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Magazine of Erdington Methodist Church Station Road - November 2014

CONTACT

Contents

Minister’s Letter 3God Bless 4Family News from Beavers 5Busy Folk 6Family News from Cubs 7Aspects of the Vision Project 9Wear 10Gorra lotta bottle 11Turned into…? 12Christmas with Canoldir 13Children’s Pages 14Carols that count 16The Quit Rents 17Home for Travellers through December 20Helicopter 20Mary Jones World opens by Lake Bala 21Seven Wonders 22Lest We Forget 23Ordnance Survey 25November Regular Meetings 27Weekly Church Activities 28

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Minister’s Letter

Dear friends

November insists that we look backwards to the past. As if the falling of leaves weren’t enough of a reminder of what is passing, All Saints, Bonfire Night and Remembrance Sunday all invite us to look to the past. At the end of the month we move into Advent, which insists that we look to the future! I shall write something about that in next month’s letter, but for now let’s think about looking back.

What do you remember about this past year? What personal and family memories do you have? What do you remember from the world news? Maybe you look back to wonderful things and say it’s been a good year. Maybe you look back to painful times and echo the Queen, who famously described one year as an ‘annus horribilis’. Chances are we have walked a journey through a mixture of good and bad things, as we do most years. Thinking back over the past gives us chance to think about other people and situations – to thank God or to intercede for them. We can learn from the good and the bad. Arguably, the Queen learnt some important things through her experience in 1992 that have enabled her to steer the monarchy into a new era. Remembering the past gives us the chance to thank God for his presence with us in joys and in sorrows, and in faith to trust that God was working out his good will in all of them, as Romans 8:28 reminds us.

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At various times in the Old Testament we read of people building altars or placing stones in significant places as reminders of things that happened there. We, too, should remember how we came to be where we are. Perhaps we have achievements to celebrate, or encounters with God that have changed us. (Is it a coincidence that we call them landmark events?) Certainly we will have made mistakes along the way and we need God to give us his promised new start. Perhaps we aren’t where we would like to be, like the exiles in Babylon. Through Jeremiah, God encouraged them to pray for the prosperity of the place they were in (Jeremiah 29:4-7). Wherever we have been and whatever we have been through, God has seen and been with us. This is the greatest and most wonderful thing to remember; remembering it has the power to lift us, and to change and redeem our memories and our present situations.

As I look back over the year (and indeed over my life), my heart echoes the words of a song by Delirious: ‘What would I have done, and what would I have become, if it wasn’t for Jesus?’ We look back with thanks that his presence makes all the difference.

Your friend and minister

Rev Paul

God blessThora Hird told this story on a BBC1 programme ‘Praise Be’ about a little girl saying her prayers: “God bless Mummy, God bless Daddy, God bless my brother Tommy, God bless Granny – and God look after yourself, ‘cos if anything happens to you, we’ve had it!”

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Family News

177th Beaver Scout Colony NewsOn Wednesday 16th July 2014 the 177th Beavers attended Blackroot Pool Sutton Park and met up with the Tame Valley Water Instructors who were taking the Beavers onto the water to do  Kayaking. The Beavers were given a safety briefing and fitted out with life jackets and helmets before going onto the water. The Beavers played several games whilst on the water including the game of The Grand Old Duke Of York which involved Beavers standing up and sitting down in the kayaks to the tune of that song. Luckily no one fell in even though most of the Beavers got very wet. The Beaver Leaders would like to thank Tame Valley Water, who are all Scout Leaders, for giving our Beavers this opportunity to enjoy this activity in order to gain their water activity badge.

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Busy Folk(He that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully - 2 Corinthians 9.6)It’s nearly always the busy folkWho have so much to get throughThat you can rely on to help you outWith something you have to doThey’ve always a moment to spare and spendTo do a favour . . . to help a friend . . .And God rewards them as years increaseWith satisfaction and sweet deep peace.

Guiding Threads by Elsie Campbell�6

Home Help BadgeThe Cubs have been doing their Home Help Badge this term. For this they had to learn to sew on a button, lay a table, clean windows (they cleaned the windows of the doors into the hall, did you notice?) and horror of horrors, keep their bedrooms tidy for a week. Believe me, they were not impressed by this....even for a badge. Not surprisingly their parents thought this was a splendid idea. Here are some of the confirmations of a job well done we had back: • For seven days Luke has made a fantastic job effort to keep his

room tidy. Each day he has made his bed (without grumping) picked up dirty underwear (without dying) put away his books and toys (without injury, harm or scars for life). At the end of seven days Luke can now walk across his carpet without it becoming a full-on hazardous attack of Lego bricks, cars, dragons and things without names. He survived this challenge! What's next?

 • This week Sam has kept his room tidy by making his bed every

morning, putting his dirty clothes in the linen basket and his clean clothes in the wardrobe. He has also helped by vacuuming and dusting, not only his bedroom, but the rest of the house. Can we have some more tasks like this please? I've been able to put my feet up and have a rest.

 • Daniel has done well and managed to keep his bedroom tidy all

week! I think you should set this as a task every week.

Do any of the cubs want a job at my house! - ed�7

BrumChallenge CampSome of the Cubs have been on BrumChallenge camp for older Cubs, this is a county camp, where they get a taste of things they'll be able to do in scouts. We all had a great time. The Cubs did kayaking and rafting, attended spy school and gained several badges. A couple of comments from the cubs: “I really enjoyed taking part in the BrumChallenge camp. It was great fun, especially the Spy Academy with the face paint. I enjoyed singing at the camp fire too.   The best part of camp was the water activities......and the food was excellent!”

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Aspects of the Vision ProjectYou will see that work on this part of the project is well under way, and we expect it to be completed by the time the next Contact is out at the beginning of December. Rose is working hard to finish the fused glass windows, as well as being in work, but it is anticipated that they will be fitted early in November.

The group will meet soon to arrange a calendar of varied events for 2015. As well as that we are always grateful if some of you can run a coffee morning to raise funds too. I am sure that Lesley will be glad to see the Saturday rota being filled up.

One event has already been booked for April 18th; this is a concert by the Immanuel’s Ground Quire. Many of you probably haven’t heard of them so here is some information from their website which will be an introduction to them.

Immanuel's Ground is a Quire based in Warwick, was formed in the Autumn of 2001, and draws members from the "Heart of England", which, generally speaking, is Oxfordshire, Northants, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. We also have members from further afield.

As a costumed quire, we sing music from the West Gallery period, i.e. roughly between 1725 and 1850, this including not only the sacred music sung in rural parish churches, so well recorded by Thomas Hardy in "Under the Greenwood Tree", but also secular part-songs, glees and catches, and the popular music of the period, with especial emphasis on local composers and musicians. This is accompanied by a small number of instruments such as would have been found in any village band of that time.

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The other part of our repertoire comes from a parallel and living singing tradition in America, and especially New England, that of shapenote music, with its exciting and sometimes unexpected harmonies, kept alive since the time of the earliest settlers. We also include some of the new compositions still being written today. We take part in concerts, church services (usually a form of evening service), carols - concerts, services and pub sessions - and are happy to share the music with local choirs by workshops and other participatory events, either on their own or as a prelude to a shared service. Local historical material is included wherever possible. 

In early West Gallery music the air, or tune, was usually written in the tenor line, although later printed sources corrected this and used the treble for the tune. However, both treble and tenor lines were often doubled by men and women singing an octave apart, as well as being accompanied by the instruments doing the same. Instrumentalists were given 'symphonies' to play, these being a few bars at the start and end of each piece of music, as well as at section ends and sometimes between lines of words. "Repeats and twiddles" became a term used by those trying to ridicule the music.The Quire has as its watchword the instruction of a Fellow of Lincoln  College, Oxford  - John Wesley - to “sing lustily and with good courage”. 

Hilary Price

WearOf all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.

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Gorra lotta bottleWhen you were little did the milkman come every day? Even more

important was it a milk float or a horse drawn cart? Did the milkman bring other things like bread and orange juice? Ours did and I remember looking forward to the day he left the bottled orange juice because it tasted so much more like the real thing than other versions available at the time. We continued with this daily delivery until quite recently. When we were first married we had a little board, hidden round a corner on which we used to hang numbers to tell the milkman how many pints to leave. The arrival of skimmed and full fat milk put stop to that little idea.

Semi-skimmed came along later making it even more complicated.

In 1974 couple of years after we got married Dairy Crest tell us that 94% of all their milk went out in glass bottles, but was it bird proof I ask? By 2012 this had dropped to 4%. However, apparently there are still about 5,000 left in the UK. Do you ever see one, maybe in areas not so overflowing with 24/7 convenience stores.

Further investigation into the milk trade reveals that the early history of the popularisation of milk was integral with the development of the railways. In 1846 St Thomas’s Hospital was probably the first organisation to arrange for milk deliveries via the railway. A few years later Great Western Railways was transporting milk into London from Maidenhead. By the beginning of the 20th century railways were carrying 95% of all milk from the dairy to the consumer. It is interesting to speculate

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how much of the success of this due to the development of Pasteurisation in the 1880s.

Because of its undoubted health benefits successive Governments have tried at various times to encourage us to drink more milk. Who remembers Watch out there’s a Humphry about and Linford Christie racing past a milk float declaiming that milk has got a lot of bottle? I do wonder how the total sales of milk were affected by Margaret Thatcher’s decision to stop the supply of milk to all school age children. Without this introduction I wonder how many have never acquired the taste.

Now milk production is driven by the economics of madness, with supermarkets using milk as a loss leader to entice us into the store. Often this is paid for by farmers who are being paid less per litre than the cost of production, a situation made much worse at the moment by the spat between the EU and Russia over Ukraine.

Wherever milk goes in the future it will no doubt still continue to offer an easy and convenient source of calories, minerals and vitamins for our diet.

Peter Farley

Turned into…?The Sunday School story was about Lot’s wife who was turned into a pillar of salt. One little boy’s arm shot up. “Yes, Jeremy?” said the teacher. “Please, Miss,” said Jeremy, “My Mum looked back once when she was driving home – and she turned into a lamp post.”

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CAROLS THAT COUNT 150 voices raising funds for children with cancer James Llewelyn Jones - Musical Director

9th December 2014 at 3.00 pm and 7.30 pm Town Hall, Birmingham

Tickets - £10 / £14.50 / £17.50 plus transaction fee* Box office - 0121 345 0603 or online at www.thsh.co.uk

*A £3 transaction fee, plus £1 (optional) postage, will be charged on all booking except purchases made in person at Town Hall or Symphony Hall.

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The Quit RentsThe following account was sent to me via my daughter /Elizabeth Bibbings who is a member of the H.V. Morton Society, a journalist of the 1930/50’s era. She forwards to me articles in which she thinks I would be interested. I have been granted permission from the author Sandra Lawrence, a professional journalist, to publish it in Contact.

Unfortunately, we’ve missed it this year! - Ann Tomes

HVM Society Snippets - No.171 The Quit Rents Ceremony by Sandra Lawrence

When HV Morton describes something as ‘one of the strangest ceremonies I have ever seen…’ it’s at least worth a cursory glance to see if the event still happens today... I had never heard of the Quit Rents ceremony, as described by The Man Himself in "Ghosts of London", 1939, and even if I had, I might have taken his description of the oldest English legal ceremony apart from the Coronation as another example of lost Mortonian whimsy, had I not been searching for it from another source. I reached for the bookshelf whilst reading "Sixty One Nails" by Mike Shevdon, a splendid London urban fantasy, where a ceremony takes place so arcane I said to myself ‘this has to be real; no one would make that up.’ Of my not-inconsiderable London library only two books mentioned the ritual and only one described it…

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The Quit Rents ceremony is performed annually, every October, squeezed in between major criminal cases at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, with the usual British combination of deadpan humour and pride in tradition.During the ritual the City of London pays a token or ‘quit’ rental to the Crown for two parcels of land, and has done so ever since 1211. Nothing particularly odd in that, of course, until you realise that no one knows where either of the two plots actually are. All anyone knows is that one is near Bridgenorth in Shropshire; the other was once a forge somewhere near the Strand. For the Shropshire land the rent is two knives - one sharp and one blunt - their cutting capabilities to be tested against a hazel rod in full view of the court. The City plot’s annual rental is six horseshoes and sixty one nails. The two knives are forged new each year by the Worshipful Company of Cutlers (presumably, somewhere within the Crown Estates lies a large cupboard containing 800 years-worth of very sharp – and very blunt - knives) but the horseshoes and nails are antiques, dating back to 1361; gigantic iron crescents intended for tournament horses. All are solemnly placed on a large, checked cloth (from which comes the term ‘exchequer’) and counted down to the last nail by the City’s solicitor. Presiding over this strange scene is the Queen’s Remembrancer, resplendent in black robes, lace cravat, very shiny shoes and almost-cliché 18th century wig with a tricorn hat perched on top of it. The public is allowed to watch from the gallery as the Great and Good, mainly Freemen of the City of London, witness this strange

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act before repairing to the secretive Middle Temple for a slap-up banquet.Sadly, cameras are not allowed in the courts and despite the colourful pageantry it has never been recorded in any format – though with descriptions such as H V Morton’s it’s hardly necessary. He tells a romantic tale I have not heard elsewhere (certainly not in any official reports) of a gallant Templar knight who, needing shoes for his horse for the following day’s tournament, was so impressed with an itinerant blacksmith’s work he arranged for the smith to set up forge on a permanent basis. After the dissolution of the Templars the forge fell into the hands of the City who rented it from the Crown and… well, after that the legend gets even hazier than Morton’s original concept, where even he admits he can’t work out all the detail. What I love about the Quit Rents ceremony is that everyone – from the straight-faced Remembrancer to newly-elected Sheriffs, the City solicitor to Morton himself – knows it is hokum. The deal became moot back in 1361 when the Crown started lending the horseshoes to the City to pay them with. Yet everyone plays along. Even today, there is an air of lip-twitching seriousness as a man in a ridiculous hat watches another man in a long robe theatrically count a bunch of rusty old nails, then delivers a lecture about some obscure part of City history. As Morton says:

"How charming! How delightful to observe the Crown and the City meeting once a year to count their horse shoes like a couple of middle aged lovers who fondly show one another the keepsakes of youth!"

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This ceremony is virtually unknown. When I was there last year, there were six of us in the public gallery. But it is free and open to all and, if you fancy visiting this year, it’s on 7th October at 3.15pm. It’s worth arriving a little beforehand to get a good seat – perhaps 2.30 pm to be sure - I still can’t quite believe it’s not going to be overrun this year...

Home for Travellers through DecemberMary and Joseph are olive wood figures who wish to travel around the area from 1st December.

Mary and Joseph are looking for people who will have them in their home for one night.  They need to be taken to another family the next day (you will be told where) and this continues up to the 24th December when they return to Erdington Methodist Church.

Please give this some thought, and in November a list will be on the notice board for people to sign up.

                                       Thank you

Margaret Hillman

Helicopter

Sometimes people think of church as being like a giant helicopter. They don’t want to get too close in case they get sucked into the rotas.

Milton Jones

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Mary Jones World opens by Lake Bala

Mary Jones World, a new state-of-the-art visitor and education centre, created by Bible Society on the edge of Lake Bala, was officially opened on Sunday 5 October, the bicentenary of the Rev Thomas Charles’s death.

The centre will give people the opportunity to discover the story of Mary Jones and Thomas Charles and learn about the impact of the world’s best-selling book. From November to March, the centre will be open to school visits and group bookings only. The centre re-opens to the public in April 2015.

It all began in 1800, when a 15 year-old girl called Mary Jones walked 26 miles from Llanfihangel-y-Pennant to Bala to purchase a Bible from the Rev Thomas Charles. Mary had saved for six years to pay for the Bible and Thomas Charles was so moved by her determination that he helped establish Bible Society four years later. He is one of a number of notable figures buried in the churchyard at Llanycil.

The new centre will tell the story of Mary Jones and Thomas Charles and give visitors the chance to learn about the Bible’s impact in Wales and the rest of the world through engaging and

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interactive materials.

It is based at St Beuno’s Church, which has been a place of Christian worship for more than 1,500 years.

from the Parish Pump Website

Seven Wonders

A class of school children was asked to write down what they thought were today’s Seven Wonders of the World. While gathering the votes their teacher noted that one pupil had not finished her exercise so she asked her if she was finding the task hard. The girl replied, “Yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there are so many.”

She hesitated, then said, “ I think the Seven Wonders of the World are:

To see, to hear, to touch, to taste, to feel, to laugh and to love.”

A gentle reminder to us all that the most precious things in life cannot be built by hand or bought by man.

submitted by Marjorie Barnett from The Friendship Book - 2012

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Lest We Forget

One of the most amazing sights in London this year has been the art installation 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' at the Tower of London. The dry moat has been filled with 888,246 ceramic poppies, each representing a British or Colonial soldier killed in the First World War and commemorated in this centenary year.

‘In Flanders fields, the poppies grow between the crosses, row on row, that mark our places; and in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly scarce heard amongst the guns below.’

This is the first stanza of John McCrae’s poem, first published in Punch magazine in 1915. Within months, it came to symbolise the sacrifices of all who were fighting in the First World War. Today, the

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poppy remains a tangible symbol of all those who have sacrificed their lives in war. But why do we remember?

‘They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.’ (Micah 4:3). Writing about 700 years before Christ, Micah’s words have to be seen against a background of violence with the fall of Samaria and the instability created by the aggression of Assyria. However, he prophesied a future of hope, a world where nations come together in peace instead of war. His vision saw a time when the arms of war would be turned into farming tools and people would live in peaceful community.

Our understanding of peace is more than the avoidance of war or the absence of conflict. It’s about building relationships between people, communities and nations, which positively creates a love and care for others founded on justice for all. As we remember the sacrifice of those who died in the First World War, our response must be to look practically at how we can build relationships of peace and justice in our world, starting with our own families, colleagues and neighbourhoods. As Micah says, ‘we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.’ (4:5). We always need God’s presence and power to change us into the people who have a passion for peace and justice, and compassion for everyone.

‘They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.’

from the Parish Pump Website�24

Ordnance SurveyI don’t know about you but I, have been fascinated by maps for as long as I can remember. I remember an early Guild holiday with my parents in Dunoon and to save coming back to Glasgow on the ferry my Dad said map read me home. I think that he came to regret it, because the road has to go round via Inveraray and 320 miles becomes 390. I can remember feeling so guilty that for the last 100 miles I tried to keep chatting whilst my mother slept.

My introduction to OS maps took place at school. We had a geography teacher who inspired me in all sorts of ways, one of those teachers that Tony Blair went on about. Our classes about OS maps and map reading where a revelation. Symbols for this and symbols for that and though I had forgotten, there is even one for a drinking fountain. My admiration increased when I was old enough to use them for real. On one occasion in Scotland Don and I were walking with a one inch sheet when we really should have has the two and half inch page. The resulting walk off the mountain was one of those never to be repeated experiences, where Don said he was almost willing the rescue helicopter to fly by.

When I had enough money to use maps to walk in Europe I remember a friend saying that I needed to treat the maps of some countries with care as, to him, they contained fictional material. I was never sufficiently well practiced to be able to confirm or deny the statement, however I do remember being quite unable to walk the distances suggested in guide books in the time quoted. Whether that was because the distances were understated or I was not up to the challenge is a moot point.

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As the name suggests, Ordnance maps have a military origin. They were first proposed by Lieutenant Colonel David Watson in 1747 to map the Highlands in the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion. One of his assistants was William Roy who went on to undertake the Principal Triangulation of Great Britain. The mapping began for real in 1790 and the first inch to the mile map, of Kent and Essex were issued in 1801. Over the next 20 years about one third of the country was mapped in the same scale. Apparently sales were suspended at the height of the Napoleonic wars because of security considerations.

There is an interesting anecdote on one of the web pages about the creation of these maps. The longest serving Surveyor General was one Thomas Colby who on one occasion walked 586 miles in 22 days in 1819. Makes my 93 miles along the West Highland Way over seven walking day appear like a country stroll. But apparently he would always lead from the front and when a mountain had been mapped he would organise a party for all of those involved on the top with an enormous plum pudding.

The work is now carried out by a Government Agency. It employs 250 staff and uses two planes to create and enter the 10,000 amendments that are made to the database every day. When you read on the news about an articulated lorry getting stuck twice in one day whilst using SatNav it makes you realise quite what a national treasure OS maps are. Long may they continue.

Peter Farley

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November Regular Meetings

Coffee MorningsEach Saturday 10.00 am to 12.00 noon

Tuesday ClubEvery 4th Tuesday in the month at 2.30 pm

Sunday WorshipAll worship starts at 10.30 am unless stated otherwise below.

2nd HOLY COMMUNION - Rev Peter Grimwood

9th REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY - Alex Dunstan

16th ALL AGE WORSHIP - PRISONS SUNDAYGail Morgan

23rd WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE SUNDAYRev Paul Dunstan

30th Worship GroupChristingle Service - Rev Paul Dunstan - 4.00 pm

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Weekly Church Activities

Please hand any items for the December/January CONTACT to any of the Editorial Team (Peter Farley, Christine Rankin, Ann Tomes & Nick Riley) by 15th November 2014 at the latest please or alternatively email me: nickriley@blueyonder.co.uk with the word ‘CONTACT’ in the title.

Sunday 10.30 am MORNING WORSHIP and Young Church

Tuesday 9.30 - 12.30 pm 2.00 pm

Pre-School : Karen Homer Tuesday Afternoon Meeting : Ann Tomes (4th)

Wednesday 9.30 - 11.30 am 9.30 - 12.30 pm 12.30 pm

Stay and Play Pre-School : Karen Homer Luncheon Club - (1st and 3rd)

Thursday 9.30 - 12.30 pm Pre-School : Karen Homer

Friday 9.30 - 12.30 pm 5.00 - 6.15 pm 6.15 - 7.45 pm 7.45 - 9.15 pm 7.45 - 9.15 pm 5.30 - 6.30 pm 5.00 - 6.30 pm 7.30 - 9.00 pm

Pre-School : Karen Homer Beavers : Lynn Turner Cubs : Elizabeth Baizon Scouts : Lisa Porter Explorers : Lucy Porter Rainbows : Debbie Barnett Brownies : Lesley Carter Guides : Helen Rainsford

Saturday 10.00 - 12.00 noon 10.30 - 11.30 am

Coffee Morning : Lesley Morgan Church open for prayer : Margaret Curzon

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