When an Aussie's word is not enough

When I was in Europe in 2001 I went on a Contiki tour through Italy. It was such great fun, and made even more so by the fact that my flatmate was a sane, fabulous Canadian. The first time I met Meghan, I was in our shared hotel room in Rome, and she had woken me up - so I was wearing my pyjamas and no doubt my bedhair looked rather *electric*.

I had arrived in Rome the night before our tour, and went straight to bed. The curtains in the hotel room were so thick that I had no concept of what time I'd slept till. So when the knock at my door happened, I thought it was the cleaning lady, and figured I could safely say "buongiorno and bugger off" while still in my PJs. I still don't know who got the biggest fright when I opened the door to find bright & breezy Meghan standing there.

And despite this rather dishevelled beginning to our relationship, M and I have remained friends, sending books & coffee and good wishes across the seas via email and snail mail. So when she hooked up with an Aussie fella in her home town of Vancouver, I was well impressed. I don't believe for a second that there is anything wrong with Canadian boys; rather, I have the 2004 Vancouver Canucks calendar and boy, there is NOTHING visibly wrong with them. But there is something about the Aussie male that appeals to my friend Meghan, and I'm okay with that.

So she's been with her boy for a while now, and was making the big plans to come to Oz with him but do you think the Immigration bullies are prepared to let her in the door on a permanent basis? Hell no. And why not? She's too old it would seem. 29 years old, and the Feds are telling her she's not welcome. This country needs speech pathologists (particularly in the eastern states - pool, school - what the hell is with their accents?). So how can the fat Federal Government bore tell her that she's 5 points shy of a residency visa?! No fair, people.

Megs, the country doesn't know what its missing. Maybe you need to write another application - this time, a personal letter to this Immigration twit and tell him that in addition to being a smart and sophisticated health care professional, you're also nearly 6ft tall, blonde, blue-eyed, and funny as hell. You won't be lying and, given what I know of public servants, even the sweaty Canberra ones would have to be intrigued enough by those credentials to stamp the form. It's worth a shot.