THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Cappella

I was pulled for travelling with knitting needles two years ago. I was allowed to pull the knitting off and keep the wool but the needles were confiscated. My own fault for not checking first, but I'm still glad that the security was so tight.

tboo

My 7 year old got drug swab checked - outward and inward going to Germany and then again for Lapland (day trip) last year (looks the part:))

Coming back from Finland she got her gift shop bought wooden catapault confiscated from our hand luggage ( I do understand it can be a weapon but we wasn't made aware it had to be in the hold luggage at any point when buying it, we were asked it we would like to put it in the hold for 30 odd £ - not for a 6 euro toy no thanks)

monnagran

I almost ground Mumbai airport to a halt. In order to get a bit of comfort on the long tedious journey I bought a sort of blow up cushion It also had a battery operated soft vibration mode.
Of course the battery, which was fine on the way out, set off some alarm on the way back. The staff could not work out why the seemingly innocent cushion should trigger the alarms. When I showed them what happened when you pressed the corner of the cushion I thought they would never stop laughing.
Soon we had collected quite a crowd, all wanting to have a go.

I never bothered with taking it again.

DigForVictory

Cappella wrote: »

knitting needles

Many airlines will let you travel with wood or plastic needles - it's almost always worth asking, ahead of time!

It's in part why charity shops don't hold out knitting needles for sale - they reasonably worry they'll be prosecuted if Some Youth does something foolish (& I don't mean drop a stitch or cast cast on at the wrong tension.) Still, it saves no end of fuss if you can get the right sized needles for a good cause at the right price & I'm delighted that my standard beanie needles (all five) are strays from 5 different sources!

thriftwizard

One of my lovely Mothering Sunday prezzies was a pedometer (I'm getting them well-trained at long last! But still no socket-spanner set, alas, and it's not my birthday for another 8½ months) and it seems I've done 13,730 steps so far today. And it wasn't in any way a particularly energetic day... if only I could stop eating like someone who does 20,000 steps per day, I'd be fit! Have to say, though, that I found the default "target" of 5,000 steps a bit depressing...

maryb

I find my Fitbit credits me with a surprising number of steps just for drying my hair!

ancientofdays

One of my former senior managers sweetly bought us pedometers as part of a fitness drive, with a daily target. I'd done double the target by the time I reached the office, as I use public transport and feet. Mostly everyone else drives in. I lost mine after 3 days.

GreyQueen

A relation of mine belongs to a rambling group. In a group of a dozen, all walking the same distance, there will be as many different (very different) readings as there are pedometers.

It makes me a tad cynical about the accuracy of these devices. I once had one and gave it to the chazzer.

greenbee

GreyQueen wrote: »

A relation of mine belongs to a rambling group. In a group of a dozen, all walking the same distance, there will be as many different (very different) readings as there are pedometers.

It makes me a tad cynical about the accuracy of these devices. I once had one and gave it to the chazzer.

Bear in mind that people have different length legs so their stride is different.

They're not entirely accurate, but for people who need to move more they can be very motivating.

Mind you, mine logged my mowing yesterday as 'outdoor bicycle'... and gardening often counts as 'aerobic exercise' or 'sport' :rotfl:

thriftwizard

I was obsessive enough to count steps on my first couple of outings with it! And it does seem to be fairly accurate; it's just a pedometer, but one with good reviews from fitness types (DD1's BF being a trainee personal instructor & DS2 a fully-trained instructor too, though that isn't what he does for a living) as it doesn't log dance steps unless I'm actually moving forwards.

My main reason for wanting one was as an answer to the many people who wonder how on Earth I can possibly think I'm reasonably fit; their view of people who work from home seems to involve sitting or even lying down a lot! But if you don't go to the gym at 6am daily, you're a couch potato by definition... sigh! However, our little town is entirely walkable, and doesn't have a lot of parking, and we like to get out & walk in the surrounding countryside, so I was fairly confident that most days I do at least 3 miles, 5 on many of them.

I know I'm very lucky to have my health, though, having had a total hip replacement a few years ago, that's not always been the case. But it's good to have some confirmation that a lifestyle that doesn't involved handing over £30-odd a month, driving daily to a concrete box full of instruments of torture and owning lots of special clothing to get sweaty in isn't necessarily condemning me to an early senescence!