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 ...

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!