Your body relies significantly on voluntary muscle activity (e.g. the movements of limbs) to sort of massage veins and help blood get back to the heart. Without that, it tends to pool in remote parts of your body, particularly the lower extremities. This is a key factor in deep vein thrombosis occurring in people who sit for long periods of time with little or no leg movement - most famously among passengers on long-haul flights. Likewise for anyone attempting to stand in one spot with as little movement as possible. If you’re waiting in line for tickets somewhere, you shift around a lot, move your arms, all kinds of subtle motions that help keep blood moving. But standing rigidly at attention? Unless you can subtly contract your calf and thigh muscles on a regular basis, you’re going to be at risk for fainting before too long.
How do the guards outside places like Buckingham Palace do it? They seem to be standing quite still for hours, though usually they’re at a distance from the public, so perhaps they’re moving slightly.
like this:
This article claims that keeping your knees bent is helpful (so you’re tensing your leg muscles more), so maybe it comes down to training and mindfulness so that you actually follow through with this when you’re standing at your post?
What are those long white feathers on the shakos of one of the shifts of guards (they’re up now)?
I wonder if they’ve used that path for a queue before because it’s quite brilliant - minimal street crossings, if any, and most of it on a path narrow enough to be sure you are on an actual path, and thus not snaking around to nowhere, but wide enough that you don’t feel cramped as long as you aren’t trying to walk faster than the prevailing foot traffic during busy times of the day.
Swan feathers.
The guys in the beefeater uniforms are the Yeoman of the Guard, a ceremonial unit composed of retired army NCOs. The guys in the plumed helmets are the Gentleman at Arms, a ceremonial unit composed of retired army officers.
Oh my goodness.
I knew that the Queen “owned” all the swans in the UK. Now Charles does. In the olden days they ate them-- not any more.
Interesting that those groups are made up of retirees. I thought some of them looked kind of… (ahem)… elderly. I can say that because I am, too. Additional risk of passing out, I’d think (poor circulation and whatnot).
Look closely. They are not completely still. They are subtly shifting back and forth, from one foot to the other.
What everyone knows about swans — https://youtu.be/QFLaNHijvNk
Yikes. The Queue tracker now says (2:35 AM there) that the line is 4.9 miles long and the wait is 14 hours.
The queue has eased up a little, 3.6 miles long and 9 hours queuing time as of 6 AM in London.
And I don’t want to hijack, but for those interested in amusing what3words location names, there’s a thread:
They’re ceremonial. The ‘real’ guards are the ones stood behind them, at each corner of the coffin. In fact, two current government ministers who are former soldiers and members of one of these ceremonial regiments (including the Defence Minister), took part in the vigil yesterday.
I don’t think she did. I’m not sure why, except that she only ever wore uniform for the Trooping of the Colour Military parade (where the other unformed royals also wore the red jacket of the Guards regiments). Of course, she did actually serve in the army.
Entry to the queue has been paused because it is at capacity. I did think people might try to join to see the Princes Vigil. I’m not sure what people who intended to join it are supposed to do - I suspect the cafe’s around Southwark might be very busy this morning.
The what3words for the end of the queue is navy.noises.overnight
Anyone doing that would inevitably be disappointed. If they do it how it was done in 1936 and 2002, the queue will be temporarily halted and only VIPs will be present.
Maybe, but they did the Princes Vigil in Edinburgh last week and the public were allowed to file past. It must have been remarkable to see for those lucky punters.
Perhaps the security considerations will be different for this.
Looking at the map for the queue I reckon it’ll have snaked its way the 60-odd miles to my east Kent home by some point this afternoon.
If I could join it at the end of my road that’d save me a heck of a journey.
I note they’ve paused entry to the queue. Do they not realise this is the UK? What will obviously happen is that there will now be a queue for the queue. That’s twice as appealing to us brits.
Who is this line of crotchety looking old men in red coats who came out a side door? Most of them are just walking by looking annoyed, very few of them quickly nodding their head towards the coffin.
Fourteen hours of shuffling along? I keep having the irreverent thought that there isn’t even a good ride at the end of it.
I saw a shot of Harry from above the other day, he appears to getting pretty thin on top as well