Here's My Story

Friend: Are you all at home now? Me: No. Also, there's nothing valuable at home. Friend: 😀 When will you be home? Me: There's nothing valuable on us either. Friend: 😂

Booster shot campaign did materialise but not for the reason I posited . It was the emergence of Omicron that precipitated this decision. The recommended schedule was 6 months after the second dose of AZ but that was cut to half. I'm wary of yet another short cut but admittedly I don't envy the government's position. Fortunately for me, my appointment was exactly just one week earlier than recommended. For AZ recepients, the recommended booster vaccine is either AZ itself or Pfizer. Thomson Hospital administered only Pfizer Here were my observations from the time I was vacccinated until my recovery from its side effects: 1. 11/1, 2.55pm - 4.15pm: The whole vaccination process took this long. 2. 11/1, 7.25pm: Was already sleepy but I didn't want to sleep so early. Much later, in the middle of my sleep, the jabbed area on my arm flared up in pain but fortunately I could fall back to sleep. 3. 12/1, 9.35am: No fever even though I felt warm. Moderate rhinitis. Didn't ha

I noticed this restaurant the first time we dined at Absolute Thai. Wanted to try it next time but there was a long queue and the restaurant was packed. So we ended eating at Absolute Thai a second time . When I was hunting for a new pair of Skechers shoes, I planned to dine at Ippudo before heading to the Skechers outlet at One Utama. This time, we were immediately ushered in. I ordered Shiromaru. We had a choice of how soft or hard we wanted the ramen to be. There was even "very hard" @@. I chose normal texture and that itself already had some bite, which suited me just fine. Its soup wasn't the typical tonkotsu broth: it was less greasy, which was great for Ban. The 5 slices of chasu weren't dry. I noticed that they are typically prone to dryness in soup ramen. Unusually, instead of bamboo shoots, it had beansprouts. Overall, a delicious filling bowl of ramen, unlike many ramens at other restaurants. However, also unlike other restaurants, the price was also unusua

Ta-da! Yay! First time ever I created this empire. It's difficult to create because it requires complete control of 7 kingdoms, and not the usual requirement of at least 80% of the realm and 2 kingdom titles. So, even land as small as barony, bishopric or city matters! The 7 kingdoms are: Bohemia Poland Galicia-Volhynia Kievan Rus Chernigov Vladimir Norgorod I noticed that the Empire of Rus had become a titular empire and so I created it. On the other hand, Wendish Empire title still existed but I refrained from creating it because my vassal kings within the empire would desire it, causing penalty in opinion of me. I was worried, though, that if somehow my vassals could form the Wendish Empire once they fulfilled its requirement. Fortunately, it seems that vassals cannot create titles that are equal or higher than their liege. Phew! Haha if I had known that earlier, it would had made my previous Irish campaign easier.

Recently I underwent my usual annual health screening test. I usually go for the cheapest package that must include haematology profile, lipid profile, kidney function, liver function, CA 19.9 and CEA. As usual, the most appropriate package has other tests too but this time I opted to also add cardio-vascular disease risk assessment. Thankfully, all results were fine. Below are more details on the lipid profile and WBC count results. Cholesterol results compared to 4 months ago :                                  Sep 2021        Ref. range        Jan 2022          Ref Total cholesterol           4.9               < 5.17                5.2               <5.2 HDL ("good")               1.5               > 1.03                1.81            >1.04 LDL ("bad")                 3.1                < 2.6                   3.0              < 2.6 Triglycerides                 0.5               < 1.69                0.8              <1.7 Total/HDL ratio 

Noticed this new shop whenever we passed by Uptown while traveling on Sprint Highway. Asking a friend's opinion yielded positive feedback. So one day I suggested to Ban to try it out. I was pleasantly surprised that they offered a small basket for me to place my backpack in, next to our table. I guess it's more practical than an extra chair.   I normally don't eat fatty pork but somehow decided to try this signature dish: Omg the fat just melted in my mouth @@ Highly recommend to pork lovers. As for the noodle, it was delicious. It reminds me of Uncle Kin's Original Pan Mee (dry version) in Penang, which means cannot have it often because it has that jelak taste. I can't remember what Ban ordered.   After you finished your noodle, you can ask for a free scoop of rice to be mixed with the residual gravy. I didn't do that because I was already full but Ban did and he liked it.  Sorry, not much to write because I forgot to jot down notes there and then haha. TLDR:

The Empire of Bulgaria had previously conquered a duchy that I wanted and when  they declared holy war on yet another duchy that I also wanted, I had to try to stop it because it would be more diffcult to get those two duchies from them than warring on two different sovereigns to get them. Fortunately, my threat level was below 50% and so I would be up against only Pagan rulers, which I was confident in defeating them. I then chose to pressed a claim for a vassal, rather than declaring holy war, so that the increase in threat level upon winning would be lower.   Earlier, when there was a change in France's ruler, France was out of defensive pact against me and so I declared war to press a ducal claim for a vassal. Then Bulgaria (temporarily) left the pact too when its ruler made a marriage proposal to me and so I declared war to press claim for a vassal over a duchy. Right after that war ended, I noticed that not only Bulgaria was out of the defensive pact (due to the truce, I gue

My mum's right eye recovered well and so a little more than a month later, she underwent surgery to remove cataract from her left eye...at 8am omg. I had to wake up before the sun rose @@. The surgery went well and she was ready to go home 2 hours later. Perks of being the first patient, I guess. Later at home she noticed that her right eye's near vision was impaired. Previously, she needed glasses only to see far. She got worried...especially since she loves watching Korean drama series on her handphone. In the meantime, I got her to watch it on the tv. That day she spoke with my aunt in US, who had cataract surgery previously. According to her, most doctors will correct any far vision's impairment when performning the surgery and the side effect is the impairment of near vision. Apparently, this is so common that doctors usually don't tell patients of this effect in advance, which I believed they should. The above was confirmed the next day by the specialist during t

I didn't have complete control of Kingdom of Bohemia because of 1 tribe and 1 barony. Much earlier I managed to wrest the tribe from Italy. I then toggled "interest" in the Hungarian king because he ruled over that barony. I was puzzled and disappointed that the next king was still in defensive pact against me. I expected fresh new ruler to be out for a day or two. Grrrr. Many years later when this ruler grew up, he approached me with a marriage proposal and as expected, he left the pact to do that. So I promptly declared war on him to claim that barony. With that, I had complete control of the Bohemian kingdom. However, I noticed that somehow I didn't have complete control over Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia. I checked a few times but couldn't find a foreign-owned land within the kingdom. Grrr. I later found out that a bishopric somehow went to the Pope! I didn't detect earlier because the colour of our emblems were similar. Grrr. I had to find an opportune time

2021 is a year I think many of us want to put behind us. It was another year of Covid-19 pandemic, with worse variant, the Delta variant, rampaging all over. Towards the end, the Omicron variant emerged, which appeared to be even more transmissible. Initial observation seems to indicate that it's less lethal but there's still not enough data to be conclusive as there are other confounding factors like vaccine and prior infections. I honestly thought the pandemic would be over by mid-2021, mostly based on vaccination drive. WHO is right about one thing: no country is safe until every country is safe. It was a plea for the richer countries to help directly/indirectly to vaccinate the poorer countries.  Once again, I couldn't travel to visit my sister and her family in Australia. As for my mum and my sister in Penang, I could do it only recently, after 16 months of absence.  Despite this difficult time, I am very grateful that we are all safe, fully-vaccinated (some of us alre