Paul's Fulfilling Life

  I nearly had to put up a missing person’s notice to locate my partner for yesterday evening. The fortunate thing is that Grace managed to contact me first thing in the morning yesterday and confirmed that she was joining me for her belated birthday celebration I had planned for her and she will be joining me for the Ah Mei concert. The celebration dinner was at Wheelock Place NYDC at her request. This was the 1st time that I have stepped into NYDC after it has been renovated. The menu has been changed but the cakes are still as good. :-) We ordered our main courses and Grace decided to try boney cake with chocolate ice-cream for her desert, while I had the Big O cheesecake for my desert. It ended up that we had 3 slices of cake for our desert as one of the guests had accidentally knocked onto a glass of iced water, and the iced water fell onto Grace’s dress and the family compensated us with a slice of cake. Grace & I thought that it was lucky th...

I was quite busy with my work recently as my manager is still away on her holiday trip. In fact, a lot of funny things happened in these two weeks. This meant that I didn’t have much time to update my blog or monitor the updated headcount for the Chinese New Year Gathering at my place, which I have posted as a closed event on Facebook. Lucky I posted up the event early, during my leave break 2 weeks ago, otherwise I do not know if I can put up the event last week, given the busy schedule that I had. I thank the 30 guests who have so far confirmed their attendance to the event. Please thank my mum too as she was the one who asked me to invite you all. :-) I was so busy that I nearly forgotten it was Rachel’s birthday yesterday. Here’s wishing her have a smooth year ahead. Stay youthful and beautiful always!!! I certainly hope that her dad makes a speedy recovery from the stroke that he had last week.

My brother had decided to do his CNY shopping on Tuesday as he was on his off day. Mum had designated me as the paymaster for his shopping spree. The shopping trip was at Plaza Singapura at his favourite G2000 store. The damage to my wallet was about $100. Fortunately there was OCBC card discount of 15%, otherwise the damage would be heavier. I just hope that my brother wears as he is pretty choosy about what he wears. It is good that I am able to help him get what he wants.

Just wish to tell my blog readers that I cannot take any more shocks these few days already as the few days have been shocking enough for me on my job already. Lucky Saturday, I am celebrating Grace’s birthday before heading down to A*Mei concert with her. I can’t wait!!! My boss decided to drop me the shocker of the week, by telling me there is increment for me but I found nothing added to the usual figure that I was taking for the past 1 year plus. At first, I didn’t know how to react as this is a rather delicate issue, but in the end, I managed to solve it in a subtle way. It ended up I had the increment that I expected. I shall not say how much I have gotten, as some of my colleagues got a major pay cut due to their poor performances. This increment meant that I am able to increase the family allowance to my mum since I started this job.

I had a late dinner last night. Thanks to my former client, who picked me up and asked me to go to his office to help him out with some of his work before buying me dinner. A free treat does not come easy as I really had to work for it. Dinner was at Jalan Kayu, where we had roti prata, thosai, satay and mutrabak. It was rather filling for me. This was my 1st time to Jalan Kayu to eat prata.

I was a little fustrated by this issue for the past few days, but I didn’t have the time to look into it as I was cooped up with my job issues. I only managed to look into the issue yesterday and discovered the following errors. It is quite surprising that I am still quite calm about the errors made. Maybe because all the technical issues have been resolved, and I could watch my favourite MIO TV programs now. I was going to write a letter to them to ask them about the billing errors that I had received in my bills this month :- How come my plan is still under Singtel 8MB and not MIO Home Plan, which is 10MB ? How come I am being billed for the CCTV 4 channel seperately when it is supposed to be part of the Chinese Pack? How come there is no 20% discount for each of my 2 mobile handphone lines? Just as I was drafting my letter halfway,  2 Singtel promotion people (Edmund & Irene) were spotted by mum. My mum was aware of the problem as I have highlighted the iss...

Picture courtesy of SISTIC I am looking forward to her concert next Saturday, which I will be catching it with my long time ICQ friend, Grace, who will be flying in from Austraila to join me for this concert. Its also Grace’s birthday in the concert week, so I will be joining her for dinner. This is my 1st time attending A*Mei concert. I am hoping that she sings some of her old hits as well, like  

I was recommended by my mum to watch this show that is showing on MIO TV Channel 73 (美亚戏剧台), which I have subscribed as part of my MIO Home Plan. Once I watched it, I was hooked. This China production is about 2 sisters who were seperated after their parents divorced. It was only after 21 years that they got back together. This was because the younger sister was posted to Beijing to study in university. Many misunderstandings happen between them because of their vastly different characters. I just hope that the same guy that they are after knows who to choose at the end of the show.

I managed to solve the $100k tax issue of my client by implementing one of my recommended solutions to my senior partner, since the junior partner was not in favour of the other solution I recommended. Actually, the Yesterday, I had another shock at work. One of the clients who terminated our services prematurely last year had a composition fine for failure to file their tax return yesterday. The client, who has since been taken over by the new management, blames us for not completing our tax work. The fortunate thing is that the termination was done over a formal meeting between the ex management and my senior partner and my manager, therefore it was all documented. That’s the good part about having documentation. I am looking forward to my pay increment on Monday. Hopefully, it will be good enough to justify the hard work that I have put in for the last year and to cover up the lack of an increment last year. I also hope to stay in the firm as it is hard to find such good colle...

I met up with my former ACCA classmates, Elaine and Tammy at Wheelock Place, Sun with Moon for dinner last night. Too bad, our other classmate, Peggy, was not able to join us due to her work commitments at her new job at Resorts World. The place was recommended by Tammy, as she thought that the place is good for ambience and great Japanese food. She also felt that it was also convivnent for me and Elaine, as she only knows how to drive to Orchard Road from her work place. I thought the food was great, even though the pricing was a little on the high end. We paid about $50 per pax, which I thought it was ok, as I really like the decor and ambience of the restaurant. The sashimi was fresh and delicious. It is always nice to catch up with them. Elaine and Tammy are happy for me that I have resumed my ACCA studies. Tammy said that I have made a good choice in choosing Mr Philip Woo of Singapore Accountancy Academy as he is able to relate better the concepts taught with real life exprie...

I had a draining 2 days at work as my manager is away for 2 weeks. She is being asked to clear her leave, just like what I did last week. I wonder why, whenever she is not around, many unexpected things seems to happen at work when she is not around. But I am lucky that my department colleagues have been helpful to help me out. The shock that I got today was a client was slapped with a substantial amount of estimated tax of about $100k as they did not submit the tax on time. But it was offset by my boss announcement at the meeting today. It is a piece of good news that will have a huge impact on the firm and I am glad to say I am going to be one of the beneficaries because of the hard work that I have put in. Still have a week plus to go. Can I make it?

I am stumped by a problem at work recently. Does anyone knows what was the rate of annual allowance for at building accquired in the year 1989? Is it 2% or 3%? I wonder if there are tax officers working at IRAS reading my blog. I need the answer to solve something at work. If you happen to study the taxation papers at poly or ACCA and happen to have the answer with you, please let me know. I cannot find the answer on the IRAS website.

I decided to take my blog checker’s advice and discarded some painful memories from my blog and facebook. The feeling is like getting rid of the clutter and the heavy load that is weighing my mind. Many of my friends have asked me to take such an action quite some time ago, but I was hoping that all these could change, but it was not to be. I guess in the new year, some old stuff got to go. If you can’t let go, the new things would not appear. Just a note to my readers who wish to comment on my entries, my blog does not allow annoyomous comments anymore. Frequent readers of my blog will know why I decided to have this feature after so long. I have also decided to revive the memories slide show on my blog. The slide show was previously stopped after the passing of my NS buddy 2 years ago. My mum and my blog checker feel that Paul has been a happier person since I had this job and attended facebook gatherings and made a lot of friends. Thank you people for making my life so colourf...

I was awoken by my mum chanting in my bedroom today. Anyway, I was still troubled by what she said to me last night, so I decided to find a person to talk to. I managed to find a person to talk to. A long time friend. Let’s call this friend, my blog checker, since she is always the one who helps me to monitor what I post on my blog and what comments I am getting on my blog. I feel so sorry to wake her up so early with my sms and give her precious weekend time to me to listen to my troubles. I took a cab to her place. She asked me to be at her place by 11am, but I was there early instead as I know she had to go out at about 2pm. After listening to my troubles, she gave me some advice and solutions to my problems which I felt that they were pretty good. I guess I will be implementing the recommended solutions by her. I must say this friend of mine really has an analytical mind, and she really treats me like a brother. She said, in order not to be hurt any further by some people, I ha...

I was tasked by my dad to look for DVD RW disc that has no cover. Now that my DVD recorder is up and running, we can always program it to record shows that we missed. The good thing is I managed to find the discs at a much cheaper price than what I had used to buy from Popular Bookstore. At the same time, I managed to get some reviews from the stores about Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7. I am currently thinking if I want to change my 6 year old PC running on Windows XP.

This question has been floating in my mind after 2 elders was chiding me how I treat some friendships recently. I know they are deeply concerned about me, especially to me having a partner to take care of me. But some of the remarks made by them are simply hard to stomach as they just jump into certain conclusions just after hearing some parts of the story, and tell me not to stay too close to some people just because they are attached or married. I have to admit the elders may have their own views on this. For me, I feel that a platonic friendship can exist if both parties know where the boundaries and limits are. Having been in a female-dominated field for quite a while, and having been through several turbulent courtships and several turbulent platonic friendships, I certainly know where the bounddaries and limits should be drawn. Like what a friend told me about how she felt that a platonic friendship should exist, I really got to agree with her. She said that both parti...

A friend was asking me how I was coping with the rejection of a gal recently. One of the advantages in blogging in Chinese is not many people may be able to understand what I am writing as Singapore is predominantly using English as a working language, therefore the standard of Chinese is falling. Just to let my blog readers know that I am coping well with the rejection. I am happy that she has decided to continue to be friends with me. In fact, I have congratulated her on her new relationship that she has begun with someone else soon after the rejection. Like what one of my friends said when we were talking casually about BGR recently, she mentioned that sometimes boys and gals can be very good friends but when it comes to relationships, they are absolutely clueless about how to handle it when coming to sensitive issues that will ultimately make or break the relationship. I have to agree with her on this as I have a few female friends who treat me like their brother and are always...

My dad seems to have encountered some problems on his job and we are trying hard to convince him not to be rash to take the “R” route as we feel that he is still young and still have about 10 years of working life before reaching the statutory retirement age. However, he has been brushing us off saying that we do not understand the situations at his workplace. The problems he is encountering, which he explained to us, to me and my mum appears to be small problems that can be resolved with communication with the other party. Mum and I are of the view that if my dad were to take the “R” route, he will sit at home and laze around, eat and sleep. He is already overweight and have underlying health problems. We are family, and we are trying to help him find solutions to his problems. I can sense that my mum is feeling vexed trying to talk my dad out of his decision. The company he is working for is a good company with wonderful staff welfare. It is definitely difficult to find such co...

I was on the cab from Plaza Singapura to Dempsey yesterday. The taxi driver who picked me up was complaining that he had to drive a taxi after his steel trading licence was suspended. He also mentioned that he felt one should stay single in Singapore as the Government is not providing enough benefits for all of us. Marrying in Singapore means that you are marrying into a debt. Staying single will guarantee peace. In my opinon, I feel that our Government has been doing a good job in providing us with a roof over our heads by telling us to use our CPF savings to get a flat. Having a family is also important, I feel as you would not have to worry about no one sending you off when you go to the other world. You certainly won’t feel lonely as you grow older. As one of my colleagues put it, you will feel that you age faster once you reach 30. I certainly am feeling the heat now. :( However, it does not mean that we can just pick any gal or guy on the street, and just for their hand for m...

I joined the Facebook Foodies Club for dinner at Bacchus last night. Yesterday was with a smaller group of people with 11 people. It meant that I had a chance to interact with people and enjoy good food at the same time. I certainly had a good time knowing Deborah, Rene, Wenna, Chris & Catherine. The good part was having my singing buddy, Jonathan around as well, making me able to enjoy the dinner and making friends with relative ease. I must say I enjoyed the food, that I ordered. I ordered the Flumuken,Bawhrust susages and tiramisu cake. You must be thinking that why I ordered so much food. I must say I was very hungry as I didn’t have a filling lunch. Although, it burned a hole in my pocket, but it is certainly good to indulge in myself sometimes! I like the ambience of the restuarant. After the dinner, we indulged ourselves in some German wine before we were asked to pose for photos. After that, we adjourned to Harry’s Bar for a drink and chat session. Jonathan was so afraid ...

最近,我迷上了九点档的电视剧,"当我们同在一起".我非常喜欢这故事的,还有戴杨天和欧萱的演绎.当然还有我最欣赏的两位本地歌手,陈伟联和蔡淳佳.他们演唱的主题曲和插曲真的很好听!

I was travelling on Service 74e (SBS 2723E) today evening at about 6.55pm. The bus captains for Service 74 & Service 74e,who know me will know that I would not usually take this particular bus as I had a misunderstanding with the usual bus captain who drives this bus usually. Since it is not the usual bus captain who is driving the bus, I boarded the bus.It happens to be the bus captain who gave me a ride, despite being off duty already the last time, Uncle Guan. As the bus was travelling towards Ang Mo Kio MRT station, a passenger asked me if a black wallet lying on the seat was mine. When I answered no, I also told Uncle Guan about it and said I will be following him to Hougang Central Interchange to report the find to the passenger service centre there. I knew that this was his last trip for the day and he needed to drive the bus back to Bukit Batok Depot and he was running behind schedule. I agreed to do him a favour since he has been ferrying me for the past 12 years when I...

今天，老板要我把一份中文电邮以简单的插图，分析一遍。其实，我并没有信心把电邮所写的大纲以简单的插图分析一遍。因为，写电邮的是中国人。他们的华文程度比较深，所以，分析是有一定的难度。 后来，客户打电话给老板。老板说我的分析是对的。不知不觉，我已经大约十五年没读华文了。可是，我还能分析成功，真是太好了。

I had wanted to catch this movie since last week. I managed to get Qiqi and her friend, Gonnie to join me for this movie at the Cathay Cineplex last night. Before the movie, we had our dinner at the Japanese Food Court at Paradiz Centre. I would like to thank Gonnie for recommending this place to me. I remembered seeing this place being featured on a TV programme on Channel 8 before. This food court has a nice ambience and an interesting feature is if you spend at least $4.50 on the food, you will enjoy a free flow of drinks at the food court. After the dinner, since it was still early, we decided to stay at the food court where the three of us chatted for a while, before we went to the cinema for our movie. This was my first time meeting Gonnie, and it is actually a surprise that we had quite a lot to chat. Maybe we are all in the accounting field of work, which makes it easier to break the ice. I must say that he is a friendly guy. The movie was great, as I felt that it is hila...

Wednesday was my first lesson for the Professional Accountant (P1) paper that I will be most likely retaking for the coming June Exams. The location of my new school is at 6 Raffles Quay, Singapore Accountancy Academy’s City Campus. The building is actually the former John Hancock Tower. I feel glad that I have made the choice to study at the school as this lecturer, Mr Woo, seems to explain the concepts better than the lecturer at Kaplan. This makes me able to grasp the concepts taught better. Although the distance is slightly further than Kaplan, the longer time taken to travel is worth it. Even though, it means I have to have my dinner of bread at my office first before I leave for class. Let’s hope this will give me the confidence and motivation that I need for the coming exam.

My mum knows that I have a blog, but she don’t really read it. She usually will hear from me or my cousins about what I blogged about recently. Sometimes, when I upload photos on my blog, she will usually want to view it as I upload them. Recently she gave me a suggestion to write a selected few entries each month in Chinese, so that I would not forget the language. I thought that it was a good idea and I have already implemented it. My mum certainly want me to be a bilingual blogger.

I finally received my belated birthday present from my cousin, Adel from her parents yesterday. I guessed she must be really busy with her work commitments. She had actually wanted to pass me the gift when she saw me at City Hall MRT station last week. Actually, I feel a little bad to accept the gift from her as I have not got her anything when it was her birthday last November. The gift was once again a surprise for me, as she actually gave me the Manchester United 2008 Champions T-shirt. It is a gift that I did not expect once again, and that is not so cheap either! It shows that I am being valued as a cousin. Maybe I should ask her out for a movie or a meal one of these days.

What a good way to kickstart the New Year by enjoying the 3rd day of my long weekend by singing with my friends from Facebook. The event was organised by Paul Tseng at Shenton Way Partyworld Branch. We found rats and cockroaches in our rooms. I guess this will be the last time we will partonising the outlet, which was the former NTUC Club Head Office. I was honoured to be in the same room as Karen Low,Paul, Andrina and their friends, Ah Liang & Alex. I must say that Singapore is really a small country as before this, Paul and Andrina do not know that they know Ah Liang and Alex from other events seperately before this. I had a field day singing yesterday since in my room. This has made up the loss that I didn’t sing much for my birthday KTV. Had a chance to sing a few songs and duets that people in the room did not hear before this. This song is actually the other version of the song featured below.       You must be thinking that Paul will b...

新的一年，新的开始. 虽然在新的一年的第一天，就经历了失败，但是，妈妈和朋友们都说我非常勇敢.因为，从这件事，他们看得出我已经走出了去年所发生的一件事，所留下的印影和伤痛. 我自己也感到意外，自己能突破地克服了心理的障碍，写了那封电邮给她，而且是在相当简短的是写出来的！或许是我的布落格时不时都有不友善的评语的出现，让我如今在写布落格时，用词都非常小心谨慎. 虽然这次的对象是不一样，但是结果是和上一回是一样的.幸好，我也没领她感到太意外.她还是愿意把我当朋友！我真希望我们的友谊能长久!   编辑的话：请不要问我她是谁，因为我不想让我们的友谊有变化！

I was up quite early by my standards today, considering the fact that I was home quite late last night. The reason was I got my ex colleague, Roy to help me with the installation of the wired home network at my place as my parents was complaining that they could not surf the Internet on their computer, which is installed in the master bedroom. At the same time, he gave me a micro SD card reader to read the SD card of my new Olympus FE 4000 camera. I prefer to use card reader to read my card as i hate the difficulty of plugging the camera cable to the camera then to the USB port. Apparently the new card reader is able to read a SIM card, SD card as well. Roy was commenting that my new internet speed of 10MB per second was very fast. I was telling him the problems that I have faced when I got it installed in December 2009. Anyway, now the wired home network up, my parents no longer will complain that they can’t surf the Internet. My brother will have a more stable wireless connection...

My New Year Eve started on a bad note as I had wanted to record the Mediacorp TV show “Together” but my DVD recorder settings went haywire as I was trying to program it to record the show. Anyway, it is alright since I have the 8 Days magazine, so it just means that I have to get my TV fix there. The day was pretty boring at work as there was nothing much to clear yesterday. The whole day, which lasted till 5pm was about me staring at the PC and playing with my mouse and familarising myself with the new keyboard, after the old one I had suddenly stopped serving me last week and sending pre New Year smses to my friends. This festive season, I decided to craft my own sms messages to send to my friends as I believe that the sms messages with a personal touch will say how I feel about the friendship that we shared, rather than forwarding forwarded smses. Also, I didn’t send to many people as I feel that these friends are part of my treasured group of friends. The long wait to 5pm was f...