The salad plays Cupid's ally!

[Tabouli]

Just got off the phone to a friend of mine who had most cheering news.  For the three years I've known her, she has been in an on-off relationship which was making her thoroughly miserable, with a man she loved but with whom having a child (which she dearly wants to the point of seriously contemplating single motherhood: she's now 37) was not an option as he is 52, already has 4 and wants No More Ever.  To my delight she has just started what sounds like a very happy new relationship with just one major catch... he lives in England, from where she has just got back after three blissful weeks with him.  And while she has an English passport as well as an Australian one, she talked as if leaving her job to test the water somewhere in the UK was not an option.

This, to my mind, is taking the work ethic too far.  If the argument was it would be investing too much in a fledgeling relationship to contemplate going overseas, that I would see (and perhaps it *is* that really, and the job is the excuse).  However, being not overburdened with a work ethic myself (I quit my job with no great qualms and haven't looked back), I took up the quiver for Cupid.  I don't know that much about her field (she's an English as a Second Language specialist with a Masters in international student education and 15+ years' teaching experience with students at secondary and tertiary level, extremely hard-working and intelligent) but it does overlap with mine enough for me to be convinced she would be highly employable, certainly in Autralia and probably in the UK as well.  And Australian employers, especially those in the international student area, *like* overseas experience!  A year working in England would probably make her *more* employable, not less.

I put Cupid's case emphatically, suggesting that a good job is easier to find than a good relationship and she should at least *look into* the possibility, see what job opportunities there might be in England (not necessarily in the same town as him, just in the same country so they could actually see each other enough to figure out whether the relationship has staying power), raise the possibility with him the next time she sees him in person (Christmas time), etc.etc.

I don't know what came over me.

She didn't mind, though.  Said I'd actually voiced all the things she'd carefully avoided thinking about.  Even softened her "oh, but I could never leave my job, it seems so irresponsible" stance slightly.  Because, you know, she *could* do it, couldn't she?  She could at *least* look at her options.  (I would.  But then, my romantic soul has got me into trouble before...)

Any thoughts from British listmembers?  Any websites for this sort of thing?  I've heard rumours that Australians are actually considered to be good employees by British employers (contrary to stereotypes!), and the UK, like the US and Australia, must have hordes of international students who need language assistance and study skills training and the like.  And she's not a university student with a six week ESL certificate looking for holiday work, she's actually a qualified specialist with lots of experience...

Tabouli (twanging her harp hopefully and reaching for the heart shaped pink confetti)


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