Paul's Fulfilling Life

A relative of mine is trying to link me up with a Vietnamese gal. I know that she is concerned but I just wonder if there is anything wrong being single. Anyway, I told my mum, I will just be treating it as making another friend and see how it goes. A little fearful of this, after bad expriences……………………….

I was asked by an elder to do a write up about the changes in my life, since the passing of NS buddy, Jason about one and a half years ago. I will try to keep it short as some of these things will be featured in the press interview that I have given to Lianhe Wanbao. His passing was quite sudden. I was in a bit of shock at first, but I was able to compose myself and mapped out what I wanted to do. His passing dawned to me that life is something that is short and fragile which can be taken away from you at any monent. I set out to look for a new job that will appreciate me for what I am, hoping to find job satisfaction. I am glad that I have found it, as it is difficuit to find many colleagues whom you are able to work with so well. My second goal was to enhance my life with more friends, since I felt that I was not able to do much socialising in my past job was taking up most of my free time as well. It has been an enlightening experience as I got to know many people from vario

The CPA firm that I am working for will be having a Practice Review of the firm somewhere in mid July. This explains why I am so busy with my work recently. The planned 1 year break from my ACCA seems to be the right move. One of my colleagues has also tendered her resignation and will be leaving the firm around the same time as the reviewers come in. Her work has been divided out among the remaining 3 of us. An admin staff has also been seconded to us to assist us in the workload as my boss can’t seem to find a suitable replacement. My young boss is worried that the firm would not be able to pass the review, and is worried that his practising licence will be revoked. He has a point there as we are a sizeable firm with about 50 staff. Without the licence, we would lose our rice bowls. To me, there is not much that you can worry about as I feel that if the standard operation proceedures are being followed and they are properly documented. From what I know from someone who has been t

Tr I was stunned by the news that Michael Jackson had passed away due to heart failure. To me, although he is erratic in his behaviour, he is very talented in his own right and defintely deserved his title as “King of Pop”. I have began to listen to his music when I was in Secondary School, where I was introduced to his music by my Secondary School buddy, Malcolm and since then I started to love his songs. RIP Michael Jackson, although your life was short but you have made significant contributions to the music industry. It will not be forgotten.

Volunteers Group Photo     Receiving the Outstanding Volunteer Award from Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Mr Moses Lee Me with my mum & Ms Clara Ng, IRAS Corporate Communications Officer   I just got the photos from Ms Rena Soon, IRAS Corporate Communications Officer. Some of you felt that the photos that I had uploaded previously were not well taken. I think this one should be better, since it was taken by a professional photographer hired by IRAS.

Today was payday, and I received a unexpected surprise from my boss. Most of you know that the world is in recession now and are warned to expect wage cuts and job cuts. My boss unexpectedly rewarded me with a more than expected bonus again. She said that she has been happy with my performance. I should try my best to keep up the good work. I am just pleasantly surprised.

I hereby wish Wendy a happy birthday tomorrow. May what she wishes for come true for her and hope that she finds a good job soon!!!

After much delibration and some cajoing from my mum and my friends, I decided to grant my 3rd press interview after a 12 year hitaus. The interview was done on Tuesday through the phone. Fortunately, there was not really any tough questions to answer. The draft that I have done up and the consultation that I have made with Aunt Woo about how to deal with the questions were certainly helpful in the course of the interview. I shall let you guys know when the article will be out on Lianhe Wanbao when I get further information from the reporter that interviewed me.

I have been busy for the past two days as I had celebrated my brother’s birthday yesterday and today. Yesterday was his 21st birthday and I suggested to my mum that he should celebrate his birthday with us and my uncle’s family. This would let my brother learn about the importance of having a family, instead of just devoting his time to his church friends. Today, my brother invited his friends over to my place, where my mum prepared a feast for him and his friends. May I take the opportunity to wish my brother a happy birthday once again. I hope he finally knows what he wants to achieve in life and hope that he can achieve it.

I was stumped by work this week as there are some funny accounting of fixed assets done by my client. This has caused me problems doing up the tax provision for the auditors for this case. What my lecturer, Mr Sami said previously in his lectures was true. You are bound to come across firms with “interesting” accounting practices in the course of your work. I was stumped by this case last year too and I spent 6 working days just to clear the tax provision. Judging from the way things are going, it is going to be longer than last year. May Buddha grant me the wisdom to solve the case in a faster and effective way.

I have got some useful tips from a family friend, Aunt Wu about the newspaper interview I am being invited to do. I am really grateful for her advice as she is a person who is able to handle the media well. I showed her a draft of what I have written to be shared. It has been a while since I wrote in Chinese. She said it is good to be prepared as at least you are aware of what to share and what not to share. Armed with her advice, I think I can prepare myself better for the press interview.

                                These are some of the photos that my mum & have taken during the VES Appreciation Ceremony.I am not going to do any captions as I believe the pictures tells more than a thousand words!!!

I finally have the chance to show you guys what this outstanding award looks like and it came with a $40 Fairprice voucher too. Thanks to my Canon scanner cum printer! This was my 4th award in 5 years of service. This year was special as:- I was asked to share my past expriences with 2 groups of new volunteers this year. It was a nerve wrecking exprience to share my past volunteer expriences with this new people, as I can’t scare new people who has come to help people who e-file their taxes. There are some nasty people as always, but generally people are very nice. I had people who again bought coffee for us, thanking us for our service. I was asked to share my thoughts about the e-filling in the e-filing video tribute thanking us. I was glad that my quote was featured. My poly lecturer, Ms Cindy Yuen, who was there on behalf of the poly was surprised to see the quote too. Here’s the quote:- “I have always felt that it is always great to help the taxpayers to e-file the

My mum and I are very fustrated by this grumpy relative of ours who is quite ill at the moment. The doctor has suspected he may be suffering from the dreaded “C” word, Cancer and would want to do further tests to confirm their findings. However, he seems afraid to check himself into the hospital, and does not even bother to answer the phone calls when the nurse calls him stating a change in his medical appointment.  Instead he gives the hospital my mum’s contact number to shake off the nurse.We know that he is worried about the medical bills and have tried to assure him that Singapore is a country that helps a citizen when the citizen is in need, although there are some red tapes to overcome. He keeps saying that no one understands or cares about him. When my mum and I visited him at his place last Friday, he didn’t even bother to thank my mum for buying him his dinner. Instead he scolded my mum for coming so late to visit him and getting the food that he does not want. It really m

It has been a while since I last caught a movie. Since my parents were out for a concert and my brother is still in his church camp, so I decided to let myself have a relaxing Friday by catching this movie. “ I Love You Man” This movie is about a guy (Rudd) about to be married, whose fiancee (Rashida Jones) is calling all her friends to be in the wedding. Realising he has no friends, he starts to go on man-dates to find a best man; and finds one in Segel. I felt that the movie is quite interesting as it has happened to me before and it contains several valuable lessons but in a opposite way, or should I say a different way. The few incidents has taught me several valuable lessons about friendship. Friendship can be painful for you to lose if you have lost your friend through sickness. Friendship should not be based on money. It should be based on trust and support. A deep friendship may not take years or months to form. Understanding a person can be easy if you resp

Some people who know me do know that I have to change my shoes at least 1 to 1.5 mths. Why is that so? Due to my physical condition, my shoes will wear off from the front after 1 month or so. I was therefore quite surprised when the new pair that I bought less than a week ago was spoiled, and quite interestingly, the front part of the bottom sole had given way. This was the first time that it has happened. I decided to head back to the shop I had bought the shoes from, Suntec City, Bata branch. I was quite surprised that the shopkeeper had agreed to change the shoes for me without any charge after I showed her what happened to the shoes. The great service made my day!!

A friend of mine, whom I got to know through one of the facebook groups has recommended me to be interviewed by a newspaper to talk about my life and the singing group on facebook which I am an organiser. I have been interviewed by the press before in my teens to encourage people to look at life positively despite setbacks. But for this one, I have my misgivings as I do not want to be seen as using the group as a publicity stunt nor I wish to see “unwelcome stuff” like business soliciting and so for after the interview. Another reason is the group was not set up by me in the first place, therefore it is not right for me to do this. The only plus point is that people get to know me better, about how I live my life positively. What should I do then? Mum was saying I can go ahead with it. What do you guys think?

My company is looking for a person who is well versed in tax. Below is the requirements:- To do personal tax and corporate tax computations Filing of ECIs Liaise with clients for information when necessary My boss is hoping to get someone who is able to read, write and communicate well in English as letters and emails may be needed to sent to clients every now and then. Interested, please email your resume to my Gmail account at paulbf1812@gmail.com

Room 2 with Desmond, Ann, Catherine Room 5 with Karen Yap, Jean. Stephen & Adrian Room 1 with Terence, Miko, Kay, Melvin, Sean & Paul Room 4 with Jasline & Lynn Room 3 with YC, Candice & Yan Ling Thanks to Angela for taking the pics and Jonathan for the camera. Not all people are captured here as some of them are camera shy. Hehe. :)

Paul with co-partner, Jonathan (Birthday boy for the nite) Jonathan with chairman of the group, Lawerence Yaoxiang Birthday celebration in the VIP room Karen with Yifeng The 2 birthday boys, Jonathan & Stephen Jonathan with Jean(the suprise planner for the boys) Jonathan with Karen The day that I have waited for has finally arrived after all the negotiations and facebook emails sent out to the group members. I am quite happy with the turnout of the KTV last night, despite the last minute change in venue to our usual hangout at International Building, because in the end, the group managed to break a new record with the number of participants. We had 44 people singing together at the same time in 6 rooms for 4 hrs!!! The last record was set during my birthday last year. It was a surprise to see the list filled with pioneer batch of members who have not joined us for a while, like Ja

I was asked to do a summary for this topic by my boss. It was difficuit to get it summarised from the Singapore Tax Workbook. There was so many points which the workbook covered which I felt it was already a good summary. I tried my best to get the stuff summarised but it was not that good. It went in with the entire thing rewritten.

One of the new restaurants/cafes located near my office at Shaw Centre. I went there on Thu as I had wanted to shop for birthday gifts for 2 of my friends from the KTV group. The food was a tad too salty, although the price was very cheap compared to TCC cafe. If You are going there for the ambience, I think it is worthwhile to go.

Mum had borrowed this book, which is in Chinese for me to read last weekend. I only had time to start reading the book just now. I found the book is quite interesting as it teaches you how to get a date with a gal with proper chatting and how to grab her attention.  It has interesting graphics showing how to do it too.

I was in a foul mood this week, as some people had spoiled my mood by saying something bad about the facebook group that I have been organising events for.  Sometimes, I just wish people can attend and see for themselves. If they feel that they can do a better job at organising events, they are welcome to do so. Anyway, I have gathered more than enough postive feedback that I have been doing a good job. This is the reason why it keeps me going. Knowing new people and improving network of friends.

My ex client had looked for me on Sat to seek my advice on his company’s tax matters. I didn’t advise him much since I was no longer working with my ex firm. It seems like someone from my ex-firm may want to put me in trouble by pushing all the blame to me. I have some idea of who is that, but I just don’t understand why this person is so against me to the extent that now that I have left the firm, why are you still trying to put me down? My current manager told me not to worry when I told her about the problem. She said, the problem should have occurred after I have left the company therefore I should not be held responsible for it as I was already not with the firm by then.

I was treated to a great hawker food by one of my ex clients yesterday. The mixed vegetable rice with 4 vegetables and 2 sets of plain rice cost only $7. I must say I was surprised by the long queue for mixed vegetable rice and the taste was great. I thought that this was a great bargain, so I just share it with you guys. The hawker centre is located at Blk 527 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10. The name of the hawker centre is Cheng San Cooked Food Market & Hawker Centre.

Some of you may have seen the emails that I have sent through facebook about the KTV event I am organising for my group recently. I don’t want to sound like a broken record and copy and paste what I have written on facebook onto here. Just wish to say a few things here, after I finally managed to settle the issue. Almost all of the attendees understood the purpose of the email, explaining why the comparison was made. A compromise has to be reached. My partner, Jonathan & I had made our stand clear to let people decide, and we respected the majority’s choice. Although I had some explaining to do about the switch to one of them. It is hard to imagine that there is a sudden increase in price of 25% and an additional $5 per pax being charged as a premium for a new ktv location. It was a challenge to negotiate a corporate group deal for the group. The manager of the KTV thought I was from the SDU!!! Funny ya, since when did Paul became a matchmaker? Haha. Fortunately, the deal was

My brother had just came back from Taiwan last weekend  and bought this 要幸福喔！！！T-shirt for me. Mum was saying I need this!!! My brother was cute, he bought my parents “我爱老公”,“我爱老婆”T-shirts. Wonder if my parents dare to wear it out.