Hi, Rusty!
I have just been reading Bill B's description of "immobile queueing" in Paris.
It put me in mind of when we were once queueing in a bank in Khartoum......
We had stood three quarters way down this "immobile queue", for well over an hour ...... whilst officious- looking people would come in through the bank doors, go straight to the front of the queue, shake hands over the counter with the official on the other side, speak words of Arabic to him , and successfully transact their business......and duly depart.....
After standing still in the endless queue watching this for a while, I decided to emulate it....
Dragging my reluctant husband with me, I marched up to the front of the queue , leaned over the counter, offered my hand to the bank clerk (or whomever he was) muttered the same words of Arabic that I had heard the business men say ( I think I was saying hello, how are you?) and stated my business (this last in English)
Well, it worked!
We were out of there in no time!
Obsequiously shown to the door by a smiling bank official, who shook our hands again!
Bill B would be proud of me!