...Playing The Waiting Game.

Now we play the waiting game a lot, especially us Brits, we like to show our perseverance for patience and we sit or stand quietly (sometimes making the occasional grunt or sigh - but that is as far as it goes, anymore and it would just be impolite now wouldn't it?) waiting for the queue to budge along, the hold music to err hold (witty I know), for that important email or further more for that all important phone call.

I have been playing the watchthephonetillitringsthengiveitafewsecondsbeforepouncing game. The phone is winning. The bastard. I'm waiting for that all important phone call to tell me that I'm fantastic and I must be employed RIGHT NOW. Obviously not in those exact words however something along those lines wouldn't go amiss. (I'm also waiting for a big ol' delivery of books - yes books, I hate not having anything to read and my new sense of reuse/renew/recycle has led me to ordering second hand books for half the price - result).

But all this waiting has got me thinking, how do other countries/nationalities deal with having to wait? One of the things that wound me up in Asia were other people not queueing. Silly I know but I absolutely hate it when I've been standing there for ages and then some nitwit thinks it's perfectly okay to walk straight to the front because they think their issue is of greater importance then mine. And no I'm not referring to the Thais or the Cambodians, I'm referring to the tourists (bloody tourists) strolling to the front and then looking around shocked when people start complaining and telling them to go to the back. A brilliant example of this was when I was standing in the immigration queue to cross the border into Thailand, on the day were I seriously thought Asia was trying to break me (it nearly won - 4 and a half hours in the sun, shouldering two heavy backpacks, with no food/water or toilet access (cos I was alone I couldn't leave the queue innit?), moving inches every 30 mins - hell) and then all of a sudden I heard people shouting "no, get to the back" and I look up through sweat stained eyes to see a group of people manhandling a guy who was trying to reach someone/something further up in the queue and the people he was trying to barge through kicked off. It's totally understandable, they like me, had been standing in the heat for ages and I guess the overpowering sense of IT'S NOT FAIR gave them a surge of adrenaline because it wasn't fair, he should wait just like the rest of us and fair play to them for telling him so. This shouting carried on for a good few minutes, every time the guy tried to get past them they screamed and shoved him back, needless to say he didn't get past and like the rest of us he had to wait. Result.

So why do people do it? What, pray tell, was the point to my story? Serious questions I know and to be honest I don't really know the answer to either of those questions (to be fair I should know the answer to question 2 but I really just felt like giving a story that sort of backed up my point? *sigh* I was never good at essay writing...) I'm still trying to figure it out. Should we be made to learn how to queue? In fact does it all just boil down to learning how to be patient? Can you teach that? I know we are taught as children to be patient and "to wait our turn" but does it really stick once we grow up and away from our parental talons? Is it a cultural thing? Does it differ from person to person, nationality to nationality? Or is it a personality trait? Can you imagine teaches having to teach their children the art of patience once a week? I know in most schools that wouldn't go down well. So I have a lot of questions but not a lot of answers and I really want to know, yes I could just google it and be content with what wikipedia tells me but I want to debate this. Come on people debate with me!

Needless to say I think I am a patient person - to some degree. If I know what I want is in front of me and is not being given to me then I get angry and demand that the person controlling the said thing I want give it to me. Right now. But if it's something I can't see, something I have no control over whatsoever then - I'd like to think - my patience kicks in and I can't wait, play the waiting game for a while until the paranoia takes over and I convince myself that I don't want it anyway. (Waiting to hear whether or not I got the part is sending my paranoia into overdrive. I've been told by a good friend to wait (there it is again!) till the end of the week *sigh* fingers crossed eh?).

I've been breaking up the wait by playing mindless games on my phone, playing with the cat, quietly tidying up my mental space and giving the postman evils when he doesn't knock on the door, arms weighed down by my joyous package - I want my books dammit!!! They should have been here already *pout*. I have also downloaded (and paid for) a few new albums to lift my mood and give my soul some nourishment. My favourite album being "My Head Is An Animal" by Of Monsters and Men, I love it, it is perfect, it is beautiful and it fills me with a quiet joy every time I listen to it. The stand out song for me is "Your Bones" and it sounds something like this:

So watch and enjoy, please ignore the awful video, it was the only one I could find. If you fall in love with them then "your welcome", if you don't, well then bugger off. Please if you have any answers to my questions above then feel free to voice them, if you don't, well then bugger off. I will continue to play the waiting game and I will also continue to give the postman the stink eye (I know he has my books, he's holding them ransom...) I'll keep you updated cyber buddies.

Until then!