Richy's Random Ramblings

Those Natwest adverts on TV are really getting to me now. Why? Well, the way they advertise “You can contact your local branch” and “You can speak to your own business manager” – erm, aren’t all account details stored in a central computer location which can be accessed via all branches: therefore making it a little bit pointless to make you contact your own “individual” branch? Perhaps back in the days of paper records and “passbooks” (I’ve still got my old “Leicester Building Society” book by the way: the Building society is now known as Alliance and Leicester Bank PLC!) where only one branch had records of your details, but nowadays…

And the “own business manager” – at work, I deal with around 40 SEO clients and even then I occasionally forget which ones I deal with. How is any bank manager going to remember “you” as an individual when they deal with several hundred different accounts every couple of weeks? Unless you pop into the branch every week, they are unlikely to know you from Adam (unless your name does happen to be Adam – in which case substitute Adam for Bob Dole as Bob Dole just likes hearing Bob Dole talk about Bob Dole) – and, like any well run business, they will need to keep notes of the last conversation you had with them, your account number, your needs/assessment, your “value” to the bank etc. And where are they likely to keep these nowadays?

Yep – on computer records which will be stored in a central location and can be accessed by any branch of the bank….

Coincidentally, for the last year or so – there have been plans to convert the old very large Natwest branch in Leicester city (near to St.Martins Square) to a trendy wine bar 😉

Last night, just before I went to bed, I watched an episode of South Park entitled “The Super Best Friends” where Jesus and Pals (Buddha, Lord Krishna, Seaman and a few others) fights the David Blainetologists – and I thought, “Since David Blaine is currently trying to attract publicity in London, it’ll be quite funny if Channel 4 were to show this episode again.”

So, just before I go to bed tonight, I’m just channel surfing and guess which episode of South Park is showing on Channel 4….

Yep – spooky! Especially since earlier they were also showing David Blaine’s “Vertigo” (when he’s just standing on a pole in Times Square) and that just happens to be on my “watch rotation”* as well.