Paul's Fulfilling Life

Before I head off to dreamland, I just wish to wish my godsis, Curryegg a Happy 22nd birthday tomorrow. Hope that she stays youthful and cheerful and study hard!!! Not forgetting to wish her to stay pretty always!!! Hope she likes this cake as I am not sure what to give her for her birthday!!!!

It has been about 10 years since I stepped out of school. I only managed to remember that it was Teacher’s Day until one of my friends, who is a teacher asked me to help her to print out an e-card done by her student for her. I still remember some of my teachers and lecturers who have made my school days as memorable as possible. Maybe because I am special and unique in my own right, being with my medical condition to attend normal school since 1986. I really would like to thank these teachers who have been a part of my student life since then till now. Mayflower Primary School Mrs Teo – My Primary 1 Form Teacher Mdm Cik Rokiah – My Primary 3 Teacher Mrs Chow – My Primary 5 Chinese Teacher – She is the teacher that started my interest in Chinese. Serangoon Garden Sec School Mr Ang Chin Choon – My Sec 2 Chinese Teacher- He is a teacher with a caring heart for the student Mrs Tan Sek Yam – My Sec 3 & 4 E Maths Teacher – She really kindled my interest in Maths in ...

I just want to take the opportunity to wish 3 members of the Singing @ K Group, Candice, Corrine and Betty a Happy birthday. I know it may be a little for Candice & Corrine as their birthday was yesterday, but it is always better late than never. My wish for the ladies is :- Happy Birthday To You! May what u wish for come true for u! Stay youthful always! You gals have been good friends to have!

I had a bad start today. First, I had to amend a provision which was done for one of my colleagues. I was rather pissed as there were not one or two minor amendments to be made but at least 10 amendments to be made. I felt like telling this person off, as majority of the amendments made are based on what I have prepared for the tax schedules. If you think that it is easy and fast to amend, why not try amending the tax provision yourself? I decided that I should start write a report, detailing the amendments made in addition to my checklist for tax schedules. In this way, I am more than able to answer to my boss for the substantial time that I have spent, which I felt was unnecessary. This could be better done if my colleague had been more careful in her work. It saves my time and her time too. Fortunately, I had made prior arrangement to join a Facebook event to enjoy Fish Steamboat at Geylang. It was my first time joining this group but I didn’t feel odd or out of place as my k...

After hearing the rude audit department colleague who kept insisting that he was right not to do any tax schedules as the assigned case was a non-audit case, my tax partners had a closed door meeting with the audit department head, who is their son about this staff’s working attitude. It has been decided that our department will not be handling his non-audit cases from now on. He is expected to do his own tax provision. Effectively, he will be doing this without much tax knowledge. We shall see how long he can stay on like a proud peacock. My partners are of the view that the department should not be held to ransom by an “audit department head pet”. My manager is very surprised that since the implementation of my idea to improve workflow, I was able to detail my workings in a report format. I told her that I should do that as I am afraid that the “pet” or someone else can backstab us from behind, since we are “not treated like part of the family”. I also told her that I am blogging...

Monday It was the first time that I managed to get up on time and be ready for work after being sick for the past week. It seems like the Vitamin C pills that my colleague suggested did wonders for my flu and sore throat. I managed to leave on the dot on Monday and thus went to Pacific Plaza to search for albums. I managed to find the albums that I wanted. The Essential Michael Jackson 陈伟联-边唱. His latest album Tuesday I got a call from Ms G , a recently just known friend from a Facebook event, to join her for dinner. Since mum was not cooking as she has consuellor lessons every Tuesday. I really admire my mum sometimes, as even though she is 60, she never stops learning new stuff. Met Ms G at Raffles City. The first part of our dinner was at Streets at Raffles City Shopping Centre. The food served is not as good as their branch at Liang Court and the service was not as friendly as well. The 2nd part of our dinner was at Kopitiam at Swissotel Stamford Hotel. The se...

I went to Takashimaya to shop with my mum today as she wanted to use the Takashimaya shopping vouchers that I got from Singtel last year when I switched my handphone line & my brother’s handphone line (which is registered under my name as well). Maybe it has been a long while since I last shopped at Takashimaya, I only found out on today that Takashimaya shopping vouchers are no longer accepted by the retail shops in the shopping centre. This was after we tried to buy something with the vouchers from Best Denki & G2000. But still, it didn’t dampen our spirit to shop and we managed to utilise the vouchers in the end as we bought a fan, office wear from G2000 for myself and a wallet for my brother. Looks like Paul does not need to add on to his wardrobe for CNY next year. I liked the price & the design of the 2 shirts and pants that I got at G2000 today. Mum feels that the ones I have selected is a departure from what I usually wear. But I think it is always good to up...

It was a bad week at work this week as Paul was still nursing his flu and cough, and therefore he had to battle the effects of medication and struggle to get up to work this week. Fortunately, I have managed to build up a “rainy day” savings fund, since I started this job about one year plus ago. Therefore, I didn’t feel very bad about it about having to take a cab to work this week. At least I won’t get to hear people yaking behind my back. Anyway I am not the only one that is dragging myself to work everyday as my young boss is also having the same syptoms as me. I guessed hers is much worse than mine, but she still came. This week, that person made life difficuit for my dept again. I wondered how he obtained his NTU qualification and working experience. If you don’t even bother to reference your working papers, then please don’t bother give us your working file. You are making people cleaning up your s**** for you. I feel so sorry for my new colleague who has to clear your rubbish...

I got this wedding invitation last night. It was from Elaine, my ACCA classmate’s wedding invitation card. I will be attending her wedding dinner with Tammy & Peggy on 4 October 2009. Looking forward to attending my second wedding dinner this year!!!

Today was a day where I really learned a lot from my senior partner of the firm as he really enlightened me how to answer a tax query properly. I finally understand the need to do tax computation with all the detailed schedules. It was indeed a fruitful learning day!!! Thanks boss!!!

I was stumped by this question since yesterday. Apparently, I feel that someone has to take responsibility for this. A check with the Accounting Standards website at www.asc.gov.sg just a a while ago proves that I am correct. “ A fixed asset is derecognised when no future economic benefits are expected from its use or disposal” If a audit professional can’t raise an alarm on the wrong application of accounting standard by a client, I wonder does this professional has the ability to do her job. Let’s see what my boss say about this when I put the relevant page on his table tomorrow.

I was asked by Peggy to join her for this seminar organised by the ACCA and Oxford Brookes University last night about doing the Research & Analysis Project to obtain a Bsc Honours In Applied Accounting. Since I have cleared my Fundamentals Stage of the ACCA quite some time ago and am looking at various options since I am stuck in the Professional Stage, I decided to join her for this talk. The cost for the seminar was $25, which I thought was a little steep, but taking into consideration that it covered the speakers’ airfares and accomodation, it was justified. Some doubts about the degree which I previously had were clarified. Just a report and analysis report will be sufficient to get the degree as the techincial aspects of the degree are all covered in the ACCA papers. There is no need to wait till the completion of my Professional Stage to start to work on the project as I have completed my Fundamental Stages. But these are the things that are holding me bac...

I have been sick these few days, but was only given a day MC to rest on Thursday. I was back to work on Friday & today. I am really glad that my boss & manager has been quite understanding in letting me take my medicine in the office. This was something that was not possible in other offices that I have worked in so far. However, I am disturbed by the behaviour of one of my colleagues. There is no need for you to announce to the whole office that Paul is taking medicine in office, or Paul is showing H1N1 symptoms. Please go and read up about what are the symptoms of H1N1 before saying anything. Please use your brain before you say anything as well. I was also disturbed by the fact that one of my colleagues, who is a foreigner, and not well-versed in her English being scolded by her boss. I just feel that people do make mistakes and I don’t think she had adequate expreience in the field she was working in. It does not mean that he can scold her in front of all of us and tell...

Jonathan & Paul Angela     Angela & Jane   I was invited by Angela to attend a pre-birthday celebration for her and Jane. It has been quite a while since Jonathan & I sang with these 2 ladies, so I must say I really enjoyed singing with them. The photos were taken using my Samsung Jet handphone. Jane & Angela commented its graphics are pretty sharp. The reason was I forgotten to bring my digital camera today. It gave me a chance to test the features of my handphone. During the midst of testing and uploading, I managed to find out a few things. The camera feature took us several moments to figure out. The PC software takes a while to detect the phone after it was installed. Once loaded, the software was a breeze to operate with the phone. My memory card failed to detect, despite being installed on the phone. I have to ask the customer service centre to help me see to the problem. Sadly though, I am facing problems t...

Pics courtesy of ManUtd.com I just got my 1st set of Man U jersey from Nike today. I had wanted to get the red one but unfortunately it did not have my size, therefore I got the black kit that was released yesterday. It is very stylish. Agree?

My boss decided to do an internal transfer of staff after conducting several interviews and consultation with my senior and manager about the taking  over the position of my departing colleague. We are still hoping that my departing colleague would consider not leaving us as my dept colleagues and I really enjoyed working with her. Hopefully, she will be back after her birth of her 4th child in Dec 2009. This new colleague has been transferred from the Corporate Secretarial Dept. Apparently, it appears that my colleagues at the Corporate Secretarial Dept has some comments about her and she was quite happy that my boss was transferring her over. Although she has no prior expertise in tax, my boss believes that we can do a good job to train her and improve her marketability. This may mean that I may have to switch my lunch hour to an hour later, which I do not mind, since some of my lunch partners are ganging up against me since the Notes to Financial Statements incident. I still...

The recent hazy and hot  weather has caused my throat to feel suddenly dry. It was getting unbreable so I had no choice but to break my 1 year record and took MC after seeing the doc. Hopefully I get well soon. 

It has been a while since I last had a long weekend. I thought of going out of Singapore but decided against it as I would miss the bonding time with my brother, who booked out from camp for the long weekend. But I still did quite a number of things over this long weekend. Praying Session at SSA Tampines It has been quite a while since my mum and I went for our praying sessions. It was because the centres had been closed since the H1N1 outbreak and only reopened on 1 Aug. It was good to be there again as chanting always helps me to relax. If you guys have been following my blog recently, you will know why I needed this. Facebook Networking Session cum Singles Event I was asked by my friend, PT to join him for this event. I was a little apprehensive to join this event in the 1st place as I had a bad experience joining this type of event before. But my mum encouraged me to join this event without giving myself too much pressure, just go out to try to meet new people. Who knows,...

The tax dept of my firm had a meeting with my senior partner today. I am glad that my suggestion to change about how the dept works so that such problems will not occur again is accepted. The suggestion would be put through a meeting when the audit partner is back from her home leave. That person who  was the cause of all these problems started to find fault with my manager and me about the case. Apparently he is quite lazy about doing schedules, so he expected us to do his work for him so he can just copy and paste and take it as his work. We had to communicate with the client about this as well. I was sure that the client felt a little funny on how come my manager was the one asking for these schedules and not him? As one of my colleague puts it, “He is not aware of the good life he and the rest of the auditors are having. In other firms, their auditors are required to do tax provisions themselves.” In order to help one another, we should work as “under one roof”, rather than...

I just saw the news and heard that he, Jacky Cheung, 张学友 is coming as part of the build up to the Formula One In Singapore in September. I am looking forward to it. Hopefully the ticket price is within my budget and there are people to accompany me. Also hopefully my schedule permits.

This 2 weeks have not been a smooth flowing week at work for me as my 2 of my audit dept colleagues have not been happy about the comments that I have wrote on my working papers checklist. In order to prevent the unhappy situation of incomplete financial statements as mentioned in one of my previous post, Notes to Financial Statements, my boss have approved my suggestion to do up a checklist of required schedules for tax provisions/ computations purposes. Apparently, I have given some crosses on my working file as I felt that the required schedules were not properly done up. Because of this, I got a earful from the both of them. If you guys are so afraid of the crosses, why can’t you all ask us directly what is needed, instead of having us to teach you how to do audit schedules.  There is no need for you to shout at us like a barbarian. That is not how a professional staff should behave.As one of my colleagues put it, it is like we are helping to do audit when we are doing the ...

This National Day Song is also one of my favourites, sang by Tanya Chua in 2001.It really brings out the “love your country” siprit in you.

It is going to be Singapore’s 44th National Day. I am looking forward to it as this means a long weekend break for me. I do have something lined up for myself this National Day weekend. Hopefully it will be a good one. Leaving you with two versions of my favourite NDP song, Home or 家 sang by Kit Chan to kickstart my National Day feature.

I have gotten several queries from several of my friends recently about them receiving a composition fine for not filing their tax return by 15 April 2009. Here is a recommended solution to the problem, if some of you are facing the same problem. 1.You should call IRAS at 1800-3568300 or email them through the IRAS website at www.iras.gov.sg . Please click on the the “Contact Us” hyperlink and click on “Salaried Employee” or “Self Employed”. 2. Please provide the officer your NRIC No so that they can check your status through their system. If you have not filed, give them your reasons as to why you have failed to file. Most of the time, they will ask you to file and may waive the penalty depending which officer you spoke to. I hope this helps to answer your questions.

I went for this singing event organised by another facebook group today. I decided to sign up for the event as I was feeling quite stressed by my work recently. It had been building up since the end of June, due to the recent happenings at my workplace. There seems to be a wedge that is hindering the working relationship of the management of my firm. As staff, it is difficuit to work in such enivornment in such times. I was telling my mum that it is not easy for me not to work late every time as this is the audit firm’s peak period. I just hope she understands and don’t pressure me about when I wish to restart my ACCA studies It is a surprise that the event ended up as if like it was an event that I organised as I know about half the people who attended the event today. It is good that they came, otherwise I would be seeing a few unfamilar faces, which I may feel a little awkward to chat with them. I got to know a few new friends, like Rachel, Raymond, Weiqi and Tina. I was a littl...

Next Sunday, our nation, Singapore will be celebrating its 44th year of nationhood. I always look forward to the release of the NDP Theme Song every year. This year, I am happy to hear that one of my favourite Singapore singers, Kelvin Tan will be singing the Mandarin version of the theme song. It is a good start that the NDP organising committee is giving him a chance to showcase his talent, although he is visually impaired.

I nearly had a bad case of wardrobe malfunction yesterday. I boarded the Bus Service 54 to work. As the bus was very crowded, and no one was willing to give up their seat to me, I had to sit at the empty space, where there used to be the position of the old validator. Little did I noticed that there was a piece of metal that was jutting out from the space, and my pants was caught by the jutting metal. I managed to pull out my pants in the end, but it had a small hole which my mum said cannot be sewn back. It is sad as I have to get the pants altered to become my shorts. My G2000 pants!!!

Today is Nurses Day. I used to have long stays at hospitals in Singapore & Brunei when I was young. This was because I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when I was young, and had 2 operations before I could walk again. Besides the doctors and my family members, the nurses played a huge role in my road to recovery from my operations that I had. On this day, I just wish all the nurses a “Happy Nurses Day” and may all of you continue to find satisfaction in changing the lives the patients you are looking after.