What is open on Monday 19th Sept?

[mourningafter]

For those of us lucky enough to have the day off with our kids, who don't want to watch the funeral. I would love to hear anyone's idea of how to make the most of a bonus day off. In particular if you know of anything fun that's open.

I'd prefer not to spend the day in the local park, have done that enough in the past 2 years. The only thing I've seen that's open so far is Hawksmoor which is a bit fancy for a family day!

Flying back from Ireland on Sunday so will probably be doing washing and recovering from my guiness binge on Monday. I perhaps should have extended my stay!

I think our gym is going to be open after 2pm so will probably take the children swimming then. We might have the tv on for some of the funeral but let's be honest, most of the BBC coverage will be Giles Brandeth telling the same anecdotes again and again.

Corpses are kept refrigerated. It won't be "fresh".

Oh for goodness sake. The funeral is at 11am. Even on the assumption that people want to watch it, it's only a small section of the day.

And nothing "should" be happening for anyone. It's not for you, or anyone else, to police mourning. If people want to honour the Queen that's fine. If they don't, that's also fine.

It should have been held on the Sunday and it should not have been a bank holiday.

The countryside will be open

Will it? I am sure National Trust sites and similar will be closed. There isn't a lot of countryside that is generally open.

Except as seen on a new thread, cycling is OK with you?

gatehouseoffleet I expect that houses etc owned by the NT will be closed but they own huge areas of open countryside, including parts of the coast path. That will all be open, as will places like the Lake District and Dartmoor. You will easily be able to find somewhere to go if you want.

We are going hill walking, then to a lake 🙂

Have you seen a fridge on the coverage?

@LetMeSpeak

dod you wander over from gransnet?

Wtf?

Fuck all really.

Watch the funeral with your kids! They'll thank you for it when they're older and they're able to say they saw a major moment in history. Go for a walk or to the park afterwards or do some Queen based crafting or something nice with them to celebrate the day.

Weirdly, my 2-year-old doesn't want to watch the funeral. Also, I'm not British and don't think the monarchy is a good idea.

Oh bore off. People can pay respects however they choose. Personally I am glad for a day off to do stuff I never find time to do. I am also going for a walk and if there is a cafe or a poub open, I will have a drink. I dont care what you think. I am not being disrespectful.

Hilarious. I am going to assume you are joking..

Hasn't anyone got anything to do in the house, especially those that work all week, there must be jobs that could be done or decluttering or something like that

My children want to watch it but loads of people with children aren’t, and mine are in two different schools neither of which have even mentioned the Queen, not even in the email saying they’re closed. They’ve just referred to ‘the bank holiday’.

Ugh my gym is only open from 5pm to 10pm - long dog walk and pub lunch it is then.

So @LetMeSpeak are you going to explain why your opinion differs over on the cycling thread?

We are going for a walk with the dog 🐕. Come back have lunch .May watch some of the funeral. I doubt much will be open tbh .

11yo ds has made it abundantly clear - he's not remotely interested in watching the funeral. He listens to the news, understands the importance of the ccasion (I was involved in implementing London Bridge and was working all evening when she passed). He doesn't like doing 'sad' things and prefers to switch off, and find something happy that makes him feel positive.

5yo dd isn't interested either. She's got visions of Queen Elsa in her head and anything else is a disappointment I'm sorry to say. Her response was told that people were sad because the Queen had died was "well I'm not sad. It's not as sad as Daisy [her cat] dying".

I don't mean to be disrespectful, and dh and I will watch this historical event first and take the kids for a walk afterwards. But they've already traipsed the Queen's coffin the length of the country and televised every single minute of it. They're live streaming her lying in state now on the BBC. It's all become a bit, well, mawkish. I shed a few tears when she died, as they say around 50% of people did. And I am pleased that places are closing to allow their staff to pay their respects, or use the day, however they see fit. Our children will remember where they were when they heard that the Queen died and don't need to watch the funeral to understand it's an historic event.

And don't even get me started on those people who have dragged their poor kids down to London to queue (in a queue that keeps moving) for 24 hours. They're not doing that for their children but for themselves.

@Doingprettywellthanks

That's a bit ageist!

There are a lot of posters on MN of an age where we could be grandparents . Doesn't mean we are all into enforced mourning .

I'm sure I shall dip into the news at some point jn the day and watch part of it - but I won't be spending the whole day glued to the TV and wouldn't judge anyone else for what they chose to do either.

Oh come on.

Staunch monarchists are more heavily concentrated amongst those over 60.

an “ism” is when there is no basis to the statement whatsoever.

i made a reasonable presumption

Watch the funeral with your kids!

One of them is working, so I'm not sure his employer would be too impressed. I'm not sure what the other one is doing, but if I was going to watch anything with them, it would probably be Taskmaster. There's a new season starting soon and we haven't finished the last one yet.

Mine's 30 and chose to work on Monday....she will be cleaning out the Meerkat enclosure during the funeral.