Paul's Fulfilling Life

Although I am still a little sick and my exam is in 17 days time, I still felt that I need a break before I restart my engine to complete my revision and my new job responsibilities from Monday as I will be taking over from my resigned colleague for the time being till either a replacement has been found or my resigned colleague managed to solve her domestic problems. It was a 1st time experience for me going to Andrina’s place by bus. I was forced to do that due to this incident . The bus ride from my place to Yishun was fast, but the same cannot be said for the continuing journey from Yishun to Sembawang. Although, at least now I have some idea which are the buses that goes to her place, should the MRT fails again. It tends to happen frequently nowadays. Sang this song as the last song with Lance. It was my 1st time doing duo singing with him, and we are happy that we managed to do it well, despite of my slight flu. :) Sang this song as well. Had to do a minus 2 for this due to my fl...

Me with my colleagues, Anna ,Ms Woo, my mum, Jinn Der and Amy (my manager) (Photo courtesy of Anna) The short week started early for most of my colleagues and myself were invited to my manager’s daughter wedding at Sheraton Towers Hotel on Sunday night. I apologise for the lack of photos for this wedding as the lighting in the ballroom was not conductive for photo taking. Even my manager thinks that the hotel is in need of some renovations to save itself from some tax deduction. (Read Section 14Q Deduction) :p I was down with throat infection on Tuesday, which meant that a part of the no MC bonus is gone for the whole year and a hole in my pocket as I have seen the doctor twice in the past 2 days for my ills. It was great to be back on Wednesday, only to discover that my colleague had brought forward her resignation notice to today, as there is no one to look after her children. My colleagues and bosses are hoping that she would be back to join us soon, as soon as she is abl...

My colleagues and I were invited to my manager’s daughter wedding at Sheraton Towers Hotel. I think this is the most interesting weddings that I have attended. It is interesting to note that my manager’s daughter, Cheryl is about 5 years younger than me. Yet, she prefers old Chinese songs from Ge Lan. Zhou Xuan so much that she decided to incorporate them into her wedding march in theme. It is certainly hard to find young people who likes and appreciate such music. It certainly help them to blend in with the older folk in the crowd.   Personally I enjoy such music too. This shows I am not the odd one out. :)

My boss has asked me to help to source for a replacement for a tax executive. The replacement will be for my colleague, who would be departing at the end of next month. The reason that she is putting me in charge of the hunt, according to my manager, is she is hoping that I can find someone who is trustworthy, humble and able to work with all of us. My boss has stated that she does not mind if the person can only start work 2 or 3 months later. Here are the requirements for the job. Able to communicate with clients for required information in English & Mandarin for ECI and request for tax schedules. Able to work on personal tax computations and corporate tax computations independently If you are interested in working in a audit firm, dealing with tax matters, do feel free to contact me. By the way, its a five-day work week job.

I nearly had to run like a cheetah to make it for this session with Qiqi, Gonnie & Lance as some last minute stuff caused me to walk out of the office 13 minutes before the meeting time. This session was suggested by Gonnie, as he said that he never heard me sing before until yesterday. Here are some of the photos we took for the session. Photos courtesy of Qiqi.   Some of the duet songs we sang include :- It was certainly good to sing all my stress away with them. They are a fun bunch!!!

I had a unexpected busy week as my colleague took a week off to care for her baby daughter, who had passed motion with blood in her stools. It ended up all the unexpected things turned up with her clients’ tax problems. It was really a week that I was really in the firing line, facing the problems and clearing the problems one by one with the help of my senior and manager. Let’s hope my colleague’s baby recover over the weekend. This incident also shows the compassionate side of my boss. She asked me to tell her that she should take care of her child first to ensure that she gets well, so she can get back to work. The busy period was littered with a piece of good news on Thu. I had received a call from Ms Rena Soon, IRAS Corporate Communications Officer, just before I was about to knock off. Here is an excerpt of the conversation. R denotes Rena, while P denotes me P: Yes, Rena, how can I help you? You have good news for me? R: Wah, you really save our numbers in your hp. Yes, ...

I have tried my hand to ballot for NDP tickets, since my family and I have not been to NDP before. I was quite surprised that 2 of my friends offered to me their allocation of the ballot should they get theirs. I guessed it pays to be nice to people. At the same time, I have signed up for the World Cup package, as my dad, my brother and I are all soccer fans and I think it will be better to catch the matches at the comforts of my home, rather than rushing to pubs or coffeeshops to catch them. I welcome my friends who are staying near me to join me to catch some of the matches if they wish.

My job was nearly changed to being an artist for a day on Thursday as my client was being queried by IRAS, and we were required to draw a flowchart showing our client’s activities. Our client was not quite co-operative & in the end, we had to draw it ourselves. It ended up that our efforts were all wasted as the client managed to provide the drawings for us two months after we asked from him. I wonder why some people can’t make our job easier.

Most friends who know me will know why I like taking bus to work. This is because people usually don’t give up their seats to me on crowded MRT trains. It is also good that I get to tour around Singapore sometimes. Yesterday, one of my colleagues was stuck in Bukit Timah as her hubby’s motorcycle had broken down in the midst of their journey home. She had called me desperately to locate for a petrol kiosk and a motorcycle repair shop. I am glad that I was able to help as I used to study at Ngee Ann Polytechnic and I always take Service 74 which passes by Bukit Timah, so I could roughly remember where are the petrol kiosks and motorcycle repair shop. My colleague was saying that she was not sure if she could get home yesterday. Let’s hope she did get home with my help.

刚才看了晚间新闻，听了总理和教育部长的记者会，也松了一口气，因为我国政府并没有打算把母语的比重调低。 我来自一个讲华语的家庭。由于父母都是华校生，所以在家一定要用华语交谈。我对华族文化，言语都有一定的认识与了解。我也认为，身为华人的我，如果对自己的语言和文化都不会，真是笑死人啊！！ 希望我们的母语教学能加以改进，使学生们对华文华语有更浓的兴趣。

I nearly forgot that today is Mothers’ Day till my brother was checking with me last night how we were going to have a belated Mother’s Day celebration for mum, since she is not in Singapore now. She is in Malaysia attending to some urgent matters at the moment. My brother was suggesting that we bring her out for a Japanese dinner meal this coming week during one of my brother’s off days or morning shift days since she always like Japanese food. Friends who know me would know that I am  very close to my mum as she has made a lot of sacrifices for me as she raised me up to where I am today. Without her support and advice, I would not be where I am today. For people or friends who have just knew me, you may wish to read about the sacrifices made under the post “My Life Story” . A message to my mum:- Dear mum, I know that it was not easy for you to raise me up to where I am now. Thanks for the advices and support that you have given to me. You have made me realise the impo...

Recently, a colleague of mine, whom I shall not reveal his name here, had wanted to rent a room in my house. Since my parents are the owners of the flat, it is only right that I should ask them first. The final decision was a “Nay” answer from them. Personally, I can understand where my parents are coming from. As my brother is serving his NS in a shift work basis, they certainly do not want his sleeping patterns to disrupt me and they also feel that he is old enough and should get his own room. They are also not in favour as they feel that my position in the company may be in conflict if they knew that he was staying with me. I also feel that colleagues’ relationship should not be too close as it may harm you later at work. Do you think it is a right decision made?

I was on my way to office on Thursday morning. It has been close to a month since I took a bus to work. Maybe the swindle incident made me want to cut down unnecessary expenses in order to cover back what I have lost. Just as I was walking towards International Building, which is opposite my office building at Far East Shopping Centre, I saw 6 policemen surrounding a man who was brought down by them. The shirt and pants that the man was wearing certainly looked familiar to me as it looks like the same shirt and pants that the guy who cheated of my money about two weeks ago. Let’s see what happens next.

Mediacorp actor, Tay Ping Hui said in the previous episode of the 9pm TV show, “ New Beginnings” that if you are feeling stressed, just turn your STRESSED into DESERTS by eating them up. This week, I am feeling quite stressed at work, as my boss, who has been working, despite nursing a fever. She had been asking the colleague who is leaving us quite soon, to complete her outstanding cases of personal tax clients that had been granted an extension of time till end of July. Despite that, she still wants me to help this colleague to finish all her personal tax cases. Not that I do not wish to help her out. I do not wish to put her in a position whereby she has got nothing to do, if she were to pass the cases to me. Also, I am not sure if she had checked the information required with the clients, therefore it would not be good for me to call the client to ask for information if she had previously called the client and asked for the required information. The client would be wondering, “...

I was quite pissed off with a new “friend” of mine about what she told me over MSN last night. She actually said that I deserved to be cheated by the Indian man last week. I have since deleted this person from my MSN. It seems like she always think that I am stupid. Maybe she feels that I am just trying to gain sympathy by telling my friends that I got cheated. Much appreciated that she was one of those who advised me on how to get a court order from subordinate courts, but to think she said something like this yesterday really was the last straw as this was not the 1st time she has agitated me with her choice of words. Anyway this is not the 1st time I am discarding people as my friends. I am just trying to put the incident behind me, at the same time, allow the police to conduct their investigations since they took in the case upon receiving the court order. I was telling my mum that letting it go was not easy, but for the sake to have a clear mind to prepare for my exam on 14 Jun...

  一些认识我的朋友应该都知道我的家人都蛮喜欢唱歌的，尤其是我爸爸。昨天，我就陪他去看了一场民歌班学生观摩会。这场民歌班学生观摩会是他的前民歌班的老师，马杰主办的。 说来真奇怪，我观赏了那么多场学生观摩会，我还是第一次听说费玉清的“一箭梅”是民歌。 我只知道我学生观摩会爸爸喜爱的那些歌曲大多数都是民歌。费玉清的歌曲应该是老歌吧。昨天的学生观摩会，前面的部分，还听得蛮辛苦的，是到下半段，学生的表演才好很多。或许，他们都蛮紧张。 不过，能观赏这场民歌班学生观摩会，让我能在他们身上学到发音的好处。

I had received a call from mum at about 7.15pm last night. At first, I thought it was one of her calls checking whether I have left my office. To my surprise, she suggested going to Yio Chu Kang Stadium to have dinner at Nihon Mura, a Japanese restaurant. It has been quite a while since my family had been out together to have a meal. In fact, it has been 2 years since I last brought them to Hilton Hotel as part of Mother’s Day Celebration. Dad was commenting that my brother and I could really eat a lot and we nearly burnt a hole to his pocket. But I guessed he is happy to share his joy with us too as his job is flowing quite smoothly. I must say the food is not bad and you guys should try it.

It was my first time going to the Subordinate Court with a case hanging on my head on Tuesday. In fact, I have not been sleeping well since the incident happened last Friday. The lack of sleep made me rather frustrated. Fortunately, my friends & my boss have been advising me. This trip was one of those suggested by them. If not for them, I would not have known what to do as I was not aware that there was such an avenue in the first place. I was there with my mum. I am thankful that my boss was able to grant me some time off to settle this on short notice. The registry officer who took up my case happened to be my secondary school schoolmate. I thought there was to be some cost involved as I filed the complaint, but to my surprise, there was none. The magistrate seemed unwilling to take up the case in the first place, but after looking at the circumstances surrounding the case, they decided to take it up. It took me a little convincing though. Let’s hope the culprit can be broug...