THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

smeeth

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

The bathroom is too small to put it in there

Do you have a bath? You could stand an airer in there to dry clothes?

GreyQueen

You can get those A frame airers which are specifically designed to stand over the tub. You can also get those multi-strand interior washlines which you mount on one wall and run out as necessary to an opposite wall about 6 foot-ish away.

We have one of these in my family home. When the weather really will not co-operate with outdoor drying, we can dry even sheets and towels on that, with small window open and bathroom door closed.

thriftwizard

I know we're all a tad sceptical about them, but my DDs' smartphones came in very useful yesterday. They'd gone up to London to see an exhibition, then for a mooch around their favourite shops & markets, and got turfed off the Northern Line & caught up in the evacuation of Euston station when they were trying to return to Waterloo. They had an hour to get there, but it was complete chaos; a number of stations & tube lines were shut down, the road traffic was gridlocked so buses & taxis weren't much of an option and they're not very familiar with the layout of the Big Smoke.

Goggle Maps, warm jumpers & sensible boots to the rescue! We were relieved to get a text to say they'd got to the station 10 minutes before the train left. Though that didn't stop the train itself from gradually failing; they had to be transferred to the next one - luckily, the faster service - halfway down the line.

OK, it wasn't the sort of emergency where the mobile masts go out of action, whatever actually caused it, but they'd never have found their way across Town in time without their phones; we used to have a pocket-size A-Z but it'd be out of date now even if we could find it, and I've never seen another one for sale.

Never much liked the Tube when I was living up there & commuting into the centre daily; after DD1's tales of angry idiots trying to barge their way into a very-crowded station that's actually being evacuated, with loud sirens & alarms going off everywhere & escalators failing, I think I'll wear sensible boots too next time I really have to go up there. And find a small A-Z by hook or by crook...

ETA: found one! Used, 1p + postage. And invested...

ivyleaf

thriftwizard I'm glad your DDs managed all right.
I actually had to Google after reading your post, to find out what had happened; I missed some of the BBC London news last night but OH says there had been no mention of Tube stations being evacuated!
When we do go into central London we stick to using the buses as much as possible.

mardatha

Sounds like a nightmare!! We never get much news of London up here, I think it sounds a very scary place.

midnight_express

Tube stations being closed / evacuated isn't news it's an everyday event.

maryb

Often they close them for a while because of overcrowding which is quite dangerous because it could cause injuries from crushing let alone the increased risk of falling onto the tracks. Happens all the time at Victoria. But I wouldn't hang about if I heard sirens go off.

Transport for London have actually produced a 'walking' Tube map which tells you the time it takes to walk between stations. There are some journeys where it is much quicker to walk eg Leicester Square to Covent Garden - only one stop on the Picadilly LIne but the lifts at Covent Garden are hopeless - you could grow old waiting for one - and it's actually very close at street level

http://content.tfl.gov.uk/walking-tube-map.pdf

thriftwizard

midnight_express wrote: »

Tube stations being closed / evacuated isn't news it's an everyday event.

Which, in its way, seems odd to those of us who lived up there during & after the IRA bomb campaign... I know there are more people now, but apparently 17 stations were closed, and the northbound main-line stations too. That's a whole lot of overcrowding...

maryb

Combination of signal failures on several different lines, a big football match, a fire alarm somewhere, all happeneing in rush hour ..... a perfect storm.

And yes, it is a lot more crowded now than back in the 80s, so it doesn't take much to cause breakdown into utter chaos

Every day I give heartfelt thanks I no longer have to commute

ivyleaf

Ooh, thank you for the link to the map, maryb :T I didn't know it existed! I've bookmarked it now.