My Year 2013 Review

The Year 2013 has been a busy, not so smooth year for me, but as the saying goes, life is full of ups & downs. If it gives you lemons, make lemonade with it.

Work

We had to suffer a sudden departure of a colleague, who had given birth to her child in February. Our workload have increased as a result of the departure. It didn’t help that there were new Government measures implemented in Budget 2013 that increased the complexity and time taken to complete our work. It didn’t help that my bosses were facing some problems in the year, which caused them to have mood swings and would tell us off when we made mistakes. Some colleagues decided to take advantage of the situation and stir up more “office politics” knowing that I am favoured by my bosses, and tried to put me in a bad light. Fortunately, my bonus was not affected by all this play acting, but it did have an impact on my confidence and make me realise that I should start to plan more for myself. Fortunately, I still insist upon myself to continue a tradition where I started, where I would buy stuff for my colleagues and bosses when I was on overseas leave, or when I was working on my birthday & during my birthday. It actually helped to blunt the edge of the arrows which was used by my colleagues to shoot me.

This year, my boss hired a intern to assist us to help us with our workload. Although she was only able to help us to complete the tax returns, I must say it has been of a great help to us. It is good when you have a fast learner who is a student, but able to pick up the fast pace of working life.

IRAS Volunteer e-filing

This year was my ninth year in serving the community for this exercise. I was honoured to be invited to the Lunar New Year reception hosted by PM & his Cabinet  for my contributions for this exercise.

This year, I started a new whatsapp group chat for the volunteers to share their problems that they faced in assisting taxpayers in the e-filing. It was good that this group chat managed to encourage fellow volunteers to help one another.

The group became more active in this year as some of the members have requested that we met up more often so that we would not forget about the new tax measures introduced. It was also through these gatherings that many friendships were started and became better as the days goes by. I would like to thank them for making my birthday an interesting one to remember.

 

Grassroots Events & Activities

I was appointed to be the Assistant Treasurer of my RC in Jan 2013. Little did I expect to be parachuted to the Treasurer post in July, as my current assistant treasurer was not able to cope with the appointment. Although the task of preparing the accounts may seem to be easy, my mum was not very happy that I accepted the appointment as it meant that I had less time for myself. I must say I am enjoying myself and learning as I go along the way.

The KTV Group

The KTV group had a lot of happy events that happened in 2013. Firstly, 2 of the organising committee members, Chairman Lawrence & Raymond got hitched. My buddy, Bro Jonathan got together with one of the members, Serene. Serene’s friend, Shu Fang got together with Kuo Lik. I also express my congrats to Karen Hui, who got hitched too. I feel happy for my friends. =)

My wishes for the Year 2014

I hope to be more stable career in this year. I know that some of my friends & my family are anxious about me not being able to get a girlfriend. I have been repeating this several times that I prefer to let nature take its course. Hopefully, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel soon.

On this note, I wish all my readers a fruitful 2014 ahead!!!