Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

I'm definitely of the opinion, that living alone will make OPSEC easier, but the opportunities for giving yourself away, are still legion.

Also, what's the point of having tasty, heatable food, if you can't prepare and eat it, for fear of giving yourself away?

Also, it's not just other people who can catch you out.

Neighbour's hungry pets (assuming they haven't already gone in the pot) and indeed wildlife, will be attracted to your aromatic food, and they will have a far better sense of smell, than humans.

moneyistooshorttomention

Not saying you couldn't heat the tasty etc food Bob. You just might have to choose your times carefully for doing so. Anyone coming to visit you at the wrong time might smell a telltale whiff of something nice. Hence, still have that tasty food - but make sure its cold at possible "visitor times" and the heated-up variety is done with kitchen windows shut at times visitors aren't likely to visit would be my take on that.

You don't want to know just how many times I thought "Ugh...him nearby is having one of his fry-ups again. Yuk" from my last house. Our houses were so close together and he would often keep his windows open whilst doing the fry-ups that I was often well aware it was "Frying tonight".

The lodgers I had at the time kept me well-informed about other matters to do with him, eg how many arguments he had with Her Indoors, as they could hear them loud and clear.

With other neighbours, I could hear just how often someone rang at their doorbell or on their phone.

It can be astonishing how much neighbours can pick up...

Upsidedown_Bear

1Tonsil wrote: »

Posting while I have the chance between storms and deluges...the storms hit us at 10.45 last night and we have had them in waves ever since. Quite a few places here are flooded and that includes Sidari, one of the main resorts. It has developed into a major storm system and we will have it till at least the weekend apparently.

Very pleased I have my stocks in and plenty of calor gas as I don't fancy going anywhere on the mountain roads in this. Even the stray cat that I feed tried to get inside the house to hide from it...I think he decided that he was more scared of the storm than of me. He won't come near the house or us usually, bless him.

I can't believe we still have the internet and the satelite tv stations working in this weather, I must compliment them on keeping the service going when I next go to pay for it.

The car has yet to be fixed, the part to repair it didn't arrive due to all the ferries and planes being cancelled last night. Hoping it managed to get through today but I am not holding my breath as it is coming from Athens. It is okay to drive it but there is no chance of me going anywhere in the near future until the weather improves. I am enjoying reading back in the thread, I have learned so much from you all and prepping is so important these days

I thought of this when I read about the storms you are having.
It's a real time lightening map. Possibly more fun to watch lightening storms somewhere else :cool:
http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en

ETA
There seems to be lots of storms in the States at the moment.

GreyQueen

I grew up on a pretty rough estate (parents still live there) and it was important not to incite envy as some people could turn a bit nasty if they thought you and yours were doing better than they were. Even if the differences were infestisimal. So, I suppose I had the grey woman ethos engrained at an early age.

I've just been reading the crime digest for the various parts of Provincial City, which you can elect to have sent to you on a weekly basis. It isn't all crimes, for reasons of privacy, but is essentially a list of crimes against property; burglaries from dwellings, burglaries from non-dwellings, criminal damage, cycle theft, personal robberies. There is a lot of vehicular vandalism going on with cars and vans being keyed, having their windows put through etc etc.

I can see that economic life for many of us will get more difficult and would expect that some people who feel disenfranchised might be motivated to attack the property of those who they feel are doing all right, jack. It might be prudent to think about what kind of vehicles you own, in terms of modest vs prestigious marques, newness, enviability etc. To perhaps downscale what you drive to something modest and unassuming. You can run an older, unfancy vehicle on a fatter income, after all, and the repairs occasioned by the more elderly vehicles would be affordable.

I always aim to look a bit shabby, and carry any shopping about in bags from discount stores like £land, if I'm using carrier bags. Looking 'umble. FerFAL has a recent clip on his blog about being grey man, and how there's a hard to define quality of newness and brightness to new clothes, as opposed to well-worn and frequently-washed clothes which makes a person stand out in poorer neighbourhoods. I guess most of us dress in newish clothes when on holiday but it might be prudent to wear some old favourites instead.

There are other ways of conducting yourself which are conducive to giving the impression of 'umbleness. As one small example, I carry both a wallet and a small change purse. This is because I have never found a statisfactory melding of the two functions. But I mostly keep the wallet well out of sight and use the purse, with a couple of banknotes folded into it, for day-to-day transactions. Most of my purchases are very modest, and I'm digging out the right change with only a few coins and a fiver or two on show, should anyone be looking.

If things were to come to such a pass that people are starving, those of us with food reserves would be advised to be very circuspect about cooking and even more wary about disposing of food packaging, in case we drew attention from those who could be desperate enough to try to take from us by force. It's not a comfortable subject, but better considered before the event than afterwards.

One branch of my family went through WW2 in an occupied european city as 2nd gen expatriate Brits, and I've heard some stories from the older ones..........pray we're not reduced to creeping around at night sawing branches off street trees for fuel with kitchen knives and other such things.:(

GreyQueen

:eek: Gordon Bennett, I don't know what the hell is going on here tonight but if that bliddy police copter comes a smidgeon lower it'll knock the satellite dish off the top of the Towers. Some fun and games afoot but very dispruptive.

I dunno, here I am trying to all OS baking flapjacks and bread and there's some melodrama going on outside. If they chase people in the city centre they normally run this way so they might as well just put some boots on the ground. SG thought she heard someone bashing a door in a few mins ago and has gone for a discreet wander to investigate.

I am tied to a hot oven atm (oo-errr, missus) and cannot go lollygagging. So frustrating.

Frugalsod

I have been thinking about the comments about staying below the radar. I think that if you are doing lots of old school cooking from scratch the waste from packaging will be considerably less than those surviving on ready meals etc. For example a big bag of flour will be mainly paper so could be burned or compressed into briquettes so it takes up little space when being disposed of. It is also pretty unclear as to its main use so will not be a problem. My rubbish bin only needs to be emptied every few weeks since I switched to making from scratch.

Also any such event will develop over a few days so initially you could get concentrate on eating all the smelly foods that might give you away. For example many people shop once a week so it might take a week for people to realise that you are still living well. Though the biggest problem will be your close family who might not be doing so well.

It takes a bit of lateral thinking to get around it. Do your baking after midnight when few are awake and you can pass it off as a dream if anyone asks.

You can easily hide your nocturnal activity with blackout curtains, which if made with high levels of insulation could also keep you warmer as well.

GreyQueen

Grey personage is very relevent to context, as well.

Here in my neighbourhood, smart attire like suits attract a lot of attention. Big blokes in suits knocking on doors in my block are invariably bailiffs. Other smartly-dressed types are mostly professionals from the council. Sooo, one tends to look twice at them, whereas jeans and sportswear are commonplace and attract no notice.

I think it's always better that people underestimate you, as long as it isn't to the degree that you look like an easy mark. Better people think you're a bit of a saddo with no money than that you're worth robbing. SG, who is a short, tubby lil old lady, always chides her peers for carrying handbags. Too darned easy to mug that age group for their handbags, or just swipe them off their trollies in the supermarket. She never carries a handbag, preferring to carry her purse zipped inside a trouser or jacket pocket.

Dippypud

Lavandula_Rosemary wrote: »

It's all bluster. I wouldn't worry about Putin. He needs the West to buy his gas/oil.

China is his new big customer now ...

vivatifosi

Interesting article in Telegraph about why we may run out of electricity this winter:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/11070173/Emergency-measures-to-prevent-blackouts-this-winter-as-power-crunch-worsens.html

Suggestion is potential to be short term but annoying. We just don't have a buffer. This isn't about fuel sourcing but about capacity.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

this was just in my yahoo news feed


http://www.inquisitr.com/1447008/russia-threatening-to-drop-nuclear-bomb-in-ukraine-defense-minister-claims/


don't know if this is just scare mongering, or if there is any eliment of truth in it..


I think it is always wise to have a back up, when it comes to heating/cooking food etc in an event of something happening,
whether it is down to weather, power cuts, power supply, or even not being able to afford to put electric in the meter etc..