Apologies to all those who have arrived here from Slate, Wired, Guardian, BBC and the National Review, but this queue is now over.
I was Stood in the Congo but I am no longer in DRC and instead in Kenya. Stood in the Maasai Mara to be precise, where you will find a photo a day.
March 25, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Is there a blog map and timeline we can see anywhere that explains it all in a simple, easy to understand manner?
March 26, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Um, no. Sorry.
Which bit do you want explaining?
March 26, 2008 at 11:50 pm
How many blogs are there, and where do I start?
March 27, 2008 at 4:46 am
Ah, yes, I see what you mean. I will shortly be posting to let you know.
April 29, 2008 at 6:41 pm
How did you go from standing in a queue to standing in the Masai Mara? That was one hell of a queue.
You were quoted today on the BBC about big cats disappearing from the Mara, my work sent it round. I was surprised; i’d thought you were in the Congo. Then I read your latest blog and the world made more sense.
April 29, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I’m not really sure.
I just waited patiently and now here I am.
To be honest I didn’t even realise that this was where this queue was heading, but I thought I’d stand in it anyway.
April 30, 2008 at 3:08 pm
What a nice, well-behaved queue!
Mr. William Deed, your influence is clearly entirely beneficial.
May 4, 2008 at 2:37 am
The best queues are the one where you’re not quite sure what it’s for. Neither is anyone else standing in the queue. They are perfect queues for games.
August 13, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Aww, queues, how when I lived back in the UK I used to grumble about them – after living in Spain for 2 years I would happily go back to standing in Tesco on a Saturday morning asking why so many of us torture ourselves with weekend shopping.
Here in Spain, land of the patient people, I feel like I have gone back to a third world country. Let me tell you about how I had to get my NIE paperwork so I could start working.
Day 1 – I turn up at the office at 8.30 (it opens at nine) thinking that this would be over with in an hour, no such luck, at 8.30 the queue is already round the corner and half way down the road. In it I stand, until 10.30 when a Spanish lady shouts down the line for everyone to go home, no more people were being seen that day.
Day 2 – I turn up at 7.30, surely I will be at the start of the queue? No such luck, at least a hundred people before me. Again I get until 10 and am sent home. That night my new boss asks me when I am going to supply him with the paperwork. I refrain from punching him.
Day 3 – The first bus (I was car-less) leaves at 6, I am on it. When I get there there is about 25 people in front of me – not so bad, I am feeling quite relieved, today will be the day I am finally legally able to work. No such luck, the person in front of me gets the last ticket, I am sent home. I start to feel like I can (on a much smaller scale) sympathise who those who used to have to stand in line to be chosen for work in the old labour exchange days, I would have been the old/unhealthy one, constantly sent home.
Day 4 – I walk, I leave my house at 4.30 in the morning, when I get there I am the first one there – so great is my joy, I set myself down and doze until the office opens, the queue has built up behind me, but I refuse to meet anyone’s eyes. Finally I am seen … they take my paperwork, stamp it … and tell me to come back and join the queue in two weeks to pick up my documents!
August 21, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Gosh, you’re reminded me, I need to pick up my resident card in Nairobi.
I didn’t think they queued in Spain..
March 17, 2009 at 2:47 am
this unqiue experience give you many insight to people around the world
April 8, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Wow!!! Unbelievable, the places you have been. I would love to be able to travel like that someday.
March 11, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Lovely Kenya! Just got back from a 3 months visit there, I miss it every day! Such a poor country but oh so rich!
May 3, 2010 at 5:47 pm
The best queues are the ones where someone has a trolley and a half of stuff infront of you and they let you go infront of them because you only have a bottle of wine and a packet of crisps.