Paul's Fulfilling Life

I was asked by my dad to keep my Saturday evening free. The reason was he had signed up for the singing competition organised by the community centre in my area. So therefore, I guess you know by now where my singing genes came from. :) This was the 1st time that I have participated in my community centre’s Chinese New Year dinner. It also meant that I met by my MP for my area, Mr Wee Siew Kim for only the second time since he served his second term in office. His arrival was greeted by the lion dance troupe at 8pm. The dinner was held at Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 at an open air basketball court. It was hard to imagine that the basketball court was able to accommodate 112 tables with 10 guests on each table, and there was still enough space in between the tables for the guests to move around. My table was quite lucky. The whole table of guests won a gift each, describing how the year will turn out for each zodiac sign. The food was not too bad, to my surprise. Maybe we paid $20 per pax...

I just got back from the wake of Qiqi’s granny. I only knew that her granny had passed away when I logged on to Facebook while waiting for my hair to dry as I reached home quite late from class on Wednesday. Just wish to say that “life is short, therefore treasure your loved ones while they are still around.” At the same time, it will be good that if you can devise your financial plan so that your family would not have to suffer when you are no longer around. Just hope that my friend stays strong during this period.

I have been asked by my senior partners to attend this seminar. The cost of the seminar will be borne by the company. It has been a while since I last attended the budget seminar as when I attended the seminar a few years ago, while working at my ex-firm, I had to pay for the seminar myself and I had to take my own annual leave to attend the seminar. http://www.icpas.org.sg/cpe/public/viewSession.aspx?SeminarId=295&IntakeId=37 This year’s Budget, I would term it as a Productivity Budget with finally some reliefs for the people who are physically challenged, like me. My parents will not be able to claim any Qualifying Child Relief for my brother in this year as he is serving his NS, and I won’t qualify for Handicapped Child Relief as I have been working since 2003. But with this change, my parents will be able to claim Handicapped Child Relief, even though I am working.

I had received a refund cheque for something that I bought, but I didn’t want the service later. But the cheque, although issued in my name, may not be able to be cashed. You may wonder why this is so. The company that refunded me the cheque have included my hanyu pinyin name beside my dialect name. I just feel that the issuer of the cheque is so stupid. I wonder why they didn’t check with me what name should be listed on the cheque before they issue the refund. I just hope that the cheque deposit can go through my bank account. Its my money leh!!! I had been busy with one of my major client’s tax provision recently. My manager had given me the opportunity to try it out, while she did another tax provision as it came around the same time as mine. The other provision’s audit was completed by the new auditor as mentioned in a few posts ago. My manager had a frustrating time doing the computation as well. Now, she knows what I mean when I said, “People still have the cheek to compla...

Here are more photos from yesterday’s gathering, courtesy from Qiqi Little Guojun is so not camera shy!!! The Ladies Grp Pic – Karen, Chloe, Rachel, Jas & Belinda The Guys Grp Pic – Jonathan, myself, Yi Feng, Paul Tseng, Yongxiang, CK, Lawrence, Lance, Jue Liang, Albert Thanks gal, hope u had a good time !!!!

Every Chinese New Year, I would usually invite my friends to my place. This is the second year in succession that my mum has approved my guest list and agreed to cook for my friends and allow them have an enjoyable time.   The response for this year’s gathering was extraordinary. I would say it exceeded my expectations. The only disappointment was that my former JC course mates (David, Daryl & Doreen), my invited poly mates (Yvonne , Caifeng, Huiyu , Charles), long time net friends (Grace & Nicole) not able to make it for this gathering. There was a person who flew the aeroplane at me at the last minute, but I guess let’s don’t dwell on it. I would like to thank the following members of the Singing @ K group and the presence of Wai Ling & her family, Mr Tan & her son, Guojun . Lawrence – Chairman of the group - Thanks for the wine Jas – Thanks for your cupcakes Belinda – Thanks for the popiah Candice, Yanling & CK – Thanks for the “Yusheng” Andri...

I was invited to Andrina’s house for a mini KTV session in the afternoon today. One of my friends, YC paid me a visit this morning as he is not able to come for the house gathering that I was going to have tomorrow afternoon at my place. I would like to thank him for giving me a ride to Sembawang MRT as I had to meet Jonathan at the MRT station. Jonathan & I had a quick lunch at MacDonald’s before we went to Andrina’s house. Today was designated as a theme day, as the few of us, including PT, Alex & Jon Ya decided to sing songs with a designated theme from each of us. The categories that we were asked to select were:- Song Title with Numbers Song Lyrics Containing the word Love Love Songs Singing of a song of the opposite gender Songs sung in a concert I had the opportunity to hear and sing this new JJ song. I must say that it is really hard to sing as the pitch is quite high.   I had the opportunit...

The MIO Home Plan, my new Internet, MIO TV & Home Phones Plan had given me a lot of problems, from technical problems to billing problems. I am glad that all was solved after the second sales promotion officer, Edmund assisted me by resubmitting my form when he was at my place doing promotion in January. Although I must say that I only got the rebates only yesterday. At least, I need not pay for the 3rd phone line that I did not need. I was allowed to cancel it, and I was able to use my 2 Home phone lines without incurring rental charges. I was also able to enjoy 10MB Internet Access, together with the MIO TV programmes and a 20% off my 2 mobile phone lines with a yearly handset upgrade. I am just glad that the fiasco is solved after 2 months and I got what I should get.

I have signed up, once again for the 7th year to be an IRAS e-filing volunteer this year. I will be based at the Serangoon CC once again. This year, I hope that more people will come over to serve as volunteers!! It is an exercise which allows you to help people and also pick up some knowledge about personal tax. Trust me, you get satisfaction helping people!!! For more details, please visit this link:- http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/ves2010.aspxhttp://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/ves2010.aspx Hope to see YOU coming forward!!!

I started work yesterday. I decided to wear the Teal Blue working shirt that I bought at G2000 Istean Scotts last month. I am surprised by the rave reviews that I got for the working wear yesterday. My young boss was the 1st one to say that the the colour was teal blue. My colleagues thought that it was a bright colour that Paul seldom wears and said that I looked good in it. My boss sprung a surprise at me again by giving me a wallet as a gift today. I think she appreciates that I am slogging hard at work. What a bright start!!!

Pics courtesy of my cousin, Adel Li. It was a tiring day for me yesterday as I went around Serangoon North & Sengkang visiting my relatives. We set off at about 12 noon to my first uncle’s ( 大舅）place at Serangoon North. I always liked going to their place as my uncle’s 5 children are very lively people. We had a sumptuous lunch there before we played some card games. Soon my second aunt (二姨）came. She said she wanted to pay a visit to my place, so my brother and I packed up and went home. My aunt helped us with the cutting of the dried barbecue pork that my mum’s boss has given to us as a gift. After that, we followed her to my 3rd uncle’s (三舅）place, whose block is next to my block. It was always good to catch up with him as even though he stays next to my block, we meet up only during family occasions as we are always busy with our own stuff. After that, we went home, with the thought of taking a bath, but I received a call from my ex-client that he wanted to give...

新年的第一天，我睡到十点半才起床，而且是被三舅和四姨的叫声叫醒。昨晚，妈妈，弟弟和我都忙着摆放樱柳，和其他的新年装饰，凌晨一点多才睡。我的表姨也从老人院出来，陪我们吃团圆饭，并且也在我家住几天。 不久后，爸爸回来，我们便去二叔家拜年和吃午餐。今年和往年不一样，因为没去祖母家拜年，因为，祖母在前年跌伤了，现在住在老人院。二叔把她从老人院接出来，陪我们过年。 二叔叫了自助餐，小婶叫了鱼生。鱼生是从“荣寿司”叫来的。今天，我才知道“荣寿司”有做鱼生，而且还有包送。或许，下个星期天在我家的家的聚会，我可以考虑订购吧！！！ 希望大家在新的一年里，捞个风生水起！！！在这儿祝大家新年快乐，万事如意！！！

I know my wishes may seem a little early but it is going to be Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day in about 2 days time. Just to wish all my friends, 新年快乐! 万事如意! 学业进步! 事业顺利! For those people who will be celebrating Valentine’s Day with your beloved one, hope that you will have a good celebration with him / her. :-) For those who have someone in mind, but do not know how to express how you feel about him / her, I feel that the most important thing is to stay true to yourself and be confident of yourself, just like this scene below. :-) One must be brave and dare to move forward, otherwise prospective partners may be other people’s partners. For those people who are still single, just like me, enjoy the joys of singlehood. Do not feel stressed that your friends around you are having partners. A person who appreciates and love you for what you are will appear when you least expect it. :-) Just treat it as a friendship day, then you will be happy. :)

I am a person who pride myself about my work, therefore I hate it when people make comments about my work when they are the ones at fault. Today, I was rather disturbed by what my boss did. I was working on a tax provision and the audit was done by a new auditor. Ever since the “lack of schedules done” incident last year, it was agreed that I will work on the tax provision of the new auditors so as to gain first hand knowledge as to the quality of the schedules done up by them. I thought that the auditor was ok, as although she missed out doing a number of schedules, she was willing to help us rectify the issues. However, I wonder who was the idiot who told my boss that I have asked her too many questions. My boss wanted to avoid further trouble before CNY so she asked my manager to take over the case from me. I am so disturbed by the whole incident. The computation is a complex one as the client had many properties that had rental income, therefore much time had to be spent on w...

I finally got my new PC with the new Windows 7, 4GB RAM and 500GB hard disk at a affordable price. Thanks to my ex-colleague Roy for the fast and efficient service. I managed to get my data from my old computer transferred to my new hard disk. He was saying that I had under utilised my hard disk in my old PC & is expecting it to be the same as well for this one. I like the Windows 7 OS interface very much. It is quite easy to work with like Windows XP. I am still exploring the functionality of Windows 7 operating system. I must say I am enjoying it! Leaving you with 3 songs taken from the 海派甜心 soundtrack.  

This year, my company annual dinner was held before the traditional CNY period as my senior partners' son, aka the young boss will be going on a business trip during the CNY period. It was held at Kam Boat Restaurant at Shaw Centre again this year. I knew that I could not go off without singing a few songs after my bosses had requested me to sing some songs. It is also rather surprising that my senior partners' daughter, had asked me to sing some duets with her. As she is 8 years younger than me, I was pretty surprised that I could duet with her all the songs that she requested me to duet with her. One of the songs was my first attempt trying it out, and she said that I sang it well. Maybe that's one of the advantages of having singing karaoke as a hobby as I really get to know many different songs. The sad part was that I forgotten to bring my camera along today, otherwise I could have taken some pics & uploaded it here and Facebook for my blog readers' viewing pl...

I decided to let my old loyal PC of 5 years to go in peace and get my ex colleague to assemble a new set for me. The price that he quoted was quite ok, within my budget and most of the stuff that I wanted to be in the new PC will be in the package. So I must say that I just agreed to the quotation after looking at the specs. My new PC will be delivered on Friday. Looking forward to it!!! at In the meantime, for those of you that wishes to contact me via email, please direct your emails to my Gmail account at paulbf1812@gmail.com

Just wanna wish my friend, Nicole a very happy birthday in about half an hour's time. Sorry no cake on display for this post as I am having trouble navigating my brother's notebook. Just hope that whatever she wishes for comes true for her.

I had wanted to switch on the PC to continue the last part of Hai Pai Tian Xin just now. Unfortunately, there were 3 beeping sounds coming from it. It seems like the PC that I have been using it for the past 5 years has decided to be gone for good. Now I am using my brother's laptop to type this blog entry, instead of using my trusted Windows Live Writer. My ex-colleague, who had helped me assemble a customised PC 5 years ago, said that it was advisable for me to get a new one. He could help me get what I want at a good price, which I hope is affordable & good.

I was recommended to watch this drama that stars Rainie Yang & Show Luo by Qiqi & Yongxiang. People who know me will know that Paul is a fan of HK TVB drama, so I was expecting nothing much from the drama. I didn't expect myself to be hooked onto the drama. I feel that its a nice, touching love story. Maybe I am a sentimental guy. If you haven't catch the show, do catch it!

I was invited by Paul Tseng's friend, Alex to join them, Andrina, Ah Liang & Trina to join them for a mini ktv session at Vivo City Partyworld on last Sat. I felt that the location was good, as you can get a good view of Sentosa and Resorts World. Like the other newly opened Partyworld branches at Clementi and The Verge, this Partyworld comes with a foot massager in all its rooms. This has gave me some ideas as to where my next facebook singing event will be held in March.

This was an unexpected busy week for me as my clients who didn’t file their tax return for last year, started to receive advance assessment and composition fine. According to my friend who works at IRAS Enforcement Division, they are doing this by invoking a new law to raise advance assessment so as to clear the backlog of back years’ tax returns that are not finalised yet. Personally, I feel that IRAS is doing it right but the timing seems to be wrong as the economy is still in recovery mode. For the first time in my years in writing appeal letters to assist my clients to get waiver for their penalties, I ran out of reasons to write for them. This is especially so after I attended the Corporate Tax Seminar in September last year which states that an objection letter cannot be too generalised, like it is estimated and excessive. I just hope that my clients can be more proactive to submit their accounts for us to audit or compile on time, and not to wait till the last moments, as ...