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.

Just go and sit on the bench and eat the banana. In the name of research. See what happens and report back.

Probably just best to choose a secluded bench not one on Bournemouth sea front or in a popular beauty spot or where there are loads of others.

Why not eat before you go out and then eat again when you get back? I don't think a child is going to starve during a one hour walk.

@Sparklingbrook

Just go and sit on the bench and eat the banana. In the name of research. See what happens and report back.

Or do this. Don't forget the reporting back bit.

@PinkPlantCase

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

Thank you!

@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.

Seriously get a fucking life instead of watching others. Utter saddo.

@Silvercatowner

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.

😂 this did actually make me laugh.

Good luck on finding a nice bench you would want to sit on, after all the snow around here ours are all wet and a bit slimey and covered in bird poo. So you may want to take something to sit on too...

To be clear, I don’t care if you do sit on a bench and eat a banana. I am just sick of the childish whining and nit picking that adds to everyone bending the rules til they are in knots.

Use your common sense, be honest, don’t take any risks at all with yours or anyone else’s health just because you want to or it is ‘within the rules’.

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

I though the OP was asking if a banana constituted a picnic?

All the parks near me are selling takeaway drinks and sandwiches... is it against the rules to buy one now?

Or OK as long as I resume a quick pace of walking as soon as I've been served?

On a side note, I've yet to see a police officer in any of our green places. Is this really happening elsewhere?

If it doesn't include half boiled eggs and celery salt, it isn't a picnic.

@Sparklingbrook

Good luck on finding a nice bench you would want to sit on, after all the snow around here ours are all wet and a bit slimey and covered in bird poo. So you may want to take something to sit on too...

I recommend one of those fold up polystyrene squares for sitting on grubby spaces, kept in old carrier bag and washed once back home

@Sparklingbrook

Good luck on finding a nice bench you would want to sit on, after all the snow around here ours are all wet and a bit slimey and covered in bird poo. So you may want to take something to sit on too...

Good call. If worst comes to worst I'll just sit on my banana peel !

But that could be seen as 'intent to picnic' @RedRiverShore1 and could be used as Exhibit A in a court of law.

"Why on earth does it matter? Nobody ‘needs’ to be eating or drinking outside in bloody January in the middle of a pandemic."

Ds does. It is part of his routine. Stop for a snack at the same place in particular walks. I'm not messing with that. Although calling a biscuit and a drink a picnic would be ridiculous.

@Sparklingbrook I would assume because of all the media and police who haa. Derbyshire police said a woman’s takeaway coffee that she got out of her car holding was a picnic.

Yet you would not generally say a coffee was a picnic.

[quote PinkPlantCase]@Sparklingbrook I would assume because of all the media and police who haa. Derbyshire police said a woman’s takeaway coffee that she got out of her car holding was a picnic.

Yet you would not generally say a coffee was a picnic.[/quote]
Oh yes the bajillion threads on here about that-I hid them all as they were ridiculous.

Blimey. People love rules, eh? Especially if they can lecture others on their own interpretation of them. Eat the food! Eat it all and enjoy it. Sitting on a bench to eat will not suddenly make this pandemic worse. Madness. Utter madness. I’ll continue to have snacks out and about. Sometimes seated, sometimes standing. I’m naughty like that.

@DownWhichOfLate

Blimey. People love rules, eh? Especially if they can lecture others on their own interpretation of them. Eat the food! Eat it all and enjoy it. Sitting on a bench to eat will not suddenly make this pandemic worse. Madness. Utter madness. I’ll continue to have snacks out and about. Sometimes seated, sometimes standing. I’m naughty like that.

What a rebel.

d

getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/guides/mountain-rescue/#:~:text=Food%20and%20drink%20%E2%80%93%20bring%20more,Whistle%20%E2%80%93%20to%20signal%20for%20help.

Mountain Rescue advise walkers to take food and drinks with them while walking for safety.

Let's help them out by not getting dehydrated or hypoglycemic in the countryside.

If you have left the house for your permitted exercise the law does not prevent you from stopping to refuel. Derbyshire Police are overstepping the mark. I'll continue sitting on a rock in the Peak District with a sandwich and a flask of coffee while I am walking.

@Sparklingbrook - I know, right?!

@motherrunner

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.

You can't understand why not everyone can manage that? Really?

I have arthritis. It's important to keep moving each day even when the pain is really bad and even when my knees and ankles are so stiff they don't want to bend. During a walk I sometimes need to stop and rest due to pain/stiffness, for a few moments. I've had covid and I am still, 3.5 months on, struggling with fatigue and whilst exercise is important with recuperation it may mean I need time to catch my breath during a walk. Does this mean I should now not be allowed out?

Said arthritis, plus covid health complications, means I need to take a fair number of medications. Some of these need to be consumed with a drink and/or food at certain times.

However due to work commitments etc I can't always entirely avoid being out at this times. So I do sometimes need to stop, take a break and consume something.

I will certainly not be alone in needing to rest and/or eat whilst out at times.

And what is actually wrong really with wanting to take a insulated cup of tea/coffee out with you on a walk in the cold. Exercise doesn't have to just mean marathon running?!

[quote DownWhichOfLate]@Sparklingbrook - I know, right?! [/quote]
Just make sure you don't get on the front page of the Mail with your possibly illegal snacking!