Paul's Fulfilling Life

Picture courtesy of Emicakes In about a few moments from now, my “sister” from Malaysia, Ms Kelly Tan, a.k.a. Curryegg will be celebrating her 23rd birthday. Firstly, I have to apologise to her for not being able to make good of my promise to visit her in KL over the last weekend, as we were not able to get the  hotel rooms. I hereby wish her a Happy birthday. Hope she continues to study hard. May what she wishes for come true for her & stay beautiful, youthful & happy always!!! I hope you like the cake on display here. :-) From your brother: Paul

I just want to wish all my friends who are teachers have a Happy Teachers’ Day tomorrow. They include  Kaka, Jayce & Krys. I am sure that being a teacher is not an easy task but it does give you satisfaction when you see your students succeed in their lives as they grow up to become adults. I thought this song is an appropriate one to describe the lives of the students out there. :-) Happy Teachers’ Day to all Teachers out there. :-)

The date was postponed till Saturday and the place was changed several times before it was decided. But I was really looking forward to this trip. It was unusual that I have gotten up at 7.40am on a Saturday to ensure that I reach AMK MRT station, the designated pickup point for me, Karen Hui, Xavier & Weiguang. The good thing was I was able to be up and about and reached there on time. We met by the second car, consisting of Jas, Alex & Jonathan at Woodlands Checkpoint before heading off to Malacca, where we had loads of fun eating, shopping & singing. I believe that the pictures will tell you how much fun we had there, despite the fact that we didn’t venture outdoor much due to the hot weather. Please refer to my Facebook profile for the captions. It was indeed a good way to relive my stress!!! I felt recharged after this trip. :-)

I was asked along by Chin Yuan to join him & Rachel for a steamboat dinner. I was hoping that I was able to ask my ex colleague along, but it seems he is still a little shy when he meets new people, therefore he rejected the date. It ended up that the 3 of us having steamboat together at Bugis. It was quite fun as we got to know one another better through dinner and desert session.

I am still trying to get over the failure of my ACCA P1 Paper, but rest assured I will bounce back, after all your words of encouragement on Facebook & via sms. I would like to thank Tammy & Caifeng for reminding me that I could join SIATP (Singapore Institute of Accredited Tax Professionals) as I have passed the ACCA Taxation & ACCA Advanced Taxation  papers. I also would like to thank my boss, Mrs Wong for agreeing to certify and endorse my application to SIATP.

I was wondering why my audit partner has been asking me to check bus & MRT/LRT fares from Point A to Point B for the past two days. I wonder who let the cat out of the bag that I am the public transport geek of the office. :-) Apparently, there was someone amongst us who was trying to play cheat and claim extra public transport. So much so for the bad points about having distance fares. Now when we wish to find out how much is our fare, we have no justification to it. The truth is out. The maximum fare for distance is $2.60 by ezlink card, therefore, I wonder why that person claimed $4 for a single trip. It does not reflect well on yourself and you caused limits to be set for your colleagues too.

I am having a bag of mixed feelings now as I just got to know that I failed my ACCA P1 paper again. My friends didn’t do well too. I shall not mention names as I do not wish to stir the upset feelings of people. I really appreciate some of these friends’ concern, despite their own predicament. I liked one who told me that “Me too, you are not alone. “ & “at least you have had a foot in the Professional Stage, therefore you should try again.” Looking forward to my short getaway this weekend to banish all negative thoughts.

Me with Elaine, Tammy & Peggy These were the photos taken outside the Nike Store Wheelock Place on Friday. Thanks Peggy for the sharing!!!

I predicted that I would be bogged down by loads of work this week, and therefore I felt that I needed a good way to relax and the best way was to indulge in my favourite activity, which is singing. For quite some time now, I have been asked by Qiqi & Jayce to join their group of friends at KTV Club SG for singing. I thought to myself, why not take this opportunity to know more friends, so I messaged the chairperson, Nigel that I will be there on Monday. I was surprised that some people whom I didn’t know before knew me by my name. I guessed I have been popular on Facebook with organising of KTV activities. I was fortunate to be put in the same room as Qiqi, Gonnie, Kianhow & fellow newbie, Chris. Thanks Nigel for the special arrangement. Lance & Jayce came by for some cameo duet performances, making the session fun & more enjoyable. The only drawback was that the room that we were in, the database of songs were not updated, therefore we had to make do with some r...

This meet up was hastily arranged as my classmate, Elaine had requested that we meet up before she becomes a mummy next month. Therefore I hastily messaged Tammy & Peggy the next day, checking if they are available on any of the days mentioned by the mummy to be. I was a little surprised that both Tammy & Peggy agreed to the meet up almost immediately after receiving my sms, with Tammy stating that she is excited about seeing Elaine, while all of us are excited to catch up with Peggy after she missed the last 2 gatherings with us at Sun & Moon @ Wheelock Place and @ Carousel @ Royal Plaza on Scotts. Dinner was at Big O Cafe at Wheelock Place, as the mummy to be said she can’t take raw food for the time being. I was there a little late, as I was trying to clear a complex tax provision, but due to its complexity, and diverse business, I was not able to complete it today. We had a good time catching up with one another, as we have not met one another for about 8 months. In...

Yesterday marked my 1st visit to my area’s MP, Mr. Wee Siew Kim to ask him to assist me to draft a letter to the relevant authorities as to why the magistrate decided to throw out my case. I didn’t get to see him in person yesterday as he was on an overseas trip, but I am impressed how the grassroots team are able to run the show despite his absence. It made me realise the importance of having grassroots volunteers. Without them, there would not be a bridge of ease to communicate with the MPs

I was out from the Subordinate Courts and Jas was saying that she didn’t had her lunch yet, therefore, we stepped into this cafeteria operated by Breakthough, a group of ex-convicts who overcome their drug addictions and found work through this church group, which operated a bookstore as well. I thought the food was great and pretty affordable too as we ordered quite a number of dishes. We should give these guys a chance to integrate to the society, and let them lead their lives normally as they walked out of their troubled past.

The reason why I am writing this is because I do not understand why the Justice of Peace who handled my case felt that the swindle incident that happened to me is not a swindle case, as it had no criminal intentions. I was thinking this was an elaborate case of swindling, where the law does not take into consideration, that due to the fact that I was physically challenged. He kept saying that I had given him the money willingly, despite the fact that I told him that I felt threatened by the can of beer that he was holding close to my face, does not constitute swindling. I had thought of going to see my MP to seek further advice tomorrow, but my aunt said, there was no point in doing so since the JP has stated that I would lose the case, even I bring it further. The good part is I need not face him again and that I had been safe and sound, and just treat the money lost as a hefty lesson learnt. I know that some of my friends are upset about this outcome. My secondary school buddy,...

Here are some of the photos at my recent outings. Thanks Belinda for the photos.