I was just thinking this morning one of the things I like best about being in Britain is queuing. Well, not the actual event, its best of course if there is no need to be in a queue, but when you must, well, the British system of how this is supposed to happen, one of my favorite social customs ( I always wonder if I should spell British on these forums...anyhow!). Even the word has this nice crisp feel about it, very orderly and practical, which is one of the hallmarks of British social custom. I was waiting in a line to get some coffee and biscuits after a tour of an old church a few weekends ago, and the line was somewhat not quite straight, what with a lot of pensioners with walking sticks and frames, and what not, and people standing back to let the pensioners have the first go at the refreshments. Well, when I reached the table for coffee, one of those nice polite British chaps arrived a millisecond ahead of me, from the other end of the table. As he was putting his hand out for coffee, he looked up and realized he had totally missed the queue at the other end of the table--he had, in essence, jumped the queue! You could see this realization dawn on him, he looked horrified, and he almost dropped his coffee cup, and then was trying to hand it to me, saying, bright red, that he was so sorry, he had jumped the queue, by accident, and I was saying oh no worries, go ahead, go ahead.

Another time I was trying to get on one of the national coaches, and people were struggling in a queue with trolleys overloaded with luggage, and a coach driver trying to get the luggage in the full underneath of the coach..and a few people began to jump the queue ( those without luggage), until someone shouted out that there were coach queue jumpers! This brought an official in a high viz vest over, to sort out the queue, and the queue jumper thought of the worst thing he could say to the official: " Your queue is not very orderly!!!"

And that is another thing I like, officials and all always look very smart, in uniforms, or high viz vests, but always seem to look very nicely turned out. A(nother) foreign student friend of mine from Asia remarked once that she found the British policeman " so handsome!"

Yes, I think queuing is a great custom. Even in a bus shelter, everyone has a mental count of who arrived first, and waits until they have got on the bus before getting on themselves.