The Queen is Dead

[didds]

There are over 15000 people watching this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-62902778
just wondering why
going back to work now

because it is better than the regular programming?

[pje16]

There are over 15000 people watching this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-62902778
just wondering why
going back to work now

because it is better than the regular programming?

The programming is just getting SO repetitive

[MrFoolish]

There are rumours Dom Jolly has joined the queue carrying a large box.

[Mike4]

I've just clicked the link and was treated to a changing of the guard.

Two things bother me.

1) What ARE those enormous bearskin helmets all about?

And

2) All those people filing past must be desperate for the loo after queuing for nine hours+

[mc2fool]

2) All those people filing past must be desperate for the loo after queuing for nine hours+

Right now, midnight, the expected queuing time is "at least 19.5 hours" (!). It was over 22 hours earlier.

There's reportedly been 500 portaloos installed along the way, and a number of public and semi-public buildings (like City Hall, Tate Modern, National Theatre, etc, etc) are signposting their loos as available, and apparently lots of pubs, restaurants, etc, are doing the same. Not sure quite how many of those will be available overnight though (other than the portaloos of course).

[Dod101]

2) All those people filing past must be desperate for the loo after queuing for nine hours+

Right now, midnight, the expected queuing time is "at least 19.5 hours" (!). It was over 22 hours earlier.

There's reportedly been 500 portaloos installed along the way, and a number of public and semi-public buildings (like City Hall, Tate Modern, National Theatre, etc, etc) are signposting their loos as available, and apparently lots of pubs, restaurants, etc, are doing the same. Not sure quite how many of those will be available overnight though (other than the portaloos of course).

I got the impression that a number of these buildings are open 24/7, but anyway, people tune in to the BBC TV vigil I suppose for the same reason that people post here. Both are entirely pointless except from some sense of curiosity. I must say, I find it remarkable that people are prepared to queue for so long and in such good humour, but it is entirely voluntary after all, and all the more impressive for that.

After all the depressing news we get almost all the time, it is good to see something positive.

Dod

[didds]

There is something quite amusing though about a queue for a queue for a queue

[pje16]

There is something quite amusing though about a queue for a queue for a queue

Yes, it's known as the QE2

[Arborbridge]

Right now, midnight, the expected queuing time is "at least 19.5 hours" (!). It was over 22 hours earlier.

There's reportedly been 500 portaloos installed along the way, and a number of public and semi-public buildings (like City Hall, Tate Modern, National Theatre, etc, etc) are signposting their loos as available, and apparently lots of pubs, restaurants, etc, are doing the same. Not sure quite how many of those will be available overnight though (other than the portaloos of course).

I got the impression that a number of these buildings are open 24/7, but anyway, people tune in to the BBC TV vigil I suppose for the same reason that people post here. Both are entirely pointless except from some sense of curiosity. I must say, I find it remarkable that people are prepared to queue for so long and in such good humour, but it is entirely voluntary after all, and all the more impressive for that.

After all the depressing news we get almost all the time, it is good to see something positive.

Dod

My wife and I joined the queue on Thursday morning about 07.05, after getting up at 04.00 to do so. At that time the length was 2.2 miles - east of Southwark bridge - and moving quite quickly. We were warned it would take 10 hours, but actually we were through in 5 hours. My armband was number 15,382. It was an amazing experience, and we are both so glad we were able to do it. I could go on at length, but I won't unless asked to! But what I will say is that the queuing is a very benign process with a great deal of help along the way: there's no problem drop out and back in again, and everyone is jolly decent and tolerant. Inside the great Hall itself the experience in profoundly ewmotional and awe inspiring* - those five minutes will stay with me until I die. I would happily do it again - indeed, I do wonder if some people have clocked up multiple visits.

*the only other experience I have had of this kind of "mass emotion" was on visiting the Western wall in Jerusalem.

Arb.

[scotview]

Inside the great Hall itself the experience in profoundly ewmotional and awe inspiring* - those five minutes will stay with me until I die.

Arb.

Thanks for posting.

We won't be down in London but we plan to walk round the Balmoral Cairns this summer as a remembrance.

[Dod101]

Inside the great Hall itself the experience in profoundly ewmotional and awe inspiring* - those five minutes will stay with me until I die.

Arb.

Thanks for posting.

We won't be down in London but we plan to walk round the Balmoral Cairns this summer as a remembrance.

This Summer? This morning it feels as if the summer is well and truly over, and I am not as far north as Balmoral.

Dod

[servodude]

I got the impression that a number of these buildings are open 24/7, but anyway, people tune in to the BBC TV vigil I suppose for the same reason that people post here. Both are entirely pointless except from some sense of curiosity. I must say, I find it remarkable that people are prepared to queue for so long and in such good humour, but it is entirely voluntary after all, and all the more impressive for that.

After all the depressing news we get almost all the time, it is good to see something positive.

Dod

My wife and I joined the queue on Thursday morning about 07.05, after getting up at 04.00 to do so. At that time the length was 2.2 miles - east of Southwark bridge - and moving quite quickly. We were warned it would take 10 hours, but actually we were through in 5 hours. My armband was number 15,382. It was an amazing experience, and we are both so glad we were able to do it. I could go on at length, but I won't unless asked to! But what I will say is that the queuing is a very benign process with a great deal of help along the way: there's no problem drop out and back in again, and everyone is jolly decent and tolerant. Inside the great Hall itself the experience in profoundly ewmotional and awe inspiring* - those five minutes will stay with me until I die. I would happily do it again - indeed, I do wonder if some people have clocked up multiple visits.

*the only other experience I have had of this kind of "mass emotion" was on visiting the Western wall in Jerusalem.

Arb.

Thanks for the write up.

I was musing today that the wait is "part of it" despite how it is portrayed in the news

It will mean more to those who go because of the effort, that it was basically a kind of secular pilgrimage; with the collective experience and catharsis that goes along with that.
So it's interesting to hear it felt similar to your experience in Jerusalem.
I am not a royalist by any stretch but I would go if I were able
- it's literally the end of an era

[AsleepInYorkshire]

This Summer? This morning it feels as if the summer is well and truly over, and I am not as far north as Balmoral.

Dod

The temperature has dropped yes. Are you travelling this year Dod?

Ensuring I remain on topic I hope the temperatures are reasonable on Monday for family and mourners.

AiY(D)

[Arborbridge]

Thanks for the write up.

I was musing today that the wait is "part of it" despite how it is portrayed in the news

It will mean more to those who go because of the effort, that it was basically a kind of secular pilgrimage; with the collective experience and catharsis that goes along with that.
So it's interesting to hear it felt similar to your experience in Jerusalem.
I am not a royalist by any stretch but I would go if I were able
- it's literally the end of an era

The queue was part of it - you are correct. It felt like a pilgrimage, although by half way through the "snake" in the gardens, it was not so much the weight of history bearing down on my as my back killing me! When you reach the snake in Victoria Tower gardens, you feel so close, but the concertina-ing of people is such that it take over two hours to travel those few hundred yards. I think those who did it at night, would have had a wonderful experience. I have a friend who started around midnight and finished at 09.00, taking to great pictures on the way.

Early, the queue mostly is quite rapid - at one soretch almost a jog. One chap and his father dropped of the pace, and our little group kept worrying about them (his dad was having trouble walking at more than an amble) - and the stewards ferried them round to the disabled queue. By pure coincidence, they were put back into the queue with our group, exactly where they had been. Everyone around was so pleased to see them again, which gives a measure of how the queue looks out for people with this "bond".

There was time enough to take in the wonders of Westminster Hall and its hammerbeam roof, while going down those steps at the entrance. My first impression of the quard of honour was that they were so perfect, so polished, so still, that they looked like models. And the silence strikes you too, and then the coffin and the crown, orb and spectre. Approaching this, the emotion is powerful, and I'll admit to shedding a tear - even writing this, I recall the feeling.

Incidentally, the flowers in Green Park are also well worth seeing. The Queen would love them, as they are placed around the bowls of all her trees in this Royal park. Many simply worded tributes from ordinary citizens, many clearly written by children. Though I had doubts about a thousand years of history being reduced in some instances to a Paddington bear figure and a pot of marmalade: but then she was truly everyone's Queen to love in their own way.



Arb.

[mc2fool]

Right now, midnight, the expected queuing time is "at least 19.5 hours" (!). It was over 22 hours earlier.

There's reportedly been 500 portaloos installed along the way, and a number of public and semi-public buildings (like City Hall, Tate Modern, National Theatre, etc, etc) are signposting their loos as available, and apparently lots of pubs, restaurants, etc, are doing the same. Not sure quite how many of those will be available overnight though (other than the portaloos of course).

I got the impression that a number of these buildings are open 24/7, but anyway, people tune in to the BBC TV vigil I suppose for the same reason that people post here. Both are entirely pointless except from some sense of curiosity. I must say, I find it remarkable that people are prepared to queue for so long and in such good humour, but it is entirely voluntary after all, and all the more impressive for that.

I'm sure at least some of the public buildings will be open 24/7 but I imagine a lot of the pubs, restaurants, etc won't be, and with the length of time involved -- queueing time went to over 25 hours overnight -- there's the additional challenge of fighting off sleep. From what I've seen the queue keeps moving at a reasonable pace, so no chance to rest, let alone catch a few winks.

And distance ... Victoria Fritz was interviewed coming out of the Palace of Westminster and she said that although the length of the queue from Southwark Park, where she started, was supposedly 5.5 miles, her walking tracker was telling her that she'd walked over 10 miles, due to the "snakes" at each end.

[Mike4]

And the silence strikes you too, and then the coffin and the crown, orb and spectre.

Great typo!!

[Arborbridge]

And the silence strikes you too, and then the coffin and the crown, orb and spectre.

Great typo!!

I've done it again! add that to "pendant" in my list of bloopers.

[Mike4]

Great typo!!

I've done it again! add that to "pendant" in my list of bloopers.

Your typo there is amusing because it is a kind of "eggcorn". The Queen is in the casket and could indeed arise as a spectre, possibly...

"An eggcorn is a word or phrase that is mistakenly used for another word or phrase because it sounds similar and seems logical or plausible. Take the things that fall from oak trees in the fall. They're acorns, but they sometimes get called eggcorns. And why not? They're kind of egg-shaped, and they are the metaphorical eggs from which new oak trees hatch—hence, eggcorn."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-a ... d-examples

I think your eggcorn was probably due to the spell checker interfering!

[stewamax]

There is something quite amusing though about a queue for a queue for a queue

Amusing to Johnny Foreigner perhaps.
But this is ENGLAND!

[didds]

There is something quite amusing though about a queue for a queue for a queue

Amusing to Johnny Foreigner perhaps.
But this is ENGLAND!

Oh I can assure you that its amusing to this Englishman