Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

Did you see GQ that there will soon be some new Zimbabwe notes for your collection?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-06/zimbabwe-print-its-own-us-dollars-amid-severe-cash-shortage

Boy is that country a mess. I have the 10 billion dollar note, the one with the pile of rocks on it it. I have it framed with one of the worthless coins of the German hyperinflation. Sits up on the shelf as a morality tale.

The worms were useless. My haul was 5 bits of pottery, 4 bits of brick, a bit of slate, a bit of floor tile, half a dozen bits of glass, part of a bicycle tyre, a small section of the green waffle rubber carpet underlay, several nails, a leatherjacket and a cutworm. I was feeling generous so didn't take the last two up to the birdtable to leave them to the blackbirds.

Guess it'll be back to the office tomorrow to earn my keep.;)

Mojisola

GreyQueen wrote: »

Err, what are the probabilities of the worms fetching me something more worthwhile than the shattered offerings of the brickkilns? Could I put in for anglo-saxon treasure? Roman coins? I've always fancied myself in a torc, are worms capable of hefting the noble metals?

Think you'll need badgers for that!

S_Wales_Saver

Mar and NewShadow. What lovely beaches. We have our own here in S Wales but my favourite is Borth. Long stretch of sand with very few people often. Or the Gower of course. DD3 has transplanted herself there. Wales is spoilt for nice coastline.

milasavesmoney

I was thinking about people who have to evacuate their homes suddenly. I need to get all my important data into one binder. I had started working on that, at one point, and sort of wandered off never to return. I do have a binder halfway finished but there is new or missing info. Someone kick me in the backside!

GreyQueen

milasavesmoney wrote: »

I was thinking about people who have to evacuate their homes suddenly. I need to get all my important data into one binder. I had started working on that, at one point, and sort of wandered off never to return. I do have a binder halfway finished but there is new or missing info. Someone kick me in the backside!

Look at pictures of that fire up in Canada and think about the disaster it would be if that was your home. You might also want to think about backing up treasured family photos somewhere off-site, in case of total loss of your home.

nuatha

milasavesmoney wrote: »

I was thinking about people who have to evacuate their homes suddenly. I need to get all my important data into one binder. I had started working on that, at one point, and sort of wandered off never to return. I do have a binder halfway finished but there is new or missing info. Someone kick me in the backside!

I could, I may nag you instead.
Seriously, is that binder of any use if its in the property and you aren't when the brown stuff flies?
I am not saying don't organise your important data, I am saying treat it as exactly what it is, data.
As well as organising it into your binder, scan it or photograph it, burn it to DVDs, copy it to an external hard drive and arrange for them to live well away from where you do. Keep a copy on a USB dongle that lives with you at all times. Possibly keep another copy in cloud storage - then when you've organised all that keep all of them up to date.

If its important, back it up and keep it backed up - if its not important, why waste time and house room on it?

(Sorry if I dropped into lecture mode)

GreyQueen wrote: »

Look at pictures of that fire up in Canada and think about the disaster it would be if that was your home. You might also want to think about backing up treasured family photos somewhere off-site, in case of total loss of your home.

Sifting through those remains or the foul water flooded British houses in several locales recently, trying to retrieve precious memories, or essential paperwork just compounds the sheer soul destroying pain of the situation.
I would lose some original artworks, but I have good quality photos for record and insurance purposes. Herself would lose a collection of Discworld figurines, they're catalogued and insured - yes the replacements would not be the actual figures I (and others) bought her, but would hopefully invoke the same memories.
We have extensive music, film and video libraries, these are catalogued online and with local and remote backups - mainly to ensure we don't buy yet another copy of something we already have, but it also would make the insurance claims far easier to deal with.

Before I give the (false) impression that I have this completely sussed. I found out yesterday that tomorrow I have to prove my right to work in the UK. I am a British subject who let his passport lapse a couple of years ago as life got in the way and I wasn't using it. It turns out that a combination of driving license, birth certificate and an official letter showing my NI number will suffice. The first two are fine, but I have no paperwork that shows my NI number - I do have scans of a few letters, but almost all my official paperwork is electronic. Photocopies, scans and printouts are not considered acceptable.

That binder might be useful after all.

jk0

I get this problem all the time with financial companies wanting utility bills. Err, doesn't everyone get them online nowadays? I make sure I keep my council tax & water bills, as these are virtually the only ones left on paper.

mardatha

I can honestly say that I could walk away from all my stuff - a bit like the people who were bombed out once twice even three times in the Blitz. Because things are just things, just stuff. My dad threw out all the family pics when he had dementia, but all the memories are in my head. I have a suitcase full of family pics n the house here but I never look at them. It's just stuff. What matters is inside my head, the memories and the pictures in there. But I'd def need to grab the paperwork that proves who I am.

[Deleted User]

I'm with you MAR, the things that matter most are NOT material ones, memories? priceless! and we too have boxes of photographs that just sit and are never looked at. The only ones I have on display are some old sepia/black and white prints that are going back to my great, great, great grandma in Sweden and DD has the originals of those so I could replace them easily enough. I'd miss my books if I lost them but as they're mostly charity shop buys they have very little actual value and I'm pretty sure I could replace them very easily too.

cbsexec

I have never forgotten what new neighbours told me over 30 years ago. They had come from Australia and had lost everything in a flooding diasaster but said they were just happy to be alive. Stuff meant nothing - it could be replaced and no one could take their memories. I have always remembered that.