Samantha spent Saturday night smashing up her built-in wardrobe with a hammer. And so Sunday morning brought with it a phone-call to drive both her and a pile of plywood to her local tip.
Unfortunately her local tip is not like our rural affair in Market Harborough, but is instead smack bang in the middle of the city of Leicester and is shared by a significant number of DIY weekend enthusiasts.
Here we have an aerial shot of the queue leading into the tip, which Samantha took from the roof of our car.
It was not a fast mover, and most had turned off their engines. This however led newcomers to believe that we were parked and not queued, and so they tried to enter the skip by driving past we patient queuers, who incidentally were all tuned in to BBC Radio 4. Or so I like to think.
In the above picture is a cheeky chap who soon learns the error of his ways and is compelled to make a hasty retreat, and shown below a second chap who, clearly rather embarrassed by his unwitting attempt to queue jump, decides to turn around and leave the area completely.
There were those who avoided the queue by entering and leaving the tip on foot.
Despite signs forbidding that you should do so.
And finally, here is the queue master, the chap in neon in charge of the barrier.
Who was terribly nice and called me ‘pal’ twice.
However do not let this distract from the fact that he waved in a friend driving a large white van who, after the removal of two strategically placed traffic cones, was able to enter the tip ahead of the queue.
PS. News about my imminent trip to the Congo and, more importantly, the future of Standinaqueue will be given this weekend.
February 9, 2007 at 1:43 am
No fair humoring Bossy off her desk chair just to sober her up with imminent news. Say. It. Isn’t. So.
February 9, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Another perceptive and sensitive Queue analysis, William Deed, but I have to admit that I’m baffled.
One notice says:
‘Pedestrian access is prohibited’,
but the adjacent notice says:
‘Pedestrians enter site at own risk’.
I want to know, are pedestrians allowed to enter the site or not? Gary Wood, what do you think?
By the way, isn’t a site like that called a tip? I always thought a skip was one of those metal containers at the side of the road.
February 9, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I think it is the local dump.
ha ha ha ha ha ha
February 9, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Ah, yes David Brand, you are right it is indeed a tip and not a skip. I dutifully posted this quite late last night and I’m afraid as a consequence was rather sloppy. I will make ammendments straight away.
February 9, 2007 at 3:55 pm
And your attention to detail Dr Brand is extraordinary. The signs do give conflicting commands, which are further muddled by the painted white line across the entrance to the tip that reads “No Pedestrians beyond this point” and the neon clad queue master who informs those on foot; “Y’alright, in yer go pal.”
My dear Bossy, I’m afraid that it is so.
February 9, 2007 at 5:29 pm
In the meantime, where is Samantha hanging her clothes?
February 9, 2007 at 5:58 pm
She has a lovely wooden wardrobe which she bought through Ebay.
February 12, 2007 at 1:43 pm
I am waiting to find out the fate of standinaqueue!!
February 12, 2007 at 7:36 pm
The lovely Hsien, the answer is soon coming.