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Eurosong Fever 2026… THE FINAL!

Oops. Turns out I missed the 2nd semi-final of this years’ Eurovision. Well, I didn’t exactly miss it as I recorded it, I just…. erm, didn’t watch it. Been a busy little beaver this week, and by that, I mean I was sat there on Thursday and Friday, with my thumb only partially wedged up my arse. Thursday was the Premier League darts anyway. This does mean, however, that a lot of tonight is going to be a mystery. I think that makes it a little more interesting anyway. Anyway, in order to get some type of preparation done ahread of the prgramme, so I’m not wasting half the time copying and pasting, here are the 25 songs, in order they’re appearing. Allegedly.

The intro is starting off with some singer who apparently can only communicate with dogs. Was that last years’ winner? I barely looked at it last year. (Yes, he was the winner, AJ, or something) Do they have these flag parades every year? If so, I’ve not taken any motice.

Apparently you can vote now, before any of the acts have played.

And Grahan Morton really doesn’t like the hosts, he’s been hilarious so far already. Aaaaaaaaaand here we go…

1. Denmark: Søren Torpegaard Lund – Før Vi Går Hjem

I think this is one of the ones I’ve not heard before. Can’t remember it anyway Takes place in a “perspex box they haven’t managed to clean properly”. Supposed to be a favourite, but it’s pretty forgettable. Actually, saying that, it’s got better as the song went on. Turns out I quite like that one. “Must be like a petrie dish in that plastic box”. Hahaha!

2. Germany: Sarah Engels – Fire

Ah yes. I remember this one. It’s the one where I didn’t blink for about 3 minutes. Would love to see this one do well. Quite a catchy song, by my word, that stage performance. I’ve gone more bong-eyed than usual.

3. Israel: Noam Bettan – Michelle

Ohhhh, this is where the fun starts. Still think it’s a pretty mediocre song to be fair. Heard much better. that means it’ll probably do really well.

4. Belgium: ESSYLA – Dancing on the Ice

Oh god, it’s the “Dancing on the ice” one. I was dgoing to take a drink every time she sings “Dancing On The Ice”, but I’d like to see tomorrow. 13 times, if I counted correctly.

5. Albania: Alis – Nân

Oh, don’t think this had subtitles last time. Something about a dead mother, apparently. Oh, actually, this wasn’t the one I was thinking of. A bit depressing that one.

And now there’s a break. Only 20 songs to go.

6. Greece: Akylas – Ferto

Oh, it’s him with the tiger hat. Or something. It’s the retro graphics one. I didn’t think it’d come even close, but typically, it was the first one through. And apparently, he’s dressed up as a cat, not a tiger. Same thing. In a way. My opinion hasn’t changed much on the 2ns play, it’s still not brilliant. This was the one I thought the last one was, because of the mother character.

7. Ukraine: LELÉKA – Ridnym

I don’t think I heard this one. A 28 second high note in the middle. I can’t get away from the fact that she looks like Diane Morgan though. Don’t know what to make of that one. Was waiting for it to get going and it never really did, but not the worst song I’ve heard.

8. Australia: Delta Goodrem – Eclipse

Ah, now this one’s supposed to be good. Imagine if this one wins and they end up having to host it in Australia. That’d be amusing. Actually, yeah, this one is good, and probably the best one of the night so far. even a bit of a piano solo. And a key change. If this doesn’t do well, I’ll eat a kangaroo. Or something.

9. Serbia: LAVINA – Kraj Mene

The metal one. I did like this one. Pointy nails, pointy outfits. Something I forgot to mention last time, is that the microphone stand is a stand. that amused for me for some reason, and still does. I’d love to see this one do well. even if it’s shouty. We’re not even half way through.

10. Malta: AIDAN – Bella

Bella Bella Bella. This one’s garbage. The most forgettable one so far.

11. Czechia: Daniel Zizka – CROSSROADS

Ha. Faulty camera moment. I don’t think that’s a video effect. It went when they switched to another camera. Not keen on the song though. Apparently, the cameraman fell, which caused the distortion. Admittedly, it’s probably what I will remember about the song.

12. Bulgaria: DARA – Bangaranga

this son’g apparently really catchy. Yup. This is proper eurovision fodder. If I thought that ‘Dancing on the ice’ one was repetitive, this this one might top it. And, at the halfway point in this song, we’re half way through the competition.

13. Croatia: LELEK – Andromeda

Ah yes, I remember this one from the semi-final. Starts off slowly, gets better. I’ve warmed to it, and I like it. Hopefully it does well.

14. United Kingdom: LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER – Eins, Zwei, Drei

Anyone else spot the irony of our entry being titled in German. It’s the first time I’ve heard this one. Purposely avoided like I do every year. Oh my god, we have absolutely zero chance. A shame, as he came across as being a really nice, if a little eccentric. No chance.

15. France: Monroe – Regarde !

Oh. Opera skills. I probably won’t like this one. And I’m right, I don’t. Decent vocal range, I’ll give her that, butnot even my glass of water, never mind cup of tea. It’s gonna absolutely fly. Hurrah. time for a toilet break.

16. Moldova: Satoshi – Viva, Moldova!

Yep, I liked this one. 100% Eurovision fodder, with the Halo beat, I think at the start. Wonder how Eurovision stands when it comes to clearing samples? Apparently they’re OK with it. Definitely still one of my favourites, and I’m not sure why. If there’s a song I’d play over and over again, it’d be that one.

17. Finland: Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen – Liekinheitin

Apparently, this one is the favourite. Ah yes. This is the one where she got special dispensation to have an instrument playing, and then the entire set burns down or something. Did like this one. Still do. Sort of reminds me of the old Channel 4 Racing theme. I do think this will do well. 20 years since Lordi won Eurovision. I’ve seen them live since then too.

18. Poland: ALICJA – Pray

she swore during the semi-final. I’m going to have to see if I can spot it because I didn’t last time. Didn’t think much of the song last time. Oh yeah, was that a ‘shit’? Not *really* swearing is it? A BBC swear word perhaps. A real-world word. Not a fantastic song. It reminds me of the MC Hammer song of the same name.

19. Lithuania: Lion Ceccah – Sólo Quiero Más

Oh god, it’s Silver Paint guy. He paints himself silver because he comes second in competitions. Didn’t really like this one.

20. Sweden: FELICIA – My System

I really, really liked this one last time, and I’m guessing I will do this time. I always like Sweden’s entries. this one is no exception. Proper Europop at its best. I’ll probably add this one to a Spotify playlist or something. Overall, this is my favourite so far, and I really hope it does well. Probably won’t though because I’ve just given it the kiss of death.

21. Cyprus: Antigoni – JALLA

Oooh, this is catchy. Another one where I might need to find some lightbulbs to screw in while listening to it. 0 points for lyrics, but solid 8/10 for the music. Decent, that one.

22. Italy: Sal Da Vinci – Per Sempre Sì

Upbeat, but romantic, apparently. Ah yes, I remember this one. I didn’t say much about it last time because they’re already through, but… I like this one. It’s another one where the backing track really carries it. Sort of reminds me of when an 80s celebrity would release a single. The instrumental covers the fact that the vocals aren’t the best. But this one, the vocals are actually quite good. I’d like to see it do well

Thankfully, there’s a break at this point, so I made the excuse to go down and get some ‘crisps’. Walkers Oven Baked ready salted, if you’re interested.

23. Norway: JONAS LOVV – YA YA YA

Haven’;t heard this one. Might be catchy. Hmmm, not quite, but I think I can see what would happen if you ordered Freddie Mercury off Temu. Not as good as I was excpecting, but not the worst I’ve heard. Wouldn’t skip it, wouldn;’t play it intentionally.

24. Romania: Alexandra C?pit?nescu – Choke Me

Ohhh. I like this one. Another metal one. Apparently ‘choke’ is in the metaphoric sense, or something, but my word, this one is great. Definitely in my top 3 of the night.

25. Austria: COSMÓ – Tanzschein

The home crowd are going to go nuts for this one, no doubt. There’s one thing I can guarantee, Vienna won’t be hosting it next year. It’s not a great song. the guy looks a little bit like Darragh off The Chase.

And that’s you’re lot. Eurovision oficially over for another year. Only the voting to go now, and all of the crap in the middle that I’ll probably just have in the background while I play Raccoin.

My top three. Sweden, Germany, Romania

this “Waiting for Votes 2 show is much better than anything I’ve seen all night. Not very often I’ll say that, but it was really good this year. Normally it’s just filler, but it seems like there was a bit of effort put in this year.

First vote gone, 0 points.

7 votes down, 1 point. I’ve just noticed Malta have Eddie Hitler on their team.

10 votes… 1 point. Going well so far. Just out of interest, is any of this coming out of the licence fee, seeing as we’re part of the ‘big four’?

Officially half way through, 17 of 35 results… 1 point still.

Well, all of the countries gone… 1 point.

Time for the home viewing. We have absolutely no chance. 0 points last year from the home voting. Can’t see any different this year.

I was right! Last again! I’ll conclude this here. Never EVER doing this shit again… until next year.

Yeah, we came last, as usual, but I don’t mind. Tonight wasa return to a bit of normality after the absolute shit show of last year. 2025 overall was just fucking shit, but the fact that this year returned to some normality meant everything I know I do these every year. I know nobody reads them. Nobody comments. Nobody is reading this now, but things are.. I dunno… stable? Can I put it like that?

Eurosong Fever 2026!

Ah yes, here it is again. Eurovision 2026! The annual political bunfight set around a song contect. I look forward to it every year. Well, except for last year. things weren’t going to well for me this time last year, so I decided to take a break. Over the course of the next three days, I intend to double my post total on here for the entire year, with the semi-finals and final on Saturday. I’ll probably watch them all, type my feelings towards them then burn myself completely and vow to never do this again until next year.

Now, unfortunately, I’ve been a bit busy tonight, so I’m a bit behind and watching it on catchup, so if you’re reading this in realtime, then I’ll be typing about things that happenmed 30/35 minutes ago. I’m sure that’s all tradition too. Anyhoo.

So it’s starting off with Vicky Leandross. Apparently she won it.

Moldova: Satoshi / Viva, Moldova!

Oooh, flutey, and that drum beat… the Amen riff, or something? Moldova is on duty… Not a bad start, actually. I quite like this one. A good start.

Sweden: FELICIA / My System

Apparently, this is going to be one of the favourites. She’s never appeared without her mask… Oooooh, dancy. This has never been known. two songs in and I actually like both of them.

Croatia: LELEK / Andromeda

Well, this one;s starting slowly. And it didn’t get better. I knew we couldn’t go three for three. Mind you, it did get a bit better towards the end. It’ll get through.

Greece: Akylas / Ferto

Why… why is he dressed up like a tiger?. You need to see this one to believe it. Retro graphics. I’m getting sick of seeing those new. they’re overused. Worst song, but I ended up quite liking the staging. No chance of coming close.

Portugal: Bandidos do Cante / Rosa

It’s taken… is that 5 or 6 sonds before they’ve got to the sloppy ones. Absolutely nothing to this one, and considering it’s in Portuguese, I have no idea what’s being sung. Not even much of a backing track to like… I think it’ll do well.

Georgia: Bzikebi / On Replay

Lots of lalalalalalalala, in this one. One of the female singers sounded a bit of tune on this one. Not one of my favourites so far, but perfect Eurovision fodder.

Oh, here’s a bonus one. Italy. they’re already through so they weren’t on the website’s list.

Finland: Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen / Liekinheitin

Apparently this is one of the favourites to win. Didn’t know that live instruments are to be played on stage, apparently, ‘Linda’ had special dispensation to play the violin. Oooh, I can see why this is is one of the favourites. Oh, great, now the set’s on fire. Yeah, that’s definitely going through.

Montenegro: Tamara Živkovic / Nova Zora

This one’s the closest to metal so far. Normally there’s a few in there, but…. er, so rry, I got slightly distracted by some lovely bottoms there. Cough. I expected to see some vampire fangs or something there. It’ll go through

Estonia: Vanilla Ninja / Too Epic To Be True

Apparently they’re called that because they make ice cream. No, seriously. YES! this is what I watch Eurovision for. Guitars. this belongs in the 90s, and it’s my favourite by far. Sounds like it’s fallen out of 1991.

Israel: Noam Bettan / Michelle

Ah, here we go. this is where all of the politics are going. Wouldn’t be surprised if we see a protest here. Well, you can hear someone shouting in the background. the song isn’t that great if I’m completely honest.

And now Germany. there are already through so I’ll leave my opinion to the final.

Belgium: ESSYLA / Dancing on the Ice

My god. I’m not quite sure what this one is supposed to be. No sir, don’t like it. Seems to be the same line repeated over and over. I might count next time it’s on how matimes she sings “keep dancing on the ice”.

Lithuania: Lion Ceccah / Sólo Quiero Más
Oh. Silver paint. Now that’s a gimmick. Apparently he’s had the silver make-up on all day. the song itself appears to be very forgettable. Certainly one I’ll not remember in 10 minutes time. It’ll probably go through.

San Marino: SENHIT / Superstar

Featuring Boy George. No, really. the song itself is very generic, I don’t even think Mr. O’Dowd can save this one. I was right, but even more Eurovisiony than the rest of them.

Poland: ALICJA / Pray

Wow. I’m glad this is nearly over. Only one mopre song, and they’ve seemingly been getting worse as the last few songs have been chronic. Apparently she swore in that song too. Never noticed.

Serbia: LAVINA / Kraj Mene

Oooh, a metal song. This one might be good. Ah yes. there’s the pointy leather outfits. And yep, it’s certainly metal. Phew. This one’s saved the last few songs. It’s even got a bit shouty.

And that’s your lot. the only thing left is the voting. I think I can fast forward most of this, might even be able to catch up.

Apparently, there’s a musical act in the middle. “Zurcaroh – Welcome To The Funfar”. Lots of acrobats. Aaaand I’m bored of it.

I’ve also caught up now so I’m watching this live…

Greece. The tiger bloke is through.
Finland. Yeah, they were guarartneed to go through anyway.
Belgium.
Sweden. Liked that one. Glad it went through.
Moldova. Ha. That was a weird one. Had a feeling it’d go through.
Israel. Oh. Saturday night’s going to be fun, then.
Serbia. Yaaay. A bit of metal.
Croatia. Oh, that was the folky one. Wasn’t sure if that’d go through.
Lithuania. Silver paint guy. Can’t remember anything about the song.
Poland. Didn’t like that one.

Right, well, that’s that, then. I get to do this all again on Thursday!

Simply The Best… SOUTH CLEVELAND GARAGES!

There are some things about living in Britain that are written into unofficial law. Firstly, if someone drops a glass in a pub, you have to all go “waaaaay”. Secondly, if the weather is anything slightly different than overcast drizzle, you either have to post on Facebook about it, or make generic small-talk to everyone around you.

Thirdly, if you’re from the north east, specifically Teesside, and of a certain age group… Let’s say 35+ at the time of typing, there is one specific unwritten rule that stands to this day.

Whenever “The Best” by Tina Turner comes on the radio, you have to add lyrics. And it goes something like this.

“You’re simply the best…. SOUTH CLEVELAND GARAGES!”

There are clips of nightclubs erupting into song whenever this came on. When the Premier League Darts came to Newcastle, and Mensur Sulevik walked on, a large portion of the crowd also erupted into song.

Anyway, apparently, this particular jingle has been hard to find. And because I’ve typed all of this, you’e already worked out that I’ve found a copy within my own tapes. Therefore, I shall not detay you any longer. Here’s a copy of the advert from around 1999/2000.

It’s funny how just one jingle is probably more fondly remembered than what is on the rest of the tape. For instance, the next song on the tape is “Radio” by The Corrs. I wonder how many people wake up at 4AM in the morning with that going through their head on infinite loop? Nobody. Yet, I’m sure, at some point today, that “The Best” will get played somewhere in Middlesbrough, and 90% of the listenership will add “South Cleveland Garages”.

Also, did you know that “The Best” was originally sung by Bonnie Tyler? And yes, it was me who uploaded the video to Youtube in case anyone thinks I plagarised it for the sake of hits.

A new version – PiMiga 5!

You may remember that in my A1200 post, I mentioned that I’d been testing out PiMiga. I say testing, as I knew that a new version was due before Xmas. True to the author’s word, version 5 ‘landed’ on December 23rd 2025. Now, because there are unscrupulous sites out there that try to sell you it, if you try to search for it, the link is buried within pages of crap, and reddit posts asking where the latest version is.

In the vain hope my little website pushes the original page up the rankings a bit, here’s the link to the Youtube announcement post and the place where you can download the appropriate torrent for your hardware. As before, you need to provide your own Amiga Kickstart ROM, but if you’ve read this far, I’m sure you’ve got the technical ability to do this. I don’t own the copyright, so please don’t ask me.

Earlier today I rished out and picked up a 256Gb MicroSD card, and at the time of typing, I’m flashing the image to this, so can’t comment on anything I find, but I might post my findings, or even do a capture or something.

I’m sure though, the first thing I’ll be doing is dropping to a console and doing “sudo passwd” or whatever it is. Ooo, the card has finished flashing (tee hee), so here goes nothing…

the test, for me at least, to see if these things go successfully is to load up ‘Arcade Pool’. Of course, this has it in its list of supported games, and yep, it works perfectly.

I did, of course, win the test game against the computer, but I didn’t take a screenshot of that. One thing I did take a screetshot is the desktop, and its stunning backdrops…

My not-far-off-50 year old eyes don’t think much of that resolution, but I’m sure after I’ve had a bit of a play, I can adjust it to something more readable.

Unlike the previous installation, this new one appears to be running Raspbian as its OS, so it was a breeze to actually update / upgrade the base OS to the latest version. The default setting, however, is for English (US), so the timezone and keyboard are all wrong. 10 seconds and a reboot later, it was all set up. In fact, it probably took me long enough to type this than it did to actually get that sorted.

Anyhoo, I shall continue to have a play.

King’s Lynn Day 3 – Ely and Cambridge (I finally published it!)

Yes, yes, I’m fully aware that it’s been over 8 months since the few days away. As I mentioned, things have not been great, and I just haven’t had the motivation to put the final touches of this together. As it seems a bit of a waste to type it, take photos and not actually publish anything, I’m doing it now. You’ll just have to imagine this was back in April. Or something. It’s probably not up to my usual quality of writing (so even more crap than usual then? – Ed). Shut up. anyhoo, “enjoy”

The second of our two full days began in pretty much the same way Day 1 started, with me wandering around King’s Lynn for a bit. I had intentions of going back and visiting that record shop I mentioned, but I discovered that King’s Lynn actually had a port, and a few fishing boats too. Turns out it’s a nice little walk along the riverside. At some point, someone in a car went past blasting “21st Century” by Weekend Players. I haven’t heard that song for years, and now it’s going to be my lasting memory of this song. Probably.

Sadly, the afore-mentioned record shop totally slipped my mind, and I never went back. A shame, as I’m sure I’d have got some good stuff in there. I did, of course, have a look around the charity shops again. I truly can’t believe I took a photo of this and didn’t buy it… a board game based on the 1980s quiz show, ‘Connections’ hosted by Sue Robbie.

I headed back to the hotel, and met up with Chris again. After nipping out and getting some breakfast, I popped today’s location into the “satnav”, a.k.a. Google Maps on my phone. We jumped into the car, drove off and watched in horror as the damn “Satnav” took us through pretty much every council estate that King’s Lynn would have to offer. Eventually, we found our way back onto the main roads, and off we went to our first destination

Ely would be our first stop of the day. An interesting fact about Ely is that it’s England’s smallest city, and yep, it feels much more like a small market town than a city.

Of course, there’s a cathedral so we went in. Very pretty it is too.

Charity shop-wise, they’re pretty much all on the one long street down the side of the cathedral. It goes without saying that I picked a few CDs up.

Considering this was early April, the weather was glorious. I was the only person walking around in a t-shirt. I think all of the locals could tell I was from “up north”.

We left Ely and headed off to the 2nd stop of the day… Cambridge. This was probably going to be the biggest city on our stop and oh boy, did we have fun with the one-way system. Sadly, by the time I published this, the Google Maps app has purged the history from this day so I can’t provide a screenshot as I originally intended!

Our first stop was to a shopping complex. At the time of typing, I can’t remember the name of it, but it appeared to be the “low end” shopping precinct. An abandoned shopping centre lay at the heart of this development, and a long L-shaped road housed the rest of the low-end shops. Normally, I’d be excited at the thought of two entire rows on charity shops in a day, but these were, to say the least, terrible. No other way to put it. We were both left with a slight sense of shock. That can’t be all there was to Cambridge surely?

We jumped back in the car, and after getting lost around the one-way system, we found a car park disguised as an office block. I think the signposts might need to be improved for that one. Mind you, it had just been built, and we saw a bit of Cambridge we wouldn’t have seen otherwise, so that was nice. I don’t think Chris saw it like that.

It reminded me very much of York, but much bigger. There were even parts of it I’d only seen in photos, and I never thought I’d get to see in the flesh.

Yup, Richardson Candles! Back in the day these would have ran several fluorescent tubes, but I assume these will have been retrofitted to run LED by now.

I did like Cambridge. It’s a pretty place, plenty to see.

It’s definitely one of those places where you need more than a couple of hours there. Chris bought some weird sweets while we were there. The name escapes me, seeing as it’s been a few months now, but I think they were called ‘School Chalks’ or something? A chalky substance on the outside, and a bit of liquorice in the middle. Interesting. Apparently, there are only certain places you can get them. They were like those torpedo sweets you can get everywhere, but the outer was nicer, and it didn’t appear to be that awful synthetic licorice that’s everywhere.

Oh yes. One other thing about Cambridge, every railing has a poster tied to it. Whether it’s a work of art, or whether it’s advertising something, they’are absolutely everywhere. Maybe it’s a student thing, but not a single one was of any relevance to me. I didn’t see a single record fair mentioned

One thing that was of absolute relevance to me, was the sight of a Popeyes.

My absolute favourite fast food place. As we had already planned to have our final Indian on the night, we hgave it a miss, but it was nice to see another one in the wild, they’re extremely rare here in the UK.

Our all-too-short itme in Cambridge ws over, and we headed back along the 50-mile journey back to King’s Lynn. A quick nip into the hotel for a change of clothes, ard we were back out. One last beer-me-do in the Nip + Growler ALe House… well, actually, it was two, because our exit was blocked by a duck.

It was time for one last curry. Off we went back to Rajasthan, this time I got a Jalfrezi, and just like the previous night, it ws excellent.

I was really going to miss this place.

There was a day four, the journey home, but it never got written. It was the journey hope, which involved a trip to Boston (that was great, except for the traffic), Sleaford (it was shut), and the Lidl in Norton)

So this is Christmas…

And what have you done? I’ve recycled an intro for a blog I probably wrote 25 years ago.Firstly, I’d like to wish both of my readers a happy Christmas, and I hope that the year just gone has been better for you than it has me.

Here’s to a better and prosperous 2026!

Oh, I do have several posts from 2025 that never made it to your screens, such as Day 3 of the Kings Lynn trip, and the 2nd trip to London in October… 54 days, in fact. I know this because I put a pokemon in a gym on the way down, and it’s STILL there.. Um. Anyway. May the fat man come down your chimney and bring you everything you wanted.

So, 25 years then.

Yup, as you read this (probably not, as nobody reads this anymore!) but right now, is 25 years since I first published my blog. November 4th 200, at 6PM was the vwery first time I pressed “publish”.

Nowadays, everything is run a lot differently who what it was back then. Back then, I used a service called “Blogger”. Back then, very few blogging platforms even existed. When I started, I was probably one of the first, and everything was hosted off static web pages. Blogger took all of the effort out of creating pages. As long as you had a website with FTP access, you gave it the details, chose a template, typed your post, pressed submit, and it did all the boring stuff for you. Generated the page, all of the backwards and forwards links, even the archives too.

Eventually, Blogger went, because I purchased this domain name. Not sure how long ago now, but it was certainly after the first few months of the blog. WordPress got installed, and I’ve used every version since.

I was going to go through the highlights. I’m sure there are some.The write of the “You Bet!” theme commenting on here. That’s one. Those few months where I was inadvertantly #1 result for a certain runner relieving herself during a marathon. Low sides which I’ll not get into, but these last 25 years have been a rollercoaster. A flat, steady rollercoaster, which only goes downhill the more you read it.

Back then, I posted everything on here. Nowaways, I’m a lot more security conscious, and have moved the emphasis from stuff about my everyday life and instead focus on other things such as my interests. Adulting takes up a lot of my time now, as well as collecting music, which is why the blog has taken a back seat in recent years, but rest assured, it’s not going anywhere, and you never know, it might even be here in 25 years time! Here’s to 25 more!

(Edit: Proof reading clearly doesn’t take up much of my time, clearly!)