Preparedness for when

thriftwizard

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hope my lottie shed is OK. It was re-felted and had new bargeboards in September and will have to take care of itself until New Year.

Can't get over Wild Thing refusing to go outside. You normally can't get that blessed critter indoors for most of the year, she looks like a Norwegian Forest Cat and acts like her nickname. If she's decided that it's the weather to hide indoors, I'm concerned about how bad it'll get tonight.

Parents have a plantation of very tall trees just beyond the foot of their garden. If they fell towards the house, they'd hit it. The last major fall was the Great Storm of 1987, when a chunk of them came down like skittles, but went sideways and not towards the houses. Fingers crossed they'll weather the storm.

My brother's freecycled greenhouse is taking a battering on the top of the Devon coast; last heard it was still standing & intact but several other people's sheds had taken off & bowled around the site.

I think we may have Wild Thing's cousin - or cousins - they're also dead ringers for Norwegian Forest cats, but smaller, they love to be outside & are generally to be found up trees, fences, lamp-posts, on garage roofs, on top of walls etc. One has basically lived outdoors for the last 8 years & only comes in to eat; she's currently snoring gently under our bed. The feral cat has been trying to come inside too, but can't get over the terrifying fact that we will keep shutting the door.

We have a tall eucalyptus at the end of the garden, hanging over the chickenshed. If it goes down, it could potentially smash the conservatory & the chickens wouldn't stand a chance. The only good thing is, it would (probably) keep the chickenshed roof on...

Hollyberry

Evening, all. :hello:

And firstly, Happy Birthday to mar! Many happy returns, and many more happy trifles (am well jealous - I love trifle)! :j_party_ (And where has that chocolate-eating smiley gone?)

Hope you are all snug and safe out there. Do hunker down well, all of you, and especially those of you in the wilder reaches tonight

We managed a minor SHTF this evening, having gone to deliver presents to the godkids. It's not too bad here in the Midlands, so we decided we were ok to go. All was well until we came to leave their lovely new house and OH fell over a foot high wall he didn't realise they had. He made a heart-wrenching crash as he went down, and I was convinced it was going to be an A&E job. Thankfully, after a few minutes sitting down and looking white as a sheet, he seemed to be ok. One knee is now strapped and the other grazed, and we'll see how he is later.

[Godkids' mum was well impressed when I whipped a torch out of my bag to find his car keys and glasses that had gone flying when he fell. On this thread, of course, we would expect no less. ]

bluebag

Solomon_Broad wrote: »

If your power goes out and you have several flashlights, you might still be able to cook your turkey.

LOL, those torches are specialized Lazer torches at £300 each and you need 6 of them £1800 to cook a bit of turkey and probably at least a £1 for the foil dish. Plus whatever £££ for them wire torch stand gadgety thingies.

Pretty cool experiment though.

I think I'll have a boiled egg on the camp stove.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAR!!! Maybe not a night for blowin' out yer birthday candles eh?

the_cake

Happy birthday Mar, and a very merry, safe, warm Christmas/feasting time/whatever you celebrate to all my prepper friends. xxxx

katep23

Happy birthday Mar, belated happy birthday to VJsmum!

Hester, hope you are okay as I think your area has been hit with power cuts.

Went into Reading this evening as it is my OH's birthday too; have never seen it so quiet 2 days before Christmas. OH needed to get something in Debenh@ms and I expected it to be murder but no, very quiet and walked straight up to the till.

One of the main routes into Reading has been closed but still it seemed very quiet even considering that.

Got our Christmas tree today in B&Q - a 5' bushy non-needle drop tree for £5

Hope you are all safe and sound and out of the storm.

sorryImoved

GreyQueen wrote: »

Sorryimoved, sorry if we're shattering images of Olde Englande (and the rest of the country). You can still find villages with thatched cottages and roses around the doors. They're mostly owned by bankers, or as we spell it over here, bankers beginning with a double-you.:p I'm in the middle of a walled cathedral city. We have tourists from all over the world visit us. Well, not actually visit my neighbourhood, unless they are seriously-lost.

* The Dreaded Origami is a secret fighting form practised by those who, like myself, have served hard time and earned papercuts in admin-y type jobs. We humble drones pass the secrets of the Origami arts from hand to hand disguised as artful paper animals.

If we are made very very angry, such as someone not changing the photocopier toner cartridge properly, or threatening our mortal selves, we shake off our shackles and turn into Mutant Ninja Admins and use The Dreaded Origami to fold our foes into really painful positions.

Do not provoke us; we're all around you, did you but know, and our day will come.**

** On a Wednesday, as long as that's all right with you?

Thank you GQ for the explanation. You have a magic way of describing a situation so that it almost seems as if I were there! My son came home for Christmas from Dubai and told me he and his wife may be moving to London. If they do I am sure I will be one of the seriously lost tourists wandering around where I shouldn't be!

GreyQueen

LOL, it seems to be one of my RL gift to be one of those people whom strangers feel it's safe to approach on the street to ask directions. Must be a mixture of respectability and apparent competance. The funniest thing is that it also happens to me when I'm in a place I don't know, a tourist myself.

I'm quite used to bemused visitors asking me where the castle or the shopping streets are, usually as they are heading directly away from them. I just gently point them back in the right direction. We don't want them wandering into the neighbourhood and seeing things which don't exactly gybe with the tourist information blurb, like some horrible little 'erbert shooting up drugs, or a group of shoplifters stripping the cellophane wrappings off thieved games or DVDs. Got several caches of the latter around the block atm; must be Christmas or summat.

If you know a place well, particularly if you live in one of the less-privileged parts, you have a different view of your surroundings than a visitor or one of the sheltered and privileged residents. I dub a few places I know in this city as Acacia Avenue. We have no such place-name, it's a shorthand for a few places I know of, where it's all terribly terribly dahling.

But hey, it's a democracy. If you have at least half a million quid, you too can live on Acacia Avenue.:rotfl:

Weather's quietened down a lot but still pretty wet. Thank heavens for Gore-Tex, which rivals microsfleece for my favourite textile status. Will be working then travelling to the folks early this evening. They're holding off decorating the tree until I get there, yippee.

Have a good crimble, everyone, I shall probably be about intermittantly online. GQ xx

Molly41

Hope you have a good journey as the trains seem to be quite disrupted x

GreyQueen

Molly41 wrote: »

Hope you have a good journey as the trains seem to be quite disrupted x

Thanks, Molly. I shall be on the Nat Express coach, so hopefully unless the A-road across the region is blocked, I should be fine. It's only an hour away.

Hoping anyone else travelling today, by whatever method, has a smooth journey.

[Deleted User]

All quiet up here.

Could hear the winds pick up, as I lay in bed last night, but it doesn't seem to have been particularly bad.

All trees still standing, roof slates still where they should be, planting pots still in front of houses, and not even any dustbins in the street.