What is considered a picnic?

[xatcat]

Does it mean you can't walk and eat something outside?

Or is it when your sat down outside eating?

Just trying to clarify the rules.

Well we live in west cornwall and walked 10 miles on Sunday, taki g sandwiches and flasks. We sat on a grassy cliff, looking westwards eating them. Not another soul. Where was the harm? Local, quality exercise.

I sat on a bench and had a sandwich and a coffee during a dog walk.

Police walked through the park where many were sat doing similar. They didn’t ‘move anyone on’. Thankfully we have sensible police around here it seems

I think you're deliberately trying to come up with scenarios to suit yourself. You can leave the house to exercise. The assumption is that exercise isn't out for hours and hours. Food shouldn't be necessary. If you want to take a snack for a child- fine. You aren't supposed to sit around for an hour having sandwiches, snack, drinks, etc. it's all pretty straight so tears and common sense- and yet people seem determined to invent situations. Go out for a walk for an hour. Go home and feed your child.

Can we just clarify, when you deliberately sit and eat in a manner to draw the attention of the police, so that you can then engage them in an argument and capture the whole thing on film and get your 15 minutes of fame, you're not having a quick energy boost, you're just being a grade A dick.

DH uses one of those bladder things for water and eats while walking
I thought you meant for wees 😂😂

And if you don't have a child with you......unless there is a medical condition, why do you need a snack? The intention of the guidelines regarding going out to exercise isn't to spend the whole day out- it's to have a walk and then go home. It's not hard to understand

We both get tested twice weekly for work. We will social distance and will actually walk, not sitting chatting. Unfortunately, you may or may not agree with it, but what we are doing fits within the guidelines and sitting on a bench with food doesn't.

@10storeylovesong

We both get tested twice weekly for work. We will social distance and will actually walk, not sitting chatting. Unfortunately, you may or may not agree with it, but what we are doing fits within the guidelines and sitting on a bench with food doesn't.

I don't agree with it. I think it's ridiculous that two people from different households can meet and talk, but one person cannot stop still and eat / drink a snack.

It's madness.

I think you just have to consider what under normal circumstances you would have called a picnic. If you said 'let's take a picnic' then you're talking about settling down somewhere and eating a substantial meal. 'Let's take a snack' suggests a Kit Kat or something on the hoof which would be fine.

I have to sit on all of the walks I have with the dog and kids. Am I ok doing that but not ok if I get a biscuit out of my pocket?

I think people are being over zealous here OP. I’m pregnant and I work sitting on my arse all day in the week.

At the weekend for exercise I go for a walk that’s a good 2.5 hours long, from my house. We aren’t rural but lots of parks and green spaces that connect to each other.

If my hips hurt or I get thirsty I sit on a bench and have a drink. This is not a picnic, this is just something that enables the exercise which is very beneficial to me.

I don’t see what people are so upset about. It isn’t spreading covid and it isn’t against the rules.

Am I ok doing that but not ok if I get a biscuit out of my pocket?

Depends what sort of biscuit. Plain biscuit - all fine. Fancy biscuit - alsolutely not. Not sure about jaffa cakes. They may or may not be counted as a biscuit. Perhaps we'll find out more at the next briefing.

I run around 50 miles a week. On a Sunday I run a half marathon distance. DH runs marathon distances. We don’t need to eat whilst exercising and take bladders to sip water.

What’s this obsession about stopping for a snack all the time? It’s like people cant seem to do anything without eating.

I think the problem is that people read the rules and then want a way to bend them to suit what they want to do.

So the meet 1 other for exercise is presumably for people to meet someone for a run or cycle ride or a walk, or maybe a PT meeting a client. It's to encourage folk off the sofa and outdoors to get some exercise for mental and physical benefits.

Instead what I see happening across the road from me every day, is mums and daughters, or women in general, park in the car park at Costa coffee, grab a coffee each then trot up the road for their exercise. All within the rules, all allowed and permitted. But they are back 30 mins later, still supping the bucket of latte and then stand with their car doors open, or park side by side and sit, drinking their coffee and munching flapjacks. Fuck knows how anyone has any meaningful exercise with a gallon of coffee, and am not sure that the gossip at the end counts as exercise. But it's within the roolz init so allowed.

The problem is not that the rules aren't crystal clear (they aren't) but that people still want to do what the fuck they want to do, so they ask fucking stupid questions about the roolz to justify them doing what the fuck they want.

No picnics means you aren't out and about to fucking eat. If you are 3 or 5 and been out an hour, eat a Barney Bear. If you need a fucking banana on a bench you need to not use the pandemic to improve your fitness to extend the amount of time you can survive without feeding your face. There is a tiny % of the population that will need to eat while out and about. And sit to do it. If you aren't in the % save your snacks for when you get home.

It's people taking the piss that will see rules made absolute idiot proof, set times on exercise and have benches taped off again. So the truly vulnerable suffer whilst you whine and bleat about the erosion of your liberties to exercise outside and sit on a bench and eat a banana.

And having lived through the lockdown last year near an area that people like to walk and cycle and run in, if everyone had kept up that amount of exercise over the summer when the pubs reopened then bo one would need a fucking banana cos you would all be sprinting round.

I also have primary aged children. They don’t need to sit and eat either.

@motherrunner not everyone is as fit as you. Benches exist for a reason!

@Frouby

I think the problem is that people read the rules and then want a way to bend them to suit what they want to do.

So the meet 1 other for exercise is presumably for people to meet someone for a run or cycle ride or a walk, or maybe a PT meeting a client. It's to encourage folk off the sofa and outdoors to get some exercise for mental and physical benefits.

Instead what I see happening across the road from me every day, is mums and daughters, or women in general, park in the car park at Costa coffee, grab a coffee each then trot up the road for their exercise. All within the rules, all allowed and permitted. But they are back 30 mins later, still supping the bucket of latte and then stand with their car doors open, or park side by side and sit, drinking their coffee and munching flapjacks. Fuck knows how anyone has any meaningful exercise with a gallon of coffee, and am not sure that the gossip at the end counts as exercise. But it's within the roolz init so allowed.

The problem is not that the rules aren't crystal clear (they aren't) but that people still want to do what the fuck they want to do, so they ask fucking stupid questions about the roolz to justify them doing what the fuck they want.

No picnics means you aren't out and about to fucking eat. If you are 3 or 5 and been out an hour, eat a Barney Bear. If you need a fucking banana on a bench you need to not use the pandemic to improve your fitness to extend the amount of time you can survive without feeding your face. There is a tiny % of the population that will need to eat while out and about. And sit to do it. If you aren't in the % save your snacks for when you get home.

It's people taking the piss that will see rules made absolute idiot proof, set times on exercise and have benches taped off again. So the truly vulnerable suffer whilst you whine and bleat about the erosion of your liberties to exercise outside and sit on a bench and eat a banana.

And having lived through the lockdown last year near an area that people like to walk and cycle and run in, if everyone had kept up that amount of exercise over the summer when the pubs reopened then bo one would need a fucking banana cos you would all be sprinting round.

Well said @Frouby

[quote PinkPlantCase]@motherrunner not everyone is as fit as you. Benches exist for a reason![/quote]
The OP was about having a picnic though, not sitting to have a rest.

Rest fine - getting all your snacks out, why? If you can’t go an hour without eating (unless for a medical reason such as a sugar raise for diabetes) then I think you’re taking the mick.

@10storeylovesong

We both get tested twice weekly for work. We will social distance and will actually walk, not sitting chatting. Unfortunately, you may or may not agree with it, but what we are doing fits within the guidelines and sitting on a bench with food doesn't.

And therein lies the problem, just because it is within guidelines it doesn't become safer than something that isn't.

Anyway a bottle of water and a banana does not make a picnic.

You can only meet a person from another household if you are exercising and not socialising (that is made extremely clear). If you have a bottle of water and an energy bar to eat while you're running, that's clearly food/drink to support your exercise. The majority of people do not drink coffee or eat more than a quick high energy snack when they are exercising. They do however do these things when they are on social outing with another person. So ask yourself the question - am I primarily exercising or socialising?

Everyone's exercise needs differ, DH runs 2- 3 marathons a month and goes on very long walks so just eats those energy things or cereal bars on the hoof, food is fuel. I rarely go out and if I do, like to have a picnic so don't bother exercising now, I'm sure I'll live

The OP was talking about having a banana on a bench. Not having a picnic 😂

What about someone with diabetes? Are they allowed to pause to manage their health while outside?

Some people are batshit. Questioning the OP for eating a fucking banana!!! What the fuck has the world come too😂😂

Sit on as many benches at you want op and eat as many bananas as you want. A banana isn’t a picnic. It’s actually laughable the people on these boards.

OP: they cannot make rules for every intricate scenario.
This weighing the minutiae of every circumstance is tiresome and part of the ‘yes but...’ attitude that undermines a collective effort.

Logically you are probably right in your comparison. But do what? When exercise is the only reason to be allowed out you don’t need to sit in a bloody bench and eat a banana, or crisps or a sandwich or soup, a roll and 14 types of sushi.

So suck it up and stop contributing to the deafening whine that is “yeahbut if they are allowed to do x I should be allowed to do y waaaah”