Paul's Fulfilling Life

The second day of e-filing was conducted at The Serangoon CC’s office as the computers at the Citizen Connect Corners were still out of order.  As a result, the e-filing was conducted in the community centre office. Haris and I were quite surprised that we are seeing more taxpayers at our CC. Hopefully, we can be the top 3 CC for this year once again.  

After the e-filing session, I rushed to Orchard Cineleisure to meet up with Evelyn, Mandy, Ann and WK to catch this movie. I have to thank WK for helping us to queue and buy the tickets in advance in order to get the UOB card discount. Had a drink at the food court with the ladies before heading to the Jap Restaurant at Level 4 for dinner. The gals had the same view as me. The food at the food court didn’t look pleasing to us. Just as we were having our dinner, WK joined us and we rattled off our orders so that we could make it in time for the movie. The movie was great. It had a great deal of suspense. I would recommend you guys to catch it. After the movie, we went to McDonald’s and have a good chat before heading home at 1.30am  

Yesterday was the 1st day of the Volunteer e-filing session. This was the start of my 8th year doing this. I was not surprised that there were going to be problems yesterday, but I certainly didn’t expect the two workstations that my volunteer partner, Haris and I to be laid stumped by the breakdown of the modem. We were laid low by an hour, before Angie, the CC Management Exec Officer, decided to let us use the CC’s office computers to help the residents e-file their tax return as the queue was really long. Both of us did about 40 taxpayers together yesterday. We had 2 surprise visitors yesterday. The first was IRAS Corporate Communication Director, Ms Deanna Choo, who told us to help to publicise the use of GIRO to pay income tax. IRAS has this ongoing publicity campaign to encourage taxpayers to pay by GIRO. The 2nd visitor was the MP for the area, 2nd Finance Minister, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua. I guessed she visited at the wrong time, as when she visited she saw that the computer syst...

Last Saturday was the 3rd anniversary of the Singing @ K KTV group that I Jonathan had been helming for the past 2.5 years. It has been a fulfilling experience organising singing events for these people, who come together and share a common interest in singing. Besides that, it was also the birthday of two of the members, Ann & Karen. That day was also the day where we inducted 2 female members, Ann & Evelyn on a trial run basis into our organising committee in the hope of injecting more ideas to the group. The birthday cake from us Evelyn presenting to Ann her birthday present from us The March birthday gals For this session, we were given rooms that we had never used before in my history of organising ktv events in Partyworld International Building. All these were made possible by Andrew, the duty manager of the branch. I must say I have received positive feedback about the sound systems of the rooms. Hope that the newbies and the old members enjoye...

I had a hectic week at work this week. It was a busy week for a person who is in the taxation line, as it is the personal tax filing period. It became more busy for me as an unexpected hiccup occurred in the organising of the ktv event. Fortunately, a friend of mine, who attends my ktv event alerted me about the hiccup early, and I was able to discuss with the management of the  Partyworld International Building an alternative arrangement to solve the problem. I am glad that I was able to resolve the problem through several phone calls and a site visit. As a result, I could have a successful gathering today. Although some of my friends in the group felt that I should not have given in to certain demands, I thought that they were needed to ensure that a compromise is achieved in order to get the hiccup resolved. It was also my 20 year Secondary School Buddy, Malcolm’s wedding dinner the day before. Given my close ties with him and his family, I was invited together with my famil...

Recently, there were several instances that happened to me or around me that caused me to think about this question in deep thought. Ed Note: The names have been withheld so as to prevent unnecessary brickbats on my blog. A friend of mine, whom I used to be close with, but later decided not to keep in contact, as she had always asked me for loan and I always had problems chasing back the payment, as she did not keep up to the repayment schedule as promised, suddenly messaged me in the middle of the night, and asked me for a huge loan. If you were in this situation, how would you react? It’s the eve of a public holiday, and you planned something for your close friends as a get together. In the course of the event, some friends whom you did not invite, saw you guys having fun together and stirred up a big fuss about why you did not invite them. If you were in this situation, how would you react? A group of friends decided to share a birthday gift for a common friend whose ...

Recently, there has been quite a number of shocking resignations at my company’s audit division. The reason why I am surprised is some of them had only been with the company for a few months. Some of my departed colleagues have always put in long hours and I feel that they have been very professional and good with their work. There must be some reasons behind their leaving. Anyway, I just want to wish them all the best in their future endavours!

I had received a letter from my Residents’ Committee last week, stating that I am the observer for their meeting that happened a few days ago. I had decided to join the RC at the urging of my IRAS e-filing volunteer mates, Haris & Wendy. Both of them feel that I am able to contribute to the community even more, when I join this. Rushed to a nearby coffeeshop near my place for a quick dinner in a cab from my workplace before heading to the RC centre that was just at the next block near my house. The meeting was an interesting eye-opener as I learnt about how municipal issues were brought up, mingling with the residents are organised. Looking forward to the April meeting. =)  

I had arranged to meet up with Weng Kiat and Evelyn to select and purchase a birthday gift for one of our friends, Ann, whose birthday is approaching on 22 March 2011. We had previously discussed what we had thought would be a suitable and practical gift for her, and jotted down on a list, so we would not be spending unnecessary time to hunt for a birthday gift shared by 11 of us. We met at Far East Plaza, where I brought them to one of my usual hangout spots for lunch, the Puncak Eatery on Level 5 of Far East Plaza. I did not know that Evelyn likes the drink called Bandung too. Glad that they liked the lunch spot where I chose for them. After lunch, we walked over to Istean Scotts to start looking at the design & prices of our gift ideas. The first idea was out, as after looking at some of designs, the good ones are too cheap, considering the number of people that are sharing the gift. The second idea was also shot down as we do not know which scent she liked. Different ladies...

I haven’t been blogging for the past week as there was nothing much happening. Last Friday, my mum and I took some off to visit my grandma as it has been a while since we last visited her. It is good to see that she is doing well, except that she has lost a little bit of weight. This week was a busy week as it was the start of the tax filing period. I wonder if my office PC has problems as whenever my colleague or I e-file for our clients. The screen will appear “Unable to process the transaction” just after you click the submit button. It meant that I had to rekey in all what I keyed in previously before submitting again. Anyway I have highlighted this issue to my friend. Hopefully, the IT Department can resolve this.