Paul's Fulfilling Life

I was doing e-filing for the residents at The Serangoon Citizen Connect Centre yesterday. I was serving this uncle, who is a property agent. There was this guy who was working in the CC that wanted to help me and the two female volunteers who were working with me yesterday as there was a huge crowd when we first started. People started queueing at 1.25pm when the excercise actually started at 2pm. With only two PCs at the centre, I leave it to you guys to imagine how was the situation like yesterday. The CC guy had no prior experience in e-filing and wanted to see how I do it, after the liasion officer, Ms Angie Lim suggested that he should learn from me, since I am the exprienced guy. The uncle, I guessed felt uncomfortable with the guy hanging behind our backs and told the CC guy off. He complained to Ms Lim. The uncle's reason was the CC guy did not wear the "IRAS Volunteer" tag, therefore he can't peep into his salary. I think the CC guy was not very happy t...

Today, I was on the bus on my way to work. I encountered this Chinaman who was on his way to the Chinese embassy. I guessed he must have sat on the bus for quite a while, he started to get nervous when the bus had not reached his destination. You guys want to know what he did to me on the bus? His leg kept hitting on my leg a few times. He didn't even apologise to me. I felt like shouting at him "先生，你可以坐好来吗？你一直踩到我的脚！” I can't imagine he kept doing that!!!!

I am sure most of u saw the news about the family of five who was killed in the horrorfic accident at the North-South Highway. The baby is just so adorable. It is so sad to see that she is losing her family at such a young age. It is always good to have enough rest before you do anything.

I was tagged Curryegg by  here it goes: Instruction: Remove ONE from below and add in your own personal question, make it a total of 20 questions. Then, tag 8 people in your list and list them out in the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged. Whoever does the tag will have blessings from all. The person who tagged you is: Curryegg 1. What's your favourite anime at the present time? Doraemeon 2. Given the chance, what special ability/power would you like to have? Like Doremon- so that I can get whatever I want. Muahaha... 3. What's your favourite colour? Why? White, pure & innocent. It is easy to match too. 4. Where is the place you want to go the most? Maritius 5. If you have one dream to come true, what would it be? Hope that I will be able to help my friends and the community wherever I can, despite being physically challenged. I want to live my life to the fullest. 6. Do you believe in seeing a rainb...

Recently, my Tax Partner, myself and my supervisors have been busy requesting for income tax return forms for our clients. This was for the clients that have received the IRAS PINs to invite them to use the e-filing system. We were disturbed by the fact that the automated phone system failed to recognise our requests for the paper forms. I had choosen to speak to the tax officer when I call them. I get very bad mannered tax officers most of the time. I have complained to the Quality Service Dept of IRAS before about the rudeness of the tax officers, but it seems to have got worse. Even though I was part of the team that helped IRAS achieve the 91% of taypayers e-filing their taxes last year, I hope IRAS considers these points as it plans to move the filing of personal income tax on the electronic platform fully in the near future. There are still taxpayers who still prefer to receive the hard copy forms as it serves as a reminder for them to file their taxes. There ar...

  I was caught in a terrible traffic jam, caused by a few road users, that caused my normal bus ride from my house to my work place to be 125 mins long today, unlike the smooth hour ride that I will usually have. I was late for half an hour because of this. A car, perhaps due to its driver's busy schedule, broke down at Marymount Road, causing the traffic jam that affected Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 & 6. I wonder if "Let's take a look" syndrome still exist. Judging from the jam this morning, I think it still does. I wonder what is there to look at? Look for 4D numbers? If every road user can be considerate, there would be lesser Road accidents Drink driving Road hoggers who hog bus lanes or traffic lights to turn red. I must say today's jam is one of the worst I have encountered, ever since MacDonalds distributed Hello Kitty soft toys at their King Albert Park branch during my poly days.

The reason for this topic is that I have nothing bad about my job to blog about recently. I am enjoying myself on the job, save for some minor talking to by my boss as I am new to my job. I feel that my new colleagues are nice people with good fashion sense for most of them. I feel that they dress appropiately for work, unlike the b*** in my ex firm who dress to "attract attention." Although she may have the looks, but the way she dress for work is "Oh my god, Bermudas for work, Spagetti top for work."  After which, she would complain that the aircon is too cold for her. My new colleagues, especially the ladies, dress nicely and it is always a joy to watch what they wear each day. I guess this is a guy's pet favourite to look at how ladies wear. I am sure you ladies also love to see how guys wear too, right? I am conducting a mini poll here to find out if you guys and gals feel that having a good fashion sense is important when you meet people? Do let ...

I started the yearly IRAS e-filing excercise at The Serangoon yesterday. The bad part was that the computers were located on tall tables, and we had to stand to do the e-filing. Fortunately, Angie, the CC manager made special arrangements for me. I must say that she is doing a good job, as she actually took time to Translate the survey forms into Mandarin and type it out on PC. Printed out all the templates for calculation of income. Organised the queue in a proper order. There was a crowd of about 20 people yesterday, and I did about 75% of them, since my fellow partner Harris is a Malay and he only knows basic Mandarin. If you are brooding over how to file your taxes, come and visit us at The Serangoon from 2pm to 6pm on the weekends (till 13 April 2008). We will be more than willing to assist you.

This headline on The New Paper on Friday was a surprise to me. I can't imagine that students nowadays can be like that. They were sent out of the school to sort out their haircuts & short skirts, yet some of them decided to play truant after that. What is Singapore coming to? This incident brought back a distant memory that happened during my secondary school days many years ago. The situation was quite similar to the one as described in the newspaper article above. It was after the school holidays and the discpline mistress, who had dyed her hair flame red, catching students who have flouted the school rules. When the discpline mistress caught a female student with dyed hair and ordered her to get it dyed it back to black, the student's reaction was, " Ms Cheung, you also dyed your hair, why can't I ?" The discpline mistress was very stunned. In fact she was at a loss for words. I always believe the Chinese saying, “上梁不正，下梁歪.” In English, we say ...

  Firstly, I just want to wish all Christian readers of my blog a Happy Good Friday. For those that are not celebrating, I just wish you guys have a happy long weekend ahead.   Met up with Rebec at Bishan MRT to go to Peck Shan Theng Temple to pay our respects to Jason. I was telling Rebec that time flies, Jason is no longer with us for 3 months already. I still miss him every now and then, but we have to accept the fact that he is no longer with us already.  After that, both of us thought of meeting up with Darling, but her hubby ( called her hubby as her hp was off) said that they had something planned for themselves today. Rebec suggested going to the Great Book Sale at the Expo instead, therefore we took a bus to the airport to have our long lunch at Swensens, before going to the Book Sale. When we reached there, there was a huge crowd. Some of them were there for their Good Friday activities. We noticed that there were babies on prams. We were wondering why...

For the past two days, work has been good as I finally got a chance to work on Personal Tax again. It was a good practice, considering that I will be volunteering my services at The Serangoon for the personal tax e-filing sessions starting tomorrow. However, work was hindered by a succession of power trips at my office the past two days. The cause of the power failure was due to a faulty power supply box located next to my seat. Because of the power trips, I have stayed back in office to clear my work, but it was not as bad as last time. I stayed an hour more than the official time. At least it is not so bad as last time.

My mum's religious grouping friend spoke to me last Friday about sharing my life story with the other members in their Creative Life Magazine. This is something that I do not feel comfortable about, despite the fact that I have shared the story on the Chinese morning daily about 16 years ago and I had just shared my life story here some time ago after some of my readers actually asked me the question about why I was diagonsed with this condition. My reason for not sharing were:- I am not that fervent about the religion as I feel that there are many other causes and things that I should devote my time to, such as the IRAS e-filing sessions, my work, ACCA, my friends & my family. These are things that is on the priorties of my mind now. Religion just play a small part to me. This also explains why I feel that the activities they have organised so far have failed to stir my interest in participating in them. Maybe the enviornment that I was brought up and being physicall...

I just finish watching this drama, starring Bobby Au Yeong, Michael Miu, Bosco Wong, Tavia Chung & Jessica Hester Hsuan This drama is currently showing on Starhub Cable Vision now, is about 3 good friends, Cho (Michael), Chung (Bobby) & Wing, whose lives are etwined in gambling in the Philippines that got them together. Unknown to Chung, Cho schemes to get whatever he wants using his post as CEO of a gaming house using his friends, Chung's bro (Bosco) & his girlfriend (Jessica). Feel that this show is a nice show, with so many TVB A listers.

The time of the year has come again to efile your personal income tax again. This year, IRAS has arranged 21 Citizen Connect Centres to help out in the annual excercise. I will be doing my bit to help my fellow citizens e-file their taxes at The Serangoon Citizen Connect Centre from 22 March 2008 to 13 April 2008 from 2pm to 6pm. If you are one of those people who are not sure how to file your taxes, we will be there to guide you. See you there.

I am trying to plan a visit to Jason's urn at Peck Shan Theng Temple on this Friday in the morning at about 10am. The reason for the early visit is the temple closes at 3pm on public holiday. I wish to visit him again as I didn't get to see his photo pasted on his urn when I visited him some time ago It is the Qing Ming Festival anyway. He is one of my best buddies so I should wish him well wherever he is now. Anyone is interested to join me, please contact me. The meeting place should be Bishan MRT.

  Went for this concert just now, which Jeff 张信哲 performed with our NAFA (南洋艺术学院) orchestra at the Singapore Expo Max Pavillion. Was nearly late for the concert as my lesson ended pretty late. Fortunately Ms A waited patiently for me as I switched to a cab midway through the journey. The concert was divided into 5 parts, showcasing the different types of love songs and ballads he sang throughout his career. He also sang 2 songs which can be found in his latest album to be released in April. I only knew today that he is label mates with JJ Lin, A Do & Jin Sha. He managed to get us to sing with him some songs like 爱如潮水, 过火. I feel that he combined well with the orchestra and made some changes to the music arrangement of some songs. In connection with the Singapore leg of the concert, he tried to sing some of his songs written by Singapore composers,叶良俊，Roy Lui, 陈佳明 and Dick Lee. The NAFA orchestra also entertained us with their great playing of classical music when Jeff m...

Boss had a informal meeting with my dept today. The informal meeting was an eye opener to me as a newbie to the firm as my boss told us about certain things about my fellow workmates. I will take the advice at heart when interacting with my other dept workmates. My supervisors have decided that I will be concentrating on the corporate tax provisions that I have been doing as they felt that I am doing a good job so far. My boss commented that I was fast & efficient. I guess the dirt I encountered my pervious job has helped me adapt to my new tasks quickly. I am trying to remember my new colleagues' names so that I can work in a more effective & effecient way. As for interaction, we will see how it goes as after my boss' disclosure at the informal meeting, it may be hard. I was not surprised by my boss' disclosure. She works together with us in the office, therefore she is able to stay in touch with what is happening in the office, unlike my previous bosses, ...

I was reading The New Paper yesterday, where I saw an article about a NTU student from China who contracted cancer of the blood. His family is a poor family, as a result, the school decided to organise a donation drive to help him out with the hospital expenses. Unfortunately, there are some students, who think that he should not get donations from us, as "Ah Tiong" as they called people from China steal away our jobs, get into teachers' good books. If I am approached to donate some money to him, I would do so, as it is not right to be racist as Singapore is a multi racial & muti cultural society. I am being physically challenged myself. I know the feeling when one does not have the money or ability to save themselves. I just wonder where did the heart of these people go to?

Recently, I was bugged by several financial advisers about making my money work harder for me or covering for my immediate or future needs. I was quite perturbed by the constant bugging of these strangers. My financial advisers are  my parents' acquaintances, so if there are any problems or questions about the policy, I will know how to get them. They are also most likely to provide better service, before and after the sale. I wonder if u guys agree with me on this. I have this financial adviser, who was assigned to me after my previous adviser left for another firm. She was persistent after doing the first financial review with me to ask me to get a few policies from her. I kept rejecting her as I have no plans to add on to any of my policies at the moment. I could sense that she was the kind that would walk away after doing the sale, or should say just interested in hitting sales targets but not after sales service. Mum had the same view as me after I asked her to accompan...

Those  who know me would know that I have many cards, from student cards, NTUC card, Season Pass, KBox card to ATM cards. Recently, to prevent my wallet from having to shoulder the weight of my cards, I took my mum's advice to put some of my frequently used cards into a clear holder. In my haste to alight from the bus yesterday, I dropped the holder, which I only discovered this morning that I have lost them. It sparked a desperate hunt for me and a mad rush to cancel the ATM card & credit cards. Fortunately for me, I managed to remember the bus service I took, and went to the bus interchange to try my luck. I managed to get my cards back. It is especially important as reporting the loss of the Season Pass can be a hassle. Would like to take the opportunity to thank the bus captain of Service 315 (SBS 735) for putting my item with the Route Master of Serangoon Interchange. Your attention to my physique allowed the Route Master to recognise me immediately and I managed t...

Went to the IT show just now with my mum & my bro just now. Decided to change my Internet Security protector from Norton Internet Security 2007 as Feel that Norton was slowing down my system AVG is about 35% cheaper than Norton My PC expert ex colleague also recommended this software to me. My bro bought a pair of speakers for his notebook. Let's hope AVG won't fail me.

I was invited to my ex-colleague, SC's wedding at Fo Guang Shan Temple at Punggol Place today. This was my first time attending a Buddhist wedding. This song was played at the end of the whole ceremony. The ceremony, to me is a simple one. The interesting part is the couple had to do a love declaration(爱的宣言) to each other. I could tell that Mr Leong (SC's hubby) was very nervous as he was saying that. Can you imagine saying why you love the person that you are marrying so much when there are so many people looking at you? (I wonder if Ter wants to try it for his wedding with Elaine mei later this year!). SC & Mr Leong doing the love declaration The parents of the bride & groom *The above pics were taken using my hp.   My ex colleagues from the audit dept and my bosses were there to witness the ceremony too. I greeted them but didn't sit with them during the lunch as I didn't want to be bombarded by questions about my old job. I stayed longer ...

My bosses and my dept colleagues are very nice to me for my first week on my new job as the wife:- Arranged a colleague to have lunch with me the first two days. I was touched by the gesture. The place that my colleague brought me to was Orchard Towers food court. I felt that the place had limited choice for food, but the good part was I need not carry my own food. I went to Far East Plaza for lunch yesterday & today. The lady boss has decided to exempt me from handling "My Tax Portal" matters as she feels that it is too time consuming to wait on the system sometimes. My senior, Amy has told me that she is impressed by the speed and accuracy that I am doing the corporate tax computations for the clients. I am still trying to know my colleagues since the company is big. But I guess I am slowly getting into the groove of their culture.

My new bosses have been asking me every now and then about how I am coping here with my job at the new company. I must say I am quite pleased with my performance so far. I sent this bonquet of flowers to YC to thank her for helping me review my training manual and departure letter last week. I haven't got the chance to meet her personally to thank her properly. As usual, she was surprised and kept thanking me saying that she didn't help much. She said that the bonquet was pretty. I messaged E this morning, requesting for her address as I have misplaced it. She was quite surprised to have received my sms, I guess, as it has been about 2 months ago since I last smsed her. She was quite defensive, asking me why I need her address. It is obvious that she is still trying to avoid me. Anyway, I have given up hope to go after her. But as a friend, I guess I would be still be sending her a birthday card.   Recently I have been preparing for my future, saving for a rainy da...

I had a good first day at my new job, even though the way of working is different. The lunch time is also staggered, which means I can choose to have lunch at 12 noon or 1pm. I was given some draft tax computations to work on today. It was a totally new format. It will take some time for me to get used to it. I do hope I would be able to get used to the new way of working soon. My seniors will be passing some personal tax computations for me to do. Wish to thank Elaine & Rain for their well wishes to me.

Mum asked me to tag along for her praying session just now in the afternoon. Time flies as it has been a month since I last stepped into Tampines Soka Centre. It was a relaxing half an hour praying session for me today. Maybe my work stress is gone as I have left the previous job on Fri. The session was short as Dad had invited his church friends over to our house for visiting. Lucky I was not around, otherwise they would be preaching to me about God again. Had arranged to meet up with Elaine, Ter, Stella, Richard, Christine, Wendy & Chris at Marina Square in the evening. It has been about 3 months since we last met up. Was there early as I thought I could "chop" the seats at Seoul Garden, the designated meeting place. Richard was to join me shortly. Unfortunately, Seoul Garden was filled with the dinner crowd. Dinner was switched to KBox at the "mum & daughter" team suggestion. We were joined by Stella's sister, Cherie for this makan cum singing session...

My bro decided to look for a new hp so that she could give his to my mum as mum's hp was giving her a lot of problems. The quality of Nokia hp is getting from bad to worse. Bro was interested in the Samsung L760 and Samsung E250, but the price was a little steep as he has not reached the tail end of his contract. Therefore we decided to defer the purchase till next month. Let's hope these 2 hp will still be in the market by then. The shopkeeper told me that the hp that I was interested in getting, Samsung U700 gets easily scratched and the scratch marks will be left on the screen as the paint is sprayed on the LCD screen. It made me consider about taking the hp. I have some time, since my E900 is still serving me well, except that the # button seems to be slow in reaction nowadays. After that, I met up with A at Cafe Cartel Raffles City to coach her on her accounting assignment. I managed to solve her assignment in 4 hrs. She was quite thankful for that. I hope she understood w...

Yesterday was my last day at work. I was not surprised that J refused to give me her hp no to keep in contact. This shows that she has the same view as the b*** that I am a hard to get along person. My boss threw down a best of all challenge for me yesterday, which was to coach the typist how to use "My Tax Portal" & EASY system within the half a day that I was there. The system at IRAS was down. In the end, I had to rely on the training manual to coach her. This was a difficult task to coach people to understand a system within half a day when the person has no tax`knowledge or IT knowledge. My lady boss was surprised that I have compiled the training manual for my successor, and I guessed she was thankful for that since my predecessor did not do anything to hand over her stuff to me. She asked me how much time I had spent on the training manual. I told her that I spent my Sat to do it last week and I wanted to help my successor fit in to the organsation as soon as poss...