Celebrating the Differences
I absolutely love the different ways our UK neighbors label things that many of us, at least us in the United States, label differently.
One of those words is QUEUE.
One very friendly definition of the word Queue is: a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed. Doesn’t that sound civilized? It denotes an attitude of: I don’t mind at all waiting in this crowd to take care of business once I find myself at the front of the queue.
My husband and I had the experience of waiting in our vehicle for one hour in a 2-mile (3.2 km) queue the other day, trying to enter a Washington state national park. There wasn’t anything exciting – or relaxing – about the effort, but queuing is what we did.
Speaking of that national park, I love that parking lots in some countries are called car parks. It’s almost as though the vehicle is being treated to an entertaining adventure as we diligently park it within the lines of the designated spaces. And in some of those car parks, one can find trollies discarded by shoppers who have completed their weekly food shopping.
And the elevators found in the United States would be called lifts in the UK, and I must say, I am very much enamored by the thought of being given a lift somewhere, even if it’s just from one floor to another. Giving someone a lift is a courteous thing to do, don’t you think? “Why, thank you for the lift! That was very generous of you!”
The list of different terms that I am quite enamored with include: nappy instead of diaper, torch instead of flashlight, bin instead of trash (see what I mean by civilized?), and the favorite that I have found myself saying lately is knackered instead of exhausted. Like just the other day when we spent seven hours traveling to and from that US national park (1 hour of which was in a queue), my husband and I were absolutely 100% knackered by the time we arrived home to prepare our sandwich and chips and a glass of plonk after visiting the loo.
ANYWAY, I think you understand that countries have their own way of saying things, and such differences don’t bother me at all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to reward myself with a biscuit for completing this mini exposé and say bollocks to anyone who disagrees with me. Time to sit in front of the telly and relax a bit! Cheers and Bob’s your uncle!!!
Living: the ultimate team sport 
September 15, 2025 at 7:26 am
Good post. Coincidentally, Elaine and I went t to Mt Ranier National Park on Wednesday. No queue to get in but a very long one for parking at Paradise Lodge.
Bruce
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September 15, 2025 at 8:22 am
There were a couple factors that prolonged the entrance time, primarily that we were there on a weekend. One of our daughters, backpacking with friends on the Wonderland Trail, had a physical incident (not serious) but she needed to be rescued. It was the Nisqually entrance we took that had such a huge backup. Took us an hour in line to get there and from that entrance, we drove to an access point on West Road to pick her up off the trail. We joked it was the longest drive to get to Rainier and the shortest amount of time spent in the actual park (15 minutes). Total RT driving time was 7 hours. I joked with our daughter that if we had boarded a plane instead of getting in our car at the start of the trek, we would have arrived in Hawaii in the same amount of time, if not shorter.
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