Here's My Story

Won all 5 quite handily. Maybe I should have declared war on Ragusa too. I decided not to because its ruler had always hired huge stack of mercenaries and I wasn't sure how the other wars would go. Unfortunately, I forgot to note down or show which were the other 4 wars @@   Every now and then I checked which realm was out of defensive pact against me. At one point, there were two revolts in Chernigov but I had no casus belli to declare war against them. As expected, Chernigov itself was in the Christian Defensive Pact against me. Later, I noticed that there was only one revolt and the King of Chernigov wasn't in a defensive pact. I surmised that the leader of one of the revolts won their war and thus a new king was installed. I noticed that someone in my court had a claim on the kingdom and that fortunately I had a spare county to be used to vassalise him. Hence, I pressed his claim to the kingdom. To ensure that the other revolt didn't make any more progress (they were at

Earlier this year, a friend highly recommended Shin Zushi but there was a couple of problems: (1) the outlet that he likes to go is a tad far for Ban and I, and (2) there's waiting time. Apparently there's usually a queue. If you can't get in, they'll take your phone number and call you once seats are available. It's definitely not something Ban is willing to put up with and I myself rarely want to do that. It is, however, popular for its value-for-money sushi, according to the many Google reviews. Later, I discovered an outlet that's much nearer but that one has another problem: they don't even allow you to reserve seats if you're in the queue. Friend said that that outlet is notorious for long waiting time because the restaurant is really small. We tried queuing once: arrived 10 minutes before they opened for dinner (6pm) and there was already a rather long queue. They couldn't admit everyone and we weren't the lucky ones. One day, I thought it

When a pair of acquaintances got married in Melbourne about 4 years ago, it did cross my mine to do so but it had to be put aside because my ailing dad and then later because of the start of Covid-19 pandemic. So when the opportunity arose for me to resume my annual visit to Canberra, I suggested marriage to Ban, who agreed, after a momentary startle 😊  There are two personal reasons: (1) Although we have been treating each other has hubbies for years already, it's good to have this recognised somewhere in this world; (2) In case it matters during emergencies, especially medical ones. Throught my research, the first thing needed to be done is to complete the first part of the Notice of Intended Marriage (NoIM) form, get an authorised personnel to witness us signing it and to hand it to an authorised marriage celebrant to lock in the 18-month period where we can hold a marriage solemnisation ceremony. The celebrant has to be given at least 1-month notice in advance of the date of t

So my ruler's aunt finally passed away at an advanced age of 71 and passing Kingdom of Egypt and Kingdom of Crusader Egypt to him.  I had intended to grant these to a vassal king who was a dynastic member but changed my mind when I noticed that a claimant to Romagna kingdom was married matrillineally a kinswoman and they already had a son. His weak claim can also be inherited by his son. Hence, I granted those two kingdoms to him. As for Cumania, I was looking through the list of weak claims that I could press and there was a claim on Khanate of Cumania by a kinsman. I decided to press for it since it was a kingdom but boy, its land was so far away! They were also fighting a revolt that was also claiming the kingdom. In order not to leave my kinsman fighting that revolt, I decided not to enforce demand until that war was over. I helped by reversing the gains made by the revolt.   For the second consecutive Crusade, the Pope's choice was my vassal but this time that vassal was a

Since I was quite impressed with their char kuay teow, I wanted to try other food at Serai. Next was Prawn Aglio Oilio. It was quite good and would have been better if their prawns tasted "fresher". It was as though they used frozen prawns that weren't thawed properly. Hmmm. The star at Serai has always been their...pavlova. As stated in a previous post , it was "not sickly sweet and the ingredients combined well". Pavlova is very hard to find and it's even more difficult to get good ones.

 First time seeing this: Does it work better than just plain water?

Succeeded in getting Kingdom of Hungary and Noregr. War for Swabia was canceled, probably due to death of claimant. I forgot to check the reason @@   I'm Emperor of Prydain and the King of Egypt is my vassal (not of my dynasty) but he doesn't hold any land within Egypt which was controlled by a Muslim ruler. Pope called for crusade for Egypt and his choice of beneficiary was this vassal of mine and so I was pleased. The stance I chose was to let the Pope's choice to get the title. I contributed the most and once we won, the Pope granted Kingdom of Crusader Egypt to the King of Egypt but I was shocked that this resulted in him becoming independent. Why? I thought that since he was my vassal and he was given a kingdom title i.e. same rank as his and lower than mine, he should had stayed as my vassal. I posted the above in Paradox Forum and I was told, apparently, that being granted title by crusade would automatically make my vassal independent, regardless of rank although th

I was looking at photos in my phone to check what I had planned to blog about when I spotted these two photos (below) side by side. What an interesting coincidence. This came from a stall at Masih Kopitiam in Butterworth. They used to be at a shoplot, opened only at night (it's a normal coffeeshop during the day). Also, my sister heard that they were originally from Bukit Mertajam or maybe an outlet of that original shop. The extra duck egg is optional but it's what they are famous for. The taste was slightly heavier than your typical char kuay teow, probably due to the extra soy. Hence, it's not something that I can eat repeatedly within a few days. However, I would highly recommend it as it was delicious! This was at Serai, Paradigm Mall. I was quite surprised they had Chinese food there since they couldn't use pork (including pork lad) due to its halal certificate. I decided to try it as I was curious at how nice their char kuay teow would be without pork lard. I was

For the upcoming trip to Australia, my sister advised me to get travel insurance to cover for hospitalisation due to Covid-19 infection. Hospital accommodation for non-Australia residents costs more than AUD 2,000 in normal ward and more than AUD 5,000 in critical care unit ward....per day! I normally don't buy travel insurance because I have medical insurance that also covers me when I'm overseas (for not more than 90 days for any one trip). However, recently I checked my policy document again and realised that the insurer would reimburse me in accordance with reasonable and customary charges. Basically, they would reimburse me for covered medical treatment as though it's treated in Malaysia. So, room & board charge would be like RM 250 a day. It's no way near the cost in Australia! After a quick research, I settled on Etiqa Tripcare 360, chiefly due to its cashless feature. I chose the lowest option as its RM 100k cover for hospitalisation should be more than enou

A result of the then King of Poland reaching out to me with a marriage proposal. Quickly landed a claimant with a spare barony and pressed his claim on the kingdom.   Change of ruler but I was in the midst of a war against the Italian Revolt. I quickly stood down all armies but unfortunately there was a stack that was literally in a battle. Otherwise, I could have pressed a courtier's claim to Italy. So ended warring for Kingdom of Swabia, Noregr and Hungary.   Meanwhile, my new ruler gained Kingdom of Maghreb from his aging mother. I noticed that Germany's succession law was Primogeniture and the heir to the title was a courtier in my court. The then king of Germany was already old. So I granted the Kingdom of Maghreb to his heir who later inherited Germany. For the second straight campaign, I gained Germany peacefully. Yay!

I can't remember where I read this. It went something like this: If you're spending your own money for your your benefit, you'll likely try your utmost best in handling the money. If you're spending someone else's money for your benefit, you'll be less careful but not careless as the fund may dry up. The worst scenario is when you're spending someone else's money for another person's benefit. You'll have the least incentive/motivation to do it wisely. This is what a government does!

Drove out for dinner. Saw puppy in middle of road. Stopped on the side after passing it. Car's driver in opposite direction pointed out the puppy who clearly had came after our car. Not injured and didn't resist being carried but shivered regularly. She had a collar with a bell attached to it. Asked residents of three houses but none claimed her or knew who owned her. A resident asked us to approach guard at guardhouse so that he could then inform committee. In short, guard cycled around, asking residents (took photos of the puppy) but again none claimed her. Took her to vet. No injuries or wound. Gave deworming and anti-tick medicine but couldn't be vaccinated yet. As explained by an experience dog carer, if she was infected already, vaccination would just strengthen the virus and thereby kill her. So needed to isolate her for 10-14 days before can safely vaccinate her. Our initial intention was just to house her for a night (no boarding place would admit her because of no

When I press a claimant's claim on Kingdom of Aquitaine, I vassalied him beforehand by giving him a city. My hope was that he could make Most Serene Republic of Aquitaine a powerful merchant replublic, since it had quite long coastline, thereby giving me lots of gold. However, not a single trade post was built and the income I received from him was lower than that received from most, if not all, my direct vassal mayors. One reason could be that powerhouse merchant republics such as Genoa and Pisa were already dominating the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, the latter already had trading posts along the coastline of Aquitaine. Other possible reasons, that other players gave, were lack of technology (Trade Practice) and that the patricians were prioritising building their palaces first. I chanced upon his vassal, a duke of my dynasty. He probably descended from the previous line of King of Aquitaine. Since my ruler was already old, I didn't mind taking the 5-year penalty from revoking

We first got to know of Sushi Mentai many years ago in Butterworth. It was cheap, good and had salmon wrap, a dish that we ever only had once before at Sushi Tei from their seasonal menu but never came back. Since then, it has become one of our usual haunts whenever we're in Butterworth. However, the last visit was a disappointment: Look how scrawny the right piece is. Those that on the conveyvor belt were also like this. This is a worse crime: badly cut salmon! Horrible! I have hope that this isn't a permanent change: my sister went there weeks later and showed me this photo: Hopefully it'll be back to 'normal' when I visit Butterworth again.

Before the next appointment with the physiotherapist, I had the opportunity to play an hour-long tennis with Ban and two of his ex-classmates, twice (a week apart). There was slight discomfort that became slight pain when running but it was ignorable. However, later, I experienced slight pain walking up and down stairs, which this persisted for more than a day. Therapist suggested that I stretched after tennis. The knee was still creaky when doing reverse lunge but it was soft. The arch pain was significantly better but still happened everyday, right at the start in the morning when I took my first few steps. It seems to get better over time but not sure whether it was due the exercises or not. Incidentally, apparently I did exercise no. 9 incorrectly. I was trying hard not to let the big toe press onto the floor and so I decided to use a wall as stopper. Therapist said that that defeated the purpose of the exercise: to strengthen the small toes in relation to the dominant big toe. As

Finally got Kingdom of Nubia for my vassal Queen of Egypt. I can't remember but most likely I managed to pressed for it immediately upon death of its ruler. So hard to catch such moment. If I had missed it, the new ruler would probably be in a defensive pact vs me.   Probably my first holy war in this campaign. Due to defensive pacts, I declared on a revolt faction. From the spoils of previous holy war, I landed 3 claimants to three difference kingdoms. One of them was claimant of Kingdom of Denmark. I believed I pressed their claim when the then king came to me witha  marriage proposal and so he left the defensive pact against me.

I visited my mum and sister's family in Butterworth for 8 days. I tried my best to do the physio exercises with some limitations: did exercise no. 1 using a chair (no gym ball), can't do no. 2, no elastic bands and, because I didn't want to dirty my sister's chair and floor, I didn't use shoes. Since then, I started experience arch pain in the right foot on a daily basis. At the next session, the physiotherapist, as usual, asked a few questions and tested a few things before concluding that I stood and walked with collapsed arch, thus causing the pain. She showed me how the bone just above the arch jut out more on the right foot, compared to the left, because of it. If I correct the alignment, the difference is not longer significant. Also, in demonstrating the reverse lunge, we both noticed the consistent creaking noise from the knee. So, she added an exercise to strengthen the four small toes and a massage, with rolling pin, to get rid of the creaky sound. As usu

After my visa application was approved , I priotised buying tickets for the return trip as that would be more expensive than that for the domestic flight on the way to Canberra. Fortunately, the cheap(er) flight was still available. As a recap, that trip is split into two: Canberra to Melbourne flight operated by Qantas and the Melbourne to KL flight operated by MAS. Since both were day flights, the comfortable seat of business class (comfortable for sleeping, which is important for me on night flight) wasn't needed and so I targeted the economy class.  As usual, Ban preferred seats with extra leg room and that was where the problem started: after selecting such seats, the site informed me there was error in determing the seats's prices. Huh??? The prices were clearly stated before I selected them. The summary page indicated that those seats had been selected but payment was zero @@. I tried a few things to fix the error: restarted the purchasing process, clear browser cache/hi

While waiting for the outcome of my 2nd attempt at getting an Australian ETA , I noticed that Malaysia Airlines's business class ticket was at about two third of its usual price. A bit of background for context: I used to travel to Australia via Air Asia X because it was significantly cheaper. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, all airlines were basically grounded because people were not allowed to come to Malaysia and we could fly domestically only in certain cases (e.g. when I flew to Penang for my dad's funeral). However, when domestic travel was allowed, Air Asia proved to be unreliable for many people. For example, someone purchased ticket in the morning but later in the afternoon, they were informed that the flight was changed to another date! I can't fly with such capricious airline because any changes would involved me discussing with my sister about the suitability of the date and then changing the connecting flight ticket(s) (there's no direct flight

The largest acquisition to date: the Kingdom of France. I believed I landed a claimant with a spare barony and pressed his claim when there was change of my ruler (defensive pacts disbanded). The then French king was fighting a major revolt for the same claim. That revolt continued long after I won the war. As for Egypt, I stupidly pressed my kinswoman's claim to that title, instead of Kingdom of Nubia, both held by the same queen. The entire realm, except two counties, belonged to Nubia, not Egypt :(   Yes, the classic case of declaring war upon the person who makes a marriage proposal. When they do that, they temporarily drops out of defensive pact against you, if they're in one. This time I landed the claimant with a city, thereby making him mayor. I thought that Aquitine long coastline was ideal to be a merchant republic. During the war, Aquitaine managed to ally with Germany, via marriage, and dragged the latter into war. I had to then raised all my armies but fortunately

I read that Shin Zushi @SS2 served good sushi at affordable prices but they notoriously had long queues. So one day, we aimed to arrived before they opened at 6pm. Yet, there was already a long queue and unfortunately, we weren't part of the first batch that was admitted in once they opened and was told that we had to wait around 45 minutes. It was hot and I was getting hungry. Hence, we abandoned that restaurant...forever lol. Based on Google review, I suggested Nyonya Restaurant but alas, it was their rest day. Next was My Gracious Kitchen, a first for us, and oooooh they were selling chiffon cakes! Unfortunately, they expiry in 3 days time. There's no way I alone can finish and entire cake by myself. Ban hardly eats cake. Oh well, too bad. We had these: I totally forgot the details of the food but I know that I liked mine (the first food at the top). However, I remember vividly both of us loving the honey aiyu jelly dessert: it was refreshing with the addition of lime and so

Right after the previous two wars, I pressed claim on Kingdom of Leon for a vassal which I landed with a county from that multiclaims war, and to press a claim for Kingdom of Bohemia for a new vassal of the newly installed King of Lotharingia (result of the previous war where I pressed claim for a kinsman). Finished the war for Bohemia first and while the war against Leon was ongoing, a Muslim ruler declared war on  me for a far flung county in Arabia. My instinct was to just forgo that but immediately overtaken by pride :( On hindsight, my instinct was correct.   I didn't like the original target of the Crusade: Kingdom of Noregr. I initially wanted to change to Arabia but the ruler there was very powerful. So I settled on Maghreb, paying 200 piety to change it. I couldn't employ the trick of appointing a dynasty member as a beneficiary such that upon their death, the title goes to my vassal king. Hence, I appointed my son, in the hope that in future I can press a kinsman'

It's been years since I visited my sister's family in Australia. Probably the last trip was in 2015. Now that borders are opened for both countries and that my sister and I are comfortable with Ban and I visiting them, I made plans for a trip there this year. Previously, I applied for the most appropriate visa, ETA, initially via the Australia's Immigration website and later via EasyETA . They were both easy to use and result was nearly instantaneous. However, now all ETA applications, according to the official website and also the Australia High Commission in Malaysia , have to be done via their app Australian ETA. " All ETA-eligible passport holders must apply for an ETA using the Australian ETA app. For more information, see our Step by step guide. If you are unable to use the app, you can apply online through ImmiAccount for another visa that suits your needs. " Unfortunately, the entire process was so much more tedious than previously: The smartphone must ha

If I didn't usurp the title Kingdom of England, there was a good chance my vassal duke Prince of England (who held a Welsh duchy and an English duchy) would press his weak claim for that title since the English king was a child. If he did, then he would drag the Welsh duchy within the kingdom and would be unhappy with me until I transfer all relevant vassals to him and thus making him very powerful. So I had to usurp but the next problem was to whom I grant this title. Granting it to a duke would retain the prevailing succession law i.e. Elective Monarchy. I'm not sure whether the Prince of England can nominate himself because his primary title is the Welsh duchy. Granting it to Grand Mayor of Guenet was quite attractive because (1) that would change the kingdom to be a merchant republic and thereby disallowing Prince of Duke of being elected as leader (wouldn't stop him from pressing his claim, if opportunity arises), (2) of bucketload of income, and (3) Prince Mayor gener

My next appointment was delayed postponed by a week because I was unwell. By that time, I told the therapist that there was slight improvement to the four activities except that the effect of the walking exercise was a little worse. There was no different when walking down escalator. There was significant improvement to exercise no. 7 : not as painful and so I could do it properly. Previously, my leg would automatically straightened a little to avoid the pain. Another good news: the step-up exercise no longer cause discomfort or pain. Yay! The therapist then seems to be working on effect of lunges. As a result, two more exercises were introduced while a stretching exercise was slightly modified: 1. Stretches 2. Lie on mat. Heels on gym ball, legs bent 60 degree. Lift butt to maximum. Straighten right leg, then heel back on ball. Do the same for left leg. 10x3 3. Lie on mat. Heels on gym ball, legs straighten. Lift butt up while rolling ball closer. Lower down while rolling ball away.

I totally forgot about Ichiro Sushi Bar until I saw an advertisement for it at One Utama, announing its new location and its new name, Sushiya. Its former location at an eating place called Eat Paradise, situated within Isetan, was closed down because Isetan itself shuttered. Since we had already eaten, we dined there the next trip (we usually don't go to One U since it's a little further than other malls). We were quite impressed with the food there. It was pricey but the quality of food justified it. So on our 13th anniversary, we dined there once again. This time, I had the same salmon sushi set (think it was RM 35?) that Ban had previously and I chose a mini udon (think it was RM 14?) as an add-on. To me, a sushi restaurant is judged by how good their salmon sushi is. In this case, it was great! So worth the price. The udon was delicious too and appropriately priced. I'll definitely dine there again.

My ASUS laptop is working well so far. Only once I needed to force shut it because Twitch in Firefox did something funny that caused the screen to go blank. There was a hiccup right at the start: I noticed that the ping in my Paladins games fluctuated frequently and widely. Some people said that, for some reasons, the TaskFirst - Games option caused it, which is ironic because TaskFirst is supposed to "prioritize your internet connection's available bandwitch to particular activities for the smoothest possible performance" and for the particular activity Games it's supposed to "prioritize game-related tasks, such as gameplay and game live streaming."  I was skeptical about this fix but tried it anyway, due to lack of other options. It actually worked. Ironic.

Germany was unexpectedly losing  a war against a coalition of pagan rulers and so I took the opportunity to attack them. Unfortunately, thereafter  the Pope called for a Crusade against Lotharingia that was ruled by Muslim dynastic kinsman @@. Although I won the war against Germany, mainly by waiting out the 36-month period, I did poorly in the Crusade: I landed only a county for my beneficiary :(   I had to reload because my vassal duke, the Prince of England, warred against the child King of England to press his weak claim on the kingdom. Yes, I totally forgot that he had such claim.  So I reloaded and did two things: (1) plotted to kill the vassal duke, and (2) waged multiple wars to gain more counties so as to form the Empire of Pyrdain (Welsh name for Britannia). The latter worked and so I abandoned the former but it was very close because the rebelling Egyptian duke (they had land in England) was also at -100% warscore against King of Egypt. Fortunately, I won the war aga

Late August, during my mum's appointment with the eye specialist, she was diagnosed with retinal vein occlusion i.e. blocked vein that then causes swelling. Sometimes it'll go away on its on and so the doctor scheduled another examination in a month's time. Coincidentally, at her annual check up later at Penaga public health clinic, the doctor there also spotted the same symptom and wanted to refer her to a pubic hospital for follow-up. Unfortunately, it worsened in a month's time: the swelling was larger. The treatment involved injection of a drug directly into the eye, done at least 5 times, and usually more, on a monthly basis (with a 2-month break after the 5th injection). It's expensive: RM 1,700 per injection. We were afraid that mum's health insurance may not cover this ("Why was hospitalisation required? Could the patient have been treated as an outpatient?") and so, as a backup, mum got a referral letter from the Penaga clinic to see eye speci

Ban and I were were quite excited when we saw a notice at our condo essentially announcing installation of fibre optics. We had a few prolonged internet interruptions and so keen to upgrade. Once the notice was taken down, Ban confirmed with management office that fibre optic had been installed, before calling a Maxis technician to upgrade our plan and internet line. However, once here, the technician wanted to ascertain certain details but the office's staff couldn't confirm. With the staff's permission, the technician physically went to check certain stuff but couldn't find what he was looking for. Once Ban and technician were back at the management office, Ban spoke with the manager this time. Turned out that the installation was only 80% completed and Telekom would install the remainder once there's more demand for fibre optic. Wth??? All of them were puzzled over this criterion. Malaysia Boleh!

Taking up on the therapist's request, I tried some activities that I used to do before the knee pain came and provide her feedback: Tennis for 30 minutes: discomfort that graduated to slight pain when running. Completely gone at once stopped playing. Walking exercise for 30 minutes: discomfort whenever required to moved to the right where there was some pressure on the knee. Completely gone at once stopped exercising. Lunge pose, with right knee in front. Slight to moderate pain whenever left leg went back and reverted. The pain was also temporary, similar to the above two cases. Reverse lunge, where the right leg goes back and then lowers down to the mat: discomfort for the 1st to 7th rep and then slight to moderate pain for the last 3 reps. I also told her that I felt slight pain when I walked down escalator (the typical one where the step's height is taller than the usual stairs) where my right leg was behind.  All the above, it seems, were due to tightness in the quad and h

Jerusalem must had had gotten the Duchy of York via inheritance, some time back. I didn't think much of it because none of my vassals had a claim on it. However, an opportunty came when my chancellor fabricated a claim on a Scottish duchy. Rare! Successfully waged war on Scotland to get that duchy. Good reward: three counties! I couldn't keep that title as I already had two duchy titles that I wanted to keep. I took like 20 minutes to consider who to land. I had preferred a Welsh but none of them had desired claim. In the end, I invited an Italian from Jerusalem who had claim on both Duchy of Lancaster and York. Thereafter I pressed his claim on York.   When England warred upon the Pope, I always took the opportunity to war upon England. Ever since Prince Burgheard became my vassal duke, he too was took similar approach: whenever the English king was at war with the Pope and me, this vassal would declared war on the king immediately after I won mine lol. Is this scripted or jus

Turns out that exercise 7(c) and (d) are supposed to be combined into one haha. I did them separately for two weeks before realising the error at my second appointment with the therapist thereafter Also, I couldn't do them with heels elevated because of lack of suitable prop. I used a folded blanket but I was so busy trying to stabilise myself that I couldn't do the exercises properly. Highly likely this resulted in increased pain when I did the step-up exercise 7(e). When I reverted to level ground i.e. without elevating the heels, the pain subsided a lot. At the next appointment, one additional stretch was introduced as part of the exercises leading to the step-up exercise: stretch right 4 small toes against wall for 10s. Then press those toes against the wall for 5s. 10x. Miraculously, this then helps to get rid of whatever lingering light pain that occured during the step-up exercise. One more stretch was added and an exercise was modified a week later. The whole routine i

Here are the results compared to 4 months ago :                                May 2022              Ref            Sep 2022            Ref Total cholesterol           4.8               < 5.17                  4.3               <5.17 HDL ("good")               1.7               > 1.03                 1.7                >1.03 LDL ("bad")                  2.2               < 2.59                 2.2               < 2.59 Triglycerides                 0.6               < 1.69                 0.7                <1.69 Total/HDL ratio                              Non-HDL                     3.1                < 3.36                 2.6               <3.36 LDL / HDL                  1.66                  < 2.0                     1.31                 <2.0 Wow, it actually got better! I suspect, for sometime now, that it's my daily physio exercises (75 - 90 minutes every freaking day!) that helps to finally control my cholesterol lev

This corner lot coffeshop is just next to St Ignatius Church. Tried there 3 times where I ordered this: As usual, I had mine without si ham and chilli. This char kuay teow had a strong wok hei, which I like but unfortunately it was a little oily for me. RM 8. There was a Nyonya stall too that cooked assam fish upon order. Ban tried that and quite liked it but sadly it seems that it has closed down. Alamak. The most popular stall is the stall that sells roasted duck, roasted chicken and steamed chicken rice. It's expensive though: RM 10 for a plate of roasted duck rice. Or is that the usual price now in PJ?

Until I become emperor, I have no intention of getting crusdaer kingdoms directly or indirectly. What I hope is to bring success to the House of Zee Mau :) We won this 3rd Crusade handily. Egypt went on to grow stronger in the future. Go go Zee Mau!   This was the first time in this campaign that I granted land to someone so as to make them my vassal and later I pressed their claim for a desired title. As I didn't want to give any county or even barony, I built a city and gave him that. Yes, he was elevated to Lord Mayor after the successful war and thus the governing system of his realm was (merchant) republic. Yes, I suffered a -20 penalty with him for having the wrong type of government and so I need to keep an eye on him. Definitely try not to strengthen his power further. On the flipside, I received higher income from him. This was the first time in this campaign that I ventured out of Britannia: pressed a duke's claim on Poher. Usually I prefer to press claim for vassls o

Me: *Looked at Ban's grey attire* What's this colour combo? Trying to camouflage among rocks? Ban: *Did a pose* Jeng Jeng! I am rock ninja! 😂

Good news: I've made sufficient progress in my knee recovery such that physiotherapy session is now down to once a week, from 3x every 2 weeks. Certain movements elicit no pain at all. Walking the stairs cause hardly any pain. Since the last regime , there were additional two exercises at the next session and deletion of one. This was followed by replacement of two exercises and additional of an exercise. The full workout: 1. Stretches 2. Lie on mat. Heels on gym ball, legs bent 60 degree. Lift butt to maximum. Straighten right leg, then heel back on ball. Do the same for left leg. 10x3 3. Lie on mat. Heels on gym ball, legs straighten. Lift butt up while rolling ball closer. Lower down while rolling ball away. 10x3 4. Sit on chair. Slowly stand using only the right leg. Slowly sit back down. 10x1 5. Stand on mat. Ankle weight on right leg. Bend right leg, heel towards butt. At furthest point push a little harder and then lower back down. 10x3 6. Sit at edge of chair. Ankle weight