Paul's Fulfilling Life

I have been rather fustrated recently at work recently as I had not been able to send out any emails to IRAS. I have been trying to get in touch with them through their website for the past three days. The error message on their website after I submitted the e-mail was, “The server is too busy, please try again later.” It is strange that the problem happens at night as well and it has been for a few days already. I hope IRAS solves the problem soon. I have already lodged a complaint to my friends working at IRAS. The reason for not calling them is because my boss wants a black & white confirmation from IRAS. Work can’t flow. Sianz!!!

  My mum and I decided to shelve our short trip plan to Malaysia for this Labour Day. We should be planning a excursion to places of interest or new places. This is due to the outbreak of swine flu and the fear of jams. I really need to take a break, take a breath of fresh air, but the virus is too frightening already. Mum is right. We should stimulate our country’s economy instead of stimulating other country’s economy.

As some of you know that Singapore is facing a shortage of bus drivers, as a result, the two bus companies in Singapore are hiring China bus drivers to drive buses in Singapore. I have taken buses driven by these drivers recently. SBS Transit has deployed these drivers in feeder services while SMRT, due to its smaller market share has deployed them in feeder and trunk services. The incident which I witnessed today shows just how rude some bus commuters are. A female Indian passenger had boarded the Service 851 that I was on and had asked the driver if the bus goes to Novena Church. As the driver is from China, I do not think he was able to understand what this commuter was talking about. The commuter got fustrated and started to get angry. She kept complaining that bus drivers should be put on training before they are put on the road. I managed to help her by telling her that the bus service only passes by there, and she has to walk from Novena Square. My question is a bus dri...

My mum knows that I am a facebook organiser for KTV events, having invited the groupto my place for CNY this year. When I told her that the group will be having its sessions on a bi-monthly basis with effect from June, she gave me another way to keep costs down. She said that I can try to discuss with the ktv outlet manager to give an additional percentage of discount, on top of the usual VIP card discounts, upon a targeted number is reached. Maybe Paul should try that for the coming sessions, to see if it can be done.

Yesterday nite, I had a enjoyable ktv session with my group. This was considered the last session done on a monthly basis before it will be switched to a 2 month once format. The reason for the change as discussed with my co-partners is to prevent k fatigue, and tokeep costs down in the light of the current economic downturn. I was quite glad that quite a number of new people had turned up. I certainly hope that they have enjoyed themselves. I would like to thank Lawerence, the chairman and Jonathan for helping me out with the headcount and money collection yesterday. as it ended up a little messy, but it was resolved in the end.

  I was rather pissed off with one of my colleagues after she was complaining that I was hogging on the company’s internet e-mail computer. It does not mean that when you have urgent stuff to do, it allows you to have the right to shout at me as I am using the computer for work purposes too. Don’t comment about other colleagues using office time to coach their children, when you yourself is using office time to scold your children.

Finally, I got back my Samsung U900 handphone from the Samsung Service Centre at Plaza Singapura today. I am very impressed by their customer service. It is only today that I know that they have this delivery service by Singpost whereby they will deliver your handphone to you after its service at no charge. However, I didn’t use the service as my office is in Orchard area as well, and I wanted to know what are the parts that they have changed for my handphone, which had screen hang and no light on its touchpad. Those 3 days with the Nokia 1661 were not that smooth as it failed to read some of my contacts on my 3G SIM Card as that handset only has 250 SIM contact slots, unlike 3G SIM card, which had 1000 contacts. Today was a happy day for me on the job as well, as my boss agreed to backtrack a request to find out about the tax impact of the various Equity Remuneration Schemes. This meant that I can submit one of my client’s tax return, which was on hold because of this. It is al...

Mum was commenting that the Channel 8 newcaster, 张海洁’s news reading has dropped since she came back to Mediacorp News. She said that the enforced break that she has taken has affected her performance I know that she is still against the idea that I am taking a break from my ACCA to concentrate on my job at this moment. Although I am confident of my own job performance, but the way that my boss is behaving sometimes is giving me the shivers that we may just have to go if our performance is not up to mark. Perhaps, what one of my friends puts it, “Your mum is not working in your company, therefore she has no idea what you are going through working there. Perhaps she may or may not feel the same way as what you are feeling now.” A new friend has been messaging me jokes almost everyday this week. I appreciate her efforts to keep me happy and smiling. She said that it is important to stay light-hearted in times like this. She is not the 1st person to say this to me, and I agree with w...

I have sent my Samsung Soul handphone in to the Samsung Service Centre for service today after the handphone hanged by itself and I was not able to hear what the other party is saying for a few days. The service centre said they need about 2 to 3 days to solve the faults. Decided to get a temp handphone as I need my hp for work & home purposes. I am also organising the ktv session for my group this weekend, so I can’t do without it. Anyway this hp, Nokia 1661, which is without camera would be useful as my brother will be using it for NS life soon.

Today was the last day of the e-filing sessions. For the 2nd time in my 5 year volunteer history, I was present for all the sessions and this year’s sessions were plagued by problems. Apart from the usual unfriendly people that we have met by every now and then, we had PC problems, printer problems, queue cutting problems, impatient people. But today’s problems were the most challenging one. My brother and I come across about 10 taxpayers who are not able to efile despite their income having exceeded $22,000 or net trade income is more than $6,000. In the end, I had to draft emails for all of them, to ask IRAS for an extension of time to efile their tax return. To play safe, I have also included the necessary information required by the tax department, so that extension of time can be granted without having to pay the penalty, which can be hefty in hard times like this. I hope that these taxpayers learn from this experience and try to efile their tax return early next time. We, ...

I met up with my former ACCA classmates,Tammy, Peggy & Elaine last night for dinner at Carousel Restaurant at Royal Plaza on Scotts hotel. It has been a while since I met up with them, since all of us had been busy with our work and studies. It ended up that Tammy gave us a treat instead as she said it was in celebration of her clearing all her ACCA papers. I feel so bad as everytime when we meet up, it is always her or Peggy giving us a treat. Looks like Paul has to play the fastest fingers next time!!! It is always fun to catch up with them , to find out how they are all doing. We really had a good chat of close to 4 hrs last night. Looking forward to our next gathering !!!!

As we sink deeper into the recession and try to work our way out of it, I am sure you guys have heard of stories that some bosses are taking advantage of the situation by  subjecting their staff to various types of unfair treatment. Here are some stories that I have heard so far. The so-called pro benefit/pro-family employer – This type of employer will usually promise you some benefits or arrangement that you have had in your previous job. After telling you that you will get the same benefits as before, the employer will usually take back the benefits that he/she promised you previously. The wait long long paymaster – You have been awaiting for payday, and suddenly he/she tells you that due to some company rules or regulations, you can only get your pay some time later. The timing will be long. What will you do if you are in such situation now?

  I first heard the 1st song featured in this post a few days on the YES 933 radio drama, 2009. I felt that the song was nice and tried to find it, by guessing  half of its title right. I guess this was one of the benefits of liking music and going ktv regularly. I can tell the title of the song just by guessing it. Do enjoy the songs.

Just wanna wish my friend, Maria, a Happy birthday tomorrow. May what she wishes for come true for her!!!

I was helping the people at the CC to efile their taxes yesterday, when my partner, Harris told me that he was expriencing problems with the e-filing system, especially for those people who are using Singpass to go in to do their e-filing. The problem persisted on today, which caused the e-filing system to be down about 4 hrs today. It was fortunate that our centre had started early and managed to help about 45 people to efile their taxes, despite this hiccup. If you have filed your taxes, please do so soon as you have only got about 5 days left!!!

You must be thinking I am going to write about the months that have came and gone in 2009. No, I am not. The title of my post is actually the new radio drama title for YES 933. The drama , I must say is really good. It is a continuation from the radio drama 1979, which was broadcast last year. So if you have the time, do tune in.

My mum has suggested that we go on a short trip to Malaysian state of Malacca or Penang for a short break for Labour Day. It will be for only about 2 days as I have to rush back to Singapore by Sunday to attend Steph’s & Andy’s wedding. I have been to these 2 places before, but would love to go & enjoy any of these two places for this time round. Any suggestions?

My brother had received a letter from Ngee Ann Polytechnic today, stating that he has officially graduated from poly after successfully completing the 3 year course. His graduation ceremony will be on 13 May, Wednesday. My mum & I will taking leave to share the joy of his graduation on that day. I am happy for him and glad that I am able to share his joy of graduation with him.

My boss’ son told me on Monday that he will be changing my CRT monitor today to this new HANNS SG LCD monitor featured here. I was quite surprised that my set was chosen to be changed. Anyway, I think it is good that my monitor is changed, as it meant that I have slightly more space on my table to put my files and better sitting posture, since I had to tilt a little when I see the monitor as I typed. Another reward was a surprise that I didn’t expect. My manager, seniors and myself were rewarded with a Robinsons Shopping voucher worth $100 in recognition of the effort that we had put in for the high workload. This is something that I had not expected. Hopefully, we can look forward and meet the deadline.

I have been helping people efile their taxes for about 5 years now. Although in my years of helping people to do e-filing, I have come across some taxpayers whom you know are overstating their expenses or under declaring their income. It seems like the situation is getting worse this year. I am just wondering if the crisis is hitting hard, causing people to do this?

I was asked by mum to join her in our religion’s Qing Ming Festival Ceremony at the last min. I did not want to go in the 1st place as I was worried that i was not able to make it for my volunteer e-filing session inthe afternoon, and it was very early in the morning at 8am. It ended up that my mum made a mistake about the timing.It was 2 hrs later, but I still went down in a cab to observe the ceremony and pray in rememberance of my loved ones in a simple ceremony. Do you still miss your loved one or friends who have left you quite suddenly?

It has been a busy working week for Paul and his colleagues this week as with the Personal Tax deadline is nearing. For those people who have not filed their taxes, you still have about 11 days, if you are submitting the paper return and 18 April if you are e-filing your tax return. Work won’t be so busy if the following had not happened. Boss had allowed us to file our client’s Form B1 & B on the e-filing platform earlier, instead of requesting for Forms at the 1st place. The influx of companies 2007 financial statements, which were to be submitted by 30 Nov 2008, that were only sent in for audit recently. The auditors need our help to do the tax provisions and these were usually very big cases, with loads of time needed to do them. Yet the auditors always say that they need the accounts by the next working day. If you know that the work is urgent, you should have sent in the job earlier, to allow us to have more time to work on it, and not wait till the last minute,...

The CC Executive that I am attached to for the efiling sessions every weekend for this monthcalled me suddenly today to seek for my help. One of the workstations used for efiling had broken down and they need my brother’s notebook for this weekend’s excercise. Judging from the turnout last week, which we had about 80 people who came by to efile their taxes, I foresee the crowd that would be coming in to efile this weekend will be slightly more, so I agreed to her request after discussing with my brother. I like to thank my brother for helping out on short notice too.