It's been almost a year since Japan's Nomura acquired Lehman's international operations, and apparently the remaining workers from Team Dick Fuld are finding it tough to fit in. An early problem came about when the Japanese broker kicked off a training session for new recruits by separating the men and women.

The women, including Harvard graduates hired by Lehman Brothers before it collapsed, were taught how to do their hair, serve tea and choose their wardrobes according to the season, according to bankers who complained about the session in the Wall Street Journal. Other complaints included Lehman women being instructed to wear sleeves no shorter than “midbicep”, avoid brightly coloured clothing, and remove highlights from their hair. Several said they were sent home from the trading floor for dressing “inappropriately”.

Another problem cropped up when Nomura set up a “transition team” to help the two firms integrate. Senior Lehman bankers started to complain about “shadows”, bankers from the Nomura side who would accompany them to client meetings and report back to other executives. And apparently the ex-Lehman bankers also weren't too happy about joining in with the team of Nomura traders who liked to kick off morning meetings by singing a company song.

Is that a Rock or a hard place?

JUST what is going on at Northern Rock? No one is sure, if the headline writers are anything to go by. “Hopes of early Rock sale despite £724 million loss,” says the Daily Telegraph. “Darling to delay sale after loss of £725 million,” according to the Financial Times.

* CHIEF secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne blogs that: “You can see why Alistair Darling has been saying repeatedly that we're confident but cautious that growth will return towards the end of the year. News over recent months has been mixed. But today, credit rating agency Fitch reaffirmed the Government's AAA debt rating, adding the outlook is stable'.” Hurrah, slaps on backs all round. But in his Budget speech last year, Darling suggested that growth wouldn't be going away in the first place. “I am able to report that the British economy will continue to grow through this year and beyond,” he said.

Yacht a Thai holiday nightmare at sea

HOW embarrassing. You're the multi-millionaire who made your money from the Sunsail holiday business which has taught thousands of youngsters to sail, with a big reputation yourself as an ocean racing yachtsman and your 21-year-old goes and runs aground your $2 million yacht in the bay where the film The Beach was shot. But that's what has befallen Chris Gordon.

His university student son, Alex, borrowed the 77-foot Crysalis-T racing sloop to show his pals around Phi Phi Lay island off Thailand. They were trapped for a fortnight when local salvage teams failed to extricate the French-built racing sloop. Gordon, 54-year-old founder of Sunsail, flew into Phuket, sacked the salvors and gathered his own 30-man salvage team, using seven boats, barges and excavators.

Phuket Gazette assistant editor Fraser Morton said that The salvage operation took 48 hours and the 42 tonne yacht was levered free from the sand just before a major storm swept through the area. Gordon is the developer of The Village, 112 villas on nearby Coconut Island. In England, until recently he owned the Old House at Home pub in Chidham, Chichester, where Alex used to serve behind the bar.

* IT'S almost as lucrative as the money-making scheme Bernie Madoff operated for two decades: Irving Picard, the lawyer appointed by the court to track down Madoff's money, is charging $1 million (£590,000) a week to close down the investment firm. His own practice stands to collect as much as $250 million from the process. So far, Picard and his colleagues have claimed more than $15 million, for three-and-a-half months' work, and — surprise, surprise — Picard says he believes it could take as long as five years to settle all the Madoff claims.

Time is of essence for Hester to sort out NatWest

AS Royal Bank of Scotland unveils the horror of its interim results tomorrow, here is a tale from a reader about RBS-owned NatWest, which illustrates why chief executive Stephen Hester has his work cut out: “I called NatWest to arrange an appointment to see an adviser last Wednesday. The Crouch End branch was too busy to answer the phone (not a great start), so the call centre sent them an email.

“Their policy, apparently, is to respond within three working hours. By Monday (three days later), they still hadn't responded, so I phoned again. This time I left another message, asking the branch manager to give me a call. Three hours later and still no reply. So I phoned again. Still they couldn't get through so we tried NatWest customer relations. A nice lady was doing ever so well, until she told me that they would take 10 working days to investigate my complaint (all I wanted was an appointment to transfer my accounts).

“I phoned the RBS chief executive's office and spoke to one of the team. They agreed that this sorry incident wasn't quite right and promised a quick response. The next day (now day five) I get a call from a regional manager apologising and commenting that the branch manager at Crouch End has swine flu. Still no offer of an appointment though, so this horse has bolted off to HSBC Premier.”

Adds the reader: “The moral of this tale is no wonder RBS is in the state it is in.

“All I wanted to do was transfer my accounts (and savings too). I wasn't looking for any credit, heaven forbid. I was clearly pushing at a closed door. Once Tesco steps up a gear with the launch of their current account, RBS and other High Street banks will have much to fear…”

* COULD this be the innovation that might herald recovery for the pub industry? A new service devised by pub awareness group Use Your Local has signed up 500 landlords who are happy to take delivery of parcels when the householder is out. From tiny acorns…