A Herbert Spencer of a Day

Well, today was a day almost entirely lost to the infuriating, time-consuming, soul-sapping business of dealing with a banking fraud. It was an ingenious and thoroughly plausible one, and fortunately, in the end, the damage was undone, but Lord it was a long, exhausting haul. Inevitably, after much online to and fro and hanging on the telephone, I ended up making my way to the actual physical bank (and counting myself lucky to have one a short walk away). Before I was bamboozled into taking up online banking, I used to visit quite often, and it was a quiet and peaceful place – but now all is changed and the place was heaving. This was partly because a nearby branch of its sister bank recently closed down, and partly because, it seems, the cashiers are no longer authorised to do more than handle incoming and outgoing cash. As a result most customers end up sitting in one of several liminal spaces – okay, waiting rooms – waiting to talk to a human and sort things out. I'd estimate that…