You drive for miles to the airport, you queue for ages, you wait forever in the departure lounge.
Everyone was coming by tube, and suddenly we had all the most important people in the UK shivering on the station platform, queuing for ages to be searched.
Barney Mokgatle, one of the king's staff, explains: "It's better than going to town, queuing for ages and paying a lawyer money you don't have.
It was here that we milled around for a couple of hours before the movie began, looking in at the repro shops and queuing for ages for hot dogs and shakes.
I managed to persuade the teller I was a solvent member of society, and he gave me my money, telling me that even though the cash machines were out of order, and we had all been queueing for ages, he was still going to make a charge for the transaction.
You have to queue for ages and discard your shoes to be rewarded by the awesome dignity of the interior with its huge columns and blue, Iznik tiles; the effect is slightly marred by an array of lights that dangle down from the roof and make an ugly cat's cradle of wires.
Nicky Lovell, 25, from Cardiff, said: "We bought our tickets online and we've had to queue for ages.
I was at a Slayer show at Wembley with Andrew Hartwell (Aurora Borealis label boss) and you had to queue for ages to get these crap plastic bottles of Carlsberg and Smirnoff Ice so we just bought a load and put them all in the same glasses.
You know the deal at airports – you queue for an age at check-in, wait around for hours, wasting money in bars and chain stores with overinflated prices, before a mad dash to the gate... only be met with more queing to get on board.
At the best spots, advanced surfers informally queue for waves.
