Here's My Story

I returned to Naj & Bell and Souffle Dessert Cafe for different dessert: Exotic Meringue is like an inverted version of the classic pavlova: the berries are hidden inside, rather than sitting atop the cake outside. The classic version is better though. This is Yuzu Lime Souffle Pancake at Souffle Dessert Cafe. I shared it with Ban as otherwise I wouldn't have it as it would be too much for me. Knowing that the souffle was already sweet the last time, we forwent the one served with ice-cream. The choice of yuzu lime was perfect as it complemented the sweet pancake. Even Ban loved it despite not a dessert foodie. A definite must-have!

One day, we decided to once again try to get into Shin Zushi for dinner, with My Gracious Kitchen as backup. I was going to purchase the latter's delicious yummy chiffon cake after dinner anyway. We arrived before 6pm and there was already a queue, not unexpected, but a short one and so we decided to queue. However, later I realised that the restaurant had started operating continuously from lunch to dinner without a break in between, unlike before. Hence, the queue time was longer than expected but thankfully it was only 20 minutes. Phew! It turned out that coincidentally I ordered almost the same thing as last time haha: Price was the same 6 months ago. During this period, Sushi Tei had increased price of 2 pieces of salmon sushi from RM 5.80 to RM 6.80 to the current RM 8.00 😬 This made Shin Zushi much more attractive. They were all good, especially the torched sushi. We should come here more often!

Highest score ever: 647,187 (vs 473,804 but the latter in Ironman mode). The 3rd last ruler, Emperor Cawdaf 'the Sword of the Blessed Virgin' contributed the most: 90,371 but also had the shortest reign i.e. 9 years. The 2nd ruler, King Yinyr, ruled the longest: 46 years. Titles held: 5 empires, 6 kingdoms, 2 duchies, 5 counties and 3 baronies. As usual, there are other titles that could be created and held but didn't do so due to political reasons. Personal record on realm size (4,498) and army size (764,891). Highly like also personal record of army size from own demesne: 45k. Converted Byzantium Empire to Catholic (via an invasion to install a kinsman as emperor iirc). Orthodoxy Christin was wiped off. Conquered the Papacy, via Anti-Pope method, for the first time. Spread the tiny Welsh culture to far and wide. Enlarged the de jure realm of Prydain many times larger than its original. Merchant trading powerhouse.

Ban's mum has espoused a few times the benefit of using air fryer: easy to use to cook delicious food. After the third time, I discussed with Ban and he said he would need to see how it works first. Ban's mum kindly arranged a home-cooked dinner for the family where she used the air fryer, instead of the oven which she usually use when cooking for a group of people. Air fryer is used when it was just she and her husband. We came, we saw and we ate. Thumb's up! With Ban's agreement, I searched Shopee for Kelen Munoz's air fryer, the same brand as his mum's air fryer. I didn't want to research from scratch and his mum's air fryer is working well. The name sounds fancy, right? It was later on that I discovered that highly likely it's a local brand :D As usual, I considered price, reviews and, in this particular case, size as well. There was just no clear winner, unfortunately. After narrowing it down to three choices, I discussed with Ban and we settled...

This expansion is fan-made and it's released on Steam for free, which is amazing considering how much content it gives and the how well it's done. It introduces a 5th hero character, Hermit, as well as a separate mode ("Downfall") where you play one of the seven "bosses" in a reverse order in each Act i.e. from top to bottom. The seven bosses are: Slime Boss Guardian Hexaghost Champ Automaton Gremlins Snecko All of them have unique mechanics. Although it's obvious that Slime Boss, Guardian and Automaton have one thing in common with Defect i.e. slots, it's the only similarity. They are wildly different from each other. Coincidentally, these are my favourite villains :) For those who love wombo combo, you will love this expansion. The hardest to play is probably the Gremlins because it's almost essential that you go for combos. The most frustrating is Snecko because of the outsized influence of RNG. Here are my latest gameplay for each of these ei...

Recently, the Minister of Transport announced that drivers who renew their driving liences directly with JPJ (instead of, say, at post office or via MyEG) and choose to renew for 10 years will need to pay fee for 9 years i.e. discount of 1 year (RM 270 instead of RM 300). The maximum period the last time I renewed was only 5 years. I was keen on the 10-year period and so might as well try to get the discount. First thing I did was to register to use JPJ Digital Platform: mySIKAP portal. That was easy. Once registered, I searched the portal for the option of renewing driving license, which thankfuly was quite easy to spot. The first problem encountered was somehow my credit card payment failed, despite having gone through the "input OTP" stage. Fortunately, my mobile banking app repeatedly showed that the payment didn't go through and so I proceeded to pay via online bank transfer. Then I encountered a second problem: unlike what I read online, I didn't get any receipt...

I was looking at the weak claims and my eyes were drawn to a vassal's claim on Jibril the Baghpalid Kingdom. Such an unusual naming structure. I noted that nearly everyone else were at war and so I thought it might be doable pressing the vassal's claim despite triggering all the defensive pacts. It was a comfortable victory: all done in 1 year 13 days. I doubt my new vassal king can hold on to the title though because he has only a county whereas the former king, who is now his vassal, holds the sole duchy that makes up the kingdom. If I'm not mistaken (I finished this campaign ages ago...), this was the last war I waged before the game ended.

Here are the results compared to 4 months ago :                                Jan 2023              Ref               May 2023            Ref Total cholesterol           5.4               < 5.2                  5.9               <5.2 HDL ("good")              1.52            ...

I always knew that the old venue of Kwong Wah was taken over by another establishment that also served chendol (among other things) but for the longest time I stuck with the former at its new location. However, one day after reading some review, I decided to try it. Ban, as usual, accompanied me :) Sorry I took the photo a little late haha. Compared to Kwong Wah's, Sistars's chendol was less sweet (good!) but also less...flavourful? (bad!) So it's really a toss up. I might just alternate between the two but honestly, for the past year or so, I seems to hanker less and less for chendol as I find them a little too sweet. Sign of old age? :(

I've been keeping an eye on my vassal King of Sweeden and Duke of Rashka who are both warring on the Tsar of Bulgaria, for different claims, in trying to decide whether they needed help. I could only help one of them, since it's the same enemy they warred upon. I decided to take action when I saw that while the duke was ahead in warscore and had army that could still beat the tsar's army, the king was on the way to giving up his gains because the enemy focused on him. It was logical since the king's remainder army was much smaller. Then suddenly I noticed that there was a revolt in the Byzantine Empire that just started and that there was a county held by the rebels that I could press for my vassal grand mayor. Incidentally, the rebels wanted to install my son-in-law as the emperor. Hence, I first declared war on the Byzantine revolt faction and then, after positing my army, asked to join the King of Sweden's war. Since I had the capacity, I also crushed the Byzanti...