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be more adventurous in what she wore. The light seemed to her to be brighter and the women that she had seen seemed to wear more colourful, if still restrained, clothing that combined fashion with comfort. Within her reasonably extensive wardrobe she decided to follow their lead.
    They’ll have to take me as they find me! she had thought to herself as she had appraised herself in the mirror before setting out.
    Julie wasn’t unaware that there was a serious risk in her attitude, but she was instinctively adopting her father’s ‘start as you mean to go on’ approach that had usually worked for her. And, if she didn’t get this job, she could read beyond the employment agency’s professional optimism to know that there were other opportunities out there.
    At least my ankles don’t hurt any more. All that walking seems to have cured the problem.
    It was only when she got back to her apartment the previous day that she had made this discovery, and now on the Tuesday she happily pulled on the same boots but now with the only miniskirt that she possessed. She had scarcely ever worn it before – since Tariq had always let his Muslim upbringing show through and criticised her for its immodesty. It was another conscious decision to be more true to herself. Never a feminine, girly girl she nonetheless was fashion conscious in her own way and felt good about what she was wearing evenbefore she drew some admiring looks on the tram. Her black leather jacket, that signalled the tight figure underneath it, did nothing to discourage the looks of approval either. Her short black hair was blown askew by the gusting wind, but with her usual understated make-up it gave her a confident enough look that reflected how she both felt about herself now and about her prospects at the interview.
    In the sterile glass splendour of the office building that she was entering she was quick to notice that the same purposeful activity in terms of comings and goings was apparent that she had noticed in Spring Street and the surrounding area. She liked the sense of urgency about getting on with life and getting things done that was usually well hidden in Britain. Melbourne, she knew, was the thriving business capital of Australia, but she hadn’t expected to see its manifestations so obviously displayed.
    Still, if I’ve learned anything in the last few weeks, it’s that Aussies are nothing if not up-front .
    As Julie approached the reception desk in the building foyer, the ebb and flow of people had left a void. There was only her and the receptionist. At least, so she first thought.
    â€˜Miss Kershawe?’
    The broadly smiling Chinese girl clearly knew that she could only be Julie Kershawe because she directed her around the reception area to the bank of lifts behind it in an elegant but very clear movement of her right hand. With a major Chinese population in Melbourne, it wasn’t her racial origins that set Julie into alert mode. Later, when she thought through her day, she acknowledged that it was the unlikely circumstances of one of the applicants for a middling administrative job in an organisation being met and whisked through the formalities of arrival in such a slick and professional manner. What limited experience she had told her that generally you were left to flounder in this situation, despite your potential employer’s pious protestations that it was a good test of character to seehow you overcame the vagaries of organisational indifference to get to your interview.
    As they entered the lift, the Chinese girl handed Julie an already prepared visitor’s identity badge. Used as she had been to looking for and seeking out anomalies in people’s behaviour and presentation, Julie knew that somehow this particular middling administrative job on offer was going to be different. But she didn’t have the time to generate this as more than an impression before she was in the interview