Work Musings

It has been a hectic three months at work as although it was bonus month in December and salary adjustment month in January, it was indeed a busy period these 3 months as I was rushing the corporate tax returns for my clients in November. Little did I expect that the IRAS to issue the tax composition fines in January to our corporate tax clients that we had not completed due to various reasons, which I would put it down to communication breakdown.

During these 3 months, a lot of “office politics” happened in office too, making it going to work is like working in a place, where a war is happening, and you must have your weapons ready to fight the war or defend yourself to avoid getting hit.

Let’s hope that all these will end in February as my boss promised to look into them after January.

Although I feel that I have been quite adequately rewarded in the bonus and in the salary adjustment exercise, I would prefer to work in an environment where there is no 溏心风暴(fighting for power) as it can be rather draining on the company’s staff too.

Happy New Year

I know this may be a little late, but since the Chinese New Year traditional celebration is for 15 days, it is always better late than never.

Wishing all my friends and blog readers:-

a Happy & Prosperous New Year. May the Year of The Dragon brings the fire in you to make it the best year for the Year 2012. 新年快乐，万事如意，恭喜发财，身体健康！！！

Happy New Year

I know this may be a little late, but since the Chinese New Year traditional celebration is for 15 days, it is always better late than never.

Wishing all my friends and blog readers:-

a Happy & Prosperous New Year. May the Year of The Dragon brings the fire in you to make it the best year for the Year 2012. 新年快乐，万事如意，恭喜发财，身体健康！！！

A Good Deed

I had boarded the bus (Service 128) from my usual bus stop at Royal Plaza at Scotts on Thursday

This service is a semi-express bus service that serves from Shenton Way to Ang Mo Kio during evening peak hours. As I settled down on my seat on the bus, I noticed that a young girl sitting beside me appearing anxious as the bus travelled past Newton Road. The bus had not stopped as it was part of its express route, which would take the bus to Bishan MRT.

My guess was that the gal had boarded the wrong bus. She seemed rather lost. I tried to talk to her, asked her where she was heading to. My guess was right. She told me she was heading to Newton Road. I told her that the bus will stop only at Bishan MRT. She was stunned at first, but I managed to calm her down told her to follow me as I would be alighting at the station. She called her mum in the meantime, telling her that she took the wrong bus. I believed that her mum told her to take a cab when she reached Bishan. I could not understand what she told her mum as I believed that they are Japanese.

As the bus reached Bishan MRT station, I asked the gal to alight at the station and accompanied her to wait for a cab. I waited for her to get into the cab before continuing my journey home.

Gonnie’s Birthday Celebration Dinner

The dinner was initiated by me as I felt that I had to thank the group for shelling out the “Zinc” bag as my birthday present during my birthday celebration KTV last month. After a group discussion through Whatsapp, the date, time , place for the birthday dinner was set. I asked the birthday boy, what he wanted for his birthday and managed to get the present with the help of Chloe.

The meetup was on Wednesday at Marche Restaurant at 313 Somerset. It was fortunate that I had made a reservation for the seats as it was surprisingly packed for a weekday. I had managed to get a cake from The Icing Room before heading in for dinner.

^{The tiramisu cake I got for the birthday boy, The cake melted and was saved by Jessica & Kianhow.}

^{The guests for the birthday dinner with the birthday boy, Jessica, Kianhow, Lance & myself}

^{Gonnie with the beautiful ladies, Chloe & Jessica}

^{Gonnie with me, Lance & Kianhow}

^{Gonnie with his gift from us}

^{Photos courtesy of Chloe & Gonnie}

After the dinner, Jessica, Chloe & I were given a lift by Kianhow back home.

1st Countdown at The Heartlands

This year marks the 1st year that I have ushered in the heartlands. I had wanted to try out how it was like celebrating at the heartlands and had wanted to avoid the crowds at Vivo City & Marina Bay, after an experience last year.

I decided to purchase the ticket from my Resident’s Committee, which was priced at $2, and there are snacks, drinks, goodie bags & a chance to win a lucky draw. It is definitely more worthwhile than jostling with the crowd and sweating it out.

The countdown was held at the Jalan Kayu Community Hall, which is about a 10 minute walk from my house. I was asked to help by the CC manager with the Games stall, as a result, I was at the venue at about 8pm.

The good thing about the hall is it is pretty spacious and air-conditioned. I could usher in the new year 2012 in the comforts of being in an air conditioned hall.

^{The booth I was manning with fellow RC member Mr Ang.}

The queue for this game was surprisingly long. We had to make some changes to the rules of the game, in order to ensure that everyone gets a chance to play and get to enjoy.

^{A photo with Bugs Bunny for the memories =)}

On this note, I would like to wish my blog readers and friends a Happy New Year. May good tidings be with you in this coming New Year. =)

2011- The Year In Review

It has come to the time of the year where I do a review of the year that is coming to an end.

This year, has been quite a turbulent year, but I am glad that I managed to get past it pretty unscathed.

Study

This was the 2nd year since I have given up on my ACCA studies, and started my 1st year as a full fledged Accredited Tax Practitioner. The 1st year passed quite uneventfully. However from next year, I will be required to undergo 30 hours of Continuing Education Programme each year, totalling 90 hours for 3 years, before I am allowed to renew my membership. I am still very interested in my line of work, therefore, I will try to keep this accreditation, which will be useful for my work. I credit this to my manager and my bosses who are willing to impart their valuable tax knowledge to me. Till today, I feel that I am still very enthusiastic about learning new things.

Work

It has not been a smooth flowing year at work, thanks to many changes in the audit arm of the firm. In fact, for quite a number of times, I got really frustrated, as colleagues were not very co-operative, getting into the game of office politics. But I guessed its all in the course of a day’s work. Overall, I am glad that my boss recognises the hard work that I put in with a reasonable pay package that is pretty competitive in today’s employment market.

Friends

It was a year, where some friendships were lost over petty matters, but I am glad to have made quite a number of new ones through my volunteer work in IRAS Volunteer e-filing exercise and grassroots events.

These friends, whether old, new or discarded have taught me a number of things in order to make myself a better person. Without them, I may not know I have these faults or hidden talents.

BGR

I have made no progress on this front this year. I guess these things cannot be rushed, although I know that my mum is a little worried about this. I have told myself that if I cannot get married, so be it. Maybe, Heaven has something better in store for me, or my Ms Right has not appeared yet. I certainly do not wish to fall in love with the wrong person and suffer the pain of a divorce later.

Volunteer Work

This was the year which I extended my commitment to volunteer my time to grassroots events as well. I joined the Jalan Kayu Zone 4 RC as an observer in January this year. I feel that as a resident of my neighbourhood, I should give some input as to how my estate should be like. The 2nd reason was to thank my ex-MP, Mr Wee Siew Kim for helping me with my cheating case that I was involved in last year. Although, I didn’t get my money back in the end, I am thankful for his help.

My first event was the National Day Children’s Art Competition, which went on successfully after several nights of preparation. For the 1st time, I volunteered to test myself in hosting an event. The children in my area surprised me with their knowledge about Singapore. Not only that, I never knew that hosting can be so fun.

On the IRAS Volunteer e-filing exercise, which I volunteered for the 7th year, the Facebook page that I created for the volunteers to mingle and share their experiences was made official by IRAS. I would like to thank Clara, Stacey & Rena of IRAS for their faith in me.

My efforts for volunteering for these 7 years were rewarded with a Outstanding Volunteer Award & Long Service Volunteer Award this year.

I would like to thank Ms Angie Lim, Liasion Officer for The Serangoon CC & the taxpayers who came by to the CC to e-file their taxes. I certainly look forward to do for you guys next year.

Singing @ K Group

The KTV group on that I have been an organiser celebrated its 3rd Anniversary this year. This year was a mixed year. We are happy for Yanling, one of our pioneer members, who found her true love and got married. The bad part was because of the decline in service standards at the group’s flagship branch, Partyworld International Building, the branch was switched to Partyworld Liang Court.

This switch was only possible after several rounds of complaints cum negotiations with the Partyworld management. I am glad that for the sake to keep the group together, I was able to negotiate with the management for a resolution to the problems faced.. I certainly did not expect to have such negotiation skills when I went to discuss with the Management.

On this note, I would like to wish my blog readers and friends a Happy New Year. May what you hope for in the Year 2012 be fulfilled. =)

Christmas Eve Countdown

I had decided to go ahead with my plans this year for a Christmas Eve Countdown as I decided not to let last year’s new year countdown unhappiness bother me too much as I feel that as organiser of an event, I am allowed to ask along who I wished to ask along in the first place.

I am glad that, despite the short two week notice I have given, I managed to ask along Chloe, Gonnie, Sharon, Jennifer. Lance & Kian How decided to join us at the last minute. It was fortunate that I managed to negotiate with the people at Music Dreamer Live Café to let us have another 2 seats, as the people at the café have remembered me and the group of friends that I asked along during the Christmas Countdown & New Year Countdown last year. Let’s just say something happened at these two events which made them remember me & my friends that I asked along the last round.

Dinner was at Xin Wang HK Café at Marina Square, as a few of my friends did not wish to have dinner at the food court. I thought I made a good choice as I could use my birthday voucher which was expiring soon, and at the same time, I could avoid the 2 people I disliked at the Marina Square foodcourt as I received an sms from Raymond that they were heading to the foodcourt before going to the same place I was heading. It was fortunate that they did not dare to create a scene at the café. I guessed some of the KTV group members had already gave them a stern warning after suffering in their hands as well.

I thought my table was the “highest” in the Countdown, as Kianhow was requested to sing by one of the singers to sing a song on stage as a warm up, which he obliged with the theme song of the movie that is on everyone’s lips at the moment, “那些年”by 胡夏. I actually wanted to go up to the stage and sing one song as well, but after Kianhow’s performance, the event kicked off.

^{Some of the prizes that we won from the games segments. KianHow, Gonnie, Sharon & I were the game masters, winning the most prizes for our table.}

^{Personal photo with one of our KTV group friends, now resident singer at the Music Dreamer Live Cafe , Carolyn}

Group photo with Carolyn with Gonnie, Chloe & Lance

Personal photo with Erick, aka. Jianli, part-time 933 DJ

Group photo for the memories with Jennifer, Kianhiw, Gonnie, Chloe, Lance, Sharon

I would like to thank my friends for their support and encouraging words for this successful event. =)

1st Visit To City Square Mall

I was telling my mum that I have not been to City Square Mall since it opened a few years back and was quite keen to pay a visit now as I am on leave.

The recent fury about the nation’s MRT system caused me to have 2nd thoughts taking the MRT. It was fortunate that my knowledge about the bus services serving Singapore is able to get me around the country, I got there after my late lunch.

 

I was fascinated by taglines located at the shopping centre’s lift lobby. This really fits the shopping centre’s tagline of it being Singapore’s 1st eco-friendly mall.

It is difficult to spot these recycling bins in Singapore, although I do know of there is one which is near my office. =)

 

It is quite common to find that in the new shopping centre having a skypark at the top level of the shopping centre, but interestingly, at this shopping mall, the skypark is not located at the top level of the shopping centre but 3 floors below.

It was a breeze touring the shopping centre, as there was surprisingly not many people, despite the school holidays.

After that, I met up with Winston for dinner. It was supposed to be a group dinner with Jayce, Carol, Candy & Allan but they were either under the weather or had last minute appointments. It was great to meet up my fellow Manchester United fan for dinner at TCC at Centrepoint. =)

Thanks for the dinner treat bro!!!

Belated Birthday Wishes

Yesterday was a busy day for me, but I still had birthday wishes flooding in on my Facebook wall & messages on my handphone. Thank you to all of you. =)

I got a happy belated bd whatsapp message from Ben today morning as well. Thanks a lot!!!