my dream date with helen

That interview with a Job Network Provider I talked about a couple of entries ago had a very strange outcome.
As is my usual tactic, I cancelled the appointment saying that I had some temporary work. I got a stern call back from Helen saying that I hadn't gone to an appointment in nine months (oops) and that if I didn't go that day they would cut off my payments.
So I rescheduled for 4 o'clock that afternoon. I turned up half an hour early, hoping to catch her in a busy period and so lessoning her apparent resolve to make my life miserable.
I was surprised to find Helen was actually quite nice. At first she had confused me with someone else, and asked me what it was like to "taxi my mother across the state". I thought this was some snide metaphor so I snapped back, "What the hell does that mean?" In other words, I was preparing to play the psycho crim. The she realised I was somone else.
She explained that there was limited space in the office and that we'd have to go to her desk. I was immediately struck by how disorganised she was, so I decided to quickly revert to "sincere job seeker" mode and overwhelm her with my initiative (aka "fibs and fabrications").
I showed her a bunch of stuff that I had written that was published recently and told her I was going to Sydney to do work experience and look for jobs. She was very impressed by this.
To cut the story short, she got me out of doing Work for the Dole in the medium term and said she'd just call me every few weeks to see how I was going.
Fuck me, this was the latest chapter in an absolute dream run I've been having with Centrelink lately. The last two times I've handed in my form, there has been no-one else waiting in line. I went straight to the desk, handed my form over, it was stamped immediately and I was sent on my way. I was literally in and out in less than one minute.