Job Hunting Again.

Once again Claudia set about looking for a job. She was a bit more positive now as I think she knew she was good when she got stuck in and she knew she had to push herself to get in in the first place. I just wish she was able to keep that feeling.

She had a false start with a job at one of Brisbane's many colleges. Visit Australia and you will quickly be struck by the number of students there. It is the usual story - a foreign student on inflated fees will cover the gap in subsidy a university has when it admits a local student. Once you have enough of these foreign students, the whole scene becomes a big business. Apart from Universities, there are all the colleges that spring up offering - for the most part- English courses. (I look at all the colleges in London, compare them to life and prices in Queensland and I know where I would want to study. A bit of a no-brainer really.) In a sincere attempt to encourage all these flush and free-spending students to part with their parents' hard-earned cash, the campuses would have in-house travel agents that pushed all sorts of trips to the naive and captive market. I say captive because while it would be quite easy for them to shop elsewhere, there is a tendency to trust what is offered within a familiar environment. Well, Claudia was offered a chance to work as an assistant to a girl who had a sweet deal on a small campus. She had the agency to herself and Claudia could be her 'assistant'. It soon became evident (trial period, no pay) that the girl would just use Claudia to double her personal commission and she would not offer Claudia anything until she had been there a few months, by which time, of course, she would move on to the next sucker. She had done this before, it emerged. The audacity of it was galling. Claudia and I both hated the fact that the world is full of people who run their businesses in this fashion and we had almost become the victim of one. But she was one of those smart bitches - pretty, confident and ruthless- that know when the going gets tough you go down on your knees in front of someone who can smooth the way. I am sure you can all picture one. If you can't, watch an American afternoon soap.

However, we did manage to shrug this one off OK.....