I've never seen BTC anywhere in the real world in the UK, plus doesn't BTC have like 30 minutes + send time? That must have been an awkward wait

Bitcoin sends in a few seconds.
But some transactions got to wait hours or even days to get some confirmations.

use off chain service, like bitpay, and anyway no one of my sending was last so long than more than two hours, even without fee
requiring a day or more, it's very very unlucky, and certainly the standard