I wandered over to the local Alliance and Leicester bank at lunchtime to pay in one of those relics of the past, something which I believe was once called a "cheque" - I believe they were invented when some bloke called Noah had to pay for some materials for his Ark.

While I was standing and forming a queue of one, waiting for the single teller to become available, the staff member from the front of house reception desk (banks in the city centre of London have become very strange places) became free, and wandered over to ask if she could help.

She persuaded me to use the automatic deposit machine, and tried to convince me that it's so much better to use the deposit machine, which would even photocopy the cheque onto my receipt.

Although I've seen them before, I never cease to be amazed at the quality of the hand writing recognition - this cheque was pretty bad - but the machine as 100% accurate.

The staffer did of course also use the opportunity to try and convince me to take up the new credit card (mmmm, commission), which convinced me that this new-fangled, techno-wizardy really IS the way forward, although they will no doubt be plastered with adverts, an advert on screen is much easier to ignore than the pretty lady fluttering her eyes.

Wait, did I, a committed geek and gadget-o-phile  just type something up, having a minor complain about the rise of the machines, and the lack of the human touch/interaction?

I guess I really did start getting old when I turned 30...