Lockdown - was I in the wrong?

[JigsawGirl11]

So today me and DH went out for a bike ride (I will admit straight away that we didn't ride at all before lockdown and bought bikes so we can take advantage of the daily exercise a little better)

We took a bottle of water and a little packet of 6 mini sausage rolls we had in the fridge. After around 45 mins we sat down at a bench had a drink and ate the sausage rolls, police drove past once, went about 200 yards to the next roundabout and came back and told us off.

The policeman was pretty polite and apologetic, he said that we need to move on as if his Sargent saw he would fine us on the spot.

Obviously we moved on, there's no point trying to push the boundaries and I know health and the general stay at home advice is important. Personally I am a bit put out by such an infringement of what's usually a basic human right and the common sense that it we didn't have sausage rolls we prob would have been able to have a break/drink of water whilst on the bike ride.

I hope no-one is going to jump on about scold me like a child, obviously I thought what we did was okay or we wouldn't have done it but I'm interested to hear other people's opinions.

OP, you asked for people’s opinions and you’ve had them. I don’t think anyone has been particularly mean.

Don’t be disheartened. Perhaps just don’t pack the sausage rolls next time! 😂

Please don't play the #bekind card - you asked if you were in the wrong & people have answered, maybe in a way you don't like/weren't expecting.

As people have stated (pretty nicely imo) if you can't manage the amount of exercise without a snack, then maybe shorten your time or change your exercise. The sooner people understand this, the sooner this will end. If everyone decides the rules can be stretched to suit their own needs, we're going to get nowhere fast.

This is a terrorist attack. Plain and simple

I've seen loads of people sitting on benches in parks/on the common. I didn't know you couldn't stop for a rest either. The government should specify exactly what you can and can't do. My neighbour mentioned going to Waitrose which is a few miles away, she doesn't drive so I asked her (from the garden to her upstairs window!) how she got there, and she said her friend came and picked her up.

OP try not to eat and drink out in public at the moment and if you do definitely do not sit on seats especially hard surfaces that other people have sat on. This because you risk transfering the virus to yourself from touching the surface and then putting your hands on your face.

Next time stand over your bikes if you need to stop consume any food or drink.

Oh and it's fine to take up running and cycling now the gyms are closed.

if people weren't routinely exercising before (and i am in this group!) i don't understand why they have decided now is the time to take up running or cycling or whatever when it's been made clear we need to stay in as much as possible.

Because in normal life many people take lots of incremental exercise - walking to and from the train station, walking around an office block, nipping to the shops. That has all stopped. Instead we have to replace all that incremental exercise with one daily episode or alternatively sit and do nothing in our houses all day. It makes sense that people are using their hours worth of exercise.

And you know what? If a few people finish this situation having got into the habit of taking exercise that they didn't before - is that a bad thing?

Perhaps an apple might be more healthy than sausage rolls if you are serious about exercising....

The government advice clearly state that those undertaking outdoor exercise must “minimise the time you are out of your home”.

A you think having a picnic on a bench is okay?

It's really not the time to take up a new sport is it.

That aside, eating sausage rolls on a bench isn't exercise. There is a picnic bench I can see from my house and the number of people touching it, sitting at it, eating at it is astounding. And pretty grim as I haven't seen anyone wipe or clean it

Which bit of 'stay home' do you not understand?
Country :We are on (semi) lockdown.
Op: I know lets buy bikes and take up cycling. Lovely, lets have picnics too.

Mini sausage rolls are hardly the sort of thing you need to sit down to eat. You just pop them in your mouth.

You are allowed out for exercise, I have never seen so many of my neighbours out running/ on bikes/ off for long walks etc.
I think you looked you were out for a jolly, not exercise. It wouldn't occur to pack sausage rolls on a bike ride tbh, particularly touching things and eating. The police officer was right to question you.

Oh come on OP.

Surely you know that sitting on a bench and eating is NOT allowed?
It's been all over the web for days.

You can exercise.
You can take water to glug on.

You do not take sausage rolls and make it look like a picnic.

Eat before you go out and when you get home.

You shouldn't need to eat anyway 45 mins into a bike ride.

The reasons as others have said is if you are infected- symptom -free- sitting on that seat will put the virus on it.

You also showed a bit of disrespect for the lockdown and other people will take that as a message that they can sit down anywhere too.

Apart from the issue of whether stopping on a bench to have a sausage roll during a bike ride counts as exercise or a picnic, how did you safely wash your hands prior to eating? Anyone you cycled past could have sneezed, coughed or breathed heavily onto you while you were going along, and to be honest, I wouldn't even notice someone sneezing near me while I was cycling. But that's a possibility of the virus getting onto your hands, and from there into your body while you were eating. Unfortunately none of us have experience of living through a global pandemic like this, and we're all going to have to think a little bit more about whether the things we used to take for granted are firstly in compliance with the rules we now have to follow and secondly, whether it's the safest thing we could be doing to protect our own and others health

You were wrong to stop and have a 'picnic'.
Have you not seen the news??
I absolutely despair of people on here who simply don't understand the Government's instructions.

We live in a small touristy city and decided that the city centre would be quieter than the surrounding hills for our walk yesterday afternoon.

We saw loads of cyclists, but most of them were sat down, eating and drinking. A good 80%.

Stopping exercise to eat sausage rolls.

Ok

So you're pregnant and therefore vulnerable but decided to sit on a bench and eat something? When you aren't even meant to touch your face?

Sorry I know I shouldn’t laugh but in just imagining you getting arrested for loitering with intent to eat a sausage roll.

These are indeed strange days.

People are risking their lives to treat patients with Coronavirus. All they ask of us, the only thing they ask of us, is to stay the fuck at home.

If you can't go 45 minutes without eating you need to speak to your GP.

Would it have been the same if I was eating a twix or a Mars bar? The kind of thing I'd often walk around eating.

Why do you need to walk around eating

Why do people need to take snacks for an hours worth of exercise?

And we wonder why 70% of the population is overweight...

I missed the bit about you being pregnant you've chosen not to isolate and you've taken up cycling?!

And now feel put out because you were told to move from a bench? They're trying to protect you/us/them/theNHS ffs

This is all getting slightly ridiculous now.

Also can’t really get my head around stopping to eat in the middle of exercising?! It’s never occurred to me to stop and scarf a sausage roll during a 5k run!

This.

When I was suffering with morning sickness a million years ago the last thing I could have eaten was a sausage roll