ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
An Australian living and working in Germany has thanked the government’s concerns – and that of their parents, but they’re not going to be coming home any time soon.
“No,” said Jen Tailen, a 28-year-old policy advisor originally from Betoota Heights.
She now calls Berlin home and works for a medium-tier NGO that in the scheme of things, doesn’t change anything or do anything worthwhile.
“I think you should be more concerned about Victoria, Mum. Those grey nomads coming up from Broken Hill and Innaminka are probably swimming with the virus,”
“Thanks, but I’m not coming back. Especially now. I’m not paying some sucked mango seed looking politician like three grand to sit in a hotel room for two weeks,”
“I’ll see you when I see you.”
There are thousands of Jens around the world, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Despite being told to by the government and their parents, the many Australians that have built a home for themselves overseas decided to tell them both to go away and let them live.
Which is something that Jen’s parents have got to grapple with, they said.
“She’s an adult now, she can do what she wants,” said her mother, May Tailen.
“But I think her decision to stay in Germany had a lot to do with the fact she had stable employment throughout. If she was waiting tables or something, I reckon she would’ve called up saying she’d be needing a pickup from the Z. G. Remineko Aerodrome in about 30 hours time,”
“I don’t mind that she told the government to go and get fucked. I think that’s an admirable characteristic to have. But to pretty much say that to your parents, it hurts, Errol. It hurts.”
More to come.
