Preparedness for when

rosiepup2000

RAS wrote: »

Does anyone remember the teenage girl who walked out of the Amazon jungle a week or more after a plane disintegated at altitude, with an injury that should have crippled her?

Hello, I hope you don't mind a lurker butting in. This is such an interesting thread, I have learnt so much from it!

I've been fascinated by survival stories since I was a child - probably as a result of reading too many dog-eared Reader's Digest True Life stories in various doctor/dentist waiting rooms. Juliane Koepcke (the girl who walked out of the jungle after the plane crash) was certainly one I read about in the Reader's Digest, and which stayed with me. She wrote a book When I Fell From the Sky about it.

There's also a book by Laurence Gonzales called Deep Survival - who lives, who dies and why - which examines the survival personality.

Other good true survival stories:

Survive the Savage Sea - Dougal Robertson
Adrift - Stephen Callaghan
117 Days Adrift - Maurice and Maralyn Bailey
And I Alone Survived - Lauren Elder
Angels in the Wilderness -Amy Racina

Have got more downstairs...

The most important thing I've taken away from all these stories is that in a real life SHTF situation, don't give up, however hopeless it may seem.

Back to hunker down in lurkerdom to count my loo rolls and dream of paracord and Kelly kettles

JayneC

Evening everyone,

Interesting discussions again. Definitely agree that some people have much more of a survival instinct than others. It never ceases to amaze me how many people think that TPTB will look after/save everyone. I'm more of the opinion that TPTB are most likely to cause SHTF scenarios and then try to save themselves whilst leaving everyone else floating in the mire.

Regarding illnesses - I think the best thing you can do is just try to be as fit and healthy as you can, so hopefully your immune system will help you fight off the nasties. After reading about nasty stuff in water (mainly medication residues:eek:) I'm considering getting a water filter, found this
http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/home/gs2-gravity-water-filter.html
Which I thought was a reasonable price but probably cheaper elsewhere if I looked around. Spotted it as I got a £25 gift voucher from green-shopping for changing to Good Energy, so was looking around the site. I spent it on a sharpening stone and a knife, so looking forward to sharpening all my gardening tools when they arrive.

Been to rifle club with DD and DS this eve and I got 2 x bulls eye:T, only my second time so was quite pleased with myself. As has been said, you need to work on your aim when you're not hungry and desperate!! Hoping to get an air rifle at some point (when I know what I'm looking for:p) DS is getting quite good with his longbow too.

Been making progress on my lottie, though not got many veggies in yet, mostly fruit. Back at work now after having a couple of weeks off and sun now shining - typical!! Will get up there again later in the week and hopefully get my spuds in now the temp has reached double figures!

Take care everyone x

Popperwell

Hi Rosie...
I thought Reader's Digest was no more and then I found a website by chance earlier today...:)

http://www.rd.com/

JayneC

Hi Rosie:hello:

Don't go, stay and play it's fun. Good to 'see' you.

I've seen Touching the Void and 127 hours which were incredible stories of doing whatever it takes to stay alive. Will take a look at the book list. Thanks.

ginnyknit

I am :mad: well this we all guessed, I closed the fridge door and walked out of the kitchen, moments later there was a huge bang and I went in to find my kitchen floor covered in 3 kg of red lentils :eek: Such a flipping waste - now time to re-organise kitchen. They were in a big cereal dispenser on top of the fridge freezer so had bits of plastic mixed in with the lentils - yummy.

I have now planted 20 pots of various seeds in the greenhouse and am feeling quite contented with it. I have tons of seeds both veg and flowers so am going to use some of the older ones up and see what happens. I am more organised this year which is good. Will plant the next lot next week so as to stagger it and try and beat the odds after last years dismal failure.

Very interesting discussions, glad its not just my mind that goes off on a tangent meaning we have more area's to think of prepping thus helping us all.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Here's a real SHTF situation - two explosions at the Boston Marathon today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22160978


Would you panic, freeze, help or get the hell out the area?

Popperwell

Watching live on NBC

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbcnews.com/51546697

JayneC

It's all kicking off isn't it.

Not sure why but Jojo your question reminded of DS1 who had just arrived back in Heathrow from S Africa (where the boat he was on almost sank - he was sailing with a family friend and they hit a storm and started to take on water and semi capsized) anyhoo it was the day of the bomb scare and all flights were cancelled - he was supposed to be flying to Manchester where I was headed to collect him and he immediately realized he wasn't going to be flying to Manchester so whilst all the other passengers were aimlessly wandering waiting for instructions he just headed to the train station and got a train back!! (his luggage arrived several weeks later at Manchester lol)

GreyQueen

RAS wrote: »

I do not know whether many of you recall the fire 1985 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airtours_Flight_28M ?

When the researchers tried to understand how it was that some people who were very close to the blocked rear exits survived and others sitting almost next to or across the aisle from working exits died, they discovered that the survivors were those who routinely checked the location of the exits when they boarded a plane. Some had no idea how they came to be outside the burning plane but had worked out the number of rows between themselves and the exits when they sat down.
.

I've met one of the survivors of that plane crash; she later married my pal's father. They're an affluent couple and can afford nice holidays, but the lady still doesn't like to fly and who could blame her?

pineapple wrote: »

No disrespect to men (who I know get attacked) but I think we are the more vulnerable sex - not necessarily on account of weakness. I've been followed and I've been 'approached' and I've even been assaulted twice (fortunately not serious). One was 'stranger danger' and one was somebody I knew! I know several women who have had 'encounters' and consequently I think we have an inbuilt waryness which I don't think many men could understand. It's there when I go lumping across the fields with my dog, it's there when I go through a local wooded area. Maybe I shouldn't do these things but I refuse to have my life overly curtailed. We each set the bar at a different point. I wouldn't go camping in the middle of nowhere on my own, I wouldn't walk through Bradford city centre on my own after closing time.
As for learning routines for protection/survival it's definitely not ott. As a young teen I got swept out to sea on the North East coast (and eventually was rescued). The first feeling was panic and the second was astonishment. Because these things always happen to other people! Yes I was a prize numpty to get myself into trouble in the first place but miraculously everything I had been taught and practiced for such a scenario subsequently kicked in. Otherwise Pineapple wouldn't be here now!

I grew up running wild in many miles of forest and was often anything from 2-4 miles away from home on my own. I came to no harm at all, not because we didn't have child abuse in the 1970s (we did) but due to a combination of attitude and luck. I was an exceptionally fast runner before puberty broadened out my hips, and could outrun just about anything on two legs and often did. I knew the woods well, I paid attention, and if I glimpsed someone potentially problematic like a lone male, I'd just hide up.

As an adult, I was once harvesting sweet chestnuts from a stand of trees about 30 metres from a B road outside the home town. My Dad knew I was going to be there and dropped by to see me as part of his own walk (we were a couple of miles from the parents' place). We had a little chat and then he went on and I continued harvesting. I'd had no sense of Dad approaching, wasn't expecting him but had seen him coming from about 50 yards away.

An hour or so after he'd left, I was suddenly afflicted by the most powerful sense of malice and danger. There was nothing to see, there were no cars stopped on the road (I was in sight of it, but my bike was well off the road, and laying flat in the bracken). It was like a siren going off inside DANGERDANGERDANGER. I have never felt anything so strongly as that sunny afternoon. Yet there was nothing to see, only every hackle I possessed standing up and yelling RUN!

I baled out. Immediately. Off to the pushbike and burned rubber on my way back into town. Didn't see anything, nothing happened to me. Would anything have happened had I ignored my gut instinct and remained under the chestnut trees? Dunno. The only way to find that out would have been too risky to attempt. I'm happy with my choice and have never felt such an overpowering sense of being targetted for harm before or since.

When my brother was a youngster first living away from home as a student, I gave him some friendly words of advice from a woman's perspective. Bro is a big lad, well over 6 feet, and a gentle giant. I explained that walking behind a woman, who happens to be on her own at night, can be bliddy scary for her. He knows he's a good guy but she doesn't. That it's nicer to cross over the road. He then recalled that he had seen women in such circumstances who had been made uneasy by his presence, but he hadn't "got it" until I explained how it feels.

My martial arts instuctor explained that there are three possible reactions to a crisis; fight, flight and freeze. You can't predict what will be your response until tested, although training in a fighting form is about patterning your repsonses towards fighting rather than freezing. There is also a very useful thing to know; the ki-ai (can't recall how to spell it).

Essentially, you shout or scream unexpectedly with all your lungpower. It is very hard to overcome the social conditioning to do this and believe me, watching a class of us women trying was entertaining. You won't credit how many decibels you can output if you try.

A very loud unexpected noise at close range causes an involuntary reaction in the person being screamed at; their muscles lock. It lasts under a second but you, as the screecher, keep on moving. It's the principle behind all kinds of war cries. You can sometimes get yourself out of a situation by acting like a complete nutter and running towards trouble screaming like a banshee. If you don't co-operate with an attacker's scenario, you can sometimes derail them.

What you must never allow to happen, whether man or woman, is for someone to take you away from your surroundings, in the hope that the threatened harm will be less if you go quietly. It won't. Better to fight and be injured where you are, because if an abductor gets you where they want you, you're going to be hurt much more severely and may well be killed.

Cheery, tonight, aren't I? I'm a happy little bunny and didn't come away from the allotment until 7 pm. There are three routes which take me from the lottie to home. One is through the park on a cyclepath which is very well-used. It's the most direct and most pleasant. At 4 pm I went up that way. At 7 pm? No. It was still light enough but there would be far fewer people about. Possibly no one. I'd use the cyclepath at 7.30 am on a weekday, as it is heaving with commuters and dogwalkers. I wouldn't use it at the same time on a weekend as it would be too deserted.

Horses for courses, you see. Unless you count edges of cliffs and volcanoes, there are few truly unsafe places, it's more a case of unsafe people. Safe/unsafe varies according to the day and time, whether the clubs are turning out, if Provincial United are playing at home, is there's a demo on, lots of other random facts.

It's preperish to know these things, and to pay attention to your surroundings. It horrifies me to see people out jogging or cycling with their earbuds in. You need to have all your senses in play.

Right, I need tea. laters, GQ xx

rebeccalb

Up to 3 explosions now