Paul's Fulfilling Life

  March has been a month filled with nice surprises, with a slight blip so far. I was surprised to have receive a WhatsApp message from Lingzhi, Capital 958FM DJ last Friday after my dinner with my friends, while on my way home on the bus. She had wanted to a radio interview cum Facebook Live with me on the personal tax filing season. It has been 3 years since I last did a radio interview with her on the same topic. I was surprised that she still kept my number. As I was on the bus, I could not talk on the phone with her, therefore I had to message her in Mandarin. It has been a while since I used hanyu pinyin on my handphone to type my messages in Mandarin. When I got home, I decided to give her a call to find out more details on the interview. After chatting with her for about half an hour, the interview was confirmed. It was a fun experience doing a live radio interview and Facebook Live for the first time. You can catch the interview on this link. Radio Interview Next...

Friends who know me would know that this month and next month would usually be my busy month as I would be involved in tax filing for those people who need the service to save them the hassle of queuing at IRAS to efile their taxes. I have been doing this since 2005, since my 1 st stint with my current company, as I feel that we should not forget what we have learnt in school. We will tend to forget what we have learnt if we do not use it often. Since IRAS stopped the filing exercise at the community centres in 2016, I have been planning this program on my own. I am fortunate that this year, a friend of mine stepped forward with an offer to let my team of volunteers use his office to assist people to efile their taxes. I am also thankful for the Giving.sg portal for helping me to form up my team of volunteers. It has not been easy forming up this team, let alone 3 teams as the recent surge in COVID-19 cases have put fear that they may be infected with COVID-19 if they are not ...

  It has been a while since I last blogged. During the period that I was down with COVID-19, I was unfortunately scammed. I shall not go into details as it was carelessness on my part and I was under medication due to my recovery from COVID-19. This incident has made me to trust people less nowadays and not to install or click on any download for unknown apps into your phone. It has been 6 months since I have been on this job. I can feel that my confidence coming back. Although it has not been really smooth, at least, I enjoyed the trust of my boss and the flexibility of working from home two days per week. My take is to take a wait and see approach before making my next move. I certainly do not want to fall back to the dark days of without a job for an extended period of time. During my CNY break, I took the opportunity to start planning for my yearly CSR program, assisting the needy self-employed persons to file their taxes. I am thankful to my friend, Jason for helping me ou...

  I am documenting down my brush with COVID-19 so that friends will not be caught by surprise if one were to catch the illness. My parents were the first in the family to be diagnosed with COVID-19 on last Friday and Saturday respectively. Both of them were eligible for the Home Care Recovery Programme as they had their primary doses and were boosted. My brother and I had received our health risk warning on Sunday. As mum was concerned that they may spread the illness to us, she requested to be cared for in a dedicated facility. I must say the execution of the MOH protocol is confusing as 1.        My mum was the only one to have a healthcare buddy caring for her needs. 2.        The trip to the dedicated facility was delayed by almost a day. We were left frustrated by the wait. 3.        ART is now the primary test and not PCR test. 4.        The TraceT...

  I had started the community tax e-filing project in 2016, after IRAS ceased the volunteer e-filing exercise quite abruptly. Armed with some support from friends and various organisations, I have managed to help quite a number of people from all walks of life with this service. I have been helping C, a self-employed person, with her personal tax matters since 2019. She had a chat with me just now, seeking advice on whether she should continue her business as the doctor found a brain tumor in her last July. She shared that she felt lost and not sure what to do. Having been through a down period of about 6 months last year, I told her she should continue with her trade wherever possible, as being active will keep her away from having negative thoughts. She also shared that she intended to do some deliveries to keep fit. I was glad that I was able to provide advice to her, having been through a rough patch myself last year. I am glad to have provided her with sound advice. Litt...

  It has been a while since I last blogged. I must say that it is indeed an unexpected year of twist and turns. Work I would have expected myself to be in the job that I have held for quite a while to go on, given the uncertainties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, as the Chinese saying goes, 天下没有不散的宴席 , I had to go after I was placed on no pay leave in February, just before Chinese New Year. Little did I expect that it would be a time of instability for me as I have tried my best to fit into 3 organisations within a short span of 6 months but it did not work out. I am just glad that I managed to find my mojo back in mid-August when my first boss took me back after an interview with them. It has been a great 4 and a ½ months so far.   After going through so much job changes in a year, it really changed my perspective and outlook of life. The 3 unsuccessful jobs caused my confidence to be at an all-time low. One of the jobs caused me to go into a near m...

  Today is World Mental Health Day. If you asked me two years ago, if I would have thought that I would face a mental drain this year, I would say no. But like what the title of a James Bond movie, “Never Say Never Again”, it taught me that mental health is equally important as physical health. Like what a long time ICQ/Blogger recruitment consultant friend shared with me before I started this job recently, “Take a break before you start, do not rush into it.” I am glad I took the advice and am thankful for having an understanding boss, who took me in when I was at the lowest point of my career and gave me the free hand to manage the work portfolio, thus helping me regain my confidence and faith in myself. To this, I am really thankful to my colleagues, who made me feel welcome and really assisted me when I needed it. Some of you may wonder how I managed to overcome this dark 6 months of my life. It is fortunate that I have kept my singing lessons active and my ktv interest group...