Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Dammit, Janet, something obviously happened whilst I was off living RL (Ok, weeding the allotment).

This city was heavily-bombed because we were making some Useful War Stuff. The local council has the bombs, and their weights mapped. I expect yours does, too. We hope they're all accounted for. The bombsites do explain what otherwise looks a bit inexplicable in terms of urban development - a 500-pounder landed about 50 yards from where I am sitting today.

Mum was born during WW2 in London's East End and the family toughed it out there. Mum can remember scavenging for edible bugs under stones on the bombsites as a neglected, destitute child before the police forced London Borough Council, (as was), to take her into care.

Didn't we have to let the Germans take Crete because to act ahead of time would have revealed the Enigma code had been cracked? I've been there several times and in some villages, the memorials to the war dead contain the skulls of the victims. Sobering thing to see. Most people on Crete seem to keep firearms at home; pal was invited by a local to go out shooting in the mountains and was astonished at the veritable arsenal produced - including an AK47.:eek:

Two branches of the extended family out here in Sticksville nearly died when crippled US bombers crashed. One just missed the house that held three generations of my family (inc my Dad) and another did hit another house but our people had gone to chapel and weren't home.

My family are Cof E not Methodist, btw, but some of them used to quite enjoy chapel as well as church, so used to go to that, too. We drew the line about taking up with the Plymouth Brethren, when a farmer tried to make that a condition about hiring my Grandad one time, tho.

Still, it was a lucky decision to check in for some extra religion that day!

Cappella

Originally posted by MrsLurcherWalker

The way I regard prepping is IF I'm right and there might come a time when 'normal life' is disrupted for any of a whole plethora of reasons I have invested in things that will keep us going until it's either sorted out and life IS back to normal again or if it's not back to normal I have things which will hopefully keep us alive while we adjust to whatever life has become , IF I'm wrong I will have a stock of things like food, first aid medications, candles, salt, soap etc. all of which we use anyway that I will use up in the day to day process of living even if it takes a while to get through them.

If those who scornfully mock us are right we'll have things we can use up that we'd normally use BUT.....IF they're wrong and life does run awry for any of those plethora of reasons and life as normal becomes impossible they'll have nothing, will have to get through problem times with nothing and IF life doesn't get back to normal they'll have a pretty hard old time of it IF they make it through at all!

Has someone stirred things up here? I do hope not, that's not a pleasant thought.
I was just beginning to feel a huge sense of relief at finally meeting like-minded people after years of being made to feel weird at work for preferring to spend my life enjoying wildlife, gardening, growing my own and trying to be as self sufficient as possible rather than spending it just watching tv and shopping, as most of my colleagues did. I like to be prepared for everyday emergencies, small and large, and this thread has made me aware of other scenarios that I haven't explored or considered previously
Having a well stocked pantry has always essential for me, and it proved its worth last year when illness hit us very hard and made shopping extremely difficult. In the event we didn't need to shop, our stockpiles of food in the freezers, pantry and growing on the allotments amply sufficed for eight weeks, and would have amply sufficed for many more had that been necessary.
Surely it is sensible to prepare for as many eventualities as possible in today's uncertain climate? If people fail to realise this I feel sad for them. No one really knows what may happen tomorrow. I certainly didn't expect to wake up in a critical care unit eight months ago, but prepping helped me through that life changing experience, on a very practical level.
Apologies if this post is off topic, I've only just skimmed the thread - our broadband signal is playing up again - will now go back and read it properly.

Karmacat

Cappella - there was a pretty dismissive, sneering post, and its been deleted, don't worry - no one wants to put up with that sort of thing.

[Deleted User]

Not a problem CAPELLA you're amongst friends and at home when you're here and the very existence of this thread is red rag to a bull to some folks. It's a big enough world for us all to be ourselves and it IS nice to find like minded friends to chat and share with so don't feel uncomfortable, sorting out differences of opinion and preferences in life is a necessary tool in preparedness anyway, look on this as practise!!!

GreyQueen

Hell, we've been heavily-trolled in the past on this thread, just no one had bothered to do so for some time. I'd say the longevity of the thread and the fact that it's rarely off the front page of Old Style speaks volumes.

I. for one, treasure you all and hope no one will be dissuaded from posting (or from reading quietly along, if that's how you like to play).

I regularly encounter people I consider astonishingly ill-prepared for anything, even if anything is as predictable an event as a rainstorm on a day of forecast iffy weather.

The amount of people who carry no cash at all worries me. Is cash really such a burden that you need to go out with only your card(s)? A banking blip and you're stuffed, frankly. And there are still some places which don't take cards.

nuatha

Jazee wrote: »

Yes, troll gone and my post too. I hope I didn't offend anyone.

You certainly didn't offend me.
Sorry to read you had a post pulled.

Having just read back for something else, I've had a couple of posts removed and I there's others I read missing.
Looks like you're in good company (and I'm just agging along )

helcat26

I was interested to hear that Scarlett's father in Gogglebox was very keen on the whole surviving alien invasion thing.
Prepared a food cache in the loft and gave the family code words to identify themselves and confirm that they had not been bodily taken over!

[Deleted User]

I don't know about aliens.....I have enough trouble trying to fathom out PEOPLE!!!

jk0

I spotted rather a worrying billboard advert just now, and googled it. They talk about the campaign here: http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/articles/visa-europes-cashless-pitch-to-brits-paints-cash-users-as-weirdos/

Funnily enough my gf just lost her debit card for the second time in 6 months. Last time, she had to borrow cash from me, and I told her she should keep a few hundred in a safe place at home. This time, she had no problem at all pending the new card arriving.

GreyQueen

jk0, one of my (much older) pals has had a shop for 40+ years. He only takes cash. No exceptions. Regulars know what to expect but youngsters often come in and expect to walk out with high-value items in exchange for a bit of plastic-fantastic.

They're sign-posted towards the nearest ATM.

He also, co-incidentally, gets invitations to opt-into taking card payments from all the big players on a weekly basis. For a percentage of his transaction, naturellment. These get shredded.

The card companies are trying to promote un-necessary uses of plastic for in-person transactions for small sums, in order to gouge retailers for a percentage, which will then be passed to customers, of course.

Plus, you give away your exact whereabouts and lots of lifestyle information with every card transaction, which is very desirable to TPTB. And younger people are sooo gullible that they're falling for it.

Picture this: an office of the DWP, in the not-too-distant furture.

An Official; Ms Bloggs, we've been analysing your spending patterns on your BigBruvva DoleCard. We noticed you bought some toiletries from Shoes. Did you know that you could have got the same things much more cheaply from A.N. Other chain chemist? Oh, and in future, you will still be allowed to buy sanpro and deodorant but that business with the lippy? Not on the tax-payer's shilling, young lady! Any frivilous expenditures will be deducted from future credits to your DoleCard, as you obviously have more money than you need.

Ms Bloggs; !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I was a tax-payer until last week, you horrible little person. What the hell is this, a police state?!

An Official (primly) No need to take that kind of attitude, Ms Bloggs, we're only trying to do our jobs here, you know.

:cool: I am a cash user and the deep state has no idea that I bought two avocados and some carrots at Liddly this week*. Keep schtummn, and keep using cash.

* Well, they would know if reading this, but not which Liddly, which day and time or what kind of carrots.:rotfl: