Paul's Fulfilling Life

The MIO TV problems that have plagued me for the past few weeks were finally solved on last Monday. Apparently, there were some problems with the external connection points outside my flat. The rewiring resolved all the problems faced. I was therefore able to try out the DVD Recorder that my dad had purchased some time ago. Some of you may know that my dad is an electrician for his day job. He had managed to use the MIO TV setup box as a recording outlet for all the TV programmes. I finally found the time to try it out. The good thing is that the recorder and the MIO TV linkage worked fine. This means that I will be able to catch the Champions League matches on record, as I usually have to work on the next day. My parents are also happy that they can finally record their favourite Chinese MIO TV or Mediacorp channels I they missed the programmes.

I decided to do my yearly review early this year, as it has been an eventful year with many things and events happening to me in this year. In fact, I would call this a roller coaster year, just like the economy in the Year 2009. I am just afraid that I may not be able to write this on 31 December, as I would be counting down to Year 2010 with my friends. I will not be mentioning some names for some reasons as I write about some things or events as I certainly do not wish to invite nasty comments or unnecessary comments on my blog, although I believe that since it is my blog, I am free to write whatever I want. ACCA This was the year where I decided to take a break from my studies as I have not been able to clear my Professional Stage papers since starting the stage about 2 years ago. It has been demoralising to say that I have not been dong as well as I have hoped, despite putting in, what I considered to be my best effort. Some friends have been supportive of me taking this bre...

I had a prior movie date with Sis Jas and Bro Jonathan to catch Sherlock Holmes at the Grand Cathay on Saturday. The movie had to be a night one as Jas was working in the day. This meant that I was able to enjoy my dinner with my parents at home. It has been a while since my dad whipped up a storm in the kitchen. The dish of the day was steamed crabs, which I thoroughly enjoyed with the salad that my mum had prepared. The movie, I felt was quite funny and interesting. Personally, I would give it a 4 out of 5 rating. Sunday was a hectic but enjoyable day for me. I was out in the morning with my mum for our usual weekly praying session at Tampines Soka Centre, before we headed to Bedok Food Centre for lunch, where I had my all-time favourite mutton soup, before heading to Andrina’s place for a KTV session with Jonathan, David and Lance. After the session, we headed to Music Dreamer Live Café (爱情海) at Marina Square. I have been wanting to head down to this place since I heard of ...

I had thought of going to ICA early to get my NRIC today. But when I woke up this morning, it was 10.30am. Therefore, I had little choice but to take a cab down to collect my NRIC after my breakfast as they close at 12.30pm. I was pretty worried that the queue will be long as there will be another long weekend next week. My worries were unfounded as even though the queue was long, there were 5 counters serving us. The new NRIC has some changes in the features and information displayed. There is a mini hologram showing my photo again on the front of the NRIC, and there is no more blood group information displayed on your NRIC. The best part is after this change, there is no need to change NRIC anymore. I am sorry that I am not able to display a scanned copy of my NRIC here due to security purposes. I certainly do not want my particulars to be misused for unauthorised purposes.

I was informed by my boss that I needed to clear my 2009 remaining leave entitlement by January. I knew that something was amiss since November when my boss said that she wishes to commute part of my leave into pay. It looked like her son had wanted to change the HR policy again. It was also good that I commuted part of my leave into pay as I will have problems clearing them as my manager has a lot of remaining 2009 leave entitlement as well. Actually, I was thinking to utilise the leave for my exams and maybe a family holiday in the next year, but it seems that I may need to bring forward my holiday plan. I have applied for leave from 13 Jan 2010 to 15 Jan 2010. I am okay with having my parents going with me on the planned trip, which may be Kuching or Chiangmai. But my mum has decided to tag one of her friends along, which I don’t really feel comfortable with. Its a family holiday, remember. If my mum does it this way, I may just tag a friend along as well. I wonder who wishes to j...

昨晚，爸爸邀请了全家人和他的同事们到他的教会举办的圣诞晚宴和庆祝会. 其实，我和弟弟不是很喜欢参与这些活动的.可是，爸爸即然邀约了我们，我们就得去不可. 其实，对昨晚的节目和晚餐，我和弟弟都感到不自在， 而且，食物并不是很好吃，节目也蛮差，因为，这群教会的朋友平时在家是说英语的.他们说的华语，简直是听不下去，语病连连.幸好，爸爸的同事们都是来自中国，所以，还好可以和他们交谈，不会太无聊. 晚宴后， 我和弟弟搭巴士到转换站，去咖啡店再吃了罗卜糕，才回家去.

Even though it was raining heavily this Christmas Eve, it certainly did not dampen my spirit to spread the Christmas cheer and the spirit of giving to my colleagues. Some of you would have known that the firm that I am working in now is quite a big office with close to 50 people. Therefore, you can’t blame me for being a cheapo by giving them each a Ferraro Rocher Chocolate each. Anyway it is also my way of thanking my colleagues, especially those who have given me presents for my birthday last week. For the rest of them, it is to thank them for helping me in one way or another when I needed help at work in the past year. The happy day was filled with happy stuffs as my following colleagues celebrated their birthdays in advance and the birth of their child today. Amy, my manager – will be turning a year wiser on 27 Dec 2009 Annie, my secretarial dept colleague -will be turning a year wiser on 28 Dec 2009 Bee Hui, my audit dept supervisor – had given birth to her son toda...

I have been asking myself this question since I heard from my new colleague, Wee Yong that CPA Australia has a much higher pass rate than ACCA. I am quite tempted to make the switch as my ACCA Level 2 qualification is recognised in as part of the qualification. Seeing how my friend got her CPA Australia certificate in 4 years, while I am still struggling with my ACCA after 4 years, after discounting my one year break as of now, makes me wonder if I had made the right choice to take ACCA as my degree in the first place. It took me 3 years to get through the Level 2 hurdle and I certainly do not want to keep not clearing again, despite putting in the effort. Maybe I should give it a try should I flunked the Professional stage again. The facilities of CPA Aussie is definitely better than ACCA. Went down to Kaplan City Campus just now, hoping to sign up for P1 class. I didn’t know that Roy Goh does not teach P1 anymore, but shares P2 with Mr Sami now. I wanted to try out Roy’s class a...

I went to collect my phone from PS Samsung yesterday. The queue was horrendous as I waited an hour to collect my phone. I thought I could be there early to meet Qiqi, Jonathan, Jas & CK for dinner early. Ended up I was late. Sorry pals!!! But I guessed it was only right for me to give you guys a treat after you all bought me cakes & dinner on several occassions before my birthday. Before that, went to get a new camera as my old one had crashed. I was smart that I didn’t make a hasty purchase as the price quoted by Best Denki was cheaper than the shop at my office building. Anyway, my new camera is much much better than the old one. The Olympus FE 4000 12 megapixel camera Dinner was at Swensens PS. I certainly enjoyed the dinner and the company I had. We had a long chat about 2 people in the KTV group who caused some big hoo ha over what they did or said. One of them certainly left me disappointed, while the other, I must say, lucky I am not that close to her. Today was my...

This was the last weekend before Christmas and mum had reminded me to utilise the BHG Shopping Vouchers given by Xinhui and Yvonne for my birthday before it expired. I was also reminded by my boss to utilise her Istean vouchers soon. I guessed she had wanted me to take advantage of the Private Sale that happened at Istean Scotts on my birthday. But I didn’t go as the queue was horrendously long. Will maybe pop by on Tuesday. Went to BHG with mum and bought 2 sets of working pants and working shirt. Mum got two pairs of shoes at $9.90 each, while I topped up about $30 for my purchase. After that bought a pair of shoes before heading to visit my granny at the old folks home. My aunt and cousin were there too. Glad that she looks better now.

I decided to check my Samsung Jet into the service centre after it hangs intermittently and the keypad is insensitive. This is the 2nd time in a month that I have sent the phone for service for the same problem. Decided to get a standby 3G phone for myself and my family since my dad, brother & myself are using the 3G SIM Cards. The Customer Service said that the phone has to be in the service centre for 3 days at least. Lucky they have home delivery service for serviced phones. Even if there is no such service, I am ok with it as my office is not too far from the service centre. Decided on getting the Samsung S5503 by just paying $100 to Singtel and extending my contract for another 2 years. Anyway it is just a standby phone, so there was no need to get a sophiscated phone.

I still got some belated birthday wishes on Facebook from:- Jasmine Lee happy happy birthday! be happy, stay happy! may all good things come ur way! Curry Egg Happy belated khor.. sorry for being late. Anyway, wish you have a happy year ahead! :D Thanks for all the wishes!!!

My female colleagues, Chloe, Shao Ting, Agnes, See Ying & Yun Fah, together with Wilson surprised me with their birthday gift for me with a Manchester United Home Ground, Old Trafford model with its history books. I wonder how to display it in my house. This meant that Paul has a comprehensive set of Manchester United merchandise this year with the following:- 2009/2010 Home & Away Jersey 2009/2010 Training Kit 2009/2010 Polo T-shirt 2009/2010 Jacket Cup

I went to work on my birthday today. This was the 3rd successive year that I was working on my birthday. Someone called me and asked me why I was still working. Apparently, she has not been paying attention to what I have told her. I just wonder if she practises selective hearing or likes to make news out of nothing. She claims that she is busy with work, but from the looks of it, she has caused some hoo ha again. The person whom I am talking about is the same one that I mentioned a few posts ago. Anyway, I shall not let my mood be spoiled by this person as it is bad luck to be angry on one’s birthday. I decided to make my official entry to the Big 3 Club today by:- Sharing my joy by buying my own birthday cake from TCC. Graphics from TCC website I got the 1st cake, Kalamansi Wonderland for them as I thought it is not too sweet and would be suitable for the seniors in my office. It is good that they enjoyed the cake. I would like to thank the guy who always served m...

This was the 2nd week that my manager is not around. I thought I have helped her clear her big headache when I cleared the tax query of my client for her. Little did I thought that the report that was needed for the query had run into some problems due to some mistakes in the input previously. This was something that I have not expected. I was made nervous by the jumpy young boss. Luckily I was calm when I met the senior partners today. The daddy asked me to just revise the schedule and computation accordingly and send it off after his review. There is no reason why the young partner should jump at me when the mistake is not even my fault! Just pissed by his attitude.

I had problems sleeping again last night as I am still troubled by the sore throat and cough that do not seem to go away. I had already completed the course of medication that the doctor prescribed for me last week since Friday. I had wanted to visit the doctor again, but the thought of the outgoings that I had and am going to incur this month set me back. The thought of no one to cover me for my work set me back even further. Fortunately, mum had brewed some herbal tea for me so I guess it has helped in the recovery process, although it is a little slow. I will need to change my IC soon. Got the letter from ICA last week. Went to take my digital photo on the day I received the letter. Mum actually complained that I looked like a child when I wanted to wear a round neck T-shirt for the photo taking, therefore she styled my look for the photo. She said that an IC would be for use for quite some time, so it will be good to do it well. I will be heading back to school next year with m...

I was treated to dinner by a group of friends from the KTV group who were not able to make it for the session that I had on Saturday. The group said that the dinner was in celebration of my birthday that is coming in 4 days time. The dinner was at Watami Restaurant at ION Orchard. The food was quite okay. I thought that the side dishes were better than the main courses and some of the beverages were a little too sweet for our taste buds. We had a good time catching up with one another. However, I was a little stunned by what one of them had to say about one of my new friends, after she happened to see one of the photos that the new friend and I took together on Facebook. Apparently, this friend of mine knows this new friend of mine as well and I think they may have had a nasty misunderstanding with one another. She advised that I should stop my friendship with her. (It is later confirmed by someone that they didn’t know each other. Just wonder why she spread such a nasty poison pe...

The Singtel MIO Home Plan installation continued to give me nasty surprises, which has left me fuming mad. The installation staff decided to pay an unannounced visit on last Saturday afternoon, when I was not at home. I thought that I had arranged an appointment for 19 Dec. The unannounced visit caught my parents off guard but as they were fully aware of what was going on, they were able to explain what actually happened fully to him. I am surprised that he forgot to bring the additional modem for the MIO TV again. He also told my parents that the MIO TV line is only used for MIO TV purposes and cannot be used for calling out purposes. Therefore there is a need for a 3 rd residential line for calling out and receiving of calls. There is a need for an adaptor with the ability to connect the 2 phone lines together. I am surprised by all these developments as I was not told of all this during the time when I signed the contract. It has left me in a limbo. I am left wondering if I n...

Although my voice is not in its tip top condition, I decided to go ahead with my birthday celebration KTV so as not to disappoint my 22 guests who are attending the celebration. I hope all my guests enjoyed themselves. I am sorry for not being able to sing as much as I wish to with all of you due to my sore throat. Anyway, just wish to thank the following people for making the celebration a blast. Qiqi & Jas – Thanks for the cakes and birthday/ Christmas present. Jonathan Teo & Lawerence- My big brother & Chairman for assisting me in the collection & tabulation of the money collection Andrina, Lance , Rachel, Belinda, Paul Tseng, Jimmy, Yvonne, Xinhui, Karen, Johnnie, John, Jeremy, Edwin, Thomas, David, Melvin,Jasline & Yi Feng. – Thanks for being part of the celebration and especially to most of you, your birthday gifts cum Christmas gifts to me. Hui Kheng & friends – Thanks for joining inthe celebration, making it more fun. The Partyworld Manage...

I had to attend this wedding dinner with my whole family as my cousin, Li Jiaxuan was the star of the night. The event was held at Orchard Hotel. Again I was super early as my office was just nearby. It didn’t occur to me that I would meet one of my ktv group members, Yi Feng, who happened to be my cousin’s classmate. What a coincidence. I was a little surprised when I heard someone called out my name from far. I was asked by my aunt to stand in for my grandma, who is unable to attend the wedding at the VIP seat. I was okay with it as in the Teochew tradition, the eldest grandson of the family is treated as the last child of the family. It also met that I had to be up on stage to say the “Yam Seng” for them. I stood on the 2nd row as my voice was not able to lead the cheers as I am still having a slight sore throat. I would like to take the opportunity to wish the couple a happy and blissful marriage.

I was a little busy this week and was sick almost throughout the whole week. But I certainly didn’t forget that it was my long time blog friend, Dalicia’s Birthday on 7 Dec. Just wanna wish her a happy belated birthday and may she stay beautiful and youthful always, whatever she wishes for come true for her. I am sure she will like this music video dedicated to her, which is a song by her favourite artisite, Andy Lau.

I was looking forward to the MIO Home Plan being installed at my home 3 days ago, but I certainly didn’t expect to be the start of my nightmare with the Singtel Customer Service, Sales and Technical Assistance Departments. I had signed up with the plan after hearing from the salesman, who was promoting Singnet Broadband & MIO TV on 17 Nov 2009. I was promised the following items 1. Free rental waiver for my 2 home residential lines. However, since one of the lines belonged to my dad, I had to get it transferred to my name. This line would then qualify for the waiver and be the MIO TV line, which would be used exclusively for MIO TV purposes. 2. A free broadband modem exclusively for MIO TV purposes 3. 20% off my 2 handphone lines. One of the lines is mine, while the other is signed under my name for my brother. I added on the Chinese TV Pack and BPL & ESPN package on top of the CCTV 4 channel, which my family has been enjoying since the previous broadband contract. ...

I was shocked to find my table filled with files to clear on Monday. My manager did not have enough time to clear the stuff before her last day before she went on leave. Luckily, she already completed part of the task on hand, otherwise I don’t know how to approach the task. I had to change my lunch to 1pm on Monday as there were only two people in my dept. Started to have bad sore throat towards the end of the day. I really had a hard time sleeping that night. Decided to run to the doc for consultation the next morning. This time round, I was lucky that the doc who always treat me well is the one who attended to me. Although he gave me MC, I still went back to work as due to staff shortage. Was supposed to get my Mio Home Plan done on Tuesday, but the Mio setup box which I had had some technical problems. Installation will be delayed. I have lodged a complaint to Singtel, so they must get back to me to redo the installation on another day. Shall stop here as medication taking ef...

I joined my mum for this talk organised by Lianhe Zaobao, NTU School of Business Administration & Shanghai Jiaotong University at NTU Alumini Club today. I thought the talk was very imformative as the presenter shared with us the various reasons that led to the financial crisis , and how China was affected, in his own analysis. As a finance person, I learnt a lot from the talk.

As I was making my way to the Children’s Home, I received an sms. It was from one of my poly mate that I have not met up since poly graduation. She said that she would be joining me & my K group with another poly mate of ours. It has been about 11 years since we last met. Time flies. I am quite surprised by the response for the birthday celebration actually as all of them, including the newbies have been very co-operative and have given me their contact numbers without me asking. And they have been very helpful, helping me out with the logistics matters, such as photo taking, gift exchange, getting the cake etc. I will be having a group member flying back from USA to join me for this. Its not so much about the number of attendees, but the thoughts and what you guys have done for me this round, as I assumed responsibility to take charge of my own birthday celebration. Just want to say this to all of the attendees in advance. I am really looking forward to the celebration, which happ...

Picture courtesy of Chen Su Lan Methodist Children’s Home’s website I was asked by my mum to join her and her fellow volunteer consuellors & their family members from the Care Corner in spreading some Christmas cheer to the underprivilleged children at Chen Su Lan Methodist Children’s Home, which is near my place. For me it has been about 14 years since I did such an activity. I used to do such activities when I was in secondary school, with my ECA group, the Interact Club. For my mum, a visit to the home was like homecoming to her as she used to work as a teacher at the home 16 years ago. We were there to play some games and had lunch with them. We were taken to a tour of the home by the supervisor as well before we mingled with the children. We got to understand how the home is operated and how the children are living under the strict home rules. Some of them include:- Boys and gals are not allowed to mingle together at the home, except during group activities....