Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Frugalsod wrote: »

That would show the necessity to keep some basic kit in the office. A sleeping bag and a sleeping pad would mean that you sleep well. If you are really organised and keep some dried meals in the bag then you could rehydrate food for several days or for a number of people earning you lots of brownie points at the same time.

If you had it as part of a get home bag then should you need to walk home then you have the basics to walk it even it if takes more than a day or so.

Excellent points. A key item of preparing in this way is your footwear. You can improvise many things, but well-fitting, comfortable, fit-for-purpose, broken-in footwear is hard to drop your hands on with no notice. Your regular working day might involve a total of only a few hundred yards of walking, or even less for the car-commuter. If you can't bus/train/drive out of an area, and have to hike it, you need to have more than business-appropriate footwear.

Ladies' shoes are notoriously impractical, with heels, flimsy soled ballet shoes, strappy sandals and flip-flops commonplace. If you have to wear something like a court shoe to be acceptable in a professional job, you may want to think about having something like a pair of trainers with you, in case you need to hike out. Plus an A-Z and some rehearsed knowledge of how to get from A to B if your normal route is compromised. A pair of plain black sneaker-style shoes would be a useful compromise and less bulky than conventional trainers, as well as more discreet.

Mens' dress shoes aren't the most comfortable things either, and wouldn't be very useful for a long hike.

The rucksack which I use as my workbag is a Karrim0r town-type rucksack. Nicely padded back and straps, with a chest compression strap. You can carry a lot of weight easily. It's black and grey, a common brand and thus has a degree of invisibility.

Inside my bag, down at the bottom of the main compartment, I have a black drawsting bag which contains several pouches compartmentalising different things; meds, first aid, ladies monthly supplies, a small washkit, 2 changes of undies and socks, plenty of life-giving meds and some OTC remedies, hand sanitiser gel and an LED torch to supplement the mini maglite on my keyring. With my daily bag, I can crash out somewhere and have the bare necessities covered.

If I am travelling further afield than my normal city-centre rambings, I add some snack foods, too, and a water bottle.

ETA MTSTM, CID are about as similar to your neighbourhood police officer as a tiger is to a tabby cat. They go after the really bad guys and they wouldn't give a toss about a householder in a huff. If they want you to talk to you, they'll come and talk to you -whenever. They've been doorknocking several houses and flats around a particular address. No one knows exactly why (balance of probabilities says it's drugs) and have got little old ladies, mums with very young children and vanilla-flavoured residents up to answer questions after they'd gone to bed. They once door-knocked SG two minutes after she'd got in, she told them that they were lucky to have caught her, she was just in herself. Response? We know, we've been watching and waiting for you to come home.

jk0

My mother was telling me about Teresa May being interviewed by Andrew Marr this morning. Andrew kept pressing her about what could be done about lone gunmen.

Teresa said that she hoped anyone who thought their son was being radicalised would report him.

I made Mum laugh, by wondering if the police would have any interest at all. Can you imagine, the police asking you why you thought that, and when you started to describe how your son was acting, being told you were being investigated for a hate crime?

Cheapskate

It's just been reported that Greece's banks won't open tomorrow, maybe for as long as the whole week, presumably to prevent bank runs etc. I know it's been a long slog for the Greeks, and ordinary Greeks will suffer whichever way things fall, but I think they've all prolonged the agony - Tsipras and the Euro whatnots.

Along with European countries raising their security alerts, the next few weeks are going to be seriously interesting! We've booked to go to Rome in August - will be watching VERY closely in case we have to relocate or simply get a refund.

Back to making my title lists and telling DH "I told you so"!

A xo

CRANKY40

Cheapskate wrote: »

It's just been reported that Greece's banks won't open tomorrow, maybe for as long as the whole week, presumably to prevent bank runs etc. I know it's been a long slog for the Greeks, and ordinary Greeks will suffer whichever way things fall, but I think they've all prolonged the agony - Tsipras and the Euro whatnots.

Along with European countries raising their security alerts, the next few weeks are going to be seriously interesting! We've booked to go to Rome in August - will be watching VERY closely in case we have to relocate or simply get a refund.

Back to making my title lists and telling DH "I told you so"!

A xo

My sister in the Irish Republic has my credit card to use in emergencies but I'm starting to worry. She is oblivious as she lives from week to week anyway....

GreyQueen

Cheapskate, just checking the timestamp on a ZH article about this. Yesterday, the equivalent of 06.35 BST. Keep an eye on the 'Hedge, it's got a lot of stuff that's pertinent to a variety of issues. The rest of the meeja tend to tell you what's happened once it's already happening, which isn't a lot of use if you like to prep.

Those poor Greeks. Being locked out of your bank in a crisis must be worrying beyond belief. As I was discussing with my male parent this aft (he's a keen historian) things are about to get very interesting and not in a good way.

moneyistooshorttomention

Admits that my acquaintance with the police is along the lines of "They are there to protect ordinary people like myself". Now wondering what type of police it was that broke down the door of the previously mentioned person I had figured is a Danger to Society type? You would think I'd know - I have no excuse - and holds hands up - but it was a VERY long time ago that I had a (civilian) job working for them.

Oh well - do we have a collective motto of "Keep calm and garden".??:cool: re events in the news.

I think I'm starting to feel a bit hardened to it all by now - there is just so much bad news at the moment. There was just a tear to my eye at the news from Tunisia today including an article/photos saying how employees of that hotel had formed a line to protect European holidaymakers and told the gunman "You must kill us first - and we are Muslim":T:T:T. Followed by the joint demonstration against terrorism by tourist and locals:T:T:T

It is good to see there are some good people out there. If I had been that hotel manager employing those staff - they would have been brought straight into my office afterwards - and told how proud I was of them.

Meanwhile - in between doing the garden and following the news...a little summat nearer to hand and my nfh is on the warpath again - <unprintable comment>. I will try to regard it objectively as a useful experience of watching "human nature" at play - all the better to study what Earthlings are like at work, rest and play LOL. Beam me up Scotty...

Cheapskate

Thanks, GQ, I often pop into (onto?) the Hedge, but haven't recently; I know the main meeja are always late to the party, and thought last week it would come to this, just been a bit of a wait. Must peruse Hedge more often as you do My own cash stash in the house is a respectable amount, should there ever be a few wobbles - well, you never know, do you? I have a friend who lives on Corfu most of the year, but she's old school, like me, and I'm sure she smelled what was coming on the wind and is well-prepped.

A xo

Frugalsod

Cheapskate wrote: »

It's just been reported that Greece's banks won't open tomorrow, maybe for as long as the whole week, presumably to prevent bank runs etc. I know it's been a long slog for the Greeks, and ordinary Greeks will suffer whichever way things fall, but I think they've all prolonged the agony - Tsipras and the Euro whatnots.

For those in this thread I did warn that this was an absolute certainty it was only a matter of when. It is why everyone in Europe should keep the absolute minimum in their bank accounts. The same also applies in Spain Ireland and Portugal. The problem is that the banks are holding over valued collateral and when that becomes apparent the banks will start to report higher non performing loans. This could also happen here in the UK as we have a bloated banking sector with massively overvalued property. Though I do not think we will be impacted immediately. The problems have to ripple through France and Germany first. France and Germany had big loans to Greece and while much of that debt has now been transferred to the government when they can no longer claim that the loans are good then the governments in each country will have to face the fact that they made some horrendous decisions 5 years ago to bail out the banks.

Cheapskate wrote: »

Along with European countries raising their security alerts, the next few weeks are going to be seriously interesting! We've booked to go to Rome in August - will be watching VERY closely in case we have to relocate or simply get a refund.

I think that the attacks were because it was the 1st anniversary of IS, and that lone attackers decided to make a statement in their own way.

Cheapskate wrote: »

Back to making my title lists and telling DH "I told you so"!

A xo

Such a satisfying phrase at times. :rotfl:

Frugalsod

From http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-28/g-7-eu-banking-officials-hold-emergency-calls-ahead-black-monday



Imagine how Merkel will have to tell the public there that they now face having to make significant cuts to services because they were mislead into bailing out the banks.

The other thing to note is that as each country is forced into austerity and eventual default the losses will be transferred to those left, like a line of dominos. So while the UK has little exposure to Greece it does have a lot of exposure to France who did have huge losses in Greece. So when the French banks start to suffer runs the losses in the UK and Germany will also rise. We could see another banking crisis here and this is why the UK is at serious risk of a bail in, eventually.

moneyistooshorttomention

Well...an Idiots Guide to what exactly are considered to be "bank accounts" at risk of "bail-in" (aka theft by another name - only undertaken by the Government) would be useful.

This sounds like a daft question, but when we talk about "bank accounts" - do we mean "bank banks" iyswim (ie Barclays, NatWest, Co-op) or are we including "bank style accounts" held with building societies (eg Nationwide Building Society, etc).

Are we even including savings accounts - ie a savings type account (rather than "bank account" type account iyswim) - but just the standard depositor account that gets savings put in there when spare and withdrawn if required and that's probably held in a building society, rather than bank bank.

On beyond that - other forms of savings - like ISA's, premium bonds, etc?

Where do we think the "red line will be drawn" if the Government starts nicking from our money in order to do a bail-in?