Reality seems to have continued unabated since I last posted. I’m still working at a well-known bank in Edinburgh’s post-industrial wasteland from late afternoon to night and looking for real jobs in the morning. On Thursday I was keying amounts on cheques while idly musing (to avoid feeling bored and sore, as usual) when I realised I was keying exactly £1,000,000.

I’m puzzled: why write a cheque for that much? Why not electronically transfer the money and be sure it gets to its destination safely and immediately? I helped my sister transfer some money from one investment to another. The receiving investment manager told her that her money had been transferred by cheque. What would have happened if it had got lost in the post?

On the other hand, each night there is a huge bundle of postal orders and cheques paid into a debt management company’s account. Many of these are for £1 or thereabouts. I wonder sadly about the debts these are paying off. I also wonder how the debt management company breaks even on these arrangements. I believe banks charge business customers for each cheque they pay in or write. I can see why – the bank has to pay us grunts, the engineers who maintain the machines that read and sort the cheques and for flying the cheques to the payers’ banks!

Oh well, roll on the complete electronicisation of money.

Enough!

Yesterday my hostess cleaned out her study while I swept the balcony. Today we’ve walked along the Water of Leith to Balerno. It’s really pretty – lots of blossom and a feeling that most of the time we were in the depths of the countryside. Now I’m sat in the lounge bathing my feet like an old grampus.

Tomorrow we’re going to see two-thirds of The Goodies at the Festival Theatre. Yum-yum!