Here's My Story

It's a game that I regularly go back to. The last update was last year June ! Since then, I've cleared Ascension 10 and 11 i.e. unlocked Ascension 12. As expected, it took me longer to clear these. Ascension 10: Shockingly, of all characters, only Defect managed to beat the Heart. Ascension 11: No one beat the Heart :( In a rare move, I forgot to take the red key for Watcher. I beat the Act 3 boss but didn't want to do another run just to have the chance to beat the Heart. Took many tries to clear this level with Silent.

At the next physio session, I told the therapist that, unlike pre-surgery, I still couldn't sit on my heels or feet without feeling pain across the knee, just behind the kneecap . After getting me to do a variety of exercises, she replaced the chair pose exercise with this: Sit on heels. If cannot do so without tolerable pain, place pillow in between thighs and calves. Use glutes to push up to kneel position and sit back down. x10/set, x3 sets. It was difficult for me to engage the glutes subtantially to do that but oh well, just did the best I could. The next session, the therapist focused more on the above issue, which was occurence of pain during the mid-range motion of the leg when bending/straigtening. A whole new sets of exercises, replacing the previous ones: 1. Exercise to stretch quads and calves. 2. Start with leg straigtened, restrained with elastic band. Bend it slowly, as low and as far back as possible. Hold for 5 counts before slowly straigtening. x10/set, x3 sets. 3...

(for some context, refer to this post on my ASUS Zenfone 8) Me: Actually there are smaller phone than this one (pointed at my ASUS Zenfone 8). Friend: Oh? Me: iPhone 12 mini and 13 mini are smaller. Friend: Yes, they are small. Me: But they are much more expensive. People said that for the same price, you can get Android phone with better specification. Oh, what phone are you using? Friend: iPhone. Me: Oh...well, then you should know lah 😅

For the first time ever, there were unauthorised purchases made using my credit card. Two SGD 500+ transactions, identical amount, from Shopify in Singapore, and one USD 0.43 transaction from Professional Health in US. Neither had I ever transacted with in my life. Upon reading an SMS from Citibank Singapore, I called them to confirm that those were fraudulent transactions. As a precaution, they had already blocked my credit card while waiting to hear from me. As a result, that credit card was canceled. While waiting for the dispute resolution to complete, Citibank would provide credit to exactly offset the amount disputed i.e. effectively I wouldn't need to pay this when I pay the next bill. It would take up to 60 days for the dispute to resolve @@ Also, they sent me a new credit card and it arrived a mere two days after I spoke with them! Judging from the date on the DHL packaging, they chose the 1-day delivery. I'm impressed. Once received, I spent some time updating my cred...

The yong tau fu at this restaurant was huge. I can't comment on the appropriateness of its prices because I rarely have yong tau fu in Malaysia because they are usually fried. At this restaurant, they would fry it unless you tell them not too. Because of its size, 3 pieces were enough for me. A rather unique method they used here was applying the meat/fish paste just before they cooked the pieces that you chose. So far, they applied it to all the vegetable that I took, even mushrooms but not sure they would do that to the meat/fish balls. Once, I spotted long beans. I was curious how they would apply the paste and so I picked one Interesting, eh? The soup was delicious. Ingredients seem fresh. Go try it. Just remember not to load too much per person!

I have an AIA's medical insurance policy. While I'm grateful and happy about the seemless process of getting my hospitalisation bill paid (done entirely between the hospital and AIA), I'm frustrated with the process of claiming for pre- and post-hospitalisation medical expenses. Here are the reasons (so far!): Despite the itemised bill clearly showed that it had been fully paid (there was a line "Less payment"), AIA insisted that I also provided the payment receipt too. When they wanted additional information from me (e.g. "Clearer image of the bill", "Receipt"), they sent a softcopy letter to me via MyAIA app (claim was submitted via the app) but there was no notification at all that they had done so. I only knew about it when they sent me an SMS, telling me a Reminder letter had been sent. Grrr.  From the Claim History, due to my good organisational skill, I noticed that a claim (call it Claim B) had disappeared. Upon enquiry, they told me th...

At the next physio session, two more exercises were added to the previous ones : Micro bend right leg. Move left leg back and forth. 10x/set. 3 sets/session. Bend left leg i.e. stand on only the right leg. Slide 5 times to the right and left 5 times. 10x/set. 3 sets/session. Also, the stretching exercise for the calves was changed: stand at edge of stool, bring heels down as much as possible. 30sx3. The next appointment with the orthopedic was almost 7 weeks after the surgery. Aside from the usual follow-up, one main purpose of the appointment was injection of cytokines, which are extracted from my blood i.e. a two-step process. They needed two tubes of blood @@ Doctor drew blood from the usual spot i.e. just behind the elbow but only got 1.5 tubes of blood. So he started drawing the remainder from the wrist but omg as he was drawing blood, I experienced the most intense pain ever emanating from, not where the blood was drawn (the wrist) but at a spot just below the knuckle of the inde...

I honestly didn't think I could beat my performance of the previous campaign (also in ironman mode) and yet here it is :) Highest score, largest realm and largest army size ever! Some information: (1) Astounding score of 473,804, easily beating previous personal record of 241,293. Realm size of 3,889 and army size of 636,546, again easily beating previous campaign's stats of 2,780 and 302,389. These stats easily beat the AIs. The last emperor, Emperor Pelhrim the 'Great', who ruled for 46 years, contributed the most to the score i.e. 71,834. (2) Created the special Slavic Union empire. Many other kingdoms drifted into this empire over time. (3) The realm covered almost all of Europe. Notable missing regions were the Papacy, southern Italian peninsular and Greece. Covered majority of Africa and Middle East, right up to the border of the Indian subcontinent. (4) Final character held titles of 4 empires, 4 kingdoms, 2 duchies and 6 counties.  He was also emperor of many ...

After the last physio's session , especially since the therapist opined that actually the right leg could bear full weight already, I've successfully went without the crutch while in the kitchen and in the bathroom i.e. just leave it aside. I could have my normal shower, without assistance. I didn't need to use the pushchair at all even when walking in the mall. For safety purpose, I still bring along a crutch when I went out. Just before the end of week 6 post-surgery, I had a physio session. This was the new set of exercises: 1. Warm up calves with lunges. x3 each side. 2. Both heels on gym ball, hip width apart. Knees apart sightly wider than hip. Lift up hip such that soles are on the ball, count to 5 and lower down. x10 per set, 3 sets per session. 3. Same as (2) above but with left foot stack on right foot. x10 per set, 3 sets per session. 4. Right shin on gym ball at an angle with ankle on the edge i.e. heel just hanging. Left ankle on right lower thigh. Lift up hip,...

Here are the results compared to 4 months ago :                                Jan 2022              Ref            May 2022            Ref Total cholesterol           5.2               < 5.2                  4.8               <5.17 HDL ("good")               1.81             > 1.04       ...