Paul's Fulfilling Life

Just want to wish my youngest sister, Curryegg a happy 21st birthday in advance. Her birthday is tomorrow. My message to her:- You are finally 21, an age that makes you an adult, an age that comes with huge responsibilties, which I am very sure that you are ready to handle. Although I have only known you not long, you have struck me as a young & sensible lady, who is talented in your own way. Your friendly and easy-going personality is your plus point. This trait will help you in many ways as you handle some of the most difficuit tasks that will come your way. On your birthday, I just want to wish you a happy 21st birthday. Enjoy the moment, but don't forget the responsibilities that come with it. Study hard and be a good gal. Lastly, hope u stay beautiful always. I know I still owe you your b-day present. :-)  From: Your brother, Paul

Just wanna wish my dear sister, Elaine & her hubby, Terence have a happy & blissful marriage in advance. Their ROM date is tomorrow. My message to the couple:- Marriage is a sacred union between two people. The two of you have been through various forms of sweetness, hardships and sorrows before deciding that the both of you are made for each other. Marriage is not only a coming together of the two of you, but also, a coming together of both your familes and your friends. Therefore, patience, understanding and good communication are points to note in order to have a happy & blessed marriage. I hope that the both of you will treasure the company of each other, your friends and your family bearing in mind the points stated above. On this day of your union, I wish the both of you a happy & blessed marriage. From: Your brother: Paul

I was informed by my manager that he is coming to Singapore for a concert on 12 Dec 2008(Sat) at Singapore Indoor Stadium . My manager was quite surprised that I am into 80's & 90's music and is wondering if I will be attending his concert. She is hoping that my mum attends the concert too as she does not wish to feel out of place with the youngsters like me, attending the concert. Mum was saying she may join me if the tickets aren't too expensive. I am not sure if the prices listed below will surprise and shock her. Ticket info :- Standard - S$198, S$178, S$158, S$118 available from Sistic. For me, attending the concert is not a problem as my exam would have ended on 9 Dec 2008. It would be a good stress reliver cum good birthday treat then as my birthday would be 6 days after the concert. Anyone who wants to join me? I think I can hear Dalicia screaming Lau Tak Wah !!!!,  Lau Tak Wah !!!!,  Lau Tak Wah !!!!,  Yeah!!!

My tax partner had assigned my manager a big case, which are supposed to clear by 16 Sep 2008. It is a 5 part project, and we are supposed to hand in 3 parts of the projects within 2 weeks. Sensing the urgency, almost the entire team is enlisted to help to clear the project soon. Hopefully, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel soon.

You guys have seen me blogging about this Facebook Group, Singing @ K . It is always fun to sing with this group of people and share our common passion, singing. I always enjoyed my sessions with them, where we actually sing, crack jokes & invent some crazy dance moves. In these 3 pics are some of my new friends, Joanathan Lim, Joanathan Teo, Lawerence, Jasline, Evelyn, Johnnie & Karen. They are all very very nice people, even though I have not know them that well yet. Just hope that our friendship will continue to grow, no matter what. By the way, if you guys are interested in joining this group, you are welcome to join us.

  I was surprised to see a senior bus captain mentoring a bus captain when I boarded Service 54 today. From what I understand from the senior bus captain, the mentoring is to allow the new bus captain to practise good driving habits and be more familar about the bus route, especially the main landmarks along the route. I feel that this scheme is a good idea as it will help the new bus captains to do well in their job. Therefore, please be patient if you are a commuter on that bus who is undergoing on the job training. I am sure that the bus captain will appreciate your understanding.

I observed an interesting sight as I was at the bus stop waiting for my bus to get home today. 2 Thai Embassy cars were escorted by 2 Traffic Police motorcycles. As these people are foreign dignitaries, they are allowed to use the full day bus lanes located outside the embassy. In case some of you may not know, they are exempt from the traffic rules stated in the Road Traffic Act. The first motorcycle performed its duty by escorting the cars out, but the second motorcycle, on seeing that a car had infringed onto the bus lane, signalled for the driver of the car to stop, and I believe that the car driver was stunned, but I guess he was going to be slapped where it hit most, his pocket for a fine of $130. Please remember not to get into the bus lane when you are at the CBD area.

I was surprised to read from the papers yesterday that the table tennis team manager's contract will not be renewed. I was wondering if it is the right way to treat him, just because he didn't assign a coach to the male table tennis team player, Gao Ning. But at least he did his part to help the ladies to achieve their first medal. It was our country's first medal in 48 years. Is this the way you should treat the manager when he has delivered success, and just because of a small mistake of not assigning a coach to the male team? In my view, the ladies team are more capable of winning the medal for Singapore, therefore it is only right that our resources were channelled to a winning cause, rather than to a cause that we are not sure can be succeeded. I wonder if u guys agree with me on this? The timing of the announcement is not right too. I hope a rethink is done somehow.

I decided to go for this hastily arranged KTV session organised by the "Singing @ K" group last night as I was hoping to get my ACCA failure out of my mind, which I did as the 8 of us, Lawerence, Joanathan Teo, Joanathan Lim, Karen, Evelyn, Jasline, Johnnie & myself thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, especially at the last part, where we actually stood up and sang and danced through our songs, especially with this song below. Although we had no props to bring the atomsphere to a high level this round, but we created our own props. Although we started late this round, as we waited for the ladies to arrive, but it was an enjoyable session. This song sparked off a flurry of pressing. In the end the 8 of us dedicated about close to 8 pages of songs. 1 page was about 10 songs. We decided to go retro and sang various 80's and 90's songs. Sensing the mood, Lawerence decided to attempt the Hokkien song " 一百万" from Money Not Enough. We were quite surpr...

I was asked to put this appeal here and circulate via e-mail about this by fellow blogger friend, Darling , who met with a minor accident with her husband on Sunday, 17 Aug 2008. The fortunate thing is they are all safe. Here is a short write up which I got from her blog. I did some edits as it was not in proper sentences. Our car was at the junction of Moonstone Lane at 1pm. It is red light and suddenly, the 3rd lane dash out this black car and our car gently hit his side door but our bumper was not in good shape.The accident driver came down & apologise & wants Mr Tan to claim from him, but that driver changed his story later by saying that my friend's hubby beat the red light first. Therefore, she is appealing for i am calling for eye witness. the cars that are in the 1st & 2nd lane at Moonstone Lane junction hitting PIE Jurong !!!!!! on 17 Aug 2008 at about 1pm to come forward to tell the traffic police what they actually saw that day. I would appreciat...

I was called to the conference room by my boss on Wed and was given this new responsibilty on HR matters of the company as she does not want the foreigners to know what kind of benefits we are getting from the company. Sensing the trust and faith of her in me, I have agreed to her request. Therefore, I am hoping that if you guys come across any amendments that relates to HR, please let me know. I will be in charge of those new legislations that are going to be implemented.

My brother just got his new passport from ICA yesterday. For this passport, I have tried the online application system "Apples" to apply the passport for him. It is quite fast. My brother managed to get his passport within 2 days. But the passport photo makes him looks like a prisoner as it is in black & white, although we sent in a colour photo for him. I wonder is it because of the new security features that is incorporated into the passport that is making the colour photo look like a prisoner photo? Mum was commenting that my brother should put a copy of the colour photo in the new passport, otherwise the immigration officers will not recognise him and would not let him cross the security check.

Just got an e-mail from the event organiser of the event that I attended on Friday. Looks like the person I was matched to is an Indian lady. I guess it was ok to be friends since Singapore is a multi-racial society. Unless the organiser made an error. But I guess it is weird to be matched with an Indian lady, but I can understand as she was saying that day she had problems finding people to join this game. Should I check with the organiser again?

Wed: Met up with Richard at Somerset to register for our revision class and had dinner at Long John Silvers. We did some catching up, since we have not met up each other since our last exam in June. Chatted for close to 2 hrs before calling it a nite. Today : Met up with Caifeng, Kelvin, Von & Von's bf, Desmond at Orchard Paragon Soup Restaurant for a catch up session. It has been a while since I met up with them. Caifeng announced that she is expecting a baby gal due in Dec, while Von introduced her new bf to us. Desmond, although younger than Von, seems quite a Mr Nice Guy and a good match for Von. Was sharing with them about the enhanced paternity leave & baby bonus package announced yesterday by the Finance Minister. I felt that it was good, but my manager was commenting that rearing a child is not just a 6 years commitment but it is a lifetime commitment, therefore the child relief should be given, so long as the taxpayer has a child. We had a good time enjoying the f...

I was shocked by the encouragement that I received from my friends saying that I should not give up for my qualification as I am nearing there. I am quite surprised about one of my friend's scores as well. Despite that, this person still replied me to go on when she was told that I wanted to give up. Besides that, I am heartened by the fact that my buddy R is urging me on, telling me not to give up. Its always nice to have this group of friends around, some of you whom I just knew or haven't met before. My colleagues have been urging me on as well. One of them even offered to lend me his FRS text by Ng Eng Juan. I am very touched by the gesture shown by you guys. Your encouragement makes me have an energinser battery in my body, which is "never give up". Thanks to:- Jasmine Richard Wendy Tammy Peggy Caifeng Shionge Lau Wilson Ben Chua

Just saw my results a few moments ago, I have failed again. I feel distraught and disappointed that I have failed again. I felt I have tried my best, but it seems my best is not good enough. I really feel like giving up but some of you have encouraged me to go on. I should be going on to retake the paper again since the syallabus is changing again.BUT I am not sure if I can have the motivation and confidence to go on further.

I was invited by my long-time net friend, Nicole for a duet KTV session last night, in appreciation of my review of her course assignments. I hope that she has done well for her assignment and course so far with APMI Kaplan. This was the first time I sang with her, since I knew her several years ago. I thought she sang well, especially with this song featured in this music video. She was sharing with me there was a sad story behind her singing this song so well. I thought that she could have sing better with better voice projection. I feel that she has a good voice for singing!!! I hope she enjoyed the session last night. I would like to thank her for the treat and the cab ride home. I am deeply touched by how she treasured our friendship.

Since my sister, Curryegg has put up a post in support of Malaysian shuttler, Lee Chong Wei in his chase for the gold medal for Malaysia in the Olympics, I feel that I should put this up too, to show my support for the Singapore Table-Tennis Team of Li Jiawei, Feng Tianwei & Wang Yuegu for tonight's final match against China. Our Prime Minister, has announced that he has decided to postpone the broadcast of the National Day Rally Speech to allow Singaporeans to catch the game without having to worry what he has to say in his speech. Personally, I hope that Li Jiawei will not choke in this game as she seems to have problems with her big match temperament. That aside, I think Singapore should play in a more relaxed mood as the pressure is on China to deliver the gold. My message for the players:- Go out and enjoy yourselves, since a medal is assured. The money for the gold or silver medal award of S$1.5m or S$750,000 should be thought about after the game is completed....

I was at this event organised by Romancing Singapore at Settlers' Cafe @ Clarke Quay last night. This event was organised by Ms Michelle Goh, who does this on a part time basis. I thought she did a good job for the event planning. In fact, I thought it was better than the Martini Party that I had on National Day Eve. Was encouraged by 2 of my sisters, Elaine & Curryegg & my long-time net friend, Nicole to take this night with a more relaxed mind. I guess the piece of advice helped me along as I got to know a lot of new friends like Charlotte, Sam, Zhiwei, Karen, Robin, Kennis, Veronica. The good thing was that I took a bus to the destination last night and managed to find the place without the need of calling the organiser. I guess my knowledge of bus routes helped me this time. Here are the games that we played for the night Secret Pal This is a game created by Michelle. Some of us were asked to submit a nickname if we are interested to play this game abou...

This post is done up in memory of my NS buddy, Jason Wong, who left this world about 8 months ago after fighting gallantly with his illness for about a year. If he had been around, he would be celebrating his 29th birthday tomorrow. When he was around, he has been my closest confidante. I still remember how he stood up for me when some of my NS mates try to associate me with a non-uniformed female staff that I was interested in her. This news apparently got to one of my officers and he and I got questioned over this. I guess this was the start of our strong friendship for the past 8 years, which remain strong despite some misunderstandings which we had. If he was still around, he would be very happy to know that I have found a job that I have liked and is tailored to how I wanted it. We would be with a group of close friends, maybe in a KTV room and he may be singing this song by 郑中基- 无赖. Every now and then, I still think of him as to each and every of my friends who know ...

The National Day long weekend has come and gone but one of my colleagues is still seething with anger that my boss did not give any National Day off and tried to instigate everyone of us to show our unhappiness about this. Although it is stated in an MOM circular that the day off is subject to bosses' preferences, most big companies that I know of do give their staff such a benefit. I told her that every company has a different set of standard operating proceedures to suit the company's needs. She started to complain that we need to go to our company doctor to see the doc when we are sick, otherwise we are not allowed to claim our medical expenses. The MC from the doc that u see is recognised though. I told her that in my ex firm, although the claim is available for all staff, my boss will show an unhappy face, once I go on MC or I claim too much. Too much, i.e. claiming my medical fee on my second visit. As for holiday on Sat, my boss will give off, subject to his mood. I...

I went to catch this movie last night with my brother at GV Bishan after Cathay @ AMK Hub failed us again. The tickets at AMK Hub were sold out 1.5 hrs before the official showtime. I got to know only yesterday that GV offers credit card/ debit card discounts for OCBC card holders as well. This movie is about 3 brothers, Ah Hui (Henry Thia), Ah Qiang (Jack Neo), Ah Huang (Mark Lee) with very contrasting lifestyles. Ah Hui is a person who has little education, and has been looked down upon always. He is the best son of the three of them as he takes care of their mother, as his two brothers and nasty sister in law (Ah Qiang's wife) shirks aside their responsibility Ah Qiang is a housing agent, who specialises in doing en-bloc sales. He is the man with the 5Cs, until something happens to him and his family. Ah Huang is a get rich quick multi-level marketing product seller. Something bad befalls him in the later part of the show too. This show showcases the nasty daughter-in law...

I was at my manager's father-in law's funeral wake on Saturday. She was quite surprised to see me and my mum as the location of the wake was in the western part of Singapore. My mum and I feel that she has treated me very well, allowing me to learn many things so far at my work here. She is partly the reason that is making me enjoy my stay here. As we were chatting, my 2 tax partners arrived and greeted us. My manager was surprised to see the both of them as they were not able to see well at night and yet they still made their way there. My boss said that she has known my manager for about 30 over years, therefore it is not nice not to be present after knowing what happened. The 5 of us had a good time chatting about me and work related issues for close to 3 hours. In fact, my mum and I are quite thankful to my bosses for offering us a lift to Clementi MRT station, when we decided to call it a night. My boss was saying that my mum is a good mum and I should treasure her a...

I was presented with my side profile at the Martini Party on Friday. I thought he did a good job. What do you guys think? I thought it was great.

I am wondering what plans are you having for this National Day weekend. For me, it was a bad start to the National Day weekend yesterday. Maybe I was expecting too much, or should I say, I may have heaped too much pressure on myself to try to know new people. Anyway, just listened to PM Lee's National Day message. I just wonder what wishes do you have for our country on its birthday today? Hope that inflation fears ease soon? Hope for a better Baby Bonus to be announced at the National Day Rally on 23 Aug. Hope that we will have a successful F1 on 28 Sep. More financial assistance for the low income groups. Job stability Whatever it is, just hope that you guys enjoy your National Day today, especially the performance of the Black Knights and the fireworks display. Talking about fireworks, the annual Singapore Fireworks Festival will be taking  place at the Marina Bay floating platform on 22 and 23 Aug. Tickets at $18. I wonder who is interested to go wi...

Was invited to attend this party by my Facebook friend, Jas who is working at Romancing Singapore. I guess I made the wrong choice to be there as the event was like speed dating as we were asked to move around to get to know the opposite sex as much as possible. There were close to 100 people who attended the event. The only part that I like about this party was the questions about my favourite movie character, James Bond. I could answer most of the questions about the movie franchise and him. James Bond Theme - Moby I am disappointed that I left the party without getting down any of the telephone numbers of the 6 people that I interacted with, but I know it could turn out like this before I went for the event. Perhaps I will be more relaxed in a not so rowdy setting or doing something that I like, eg. singing.

I was messaging some of my friends today, wishing some of my friends enjoy their National Day weekend when my ex schoolmate, Chay Hoon replied that she had given birth to a baby gal, Qianyi on last Sunday. I am very happy for her, even though it has been close to 12 years since we last met up. She was saying that she is having her hands full with her child, even with her mum's help. Therefore, our planned meetup has been postponed till when the child gets slightly older. Congrats to her once again!!!

I received sudden news from my manager that she needs to go on compassionate leave from tomorrow till Monday. Before she went off, she sounded apologetic about the short notice that she has given me, knowing that I just recovered from my illness. I just hope that I will be able to cope well during her absence. So far it has been good, except for some minor hiccups, which I believe can be solved. I wish to thank my partner and manager for having such confidence in me.

She is someone that I haven't met before as we are from different countries but she wanted to be my sister. Anyway I have accepted her request. I think most of you should know her if you have been reading my blog. Introducing my new sister, Ms Kelly Tan, aka Curryegg She has become the 4th person to call me brother. Even though she is very much younger than me, but I have a brother who is older than her. Was telling her that hope to see her in Singapore soon. Hope she studys hard for her degree!

My tax partner has posed this question to me and my manager. The question was under FRS 40, Investment Property, is the fair value gain or loss taxable like in FRS 39, where investments in shares are taxable if it is held as a "fair value through Profit & Loss Statement" My answer to him was it is not taxable as Singapore does not practise capital gain tax, unless the firm is in the business of property development or property trading. Further to that, the rental income collected from the property is taxed as a form of income, therefore the gain in value is considered as capital appreciation. At first, my tax partner felt that it should be treated like FRS 39 investment catergory. I had to ask my ex colleague, CT who is now working at one of the Big Four for assistance to answer the question. His answer was the same as mine. I am relieved as his boss is the writer of my "teacher" - The Singapore Tax Workbook. However, my boss is still not convinced. He ...

Went to the doc this morning as I was having a cold. The doc gave Paul some medicine and asked Paul to rest at home. Hope that I can recover soon as I am attending an event on this Friday. I have paid for the event already therefore I don't want to miss it.

I was out singing with the Facebook Group of Singing @ K yesterday. The group of people got bigger yesterday as there were 11 of us singing in a room meant for about 20 people. Our group captain, Lawerence, made organising such a big group for singing look so easy. I have to hand it to him for handling the group so well. As usual, I had the chance to make some new friends and came across a lady, Connie who was able to sing the 京剧 part of "One Night In Beijing so well. I also got to know a Key Account Executive, Johnny who works around my office. No wonder I found him familar. :), Joanathan, an accountant at PSA, who was in the same class as me for ACCA, not forgeting the other Joanathan, Chloe, Maggie, who are all accountants. I got to know a lady, Lee Ping who is an architect as well I must say these people are very good and solid singers. Partyworld KTV actually provided us with props to make it a carnival atomsphere for us in the room. It ended up we did a lot of listenin...

Mum decided to have lunch at around our place near our home today after our weekly prayer session at Tampines Soka Centre. Took Service 27 to Hougang Central Interchange. I brought her to the Interchange canteen, where she had red bean soup, porridge and mixed vegetables. All for just $2.70 and the cup of coffee is just 70 cents. My mum really enjoyed the food. It looks like the auntie has done a good job with her cooking. This is an inflation period saver!!!