Today we dressed in our ‘business best’ rather than our usual ‘Casual Friday’ garb (which for me, really translates to- whatever is not stuck stinking in the laundry basket). At a quarter to one, a fashionable forty-five minutes late to her midday engagement, waltzing in through our new automatic sliding doors (thankfully serviced by the repairman this morning) comes a leggy, long-haired brunette in a red chiffon dress, surrounded by a small entourage of equally elegantly dressed women and some men in suits. It was a moment of glamour never before seen, in our neck of the woods (near Marrickville station, opposite the now-defunct RSL, to be exact).
The Minister for Employment Participation, Childcare and the Status of Women came to visit our new office today.
Other than the over-abundance of slightly stale and partially soggy triangle sandwiches and the sadly limited supply of chocolate biscuits, our opening lunch went without a hitch. Some of our clients, who we had cajoled to attend (or as my invitee responded "Hey, anything for a free feed!“), brought up some controversial issues during tea-time. (Namely, the absence of an integrated mental health service, the lack of employment opportunities for mature age jobseekers and single mothers and the questionable merit of the Work-for-the-Dole program. It was a welcome refreshment after the combination of over-buttered whitebread, greasy salami and the sycophantic back-slapping that these sorts of interactions are made of.
At one point, I overheard the Minister exclaim "How is it that a person is unemployed for twenty years?!”.
I refrained, of course.
But, let me tell you, if I hadn’t had a mouthful of devon and lettuce sandwich in my mouth and a plateful of other trianagle sandwiches to attend to in one hand and a glass of orange juice in the other, I would have piped up and said-
“How about… lifelong substance abuse? Being a single parent? Full-time caring for a family member? Having undiagnosed or untreated mental illness? Long-term incarceration? Being a victim of domestic violence?”
But then of course, there was the free feed. And everyone knows it’s rude to speak when your mouth is full.
.
Of course, all I really wanted to say here was that… damn that MP is hot!
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