h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I love picnics, they are great! Especially in this weather!

Okay so here are some contributions:

Games to Play:

Boules is a great picnic game because it can be played on most surfaces (grass, sand, tarmac), is very easy and involves the whole family. Cheap boules sets, made from coloured plastic, are available in many tourist shops, such as beach huts, and work fine. More expensive versions are made of metal, and are very heavy. With the metal boules you distinguish between the players by the stripe patterns engraved into the boules. Official rules will probably be supplied, but the basic principle is to try and chuck (by an underarm swinging motion) the big balls as close as possible to the small ball, called the 'jack', or 'conchonet' (if you want to be fancy). Whoever threw the ball that ends up closest to the jack wins the round. You can also play by a points system where you get 1 point for coming closest but with someone else coming second, 2 points for the two closest balls, and so on. Only the winner gets any points. The game can be played with 2 players, with 4 balls each, or 3 or 4 players, with 2 balls each.

Things to Eat:

Fruit! Lots of fruit. Whatever is in season, strawberries (with or without cream), raspberries, bananas, apples, pears, and so on. You may also be able to pick blackberries if you can find any on nearby bramble bushes.

Ham is traditional picnic food. You could go for the wafer-thin processed stuff found in the supermarkets, but you're on a picnic, so treat yourself to some nice stuff from a delicatesen. Parmaham is particularly nice if you can find some.

Sandwiches (see the many sandwiches entries)

Cheese, nuts and olives are also personal favorites.

Having a Picnic:

The traditional way to do it I find the most satisfying. A wicker basket carries all the food, and a blanket which is spread upon the ground to put the food on.

Other Essential Items:

Sunglasses - it might be sunny, you never know.
Sun tan lotion - like Baz Luhrmann says, wear sunscreen. It's easy to get burnt on picnics when you are having fun.
Newspapers - something to read. Big Sunday Supplements with colour magazine sections last a long time.
Books
Notebook - for writing down interesting things.

What not to bring:

A radio or music system of any kind, for the sake of others
A dog - dogs ruin parks and beaches and generally cause a nuisance and spoil enjoyment, especially for other people. (Okay so this might be a bit controversial)

In this weather....watercolours. Even if you are not so good at painting, it's a bit more personal and fulfilling than a photo of a picnic scene.

Nice places to go:
>Beside a slow moving river or a tinkling stream, when it's really really hot, the sound of the water just makes you feel subliminally cooler ( I have a stream running down at the bottom of my garden and it is strange, but it works...)
>a nice quiet bit in the New Forest, or any forest
>under a tree: cool enough to do stuff, yet hot enough to lounge

Stuff to take:
>portable barbeque; ok, it may not be popular among all the other people who come out to the park, but say, in a secluded glade, it can provide a nice crossover to a pic-ni-q
>chilled white wine, sparkling if you want, Jacobs Creek, Prairie Gold or something else quite nice. Take a cooler to maintain a chilled temperature
>one of those ice cooler things; in the blue packs, don't know what they are called, but simply to keep the hamper cool
>napkins
>cutlery, plastic
>paper plates
>scotch eggs

Hyde Park, at this very moment in time is very nice, spread out just next to the Serpentine. Simply wonderful. And very hot. Phew!

Stay ,
WD (wondering whether Tim Henman's matches should carry a Government Health warning)

Good idea about the watercolours. You'll need a jamjar to contain some water to wash your brushes with too.

Another thing not to take:

A laptop with a connection to a mobile phone (in fact don't bring a mobile phone anyway). You'd have to be really sad to be surfing the net at a picnic, even if it is h2g2!

Oh so right...you'd just get some funny looks from everyone....

Another point:
If you have a mobile, either:
> turn off the ringer and turn on the vibra-mode; this is if you must take calls
>turn if off completely; in this case, then what is the point of bringing it
>do not bring - This is the *best* option

Nothing irritates anyone more than either a text (beep-beep! beep-beep! Look, if it is that important, they would have phoned...) or *that ring* (do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do-do!....HELLO! I'M HAVING A PICNIC! A *PICNIC* NO, *A* *PICNIC*! IN THE PARK!...and so on). Totally destroys the atmosphere....

Stay ,
WD (severely in need of an ice cream or such chilled confectionary)

A cool bag/box is an absolute must. Put your food (and drinks) in it to get everything to the picnic site, with ice blocks on top. There's nothing worse than having warm drinks... It will also keep raw food (if you're planning on doing a barbeque) at a safe temperature, at which bacteria will not multiply.

You can get cool bags now designed especially to fit around boxes of wine. They even have a little hole type thing for hte tap to poke out. Meaning you can keep you wine chilled even when you're pouring it.