Every time I go to the bank of China, I have to take a ticket and wait for up to 2 hours until I get to speak to a bank clerk. This drives me up the wall. It also makes me think some very dark thoughts about the institutions behind theworld's fastest growing economy.
Sometimes I nip out to do some grocery shopping, but an hour is more groceries than I need, so as a time management technique it is unsatisfactory. This morning, however,inspiration struck! I would both effect my transaction, AND leave the bank healthy, svelte and clean!
I went to the bank, took my ticket -at 9.45 – number 42 – inspected thedigital readouts above the clerks' windows, discovered they were up to number 22, did a rapid calculation – ata conservative 2 minutes per customer, I had40 minutes.
I raced to the health club next door, flung myself into the gym, watched exactly 13 minutes of Grey's anatomy while I ran on the machine (some might call this ridiculously brief, but I call ita power workout). I took a dizzyingly quick shower, pulled my clothes back on, raced back to the bank, flinging myself through the door at 10.20…only to find they had already reached customer number 55. My mistake? I had failed to allow for the large proportion of customers who just plain give up, decide they can live without cash, and just walk out the door…
Despondently I prepared to take another number and commence the wait all over again…. only to find that one of the kind souls who'd given up had left their ticket – no 62 – on the machine. So I adopted it, and waited about ten minutes and…. hurrah! It was my turn. In the parallel universe of the Bank of China this counts as a victory.