Paul's Fulfilling Life

Saturday My family went to NUS Cultural Centre to support my brother who was performing for Ngee Ann Poly Choir. It was his first public performance and my dad was particularly excited that his son was performing in public for the first time that he kept telling his singing troupe friends, who were at the performance to look out for him. To me, it was just another performance. I didn't enjoy the feeling of being rushed by my parents. I had a bad experience of being lost in NUS, so even if they rush me, I will still take a cab to get there. At least I didn't have to walk so much. The performance was a collaboration of the Choir & NP Hi-Club. I must say it was a good performance from all of them. I was particularly impressed by the Hi-Club members' performance. They are made up of hearing impaired students, but they still managed to use sign language to play out the notes. How I wish I could have taken some photos, but photo-taking with flash was not allowed at the Cultur...

I heard from my lecturer that he will be bringing forward his revision class to end earlier in May. I think it is a piece of good news for all of us as it means we have more time for our revision. Went to visit my grandma @ SGH just now. She has been admitted to hospital for urniary tract infection since Sunday. I only got the news of her admission on Wed. It is a surprise why this aunt of mine always choose to let my family and my 小叔 family be the last one to know. Is she trying to tell my grandma that my father & my 小叔 is not fillal to her? I wonder what's on her mind? I was mentally prepared about how my grandma would look as my parents had told me about her condition yesterday. The infection is starting to spread to her other internal organs and she has a viral infection as well. I wonder if she is aware that we are visiting her, as she seemed to be quite weak from the medication, as Eriko described the condition as "delirium". I just pray that she can win the fig...

Hi folks, I am back from my holiday from HK & Macau and of course I do have loads of photos to share with you and the fun which I had in the two Special Administrative Reigons of China. There are also several firsts which I gained from this trip:- 1st visit to Disneyland. 1st time my flight was delayed & I was stuck on a non-flying SQ plane for about 2 and a half hours at the HK Airport. I was so tired after the 6 hr plus flight that I decided to take a day off to rest at home today. Day 1 I have reached HK on time for this flight - SQ 892 at 7.10pm. My mum and I loitered around the airport concourse as our ferry to Macau was at 10pm. We continued our dinner at the airport before boarding the ferry at the ferry point which was a shuttle bus ride of about 10 mins from the airport. We reached Macau at about 11.15pm. We hailed a cab to bring us to the hotel, which Wendy recommended, Metropark Macau located near the Macau Finance Centre. The taxi driver took us to a wrong hotel w...

Just in case I don't have time to post this up for Aidah, Here's my wishes for her before I fly off. Haha!!! Have a happy & blissful marriage w.e.f. 22 April 2007! Please enjoy to be Mrs Salim. Who knows little Salim may be on the way soon! Your wedding gift from me is with our good friend, D. Hope u find it useful. Sorry that I can't attend your big day Happy 26th birthday to you on 24th April 2007. May what u wish for come true for u! Hope the year will be smooth sailing for u.

In the 27+ years of my life, I never exprienced being stuck in a lift before. Today, the unlucky thing happened. I was stuck in my office lift for about half an hour just as I was running late for work. I must say that it was a nerve wrecking exprience, but I was surprisingly calm throughout the ordeal, which lasted for about 35 mins. I must say the building maintainence team was slow in reaction!! The security of the building said that the lift was overloaded, as a result it caused the lift to sink about 5m from the ground floor. I am surprised, why didn't the buzzer ring if the lift was overloaded?

Yesterday was the last day of the e-filing exercise. It also meant that my one month stint as the acting e-club manager of Contact 123 IT Centre was coming to an end. In appreciation of the effort made by the volunteers during the VES, Mr. Poon decided to cater a buffet for all of us. I also took the opportunity to nominate the outstanding members of my team. Although I have made two nominations for Eugene & Julia respectively, Mr Poon & Chow Ming decided to add on my name to the list. They felt that I have done a good job leading the volunteers in the exercise, given the circumstances that I was asked to help out in the running of the exercise. I guess without the strong support I had from all my 16volunteers, Chow Ming & Mr. Poon, I guess I won’t be able to run the club so efficiently. And not forgetting, the MP for the area, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, who managed to help us to get the Constituency Manager to open the centre and keep it up and running after I have highlighted t...

I was at the e-club as usual today. I was angered by one of the e-filers, who was formerly one of the volunteers of the e-club. She called up at about 2 plus stating that she was coming to the club to do her tax return. I told her that the club was open & she was welcome to do her e-filing. (In my mind, I have already decided who I wanted to give the job to, as I have already done 1 e-filing in the early part. I also knew that she was here to create problems at the club.) True to my words, this woman, L came at about 3pm. At first, she refused to register her name at the registration counter. I told her it was a must to register as IRAS needs to know who are the people who used the e-club's e-file service. I decided to give my best volunteer, Julia a try to do the job. I didn't expect Julia to run into problems when it came to her donations. My fellow volunteer, Eugene, tried to help, but L kept insisting me to help her. I had to make her wait as I was serving another perso...

It is that time of the year to file your personal income tax again. As I heard on 933 today, there are still about 20% of the people who are supposed to file their tax have not done so. Please remember that the deadline for paper returns is 15 April 2007, which is Sunday, whereas e-filers or those wanting to try out e-filing have up to 18 April 2007, but please ensure that you have the following things before you can e-file. Your Singpass or IRAS PIN- If you do not have any of these, you can't login to e-file. You may wish to hop on down to CPF offices to get your Singpass tomorrow morning. It is faster. You get it on the spot. Your IR8A/ Sole Propretriorship/Partnership Details - If your business is registered with ACRA, the registration number is needed in the tax form. Children's NRIC & Parents' NRIC Nos- This is needed to claim tax relief if your children & parents meet the qualifying conditions. If you still have doubts about e-filing, you can pop by to an...

Yesterday was the usual lesson for my 3.3 class. I also managed to get my new Kaplan Student Card. This is the first time I heard that a part time student also need a student card to be able to use the school facilities. And the card cost $8. It is not worth it as I don't use the school facilities at all as usually after Mr Sami's class, I am usually very tired & will just want to be home to rest. Just to add, I am disappointed with the school's admin dept. I had taken a digital photo in school last Thursday & they told me that the card will be ready by Monday. Since I only have class on Thursdays, I went to the office yesterday, only for the admin officer to tell me that the card can't be found & I have to retake my photo again. I wonder how are the cards arranged? Basic knowledge or should I say common sense should tell you that the cards should be arranged by aphabetical order. It was not until another officer managed to find my card, during my lecture b...

I was quite surprised when I received a wedding invitation from Aidah in my Hotmail inbox yesterday. I have wanted to attend her wedding but I guess I cannot as I will be in Macau that day. Anyway, thanks for inviting me, Sayang. Though we haven't met before, I guess our friendship is strong. I may be in for a testing time this Saturday, as the e-club which I am attached to has a shortage of volunteers to assist in the e-filing. I am foreseeing a big crowd as most people do their things at the last minute. The volunteers that I have called back has some activities in their school, therefore may not be able to make it on time for the start of the excercise. But I guess the 3 of us should be able to cope well. If any of you guys out there who stays around Serangoon, Ang Mo Kio & Hougang，Sengkang, Punggol or Yishun who are willing to help out at Blk 123 Serangoon North Ave 1, I welcome you to help me. You may want to leave a message in the chatbox. 所谓助人为快乐之本. Helping people ...

Today, I was at the E-Club as usual. My brother didn't join me as he was quarantined by me as he is running a cold. There were not many people who came by and e-file their taxes today. Perhaps, they are all still waiting to rush at the last minute. I do know of some bosses who haven't issued Form IR8A to their staff yet. My mum is one of those. I was quite disturbed by the noises made by 3 of the volunteers at the e-club today. They treated the e-club like it was their home and talked loudly like there is no one around. It is no wonder that one of my volunteer had her MP3 player plugged to her ears to keep out the noise they made. Not only that, they had done the following things, which made me not want to call them back for the last two sessions, even though I am shorthanded for the last 2 sessions. Ate in the e-club. There is a sign which says that no eating & drinking at the e-club. Put their legs up on the chair, like no one is looking 3 people using a small toilet cubi...

I went to the Contact 123 IT Centre very early today as I was expecting an influx of last minute e-filers waiting to e-file their income taxes, therefore I was setting up the other printer to cope with the high volume. I would like to thank Chow Ming & Hwee Jiang for their assistance as well. The air con was working well finally, & the printer was up already. Today, we had a busy day with about 10 people doing their income tax filing, especially for the first half of the excercise, where 7 people turned up together. I was smart to call up another 2 volunteers to help out as I was only given 3 volunteers, including myself for the excercise for the last 4 sessions starting today. I had a pleasant surprise too as my client came to look for me at the centre to ask me to help me to help him to file his personal income tax return for him. I have told him during my conversation with him at office that if he needed help for his personal tax return, he should come and look for me at the...

Lewis is an orphan who dreams of finding a family. His journey takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious stranger named Wilbur Robinson whisks him away to a world where anything is possible…THE FUTURE. There, he meets an incredible assortment of characters and a family beyond his wildest imagination, The Robinsons, who help lead him on an amazing and hilarious adventure with heartfelt results. I went to watch this movie with M. It was a last minute decision from her. Finally get to meet her after the shock that she gave me. She has since asked me to forget about the whole matter as her ex bf is trying to win her heart back, so she is apprehensive to start a relationship with me. I have told her that I hope she can settle her past if she wants to start with me. She is still pretty undecided, maybe that guy had a long relationship with her, therefore it is not easy to forget. The movie was not a bad show. It was a touching story. I would recommend u guys to go & catch it. After t...

The b*** decides to do the same trick that she did on Thu on me again on yesterday. I felt like telling her, why don't u switch positions with me & we shall see who has a better way with client? My clients have been complaining that the b***'s attitude has not been very friendly, unlike mine. I told them to feedback the good parts and bad parts about my service to my boss. I am a person who don't like to blow my trumpet. I also received good feedback from Chow Ming, the temp E Club Manager & Vice- Chairman of the Serangoon CC that I have been doing a good job for leading the E-Club for the excercise, considering the circumstances where I had to step in to help out running the E-Club for the excercise. As a token of appreciation, I am going to buy them drinks for helping & the support for the excercise. I hope that this Sat would not be a nightmare like last Sat, where I had a volunteer only for the whole 4 hrs. I will call the students up to confirm their attend...

I looked forward to the VES sessions over the past two weeks as it was a happy diversion of my attention to the stress which I had from the b***. Because of the stress given & my office printer is faulty, it provided me with a good excuse not to be back for OT as bosses choose to believe bootlickers. The VES for Sat was quite smooth, even though there was only me & fellow volunteer, Julia at the helm yesterday. Today's session was not too bad either, as I met up with my ex-tutees' dad while doing the excercise. But today was noisier as there was a small crowd of volunteers but I made sure that they had things to do. I can't make them sit down there & do nothing. Its back to the working world again tomorrow. Hopefully, the printer at my desk is fixed. I wonder if my boss will get a new one. Judging from past expriences, I guess it is hard to get him to do so.