Preparedness for when

jk0

JayneC wrote: »

I had a visit from a lovely Jehovah's Witness (!) a couple of weeks ago. And it ended up with him saying me 'I'll have to go':rotfl::rotfl:Didn't manage to unconvert him:rotfl:

BB I did tell them to keep the car but they were charging 'storage' by the day and I would've still been charged plus then cost then of getting it crushed. I did manage to sell it for spares so got some of it back, not the point tho:(

Well DS has managed to kill my car. He borrowed it for the weekend as he's moving house, and managed to leave the lights on deadening the battery and it wouldn't jump start again, so don't know what's happened:( He was apparently distracted by squirrel which he felt the need to photograph and so ignored the beep that warns you the lights are still on - I ask you:o will have to wait till Monday to get the local garage to come out...

I've concluded that I'm something of an anarchist at heart. Prefer to call it self governance or co-operative living though. Anarchy has been successfully portrayed as total breakdown in society with violence and chaos as the only outcome, but it ain't necessarily so.

Jayne, you don't need a garage, just a trickle charger of about 1 to 1.5 amps. Take off one battery terminal, or bring the battery in the kitchen if necessary. (Wear old clothes.) Charge overnight, and then it should start perfectly.

ALIBOBSY

mardatha wrote: »

I grew it one year but didn't know what hell to do with it so just left it there!

Love chard here, when small it can go in salads like beetroot leaves, when bigger cut the stalks out and use like celery chopped up for the basis of stews and soups, then throw the chopped leaves in later.

Or wilted and tossed in butter. Its more like beetroot leaves than cabbage I find, but more tastey than other leafy/cabbagy type things I find. Great in stir fries as well.

As a side use the chickens love em so always grow extra for them.

Ali x

Hollyberry

Ellidee wrote: »

Apologies if this has already been posted but I just had to share this

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo

Perhaps not altogether (sorry ) surprising, but an eye-opener nonetheless... :eek::p:o

Fortunately, I've never been of a *demonstrative* persuasion, so there won't be any clips of me in health and efficiency format circulating the viewing and listening corridors of Govt. Even if my little laptop cam were to be activated by some supersmart techie, these days my late attire is built more for thermal than come-hither properties (sorry, dearest ), so any spy is more likely to catch me slapping on some moisturiser than anything interesting. I can't help but feel a tad sorry for the civil servants though, as that clearly doesn't come under any sane person's definition of what they signed up for...

It's good to be back home, & catch up with the thread properly. Mr K proved great for browsing whilst on hols, but his capabilities for posting two fingered (typing style, not nature of response ) were a bit challenging. His stock of SHTF lit lasted brilliantly over 2 nine hour and a couple of connecting flights too.

There had been some massively cold weather where we were staying. We spoke at some length to the lovely waitress in the local diner, who said that she had dug her car out no less than *four* times in one day to get variously to work, school and other necessities. And that wasn't a minor bit of shovelling, but up to her car windows kind of height. She was clearly really determined, as she didn't even reach up to my (admittedly Amazonian) shoulder. I was truly impressed with her fortitude, and added that to my "wot you can't learn other than by experience" list of things to consider under SHTF. The sheer physical effort and time taken to do normal things can't be underestimated.

jk0

Evening folks,

In view of Thursday's news about RBS, I have been musing about what is the difference between an overt 'bail-in' and what we have now.

Last month we learnt that HSBC won't let you draw out over £3000 cash unless you transfer it to another bank. In a bail-in you will probably be restricted to around £150 cash.

I guess the real difference is that anything in your account over £85k will disappear. But wait a minute, if the bank is levered 80:1, that money wasn't really there in the first place, was it?

So what happens in a bail-in? All it means is that banks no longer have to 'pretend' that money is there.

But how does that make them any richer?

Am I going mad, or is it too late at night to think about such things?

siegemode

Can't believe it, after losing our darling moggy we have just had a hellish week with all sorts and now at 6am on a Sunday somethings gone wrong with the boiler :eek::eek::eek:and OH is snoring upstairs and I have no idea what to do other than turn the ruddy thing off. So no heating and no hot water other than from a kettle. At least we had the electric shower fixed this week.
If only I could just have an easy stress free few days, a week would be better, but hey ho this is life:( Now do I call our local boiler man or contact the insurance company as we have emergency breakdown cover ? What would you do ? neither me or OH are technical minded etc and we are skint after the vet costs last week. lucky I was up and heard the boiler trying to fire up and failing and retrying.

greenbee

Siegemode - this is what your emergency insurance is for. Check the details, bu it is probably free of a £50 excess which is less than a Sunday call out fee from the local chap.

It might also be worth posting the details on the gas board here as there are some knowledgeable people around.

GreyQueen

MrsAtobe wrote: »

GQ, shouldn't that be 'pull one of the other ones, it's got bells on'?:D

Blimey, missus, how many legs have you got?!

Nargleblast wrote: »

GreyQueen - tinned pies????? In the words of Lady Whiteadder (according to the Nargleblast alternative script) - tinned pies are Satan's frisbees!

I feel that the FB tinned pie is unjustly maligned. OK, so it's not gour-may quee-zine but it ain't that bad. Although, I do concur on the frisbee potential as a pie, thrown frisbee style with a deft flick of the wrist, is something I wouldn't want to see heading towards me at speed.

((((seigemode)))) I'd call the insurer first and see what they say. Isn't it always on the weekend after a load of trouble that these things happen?

jk0, yes. You were up too late to be thinking about finance.:rotfl:

I guess the difference between a gouge on all taxpayers cause by the government bailing out a bank or bank(s) is that I'm a taxpayer but I only have a tiny amount in one particular bank. It's the diffuse pain which you don't actually see and enumerate as opposed to the very specific pain of seeing your money disappear.

From the bank's POV, they no longer have to honour their liablity to you at some future point, by allowing you to have back what you fondly believed was your very own anyway; the balance on your account. So they do get to improve their balance sheet and can go on until the next crisis.

I get rather annoyed at organisations who insist that they're capitalist players and then want to run to Mummy for a bail-out when it all gets a bit nasty. 'Too Big to Fail' (TBTF) is an abominable concept in banking. It cannot help but cause rash behaviour. Far better if the CEOs of major banks always understood that they'd have all their assets confiscated and their persons detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure for several years for reckless stupidity, and be treated as social pariahs forever after.

Today's cunning plan involves going to the allotmentino and grubbling around a bit in the good earth. Looking pretty darn good up there atm, if I say so myself (buffs her nails on pjs). Never been this far along at the start of March. But we've had a pretty mild winter here, so that's helped.

Onwards!

greenbee

For those of you concerned about 'To Big to Fail' and other banking issues, you might find this site helpful:

http://!!!!!!.uk/

I've just been reading a report on ethical banking which included a review of how much of the bank's capital was being lent, how much held in reserve and how and how much traded, as well as addressing the TBTF issue. One of the points made is that WE are the ones who can do something about this.

I moved my banking a few years ago on ethical grounds to N/wide, Charity Bank and Triodos, and my choices seem to have stood the test of time from an ethical standpoint, and I've had no other issues as yet. I am keen to spread my risk though, so will be keeping an open mind every time I have to consider my banking options.

My friends are getting used to me telling them that their particular bank is evil

pineapple

Is it alarmist to worry that the situation in Ukraine could escalate? And if so what are the implications for us?
This is how world wars start.
Britain could be on warpath with Russia to stop 'invasion' of Ukraine | World | News | Daily Express

Frugalsod

EmmaHerts wrote: »

I am talking in terms of this being the ISHTF thread. The biggest threat if s*** hits the fan is from other people.

I think it really depends on the crisis. Most of us do not have weapons to defend ourselves with so getting on with our neighbours is essential. The most likely crisis will be rioting and statistically the odds of any trouble affecting any one is quite low.