stlucia.blogg.se

I started this blog when I first went on an exchange to Brisbane, Australia. During that experience, I discovered my love for culture, travelling and adventures. This blog has followed me since and been my forum for pictures and stories from Tanzania, South Africa, Ireland, Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore, Europe etc.

BROKE MY FIRST 100!

Publicerad 2013-06-10 00:24:13 i Allmänt,

Around 50 dedicated Southbankers woke up to light sprinkle, waiting for the call to see if the ride was on or not. The radar showing the rain told us it was. So a bunch of us met up at usual meeting place. Although the winter has come, it was surprisingly warm yday (17 degrees!!) so no need for extra leg warmers etc. 
Rode out to beautiful Cleveland point via an extended loop. So lots of river front. Stopped for a well deserved coffee, although me and Mark, who have been craving carrot cake for a whole week, got one of those. 
(Im in the middle if you cant find me)
Most importantly for this ride, I broke the 100km! 3hrs54min (including a bunch of traffic lights). Very happy with that!
11am nap after the ride in my onzee. And Zel had the longest and deepest nap of us all, as if she just went for a 100km ride as well huh!
'
I've also had this adorable little creature to cuddle this weekend, which certainly deserves a few pictures as well:
Someone couldn't stay awake during movie night...
'
Anyway. Its queens birthday today, its pissing down so no ride, but most likely a little tour on a stand up paddle board. Sometime's gotta be the first!
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LONG WEEKEND!

Publicerad 2013-06-07 05:29:38 i Allmänt,

I don't know how often it is Queen's birthday (=public holiday) but it seem to happen a few times a year in this country. So assumingly the queen must be ridicilously old, at least 300 years or so...
It's Friday arvo in the office and I've just handed over my first paper draft to supervisors. Working hard on getting this paper published before my Eurotrip.
 
The weekend will consist of a big dose of crazy puppy love, as I will be puppysitting 14wks old Shakta, if the weather allow, my first 100km ride and perhaps a nice little park run on Saturday morning. Nothing much to complain about.
 
This week so far has consisted of about 6hrs of yoga in five days. So I'm all relaxed and in positive thinking mood. Think a Friday arvo swim in the pool might be a good way of finishing this week off with. Ooohhm!
 
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PICTURES FROM THE WEEKEND

Publicerad 2013-06-03 11:52:52 i Allmänt,

Tried out my ITB on a little parkrun last Saturday. The parkrund are a free event aiming to keep people active. All you do is register online and turn up:
Properly dressed for the Australian winter.
I tried a new technique for this run. Taped my feet down the way my physio showed me and ran in my barefooters, which I havent properly converted to yet. (Running in barefooters means that you'll land on the front of your foot rather than your heel). And my knee felt good until the last few hundred meters, where I could start sensing it. Still ended 8th out of 127 females on 24.28, which is a pretty crap time of me. But I suppose good when just trying the leg.
'
Sunday:
While Zelda was sleeping through the whole day, me and Marc (my new homie) joined SBTC for a 70km ride. Sometimes I have to admit you wake up in the morning sort of hoping it will rain. Especially when the alarm goes off at 4.30 and you didn't make it to bed until 10.30pm the night before. BUT. Up you go and it only takes about 5min to remeber why you choose not to stay in bed. In all honesty, I only made it to 68km before I got a flat, and being so close to home, I couldn't be bothered changing the tube on the street. I also managed to fit in 3 yoga classes in 2 days, which I hope will do good for me knee, working on alignments and strenghtening the muscles that are causing the pain.
'
AND.
I have been unable to stop thinking of Kerser, the poor dog... Today at 5pm he was meant to be killed and I've been feeling funny all day and followed his story. I was SO happy reading on "Free Kerser's" facebook page that Kerser has a stayed of execution and was not being euthanized today. I think mainly because of all the media attention the case has caused. I really hope this story will get a happy end...
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LÄS DETTA NU - SAVE KERSER

Publicerad 2013-06-02 06:02:03 i Allmänt,

http://www.causes.com/actions/1753888-save-kerser-from-being-euthanized?recruiter_id=14781686&utm_campaign=invite&utm_medium=request&utm_source=fb
 
Detta är en av de mest fruktansvärda historier jag läst om här. I Victoria (state of Australia) har de en "dangerous dog law" som innebär att pitbull terrier är förbjudna i den staten. Baserat på om en hund ser ut som en pitbull terrier korsning, inte alls på deras beteende, avlivar staten hunden. Alla som är hundälskare eller hundägare förstår säkert hur fruktansvärt det skulle vara att få sin älskade hund fråntagen och mördad av staten för att den ser ut på ett visst sätt.
 
Htb
 
Nu har Kerser, som enligt staten ser ut som en pit bull korsning, men som enligt experter som mätt hans ben längder etc konstaterat att han inte är en pitbull, endast en dag kvar att leva. 
 
Klicka på linken och signa Kersers protestlista. Jag brukar inte egnagera mig i signering av listor etc men denna historia (och många andra hundars öde i Victoria som blivit mördade av staten pa av deras utseende) gör mig så fruktansvärt upprörd. Hur mkt bättre vore det inte med ett "körkort" för en pitbull än att döda hundar som liknar en pitbull! Fattar det bara inte...
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LADIES IN LYCRA

Publicerad 2013-05-26 12:24:55 i Allmänt,

Woot! Finally went for my first ride with the Ladies in Lycra, after one week of sickess and flu. Soooo nice to hit the road again! I also tried out my leg on a 2km run and its not holding up. Its killing me not being able to run. Running club is my fav mornings to wake up to and I can't come to them. Crying inside! Boo...
 
Otherwise its been quite a relaxing weekend. Brought Zelda to the markets on Saturday for coffee in the grass. She was hillarious! App staffys do this singing thing, which I hadnt heard too much of before then. But sitting down in the grass, listening to the live music they always play there, she was growling and singning and crying soo loud that people looked around to see where the noise came from. Everyone was cracking up lauging when they saw this excited little pup wagging her tail to all the attention she got. It was almost embarrasing but couldn't do anything else than laughing. Will bring her next week as well andsee if I can get a movie =)

Next week might be the last week of animal work at lab for me in a LONG time as I then will have collected most of my data for the second part of my PhD. As much as I love my little ratties, I am SO happy to get a break from that and start to write up a bit an analyze data. 
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RAT BITTEN

Publicerad 2013-05-22 11:34:54 i Allmänt,

Wow, after being bed bound with man-flu and all for 4 days, I head back to work, only to get bitten by an upset lab rat! No offense, I totaly understand that he might be a bit upset after just getting a 3cm needle stuck in his abdomen with happy drugs. He, E.33.9, was half nibbling on my finger while the anaesthetics started to set in, and all of a sudden aggressively attacked it. Poor fella, he must have been quite confused. Anyway, it resulted in 2 hours of filling out work related injury forms, collecting signatures and then 1.5hrs at the uni doctor to get a tetanus boost. So now I should be covered for another 10 years. Convinient! 
 
Zelda has settled in nicely and just forced me to cuddle her for an entire movie. What do people do if not training? It's killing me not having been out on my bike for a whole week now! Gaaah! This cough better get better soon cause I cant stand another sleep in or another movie...
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ZELDA

Publicerad 2013-05-21 11:04:53 i Allmänt,

From one family member to another. This is Zelda. She's a 7yo adorable Brittish Staffy pup and our new housemate. Coopie is ofcourse irreplacable but she's a very good substitute. She makes the funniest noises and smiles and eats one tennis ball a day. An extremely well behaved staffy and her dad Mark has replaced Simon who suddendly decided to move out and find his own place. Mark is really into training, triathlon and crossfit so I think we found a good replacement.

Im slowly starting to recover from my flu as well. Managed to get in to work this morning to do some experiments that had to be done. Also, during that short period of time I managed to get bitten by a rat. I know I should report things like that but I was soo tired and just wanted to go back to bed, and I had forgotten my injurance card at home and just the thought of going back home and then back to uni was too much for mu feverish brain. If it's not looking good tomw, I guess I'll have to go and get a tetanus shot. Damn rat...=(
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MAN FLU

Publicerad 2013-05-20 11:31:08 i Allmänt,

Buhuu, värsta man-influensa någonsin!

Vart lite halvkrasslig under Fredagen så jobbade hemifrån. Lördag, inte värre än att jag kunde ta mig till marknaden. Söndag, completely out of it! Låg i sängen från morgon till kväll och visste varken vilken dag eller tid på dygnet det var. I sådana här stunder behöver man vara hemma hos päronen och ligga i sjuk soffan.
Blä!
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BYRON BAY OLYMPIC DISTANCE

Publicerad 2013-05-12 23:51:01 i Allmänt,

(1165 seems to be a bit of a theme here...)
End of Season. At least in Queensland. Next race on the list is Kalmar Mini tri in August, which I am really looking forward to. However it's good its a while a way so my knees have time to recover. Was taped up properly and my left itb did not cause me any harm in the race. However I must have been compensating because 7.5km into the run I could feel my right itb starting to play up instead. Always something.
(Tired em, last lap on the run course)
The start for F25-29 was at 12.17pm. It is very unsual that a race starts after sort of 8am in the morning so we had a nice little sleep in before. The water conditions were Rough! First of all, there were too many people in the water at the same time and the swell was big and the waves were not easy to try and breath through. A lot of people actually got sea sick as the waves were pushing us around so much, especially coming in. And. Believe it or not, the swim was 400m longer than it was meant to be. I wonder how this happens in every single race, why is it that the swim can never be shorter rather than longer?? Not fair!
The bike leg was amazing! Although the roads were horribly bad at some points, it was a beautiful ride and I went so fast with Sunshine!
Got a bit of my unusual asthma during the run and struggled a bit. The run consisted of 4 laps and it had been pissing down the whole morning (as it always does on race days) and parts of it looked more like the tough mudder race than a tri. But it was fun!
 
Here is my time summary for my first ever olympic distance:
Swim (1850m) (meant to be 1500) - 34.12min (includes first transition) Cat pos. 37 of 60
Bike (40km) - 1.08.56 (includes second transition), average speed 34.82km/hr, Cat pos. 8 of 60
Run (10km) - 50.09, average pace 5.01min/km Cat pos. 28 of 60
TOTAL TIME: 2.33.18
Cat position (F25-29) - 20 of 60 WOOT!
Gender position (all females): 80 of 235
Overall position (out of all finishers): 481 of 894

I am very pleased with my first ever triathlon season. In all my races (including runs and half marathons), I have always been top 20 in my age group, (and even won my first ever 7.5km trail run out of all females). Can't wait for my knees to recover and for the next season to start!
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TIME HAS COME

Publicerad 2013-05-10 08:36:09 i Allmänt,

Look at those wheels!!!!! The whole bike is just screaming AERO! I Want to move fast! And we will. My friend Terry came around earlier today to pop those wheels on that I borrowed from a friend. And although both of us were late for work, we just could not stop looking. 
Anyway. The time has come. For me to participate in my first ever Olympic triathlon (=1500swim, 40km ride, 10km run). Physio has taped me up as below and hopefully that will keep my knee and itb in the right position. No matter what, I can still enjoy the swim and the ride and the beautiful surroundings of Byron Bay!
Taped up and ready to rock! Woot!
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NISSAN COPORATE TRI

Publicerad 2013-05-05 11:28:15 i Allmänt,

Just for the record, because I am a tiny bit proud.

My official time for Noosa half marathon was
1.46.14
Cat position (F25-29): 21out of 82
Gender position: 118 out of 550
Overall position: 418 of 1117
 
In addition to that, I filled a place in the Nissan team triathlon down at the gold coast this weekend as Jess's law firm needed a girl for their team. I hadnät been doing any training as my itb injury started to bother me for the first time in like 10 years time after the half. But it didnt hurt anymore so I thought I would be ok as it was only a sprint. 
Those team events works as such, everyone in the team (consisting of 3 people) does everything. So person one starts to swim, ride, run, and then person two starts with swim, ride, run etc. I started as number three and swim went alright. Bike was AMAZING! Sunshine was soooo incredibly fast and it was so much easier to be on a bike like that than my old one. Transition was obviously easier as well as you dont have to work as hard to move forward. And then the run. Exactly 780m into the 4km run, itb starts to play up and I'm running in pain the last 3 kms=(

Anyway. Our team came 15th of 88 and my personal times were:
Swim 400m:9.02
Ride 19km:18.41
Run 4km:19.29
Total (transition included) 49.38
 
Anyway. I'm not very happy about any of that right now as all I want is to get my itb sorted. I know the only thing that will solve it is not to run. But I have Byron bay triathlon (last tri of the season) coming up next saturday so now I've icepacked it up. Just went to coles to buy lots of cooling gel, voltaren gel and ibruprofen. Also have a physio appointment for wed and fri so I can get taped up to reduce the impact. No running until then. Certainly no running for the 2 months after byron. Im sooooo sad =((((
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FIRST LITTLE RIDE

Publicerad 2013-05-01 23:11:00 i Allmänt,

After a proper bike fit, with every angle or my body position measured, Sunshine has now moved in with me. And what can I say, I am stoked!!!!
Went for a corso effort this morning (corso=name of the road, its fairly flat and no traffic lights and hardly no cars, so cyclists just go down and do a few loops every now and then to work on speed). This bike is icredible! It's like it Wants to move forward, rather than just staying at the same place, as my other bike (Bluberry) (yes I do name my bikes, I also name my friends bike in case they haven't named them already). For example, I namned Toby's two bikes Chaplin (as it is of the brand Cervelio) and Punda Milia (as it is black and white and punda milia means zebra in swahili).
Anyway. I'm superhappy with my new bike and can't wait for the last triathlon of the season in two weeks time, which also is my first olympic distance. Bring it on!
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HALF MARATHON COMPLETED - IN PAIN

Publicerad 2013-04-28 23:33:14 i Allmänt,

Noosa HalfMarathon completed: 1.46.15
Shame as I wanted to be under 1.45, but I really did have a crap day on the track so I can't really complain. I opened up way to fast, keeping a pace of about 4.30-4.45 for the first few ks. Ran the first 10 in 47.55min and the last 21 in like an hour lol. Not the way to do it! Run couch Chris would have been terrified about that positive splitting when all we focus on is negative splitting. 
Anyway, 14km in to it, I really just felt like lying down on the grass and cry. Despite a fairly early start (6.30am), it was soooo sunny and hot in the Australian winter at 7.20ish. Slightly dehydrated, the water station seemed ages apart. At 18km, my pretty week mental contribution started to fail. I just could not continue. Started to walk for a few meters, knee started to feel bad. At the same time I just wanted it to be over. An old man on the street asked if I knew how long the course was and I said, it's a half mara 21km. He asked where in the course I was and I answered 18. "Ohhh, just keep going darlin, just keep going!" Ok old man, I'll do it for you. The last 3 km seemed to go on forever. I could'nt help stopping every now and then and I made a promise to myself never to do this again lol. When it was only 1.5 left, I took back on a girl who was running my pace and she basically dragged me along for 1km before I could glance the finish line and passed her. 1.46.15. Went straight for the endura drinks and water melon. 
 
On the way back to Bris, I made a stop to visit my friend and first year Yoga teacher who moved away from the big smoke to Noosa hinterland. She rubbed some oil on my poor knee and gave me her 10wo golden retriver pup Shakti to play with:
And now, it's time to try to get into work. And then. Call a physio and get this ITBband sorted!
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SAY HELLOW TO SUNSHINE

Publicerad 2013-04-24 10:37:39 i Allmänt,

Min nya familjemedlem, Sunshine.
Here she is!
Efter att ha cyklat runt på något förstora, aluminium "Bluberry" Ridley i snart 4 månader kände jag att det var dags att uppdatera till en ultralight carbon "Sunshine" Avanti med snabbare hjul, snabbare växel system och snabbare "shape", men framförallt en cykel som inte är för stor! 
Har "jobbat hemifrån" de senaste två dagarna med gott samvete då jag jobbat varje helg i 3 månaders tid. Nu innebär ju inte alltid jobba hemifrån att man får så mkt gjort. Istället har jag tagit mig runt till ALLA Bne's cykel butiker för att se om någon hade en bra deal på en 2012 modell. På Avanti sa dom, "we do, give me a moment". Och i detta moment spatserade jag runt i butiken och tänkte, hoppas inte det är på den gula.... "This one" säger han och pelar på den gula....Gahhh, av alla underbart vackra cyklar i butiken, varför just den?
Jag får väl erkänna att det inte var kärlek vid första ögon kastet men så fort han tog ner cykeln på marken och jag fick vänja mig vid tanken så började jag falla något. Dag två, efter att ha tittat runt överallt plockade jag fram kortet.
Så nu är jag stolt mamma till Sunshine, 
Avanti Quantum 3 2012 (30% off), full carbon, full ultegra, swiss wheels inhandlad från en mkt bra butik som kommer göra allt för att passa in den perfekt till mig och som (believe it or not!) var den enda butiken som var villig att byta styre och sadel till en "female specific" variant utan extra kostnad. De bjussar även på första servicen och under ett års tid kan jag komma in och ändra passningen utan extra kostnad. 
Så nu är Sunshine på väg från Melbourne till Bris och kommer flytta in med mig nästa vecka.
EEEXCIIIITIIING!!!!
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CLEVELAND RIDE

Publicerad 2013-04-22 08:56:16 i Allmänt,

Again, alarm goes off at 4.30am. It is Sunday. It's starting to get cold outside, T is down on around 14-17oC and its dark. There is nothing better than getting on to your beloved bike and hit the road. Did about 65km today out to the coast with a few people from the group. We had a well deserved coffee at the lighthouse in Cleveland and it was just a beautiful day!
Other than that, I'm puppy sitting my friend Dex for a while as my friend Martina went into labour on Friday. So I'm really looking forward to meet baby Nicholas now. They'll be coming home from the hospital on Tuesday.
 
This week is also anzac day (Thursday) which is a public holiday to honour all australians who lost their lifes in the war. So will be at an early dawn service in the city (my first anzac day since I got here) instead of the normal SBTC thursday sprint session. Then headin up to Noosa for the multisport festival where I (although I havent registered yet) might give another half marathon a go saying my other one was cut short. 
And then, the countdown for Byron Bay Olympic really starts.
 
To prepare for that, a normal week generally looks like this:
Monday: Morning: brick session, meaning alternating bike/run or run off the bike
             Afternoon: yoga
Tuesday: Morning: SBTC long run session (40-90min)
              Afternon: Stroke correction and squad
Wed: Morning: Mt Cootha ride (ride up and down a mountain as many times as possible)
         Afternoon: Rest
Thursday: Morning: SBTC sprint run session
               Afternoon: Rest, swim (just haven't got into the habit yet), or yoga
Friday: Morning: Rest or recovery riverloop (30km social pace)
           Afternoon: Rest
Saturday: Restingday if riding on Friday
Sunday: SBTC long ride (60-100km)
 
Loving every day of it.
And. As it now is Monday afternoon. I am off to yoga!

NOTE: HALF WAY THROUGH MY PhD TODAY! YAY!

  
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TO THE COAST

Publicerad 2013-04-14 23:32:44 i Allmänt,

Went for a little ride yesterday. From Brisbane-Gold Coast. (=82 kilometer)
By far my longest ride so far and it was amazing! The weather in Bris has started to cool down and it sort of feels like early autumn. Fresh and comfortable!
We started from Bris at 5.15am and arrived to the coldcoast 2hrs and 50min later. Pace was set fairly high but it was a beautiful ride and while chatting along to your friends you hardly notice! On the pic above we have stoped for flat tyre number one (out of 2) and we all (except the guy with the flattie) happily consume some electrolyte and energy gels. 
Made it down to the coast in time to cheer on our fellow club members who participated in the Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon. Wonderful wonderful Sunday!
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1.21.27

Publicerad 2013-04-07 10:41:41 i Allmänt,

Nytt PB! Woot!
Mitt förra tri i Kingscliff slutade på 1.30, så självklart behövde jag komma under 1.30.18. Antar att det underlättade att inte ha feber denna vändan men trodde kanske att jag skulle slå det med 5 minuter snarare än 9. Så all good!

Tiderna blev:
Swim 750m: 15.47 (kingscliff 21.30, mot ström och 950m)
Bike 20km: 42.57 (kingscliff 43.32)
Run 5km: 22.42 (kingscliff 25.13)
Totalt: 1.21.27
Cat position: 10 (av 28)
Gender position: 56 (av 158)

Lite besviken att jag inte var snabbare på cykeln dock för jag kände som att jag verkligen tog i. Dock tror jag att vi hade ganska mkt motvind jämfört med kingscliff. Anyway, får jobba på det!

Tror inte det var någon fotograf där denna gången men lyckligtvis lyckades Katie få med mig på en bild ifrån bilen. Alltid kul med race bilder, även när de är bakifrån=)
Nu blir det till att jobba hårt inför Byron som äger rum andra helgen i Maj. Sedan är tri säsongen över för denna gången (i Oz). Tur att man ska hem till Sverige!
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TIHI

Publicerad 2013-04-06 06:36:50 i Allmänt,

Amen jag kan ju inte låta bli:
Ja ska man ändå klaga kan man väl lika bra göra det ordentligt! Hejja arga mamman!
 
I morgon har jag triathlon nummer 3 på schemat. Ska bli kul! Cyklen är trimmad och tvättad och väskan packad. Tidig start. Blir för er att hålla tummarna där hemma!
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NICE

Publicerad 2013-03-29 12:35:46 i Allmänt,

Svenska nyheter som circulerar med översättning och allt på mina australiensiska vänners facebook.


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RUNNING IN A CYCLONE

Publicerad 2013-03-24 21:46:34 i Allmänt,

Tänkte att ni kanske ville höra hur det gick?
Svaret är.....Fantastiskt bra!
Låg på mellan 4.50-5.05min per km och ben, knän och fokus var på topp de första 15. Och de enda 15 =((
För sedan vart det en cyklon med tornado regn som svepte över brisbane. Det blåste upp, började ösregna och hagla som aldrig förr. Blixtra och dundra och vägarna översvämmades. Under en sträcka på 40m hade jag vatten upp till knäna. Folk låg skadade utmed vägarna och de fick kalla in extra förstärkning av sjukvårdspersonal innan  halvmaran tillslut avslutatdes då en man blev träffad av ett träd. 
Vindarna nådde tydligen upp emot 100km/h enligt news.com.au
http://www.news.com.au/national-news/queensland/tree-strikes-twilight-run-competitor-as-huge-storm-lashes-southeast/story-fndo4ckr-1226605048033 
 
Så. Safety first. Sjukt besviken att inte få avsluta när allt kändes så bra men självklart rätt beslut (även om det förmodligen skulle tagits tidigare då eventet fortsatte ca 20min in i stormen, eller tills dess att någon skadades allvarligt). Nu hoppas vi att mannen som skadades klarar sig utan allvarliga men.
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Emmie

Flying high but staying grounded. Travelling, adventures, exploring and adrenaline is my life. I write about places most people want to visit but never do; and about my triathlon lifestyle. I live after: The distance between your dreams and reality is called action.

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