Wanda, I was telling my colleagues about how wei3 da4 you are, actually wanting to give up everything to be a nurse.
And then we started to talk about the leave thing you mentioned. We ended up having bitter laughter when we talked about :
- applying for leave in 2006 by the end of October this year, and then, subject to balloting or fighting it out for the 'hot spots'.

- how difficult it is to get leave in two straight weeks, because priority would be given to the foreigners and it's dependant on individual ward management;
- how we're forced to take one week slots of leave at a time; and
- how we often have to give up going to social events that were unforeseen because we our roster requests weren't granted, no matter how early you submitted it, or because no colleague wants to exchange slots with you.
And then, we decided that although we'll be one potential nurse short because we've 'lost' you, it's better for you in the long run.
I mean, look... my roster requests for the past five weeks have mostly gone unfulfilled.

I even have to postpone the 1st Anniversary feast because of that, despite me having submitted a request a month back!!

It was bad once when I won tickets to a Singapore Arts Fest show and then when I tried to request for a Day shift on that day, no one wanted to exchange schedule with me and when I approached the Snr Nurse Mgr for help, she said, 'Well, if you can't get a replacement, too bad!' *evil laughter...
I was
