This comment brought a lump to my throat. What’s wrong with me!
It’s very useful in rural areas where there isn’t an address to go to. People have been rescued off mountains with that app. Sending a string of GPS coordinates is too complicated and it’s hard to see if you’ve made a mistake.
Back to the stream: you wouldn’t recognise them if you don’t closely follow UK politics but every now and then I spot a UK politician or some other dignitary. Theresa May was in the queue earlier - though no doubt these people are put into the queue in Westminster Hall rather being being expected to join the snake.
I for one could not wait in line for 9 hours without going to the bathroom. Do they have portapotties set up for those in line?
500 portable loos have been installed, worry not
You get a wristband when you join the queue so you can leave it and rejoin - but presumably you can’t just disappear for a long time as you’ll never find your place again.
Some venues on the route, such as the National Theatre, have stopped performances (or whatever they normally do) but have stayed open to offer refreshments and bathrooms. I hope the NT’s bar is still open - they do great beer in there, if a little pricey.
Watching the livestream now at 1730 local time, they’ve cut away from the livestream to an outside view. Anyone know why?
That is really granular. There are like twenty of them just in my house. I wish that they would have at least made some fun ones. Like practice.practice.practice should have been in the middle of Carnegie Hall instead of in a city in India. My front door has pizza in it so there’s that.
I can’t imagine anything where I would queue up for nine hours but if she could serve for 70 years, the relative inconvenience isn’t so bad. I suppose that they want to be a part of history and the more people, the more respect. In hindsight, it would have made more sense to have tickets online or at a kiosk which gives you a time to show up and a 30 minute window either way and then an overflow first come first served to fill in any gaps.
I can’t find it now but I saw an article yesterday that the what3words app is giving wildly incorrect results for the end of the queue. Like if the correct code should be car.door.house, but you enter cars.door.house, you’ll be directed someplace entirely wrong.
But the entirely wrong place will be in Peru or something so it will be clear that you made an error. Play around with it. Adjacent squares are totally different words and there won’t be anything remotely close by getting something slightly wrong.
graphics.brings.sediment is the garden of the Santa Barbara Courthouse.
graphics.bring.sediment is in China
The King, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward are going to stand vigil around the coffin on Friday evening. I’m not sure if a time has been published but I’m betting there will be lots of people trying to estimate what time to join the queue to see that.
EDIT - 19:30 BST
This is known as The Vigil of the Princes
I’ve observed at least three Asian people make three deep bows in a row. Research found this:
The first memory of taking three bows was at my grandfather’s funeral. A modern Chinese historian, he passed away the day after he wrote the last sentence of his final book. I was three years old at the time, and remember feeling scared by the sombre atmosphere and my father’s sadness. Shaping my hands together, I did as my father asked and folded my torso slowly forward in unison with my family. Most other details of that day have faded from my memory, but I clearly remember that with my third bow, fear left my body and mind. As my father lifted me up to my yeye’s thin, colourless face, I summoned the courage to kiss my grandfather goodbye.
Bowing three times in Chinese culture is way of showing respect to Heaven, Earth and all life. It is a gesture that humbles us to the mystery and power of what is vast and unspeakable. For me, it has become a sacred, living tradition, where my ego momentarily gives way to a liminal space that lies beyond words.
How fitting that the British people are honouring their late sovereign with a gigantic orderly queue.
Her late Majesty’s Covid speech was prophetic. “We will meet again.” You sure are. 
alphaboi: 
Seeing so many of the senior Royal Family in uniform reminded me… I remember the Queen wore Army uniform for the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony for most of her reign. Her father, a Navy officer before taking the throne, favored Royal Navy uniform on many occasions, especially during WWII, but I remember at least a few pictures of him in Army or Royal Air Force uniforms. I believe the new King was in RAF uniform for the procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, as was the Prince of Wales.
But did the Queen ever wear RN or RAF uniform? If not, why not?
My guess is because she served in the army, not the navy or air force.
George VI only ever held honorary rank in the Air Force and Army, I think, but he wore both their uniforms on occasion. He’d served in the Navy during WWI.
Ah, thanks, that explains it. I couldn’t see how the Yeoman Warders would manage.
And @Fiendish_Astronaut interesting to hear about the Vigil of the Princes. Anyone timing their queue entry for it has a big likelihood of missing the narrow window.
I was surprised to learn that it’s relatively modern. The word “prince” used to be a generic term for ruler; Queen Elizabeth I famously told her subjects “I am your Prince.”
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
This. I don’t know what I would do as a “gesture of respect”, at least as a physical gesture, but showing up at all strikes me as morally or emotionally a gesture of respect.
Nice. Had to look that one up.
Immortalized by G & S.