Dancing Beating Retreat - Waterloo Remembered

Wow! What an experience last week was. I've never been part of something like that before and I'm so pleased to have been able to take part and to have enjoyed it so much. Here are a few quotes in case I never get round to the full story.

From the Pipe Major:

Occasionally you have one of those "one day a year moments"... Buckingham Palace Garden Party with where Her Majesty sent a messenger to say how much she enjoyed our playing. Then straight onto Horse Guards to lead the SG Regimental Association (South) onto the "Waterloo Remembered" Beating Retreat with "Acushla Highland, University of Oxford, RSCDS London Country dancers and 1SG including my son and the band. Best of all, my wife, was well enough to come back and see all the hard work her dancers had put in.

Grateful thanks to all the 90 strong civilian cast and the serving SNCOs and all the gang.

Can't name everyone individually, FB would crash but you know who you are and how sincere I am.

"UNITA FORTIOR"

https://youtu.be/DlKUD7LKb14 has some coverage of tall Oxford and one of the London sets.

https://www.haraldjoergens.com/galleries/military-events/2015-beating-retreat/?page=1has a load of professional photos that appear to have been taken last night - it says that more will go up later today and tomorrow, but there are some good ones of us walking across before the performance starts. It's amazing what you can find by searching for #beatingretreat on twitter :-)

Well done everybody. I went last night and it looked very polished. I’m sure the Duchess was most impressed. There are quite a lot of videos on Youtube. Search on ‘Beating Retreat’ and then filter on ‘This week’ . The highland dancers are featured most, but the below clip captures the Oxford ‘other’ set briefly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNeuS_tsEI4 I had fun at the practices. J

Dear Dancers,

I gather you all had a great time: the photos are super! It sounds like you did a great job of adapting to circumstances and last-minute changes of plan. Also you have been a great team (special credit to the spares!) helping each other: well done! S

 

So... it all started back before Easter when our Wednesday advanced class teacher mentioned that this looked like it would be happening. I was one of the the first to sign up to say I was keen.  I think it is really fun the things that Scottish Dancing has taken me to.  I did the Noah and the Whale music video.  Then dancing in the Royal Albert Hall.  And of course all the madness of Summer School. 

We did practices every Wednesday learning the dance, The Queen's Quadrille. We never had the same people there each week so the dance never really seemed to get any better and we had some subs who ended up knowing the dance really well!  It was better when we decided which positions we would be dancing in as at least then we only had to learn one part. In the meantime we were doing research on what exactly Beating Retreat was as none of us had heard of it!  So it is an annual military pageant in Horse Guards Parade just before Trooping the Colour.  This year the tagline was Waterloo Remembered as it's the bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo.  So they were doing a battle recreation and it included a recreation of the (two days before the) Eve of Battle Ball where there was dancing - so bring in us!  Our dancing teacher's son's bagpipe teacher is the Pipe Major for the Scot's Guards Association Pipe Band - I think! So that's how we ended up being part of it.  Although the Queen's Quadrille is a fairly new dance, it's based on the quadrilles of the time and we would be dancing in front of Royalty so quite appropriate.

We practised every week but I realised my set never danced it all together until the dress rehearsal!  There were two Oxford square sets and two London sets.  I was fourth lady in the 'tall' Oxford set.  We had a rehearsal a month ago in Windsor in the Army Barracks, which were rather nice!  We danced outside with the pipe band. I enjoyed that too!  We found out that they were going to hire period dresses which I was very excited about.  It was sort of Jane Austen style.  Full length with empire line.  And it was blue - horray!  When I first tried it on in the toilets of St Hugh's I was pretty surprised by it and it was certainly not flattering (more pregnancy enhancing!) but I decided I could get used to it and on the night some other dancers were quite complimentary about it.

So the big week came.  It was pretty daunting.  Going up to London every evening after school, Monday to Thursday.  I packed all my bags with dress and various tights, shoes, hair nets and packed tea and anything else I might need!  Monday, I left promptly after school and walked to Didcot train station.  Three of us got the train from there and another dancer changed on to our train at Reading.  We made it around London to St James' Park and to Wellington Barracks where we were rehearsing on the first night.  We were due to be there at 6pm and we made it.  We then weren't actually needed for an hour or two.  We hung out in the cafe, or as the military called it, the naffi?  We practised the dance a couple of times and the London ladies tried their dresses on for the first time and we were given our white gloves.  Then we were called down to the parade ground of the barracks. This had iron railings out to the road and then St James' Park and you could see the Victoria Monument from there.  There were quite a few tourists looking in who took photos of us and filmed us.  There were lots of pipers there and we practised dancing with them and walking on and off with them.  We also met 'our soldiers', Will and Matt who were sort of in charge of making sure we were in the right places at the right time!  The Highland Dancers were also there and doing their bit.  I did feel we were pretty amateurish in comparison to the military and Highland Dancers, but I guess we did good enough.  You could tell though that we weren't nearly as professional and well drilled just by the way we stood around and took so many photos! At least they said later in the week that we were easier to handle than the battle reenactment people!  After a fair bit of discussing and not being entirely sure what was going on, we were able to leave and make our way back.  I got the train back to Oxford with a dancer and during the course of the journey discovered we did the same degree subject at the same uni in the same year which was a surprising coincidence! We danced opposite each other which meant we often danced together and there were certain things we said or tight hand grips to remind each other of what was coming next.   I got in to bed at midnight - yikes!

Monday night Wellington Barracks photos...

Heading to the Parade from Bird Cage Walk.

Walking on to the Parade past the battle re-enactors.

Tuesday, we got the same train from Didcot (we got to know that place very well!).  That train was called the Cheltenham Spa Express which I enjoyed it rather having a name.  I sewed up my gloves which had already managed to get a hole in!  We did the same route round London but then had to dash to the corner of Bird Cage Walk and Horse Guards where we were being met with our passes and being lead on to practise on the gravel of Horse Guards Parade for the first time.  There were only 4 of our set there but at least there was one per couple!  We tried to work out where we would be on the parade.  It certainly felt huge.  And we practised walking on and off with the pipers.  It was a beautiful evening at this point and all the buildings were looking lovely.  We saw the grandstand seating for the first time.  We got to eat a packed tea that was provided for us sitting in the parade which was rather nice.  Then we were taken to our waiting area which they had very much downplayed the night before and it was called the cockpit but we called it the dungeon!  There were lots of pipes going across the ceiling and you had to duck a lot!  Then we headed back up to the parade to practise the finale.  We had to line up with the battle reenactment people and it was quite a long finale and they kept giving us different instructions while we were stood there. It was interesting how the conductor wasn't too impressed with the bands coming in at the wrong time. A lot of people to coordinate though. Then the rest of the dancers arrived and we went back to the dungeon until our time in the proper dress rehearsal. We got in to our dresses and waited excitedly. 

Tea time in the Parade after practice.

The dress rehearsal went alright. The funniest bit was that as we were walking to our spot, which was on the far side of the parade ground, there was a large band of soldiers walking to the same spot from the opposite direction-and it looked like we would collide! As we were dancing they said we had to move back so we danced and moved very calmly I thought! After the rehearsal they told us that they were rearranging all our positions and so sadly I wouldn't be dancing in front of where I'd told my family to buy tickets. 

The finale dress rehearsal was very moving, and very cold. The music was very nice and there were poignant references and solos. The wind was bitter though and we were stood still for 15minutes, except when we turned around to look at the fireworks as we thought we wouldn't be doing that on the real shows. On the train back I was texting my colleagues to ask if they had any blue or white scarfs they could bring to school the next day for me to wear during the finale.   We walked off as directed after the finale and then dashed to get out things and make it to the train. Sadly we missed the 10.45pm train by a minute so had to wait a long time and and got home the latest of the week. I think it was 1am! 

Congregating at Wellington Barracks on the Big Day.

Our leader and soldiers.

Wednesday was show time! After a very dazed time at school, we got a slightly later train to London but still wasn't much time for me to really do anything after school except hop around nervously!! I did print the drafts of my annual reports and my fellow dancers were excellent at proof reading them on the various journeys we had together! I had to bring more highlighters the following days for them all to take part. We made the family or journey to the barracks, starting to learn where the best places to wait at the platforms were! We went to our changing rooms which were really just music rooms stacked with music stands and we had to find a little floor space to change at. With dress, warm under tops, tights and legging, hair, gloves, shoes, funny bag, and last food done, we dashed back upstairs the the practise ground where there was time for photos and frantic discussions about where we were now lining up and who was leading in each set. The London dancer who was officially/unofficially (?) in charge of us and was our point of contact with the soldiers, had emailed round a good diagram late last night of the new set positions. Nervously I was now leading our set on and there wasn't time to practise it so we would have to do our best job judging where to be.

At the allotted hour we set off marching behind the bands from Wellington barracks to/along Bird Cage Walk. I felt like a celebrity as so many people were taking pictures and we had been told to wave regally at people so I willingly obliged!  When we got the entrance of the parade ground we waited for quite a while. And joy of joys I heard someone calling my name and Lizzie was there at the railings. She was coming to watch with our two Kiwi friends (one who's only arrived in the country that day and came along wondering if this was a normal Wednesday night activity!). It was so lovely that I knew she was there and she's seen me. She took photos of me and my partner and was able to balox them! We walked on to the parade at the appropriate time. It was a bit weird as it was officially before the show had started and yet the announcer was announcing things and there were people in the grand stands watching us. We headed to our dungeon but today we were lead a strange up and over route which took us through some very fancy rooms and we think the VIP guests enjoying their pre show canapés. We eventually ended up back in the dungeon and settled down although there wasn't much to do except excitedly check my phone and message Lizzie! People were a little braver tonight and headed up the stairs where you could see a little of the show out of the window.  

Some of the Wednesday night supporters

Eating some of the leftover canapes.

Then it was time for our mustering.  We shivered outside and acted like penguins to try keep warm.  It seemed like we were waiting for a long time.  I was going through the dance in my head and also mainly where we were aiming to line up.  My partner and his partner/friend(?) were both Italian and were chatting together.  He was probably the newest dancer and I felt proudly responsible for being trusted to get him through it.  They were chatting about their burling bit and when to start it and I was saying I would help out.  Eventually it was time to walk through the arches and wait by the Royal Box.  The German Ambassador was taking the salute on the Wednesday night.  I was a bit nervous but honestly not as much as I thought I would be.  I was particularly relieved when we came to line up next to our pipers (technically backstage but some people would now be able to see us, I guess is that called in the wings?!) and I saw our soldier waiting there looking very important and smartly dressed but also nice to see a familiar face and I smiled big!  I kept the smile up from then on.  As we walked out keeping pace with the highland dancers on the other side of the parade.  And we found somewhere to stand which I hope was ok.  We managed to start dancing (well, at least bowing) at the right time which was not something we had always managed in the practices with the pipers.  I had a great view of the big screen and smiled uncontrollably and made my eyes really big when our set was on there briefly!  I was concentrating so much on my partners burl, that I forgot my burl came first, but that was my only mistake and hopefully no one noticed!

We came off elated and really proud of ourselves!  We had done it!!!!  We had a little time to relax and giggle in the dungeon.  We also had another look up from the little window and found a bigger room and window to look in too!  The worst bit of the whole experience was when I went back to the gathering area and found everyone had gone!!!  I ran back to my two Italian friends upstairs and yelled "they're gone", feeling rather like the Nazis in the Sound of Music.  Thoughts of everyone else being out on the Parade for the finale and us being left behind went through my head, but very very fortunately they were still just waiting under the arches and we found our places!  The finale was good and it was long again.  It didn't seem quite as moving, maybe because we had heard it before and it was cold! I managed to remain facing forwards and not look at the fireworks thought I did try a sneaky glace at the ambassador out of the corner of my eye!  The highland dancers stood in front of us were amazing at standing still.  I don't think I'd make a very good Queen's guard but they would!  I watched some of the men in busby hats at the bottom of the grandstand and I don't think they were real soldiers as they weren't standing very still and one was even seeming to try styling his!  It was interesting when the National Anthem was played to see the soldiers all salute including some who were just members of the audience.  

We walked off as practised and I was looking out for friends in the grandstands.  I was really excited to spot two friends snuggled together waving and I tried to smile at them, then I saw my sister and Kiwi friends waving madly in the last grandstand and they encouraged some of the dancers to wave and so I felt I was able to wave madly back which was a lot of fun.    A march back to the Barracks to the beat of a drum and then a quick as possible change.  We got a taxi back to Paddington tonight which meant we made the slightly earlier train - horray!

Thursday came and it was sad to think it was nearly over.  I did a Year 1 assembly where I walked in in my clothes and showed them some photos and videos which was fun.  Everything went pretty similarly on the second night.  The main differences were

• it was warmer - horray!  Didn't really need the extra layers underneath or the shawl and we could hear more of what the announcer was saying.
• John came to watch and saw me beforehand.  My dad also came to watch too so I was able to txt them both while we were waiting in the dungeon.
• I was braver and went up earlier to watch out of the good window as there was no one else watching form there today, though I made sure I was down in plenty of time for the finale!
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• There were more photos taken backstage between us and various pipers/soldiers. 
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• I didn't mess up any of the dancing - woop!
• Camilla was taking the salute tonight and I made sure I caught some good glimpses of her!

It was sad when it all came to an end as it had been such a fabulous experience. I feel so honoured to be a part of it and I was very keen to talk about it with anyone that was interested!  I am pleased I have made it to the end here so I have this as a record of it all, even if it is now 31st July 2015!

Here are some photos of the pageant that my dad took on the Thursday night.

Election 2015 and Referendum 2016

The hype is starting to die down now, 10 days after the General Election.  I wanted to write sooner, to capture all the excitement, but I'm not the most productive or proactive person.  This isn't going to be a great philosophical, political or historical tome, rather just catching some of my experiences of the election and the result. 

... Well, I never got any further on this post from May 2015. It is now 27th June 2016 and I feel I want to record about the latest dramatic events but I'll still try to write a little something of last year. I had big detailed visions for this post which is probably why it never went any further! I'm definitely of the belief that little posts are better. Or at least plan then little and if they get big then that's fine. Oh well, we will see where this one goes. 

All the polls had been suggesting it would be very close in the 2015 General Election between Conservatives and Labour. I seem to remember the figure 273 or 271 being the number of seats each party was likely to need, quite a bit short of the amount needed for a majority which was something like 320. There were coalition predictor games you could play on the BBC website where you tried to build a government depending on the likely number of seats for each party. There was lots of talk during the debates about who would make a coalition with whom. Ed Milliband and David Cameron both said they weren't planning a coalition, they were going to win a majority and I (and I think most other people) thought 'yeah, right, get real!'

The day of the election came and we set up the projector in the bedroom to watch tv at 10pm when polling stations closed. I remember the absolute shock when David Dimbleby announced that Conservatives were far and away the largest party. I have just found this clip of it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32634100

It was amazing that Tories could go in to coalition again with just the Lib Dems. And the other big news was the sweeping success of the SNP in Scotland.  But then the news in the morning was even more surprising when it turned out the Tories had got enough seats to get an overall majority. Woah! 

So I've now managed to up date you on last year. Now it's time for this year's shocker that managed to put last year's result in to the almost mundane category! 

In January (I think) they announced that there would be a referendum in June 2016 on whether the UK should remain part of the EU. There was lots of talk early on about what a boring campaign it was going to be. Nearer the time there was more talk on how close it was looking in the polls. I was pleased we were back in the country for it and we managed to organise to be registered for postal votes. I went to bed on the eve saying I felt quite confident that it would be a 'remain' vote and I wasn't nearly as worried as for the Scottish Independence Referendum. 

Then I was awoken in the morning to 'I'm afraid it's bad news. We've voted for Brexit'. Absolute shock...! What?!?!? And I was so sure we were safe. And this isn't like an election where in 5 years time there will be chance for someone else. This is it. 

So many points flash through or come slowly as the day goes on:

- this is like saying the country support Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson - that's almost worse than leaving. 

- I've been laughing at the US and how they have been heading Trumpwards and we appear to be no better. 

- As I found out that every area of Scotland has a majority to stay in the EU, I realised they would be totally justified to have another independence referendum and leave 😕

- Also a lot of Nothern Ireland areas voted to remain so it's up in arms about what will happen there. 

Maybe I should try and put a bit in here about my reasons for voting remain which I have found hard to put in to words during the campaign. I feel it's better to be together and I don't like the thought of going it on our own as if we are better than the rest. I like that the EU came from a desire to avoid further conflict after the Second World War. I also hate the way that immigration has become so much a part of this campaign. I feel very fortunate to have been born in this country and why should we have the right to be here more than those born in other countries? We should be helping refugees and if people come here to work, they are contributing to society so I feel they are entitled to be here. 

The referendum result was 52% Leave and 48% Remain. So close enough to be super frustrating but still over a million difference so not close enough to demand a recount. I was just getting dressed on the Friday morning listening to the radio when David Cameron came to make a speech. I was listening along and then he said something and I thought, oh my, he's going to retire. So I grabbed my phone and ran down stairs to join the others and I couldn't really say anything as I got there but I managed to say something eventually and then indeed he did announce his resignation. It really felt quite a moment. 

We went in to school that day, and forgot a little about the devastating news. As I walked through the playground and had children coming up to me saying, 'I'm in Year 2 now', 'I'm 7' etc. And then one classic boy came up and spoke in his way of dominating the conversation 'I'm...I'm not...in the EU anymore'. Well, I don't think I am either. 

It's now a week since we got this shock and depressing news and even more has happened since I started this post. There have been shocks in the Tory leadership contest- most notably that Boris didn't end up putting his name forward. So who knows who is going to lead the nation. There has been huge troubles with the Labour party leadership with votes of no confidence and most of the shadow cabinet resigning. There's been awkward meetings for DC with the EU leaders. The Pound has been all over the place as have the stock markets. Lots of talk of the Bank of England doing things. All in all I'm sort of feeling glad to be escaping it all for 6 weeks on Sunday. 

Pleased to have written more this time 😀 (though not reread so not sure if it makes any sense or covers what I wanted to say but oh well!!). 

An Appreciation of Agatha Christie

I bought this at Murder and Mayhem at Hay on Wye in the Easter Holidays.  Although not a perfect read (the style at points wasn't great and it spent a long time on the negative sides of Agatha), it did get me thinking a lot about Agatha and her books and I felt a blog post was in order.  I started reading these at secondary school when my Ma put me on to them.  I started reading hers and Grampys and then I was away and would spend a lot of time in WH Smith and Waterstones in Watford looking at all the spines (I can still picture where the shelves were in the shops; they were both the bottom shelf so I would spend a lot of time on the floor!).  Somehow, I stopped with only about 10 to read, there are about 80.  I have occasionally looked out for them at charity shops and have now decided that I will only get them if they are in the same publishing series as most of the ones I bought.  They changed just as I was stopping reading them so I think I have one of a newer set. 

I bought a few while I was at uni and it was then that I realised I could no longer remember everything about all the stories.  And now I would say there are very few where I even remember who the murderer is.  Oh, now there's a challenge, I want to make that list.  Maybe as an appendix to this post.  I'm not sure how I feel about not being able to remember.  I remember conversations on the way to school with J. K. about rereading books and not doing it at the time.  And I remember Mum saying she never remembers the murderer so she could read and watch Morse numerous times.  I not distraught that I can't remember, and do feel it gives me more opportunities to enjoy them again, but it does seem a little of a brain failing.  Maybe I just have so much more in my brain now than I did as a teenager!

I started annotating the bibliography at the back whilst reading the book with ticks and crosses of the ones I should read.  I feel a may do an excel spreadsheet so that I can sort it in various ways.  Here comes geek time!! 

This also got me thinking a lot more about reading in general and I do want to share more on here about my reading diaries.  I would love a master copy here of all my diaries.  I'm sure I started a book diary post once upon a time which I could update and finally publish now!

Appendix 1 - Agatha Christie books off the top of my head where I can remember the villain.
Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Murder on the Orient Express
Death on the Nile
The Crooked House
And Then There Were None
A Murder is Announced - that was heavily written about in 'A Talent to Deceive' so I can't say how honestly I remember that!
Lord Edgeware Dies - but I did read that last week!

--> Appendix 2 - teehee!  Written 16/5/15  I completed my spreadsheet this week.  It took a surprisingly long time to type up.  I am looking forward to sorting it by different categories.  Not sure how best to display it on here...

Appendix 3 - 6/8/15 I have now compared my excel list with my list of books I wrote that I have when I was in Malvern.  So now here are a few more lists that I've sorted.

Here they are sorted by the ones that I still need to buy to complete my collection.  So hopefully I can refer to this if I am at a Charity shop.  I did also sort them by year, but I still can't find how to display a pdf on here so I have only done a screen shot here.

Musical - Cats

Well, this is exciting that it makes my 5th visit to see this musical, the third one in London.  I heard last year that Andrew Lloyd Weber and the original team were putting it back on in the West End for a 12 week run at the London Palladium.  It was at the time the longest West End Musical when it closed on it's 21st Birthday in 2002 at the New London theatre.   It had done a few UK tours since then (a couple of which I had seen) but this was it's first time back in London. I was slightly disappointed that Nicole Scherzinger was cast as Grizabella, not because I thought she wouldn't be good, but because I thought she would over shadow the production.  Not long after it opened in December, the run was extended with Kerry Ellis taking over Grizabella so I decided to go see it after the change.  In fact I went to see it the day before it closed (Friday 24th April 2015) when someone else was doing it for the last two nights!  And she was magnificent... "TOUCH ME!"

It ended up being a sisters outing when they both said they would come up me  which was kind.  We were up in the balcony which involved a funny dash up to the top as they were saying 1 minute till starting when we arrived and got our tickets!  The set looked as impressive as ever and I liked the way it reached up to the circle to allow the cats to interact there.

I had heard there were some updates for this production.  I was pleased that the costumes and make up and choreography seemed the same as they are what make it I think.  I'd heard there was a rap, which turned up in Rum Tum Tugger which was slightly disappointing as I had so enjoyed his Elvis-ness the last time I'd seen it.  But the rapping and rude boy ness wasn't terrible.  I didn't notice any other changes so I'm interested to do some research to see what else I can find out.  I had hoped the Pekes and the Pollicles or Growltiger's Last Stand would be improved but they weren't great.  It was interesting that for a show I like so much it can have such low bits (those two the lowest, addressing and naming of cats, the others) and yet I can like the show so.  My favourites this time were still Jellicle Ball/Jellicle Cats, Mr Mistofellees, Skimbleshanks, with Jellicle Ball probs being the top this time; the music really filled the auditorium and there poss seemed some extra guitar?

The big news was that with sisters encouragement I was finally brave enough to go meet Old Deuteronomy  on stage at the interval.  I think it's amazing that he sits there for the whole interval.  An interesting quirk of the show.  I was too scared to do so when I was 5.  Admittedly it wasn't a life affirming experience; he seemed quite bored by the whole thing!  Reading in the programme, he had been Old Deut (as he signed himself) before it closed originally and all the UK tours so he must have done a lot of stage sitting!  Interestingly a lot of the cast had done the last UK tour which is the one I'd seen so I must have seen a lot of them.

They had some cool stuff in the front of house which we got to see on our epic trip down to the stage.  Catselfies on the way out after!

I wrote quite a few extra things after I started googling and reading things on the web, but somehow those bits didn't save.  I can't remember all of them, but I did spend a long time on the cats wiki and here is the information they give on the updated production...

The most prominent alteration is the re-branding of the Rum Tum Tugger into an urban street cat, replacing his solo in the self-titled song with a rap number.  Growltiger's Last Stand has been changed to a much darker, soft shoe shuffle number and the lover's duet cut entirely. The Gumbie Cat's dance break has been replaced by a longer and more technical tap number, as well as new music.
For the first time in a British production of Cats, Pouncival and Carbucketty are both ensemble, however the kitten named Pouncival resembles chorus cat George. As an easter egg for fans, the swings appear in the press photos dressed as characters who do not appear in this production - including Babygriz, Electra, and Pouncival.
The most obvious costume alterations have been made by the Rum Tum Tugger and Grizabella. Grizabella's costume has been subtly altered to resemble something Nicole Scherzinger would wear in her solo career - a corset and lace-up stockings worn under a fur coat which has been made lighter and more stream-lined. Rum Tum Tugger now wears a backwards ball cap, his hair in dreds, a vest top and harem pants with lots of gold necklaces. Growltiger and his Raffish crew have also had new costumes, now in shades of dark charcoal. There have also been tweaks to the designs across the ensemble, with less blocky, primary colours having been used. This is most apparent in Bombalurina and Jemima's costumes.

Back to me.  One thing I remember I wrote about was the floating tyre.  When Grizabella went up to the Heaviside Layer, she and Old Deut were on the giant tyre.  It was really impressive how high it went seemingly magically and reminded me of Chitty at the same theatre.