Alignment

I was going to avoid mentioning the upcoming royal funeral until it actually happens next Monday.  More than enough is being mentioned already.

However, we are all British descendants in our house, and elder daughter lives in the UK, so naturally, we've been tuning into the death festival that's been taking place for the last week.  

Yesterday, while searching for YouTube recordings to show Demeter, who has no internet, I stumbled across the continuous live streaming of the Great British public (plus a large number of tourists) making their steady way in two lines past the Queen's coffin, which is lying in state at Westminster Hall.

It's oddly compelling viewing.  These are people who have waited for hours and hours for the privilege of a moment's pause to bow, genuflect, namaste, or whatever, before trotting back to their lives.  I'm astounded to see some people have brought strollers, or ambulant young children.

Yesterday evening, I discovered there's a "Queue-Tracker" on YouTube.  At that point, the Queue (capitalised, like the Queue at Wimbledon) was two and a half miles long, stretching back to Southwark Bridge on the South Bank of the Thames.

This morning, when I arose, it was 4.2 miles long, and I've just checked, it's 4.9 miles long.  My understanding is that the "cut-off" point is five miles, when, so the Twitter wags suggest, a queue will then be formed for the Queue.

A popular thread on Twitter declares that this Queue is performance art.  It's certainly bonkers, but like a road accident, I can't look away.