Paul's Fulfilling Life

I was surprised to receive what’s app message from Karyne on Monday that her mum had passed away after a year battling with brain tumour. I decided to meet up with Jas to go to Karyne’s mum’s funeral wake. As I was on my way to Yishun bus interchange, Jas called me and told me that her colleague had offered to drive us to the funeral wake. I would like to thank Ken for offering us the ride. Singapore is a small city. Ken and I used to be from the same air base, Sembawang Air Base. When we got there, we saw Karyne carrying her adorable daughter, Ashley around. Karyne’s mum certainly look young from the photo. It was good to see that Karyne was mentally prepared for this. We really had a lot to chat, until her daughter’s need to sleep forced us to cut short the conversation. Once again, my deepest sympathy and condolences to her and her family. Hope that she stays strong during this bereavement period, as her daughter needs her too!

It has been a while since I had such a fulfilling Sat. First up, I had a KTV session with Raymond’s Facebook Group at the new Partyworld @ Nex @ Serangoon. The ktv session was shorter than the sessions that I usually have at Partyworld International Building or Vivo City. The management says that because of the high demand of the outlet, we are only allowed to sing for 3 hours at the same price that I would have paid for a 4 hour session at Partyworld International Building or Vivo City. The branch is slightly bigger than the Vivo City branch. The air con in the room I was in was freaking cold. Fortunately, I brought my jacket. =) I met up with Evelyn, Ann & Weng Kiat for lunch at 1pm. Evelyn had invited 2 of her friends, Bryan & Daniel. I asked them to choose between the Food Junction & Food Republic food courts. They chose Food Junction for lunch & Food Republic for dinner. I tried out some new songs at the new branch, and some songs that I never attempted before....

I got a surprise sms from a poly classmate that I have lost touch for quite a while asking me for a huge loan recently. Everyone who read this blog would know that why I have been very careful with my money nowadays. I am glad that I was calm enough to check with my other poly classmate if this classmate had asked her for a loan. The answer was yes and she did the same as me because she thought that her answer was strange.    

As promised, some of the photos from the CNY gathering at my house last Sat. Photos courtesy of Weng Kiat. Thanks to him for all the wonderful shots. The dishes for the day Alex, Evelyn & Jue Liang helping my mum Combined Group Pic Me with Alex & Paul Tseng Guys Group Pic with Paul Tseng, Alex, Jue Liang Jonathan & Weng Kiat Group Pic with the ladies with Ivy, Lanny Dorothy, Betty, Ann & Andrina

My company dinner was set on 15 Feb this year. This year, I was given the task to source for a new venue for the event. However, when the suggestion was put up, my boss had vetoed the suggestion and decided to head back to the usual place, Kam Boat Restaurant @ Shaw Centre, but with a more sumptuous menu. My boss was disappointed with the turnout of the dinner last night as there were about 25% of the staff who decided not to go for the dinner due to various reasons. In fact, my dept was the only dept that had a 100% attendance. In fact, I can understand why my boss is disappointed. The purpose of the dinner is to celebrate the good business theh company has had and to bond with the colleagues. But she wonders why some people do not feel that way. The dinner was great overall as my boss had ordered abalone, suckling pig, sharks' fin & roasted chicken as part of the celebration. There was also yusheng for luo hei, which we tossed for good luck. The dinner was nearly spoil...

It has been a regular feature for 3 years now that I invite my friends over to my place for Chinese New Year Gathering. This year was very different as I had initially thought of catering buffet for my friends, but the cost of the buffet was way over my budget as I knew that my guests would not eat very much as it is the Chinese New Year period and they have been eating throughout the whole CNY period. The guest list was very different from the guest list last year, as most of the people invited were those who have not been to my house before. The final plan was that I decided to order some gyoza, roasted duck and noodles from Sheng Siong Supermarket food court near my house. My mum decided to cook carrot and radish soup, prepare some fruits and yusheng. The final cost was cheaper than what I have budgeted for the cost of the buffet. It was great that my guests, Paul Tseng, Jonathan & Andrina had enjoyed the gyoza that I had ordered. It was good to see my 2 poly friends, Huiyu ...

I was asked by Stacey, IRAS Corporate Communications Officer to share my volunteering experience for the VES exercise for the Serangoon newsletter. This was what I wrote:- Dear Stacey, I am surprised but honoured to share my e-filing experiences with the residents of the Serangoon area through the area’s newsletter. Here are my thoughts about volunteering for the yearly e-filing exercise. I had begun volunteering for the exercise in the Year 2005, first at Contact 123 IT Centre for the first three years, then at the Serangoon CC for the remaining years. The reasons that prompted me to do so were as follows:- 1. I was working in a small audit firm that had a limited number of personal tax clients. Therefore in order not to let myself forget about the personal tax laws that I have learnt in my polytechnic days, I decided to sign up for the exercise. I did not expect my yearly volunteering have enabled me to get the current job as a tax senior in another audit firm about three y...

The birthday celebration was initiated by Chloe. The place for the dinner was Mutarama Ramen Restaurant at The Central at Clarke Quay. I thought that the ramen was good and the side dish which I had, the gyoza  was great, but I was a little disappointed with the service attitude of the service staff of the restaurant, who could have exercised more flexibility to allow us to cut the birthday cake at the premises. It ended up that we had to go to Subway to get a drink and sit down to complete the birthday celebration. Thanks Chloe for the drink treat =)   The disappointment did not last long though, as I finally had the chance to play the “Monopoly Deal” game. I would like to thank Gonnie, Lance, Chloe & Kianhow for teaching me the game and guiding me how to play it. We hope that Lance likes his birthday present, a bottle of Mount Blanc perfume from us. We thought that it will be useful for him as his job requires him to be presentable and professiona...

The 3rd day of the Rabbit Year had only a visit, which was to was 3rd aunt's place in the north-eastern part of Singapore. She had been working for the past two days of CNY, as a result, we were only able to visit her on the 3rd day. We had a delicious steamboat lunch and a great catch-up session. On the 4th day of CNY, it was back to my 1st uncle's place to offer prayers to my grandparents, who passed away quite a long time ago. I only had memories of my grandma, who brought me up till I was 12 years old. Her passing 20 years ago,  it was the first major change of my life. Therefore, I do still think of her sometimes. As for my  grandpa, I had no recollection of him as I was not born when he passed away. We had a feast again and a mini gambling session which I won a bit of money with my relatives. After that, I went to pay a visit to my secondary school buddy's place, which was near my uncle's place. I have known him since I was in Sec 1. Despite knowing that he wa...

It was a day where 4 stops were made to visit my relatives and friend. The first 3 stops were to my relatives’ houses, which was pretty much the usual stuff for CNY. I just feel that as we grow older, CNY seems to have become a much toned down affair for me. The 4th stop of the day was the stop that I was looking forward to. Andrina had invited me to her house for a mini KTV session. I dared not promise her that I will be there at first as I was not sure about what time my visiting of relatives would end. We had a fun time together with Alex, Jas, Lance & Jonathan Ya. We were introduced a few songs by Andrina by Jeff Chang & JJ Lin   We were treated to a pizza dinner by Andrina & her hubby.and ice-cream desert at a ice-cream stall near Sembawang by Jas before calling it a night.  

Firstly I would like to wish my blog readers and friends who are reading this post a Happy Chinese  New Year. I was given 2 days off for CNY Eve & next Monday, which means that I start work on Tuesday Had spent CNY eve catching HK drama, 读心神探 . This HK drama starring Bowie Lam & Bosco Wong is not bad. I would recommend you guys and gals to watch it. Besides that, I did a 2nd round of cleaning to my study before helping my family do some last minute shopping at Cold Storage at Nex and decorating my house with the CNY festivities and decorations before heading to bed at 3am. My 四姨 and 三舅 became the 1st of my relatives to visit us on 1st day of CNY. After that, my family proceeded to my 二叔 house, where we had buffet lunch and a catch up session. It was good to see grandma again after about 2 months since our last visit at the old folks home. I carried on with the tradition of giving my granny an ang pow for the CNY. This was done despite the fact that we were asked not...