I had five hundred US dollars on landing in Australia, which I put away safely in the ANZ Grindlays Bank for the simple reason that it had a branch in Queenscliff where the Staff College was located. (In those one was permitted to carry a maximum of five hundred US dollars per person while going abroad.)
After about a month or so, I required some additional cash for which I wrote a ‘self’ Cheque and went to the bank to encash it. There was a middle aged lady at the counter whom I wished “Good ‘die’ (day)” and handed the cheque to her. She swiped it through what looked like a cash register to me, then punched a few keys on the key board in front of her. After getting the desired response from the machine, she looked at me over her half spectacles and asked, Sir, how do you like it?”
Now I was not very sure as to what was I supposed to reply to this query which was completely alien to me. So I said, “I like it very much.”
The lady smiled and said, “Sir, I didn’t mean ‘that’! I meant, how do you like your money?”
Now this was easy so I said, “I like my money also very much” – a straight forward replied to a simple question.
The lady’s smile was broader this time. She re-framed her question the third time and asked, “Sir, what I meant was as to what denomination notes would you like?”
To which I replied, “Oh then why didn’t you asked so the first time?”
Then I told her the type of notes I wanted, got my cash and walked out. What strange usage - “How do you like it?”
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