Preparedness for when

daz278

Last Tuesday the workman replaced all my windows. I had to move everything. Especially problematic the lounge . Put all my electrics in plastic bags...by the time they left my internet was down and games console broke ....the service from talktalk promised me a new router 4 days later o check no router ordered . I have given them one more chance to send it ...apart from that enjoying my 2 week off .especially forthcoming weekend in Blackpool

the_cake

O daz best of luck with talktalk ..we have just been off the net for nearly a month, thanks to them. They were useless, closed my complaint without even referring it to Op*nreach (even though they could see I had no internet), I was on the phone to them about twice a day, every day, as they "escalated" my complaint. I never ever want to go through that again - at one point I got so stressed I thought I would have a heart attack!! We are changing ISPs next week - may not be better, but at least it will be different! We are right at the end of the line from the exchange, so our speed is snail-slow at the best of times. I felt very grateful we have good reference books and hard copies of things I normally used the net to look up.

grandma247

Anyone seen this?
Some are saying they have lost the internet at times too.

Frugalsod

jk0 wrote: »

Thanks Frugalsod.

All good ideas, but I need some room in my car boot for tools & building materials. It's about one third full with SHTF equipment at the moment.

I was thinking of something like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Organiser-Shopping-Collapsible-Foldable-Storage/dp/B00XN8UO20/

The insulated section could be used for water liquid during the winter and only putting additional winter items in, the sort of things that you would need if your were snowed in your car. Most of the year you could collapse it to minimal size. The get home bag would be taken out of the car all the time because it would have money in and could be kept in the passenger footwell. So if you were stuck in the car in a snow drift most things would be with you. If you had to abandon the car the get home bag would be next to you.

Frugalsod

grandma247 wrote: »

Anyone seen this?
Some are saying they have lost the internet at times too.

This does give people an opportunity to find out how they would cope without a phone. Personally it would have little impact though losing the internet would be more annoying.

daz278

Luckily im not bound by contract so can leave anytime

the_cake

In March this year the little hamlet I live in (25 households) had no phone at all for ten days when a tree fell across the line and completely severed it. Some households have some (intermittent, and weather dependent) mobile coverage, but we have virtually none - although I did once get one bar by standing on top of the muckheap and waving the phone around ... I also had no car at the time and have to say I felt incredibly isolated when OH left for work each morning. God knows what would have happened if I had needed the emergency services - would have had to run about until I found someone with a bit of mobile coverage. Not funny at all.

GreyQueen

the cake, a pal of mine has a farm between two villages and about two miles from the nearest town. There's no mobile signal at the farmhouse or its yard but he can make mobile calls from up in (his) woods. When their landline was out, their life was interesting, to put it mildly.

jk0, I think the car's contents need to be tweaked with the season and where you are expecting to go. If you're in and about your home area between spring and autumn, you're not going to need full cold weather gear. If you're making a long road trip somewhere, particularly if it takes you through isolated areas, you'll need different stuff.

F'rinstance, if your everyday life involves wearing impractical footwear, a practical pair stored in your car is a must. If you could easily walk for hours without blisters in what you're wearing every day, that's not a need.

I would suggest water, perhaps one of those 5 litre handled bottles from the supermarket, as they'd stand nicely, stood in a plastic crate in case of leakages. Then, contained in a backpack or other bag which can be comfortably carried leaving hands free, the following; some food such as cereal. energy bars, some nuts, and whatever else is compact, packaged and takes your fancy and won't melt in the car.

You can keep a blanket or two folded on the car's back seat without looking prepperish. I always followed the family habit of keeping a blanket permanantly in the car, very useful for padding purchases and protecting the car's interior never mind warming people. And I mean a blanket, not a rug, they're too small.

If you don't have a very detailed knowledge of how to walk around your area, as well as drive around it, you might want a map. A torch in case you get overnighted. Something to read (breakdowns are boring). A cup. A small emergency first aid kit, to supplement the one kept in the car. A warm layer and a waterproof layer (which may be on your person). In winter, gloves and a hat.

Today I am on annual leave (hurrah!) and will be on the allotment preparing for the next growing season. I also have some preps stored deep in the shed, in a very heavy duty industrial plastic crate. Just a bag of old but useful clothes, a small washkit, a pair of glasses in the old prescription, which would be better than no glasses at all. A few other bits and bobs, nothing I wouldn't be prepared to lose in event of arson or robbery. There's a dozen two-litre bottles of water up there, too. The allotments have piped water, but that will only flow if the electricity is on.

We're experiencing powercuts in this city at the rate of at least one a week, taking down a couple of postcodes at a time. My team speak as if we're getting more than we used to, anyone having the same subjective experience in their area? I wonder about ageing infrastructure.

grandma247

Having no phone would not really bother me but most of this town would probably throw themselves in the canal I can't tell you how many people I have nearly run over because they were on their phone and not paying attention. They just step out in front of you.

thriftwizard

Many people in the US do not have, and never have had, landlines. So they're not just losing their back-up comms there, but the whole thing, for a significant proportion of the country. I wonder if that's linked to the business where debit cards weren't working last week?

We were talking to the kids a few days ago about life before mobiles, and were met with a degree of incredulity. Yet yesterday I travelled upcountry to view a van for business use, and found myself running a bit adrift after being stuck behind umpteen tractors & bewildered tourists, so tried to ring the vendor to say I was going to be a little late. Needless to say, there was no signal in any of the places I pulled into & it wasn't until I got into the suburbs of the city, about two minutes drive from my destination, that I had one! If you stick to the motorways (which we don't have, down here) you're probably OK, but it'd be a mistake to rely on having a mobile connection anywhere in rural Britain.