vancouver is bike friendly.

It's Elementary, My Dear.

After a laborious day of painting the walls to our newly expanded suite at the lab, I made my way to my old stomping ground at Fleetwood Elementary School where they were having a cook-off and celebration to commemorate an era soon to end.

This aging schoolhouse to where I had spent my salad-years through grade one to seven is slated for demolition.

Past and present students as well as the teachers and parents came to say their hellos and goodbyes. I began my trip down memory lane with the class photos on the hallway walls and tried to find myself amongst the other children looking straight back at me. I had a look of innocence back in nineteen-eighty-eight when I started grade one and only slightly changed my facial expression to a look of non-chalantness and boredom throughout my elementary years. I don’t remember feeling that way about school, however, so I can’t explain why I wasn’t smiling much. Perhaps I was just being Emo (hahaha!).

I recognised the classmates I was with and could still recall a handful of them by name. The first classroom I had entered was actually the last classroom I was in: grade seven with Ms. McKenzie. The layout was pretty much the same as I had remembered, though the desks were arranged in groups of four unlike my days when they were in rows. On the teachers desk was a white bulbous eMac. I don’t recall seeing that when I was in grade seven.

Moving along, I waltzed into another classroom further down the hall to which I remember it being the Mac lab. Though it was void of any resemblance of it now, I recall having a lot of fun with the cloning tool on the old Mac Paint program which were running on a few Mac Plusses. I also remember printing large banners using the noisy ImageWriter dot matrix printers in which the Macs were connected to. The Mac engaged me. Someone should have taken a photo of me here as I would have definitely been grinning. To have this tool at my fingertips excited me so much that I couldn’t pull myself away from it. It’s second nature to most people now, but I remember having to show my fellow classmates that one can lift a mouse from the edges of the mouse pad, re-centre it and put it down, and move the cursor on the screen even farther. I have Apple to thank for my early start in shaping me into the geek I am today.

There was an assembly in the gymnasium packed with people of all ages. I bypassed them and went straight upstairs to Ms. Gidora and Ms. Nelson’s combined classroom where I had spent my grade five and six with them (if my memory serves me right). To my surprise, they were still teaching out of the same classroom and the posters on the walls still hadn’t changed! Though the two of them didn’t recognise me at first, perhaps because they’ve gone through so many faces over the years and not because I didn’t leave a profound impression on them as a child, I embraced them both with a hug and joined in on the chit chat they were having with Ms. Bev Watson and a former classmate bearing gifts from Japan.

I took a stroll around the school grounds and cut right across the outdoor basketball court where children were playing b-ball, looked over to the playground where I had once enjoyed swinging on the swings and climbing on the geodesic jungle gym, and made my way around the corner to the west side of the elementary school where I took several steps back, humbly acknowledged it’s presence, and said my last goodbye.

Fleetwood Elementary School: 1944 - 2009.

Critical Mass!

If ever I needed another reason to love Vancouver, this is it: Critical Mass. Hundreds of cyclists of all ages, agility, race, and profession, come out to enjoy this beautiful stroll all over the city streets. Bringing motor vehicles to a halt as we move on as one “mass traffic” unit, there’s greatness in the air just knowing that vehicles are relegated to the lower class. There’s freshness in the air, joy, and happiness when we ride over the Burrard Street Bridge, pause, and hoist our bikes over our heads signifying satisfaction of conquering.

With the closing of a single southbound lane on the Burrard Street Bridge in favour of a bike only lane trial that’s soon to open, the city of Vancouver is moving in the right direction and reaching its goal of aspiring to become THE greenest city. Next up: Cyclovia!

DIY cyclists bring their imagination and creativity to the road. One guy I noticed mounted an actual love seat, a night stand, and a table lamp on a tricycle platform and was peddling over the bridge. There was also a couple on a tandem bike, but instead of facing front, the person in the back was facing the other direction while also pedalling. How does that work?!

Echo, Eriko, Jay, and I settled for a picnic on the beach at English Bay after a lovely bike ride. When the sun went down, we returned to Jay’s abode and popped in Bottle Shock in the DVD player.

This city is where my heart is.