Here's My Story

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, announcing 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...

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...