This photo doesn't do Martin's Place justice, all around me are huge builds |
Are those columns just for show? |
The inside of the building was just as grand as the outside, the inside was a huge open space of decorated columns and Victorian no expensive spared styling. The marbles floors were as clean and shiny as a surgeon’s scalpel. I learnt that the building is classed as an important heritage building and is at the same level as The White House. Unfortunately this being the inside of a bank photography was not permitted.
Seeing a bank with such a grand building made me slightly worried when I was giving them all my money to look after. Were they going to look after my money or just spend it on polishing up their priceless marble floors?
I opened and transferred money into the account in the UK but I had to have an appointment with my new bank account advisor to verify my identity and to proof that I actually existed, only then would my account be unlocked.
My bank advisor was a very friendly woman, she felt more like a friendly old neighbour than someone who worked in a bank. Although she did push a sale or two on me during the appointment. She said that when my parents move to Australia they should open up a bank account with her. I found it funny that she already knew more about my parent’s future plans than I do. She also pushed for me to take out home insurance and she did the classic old salesperson trick of turning a large sum of money into a small one by saying “well it is only a few dollars a day”. But who could blame her? At the end of the day she was a business woman, and a very friendly one.
Everything was going great until she tried to send me a confirmation message to my mobile. My phone had no signal when it should have had signal. So I turned it off and on again and laid it down on the desk to boot up. When my phone boots up a welcome message is displayed, now this would normally be fine but the welcome message on my phone is very offensive. I must have been messing around with my phone settings one evening many years ago and I thought it would be funny to change the welcome message. Instead of saying “Welcome” or “Hello” my phones says “Fuck you”. I only remembered this after we were both watching my phone boot up and the offensive message came up. I quickly grabbed my phone and said “uh, hold on, let me just check if that message has come through”. I am not sure if she read the message, but she was still happy and friendly like before, despite being told to fuck off by my mobile phone.
After I left the bank I headed back to the hostel. I had a great morning, and I felt like I had judged everything too quickly. The hostel made sense now, it was just a place to sleep, eat and wash. It was just a base for me to go out and live in this amazing city.
Oops... |
Hahaha! Great bank story, glad you're warming to the place
ReplyDelete