The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

[Deleted User]

Oh Grunnie come to Gloucestershire it's lovely here and there is still properly used farmland and they cut the hedges, dig out the ditches and mow the roadside verges. We have properly managed and worked agriculture of all kinds and forests with wild boar and lovely canoeing rivers and such lovely friendly people who don't look at us like two headed giraffes because we've moved in from outside. We've been welcomed, become part of a friendly and caring community and have our own place here, it's lovely. We'd love to have you with us if you came this far south xxx.

grunnie

It sounds lovely. I might just do that.

Greenglockenspiel

jk0 wrote: »

Now before fellow southerners take offence, know that I am also a southerner...


However, last week my family travelled to Skegness in Lincolnshire to visit my aunt. We stayed at the Premier Inn on Skegness sea front. I was only there two days, but in that time, at least three people started chatting to me in the lift. I thought, what a friendly place this is.


Back here in Reading, today I was clipping the hedge outside my house, and noticed a woman in her 60's sitting in the bus shelter right outside. I said 'hello', but she completely ignored me.


Now, I expect women to ignore me if they think I'm trying it on, but obviously that was not going on today. This is not the first time people of both sexes ignore my polite greetings here in Reading. In fact, it is more often than not.


I feel like moving up north!

I also live in the area and it seems very plausible to me that the people in question might not speak English or might not be confident enough in their ability to hold a conversation with a stranger.


The other aspect in Reading is that whenever anyone speaks to me in the town centre I assume they are begging, but that wouldn't make much sense whilst gardening!

thriftwizard

I think it might be a side-effect of increasing urbanisation, this not-talking-to-people. This was a friendly little mostly-rural town when we first came here, with everything you might need right here on your doorstep. Now it's doubled in size, people have started complaining about things like church bells and mud on the roads, and you can't buy anything useful like a screwdriver or bootlaces, though we have 60 varieties of gin, heaven only knows how many of coffee, and our very own craft brewery! If I say hello to any of the newer residents whilst walking up our street, they generally jump out of their skins.

We were incomers ourselves, 27 years ago, and neighbours both young & old, born & bred here or incomers themselves, made us feel welcome & our kids all played out in the street together. Now you only ever see kids being ushered into cars, and a cheery greeting is evidently seen as something a little threatening.

Mind you, they might be frightened that I'm going to try & give them some apples...

DigForVictory

Gosh, the world has become a strange place when the lady giving out apples is presumed to be a Disney Villainness! Mind, we got sent lugging baskets up & down our road to ask if anyone wanted apples. We had three trees & some years the garden could be a slightly Newtonian hazard area!

A biking friend (having heard of my “happy birthday freezer”) asked if I’d seen this:

Earlier this year, the Swiss government announced that it wants to put an end to its emergency stockpile of coffee after declaring that it is “not essential” for human survival, causing great consternation among tired workers everywhere…

“Coffee contains almost no calories and therefore does not contribute, from the physiological perspective, to safeguarding nutrition,” the Federal Office for National Economic Supply said, meaning that because it adds no energy to your diet it is not necessary for survival.

And yes, it is a banned substance for many sportspeople.

Caffeine, found in coffee, is a mild central nervous system stimulant. It can improve your alertness and concentration, and perk you up if you are feeling tired or lethargic. This is probably why so many of us head for the coffee machine before heading out for a ride! Once on our bikes it has the ability to help us exercise harder and for longer, and it even encourages our bodies to burn fat as fuel – win, win. A coffee towards the end of the ride can reduce feelings of pain and fatigue too. Other research into its health benefits has found a positive impact on your risk of developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

Now, I do not ride a bike (steep hill dweller) but what I rather need to know is Can You Freeze Coffee & what’s the best format/recovery technique?!

DigForVictory

We have a wet warning - I’ll be pulling on my wellies & checking the drains are flowing properly soon. Easier by daylight!

I must phone eldest & suggest he locates the drains round his way - for all his room is up two flights, that stretch has form for flooding.

DigForVictory

And today we had our first ever "starburst" fire evacuation. (Other sorts are available & may contain less sugar.)

My prep include grabbing my usual bag, my phone & coat & heading to a pre-agreed coffee shop. Where I notice one other twig from another branch but none of 'my' branch hanging out - in part as they weren't in the building but also raising doubts about can we trust the system to ensure we're All OK? As right now, no...

Apologies to all Manchester coffee shops suddenly full of people battering on mobiles!

DigForVictory

Just had a call from m'lady mother. She's running low on her sixpence stash (she traditionally doses her puds with these little toothbreakers - just before serving, with the holly positioned to clue her where she's hidden the loot) and requests I help. (That grandson with metal detector may be more use I bite back.) Ebay has named & dated ones, she just wants a handful!
So long as I steer clear of the pre-1920 (95% silver) & if at all possible pre-1946 (50% silver) I should be able to placate her without breaking the bank.

I do wish she'd branch out into the more fun charms, like the ring (for marriage), the anchor (for a safe harbour), even the button (for remaining unmarried), wishbone (for luck) & thimble (for thrift), but she has her ways & I have my quirks!

Anyone else considering lining their pudding with silver, or focusing on other family traditions?

unrecordings

We also used to do the sixpence thing. In fact I've probably got some 'no value' ones floating around If you want to PM me, I'll stick a handful in the post - before I decide to flog them on ebay as vintage xmas decorations for a fiver a pop

thriftwizard

You've brought back some memories of early Christmasses there! I do remember the silver ring, the anchor, the thimble and the key - what was that one for? - and sixpences too; there were lots of us!

Appalling weather down here this morning; a lady sadly crushed in her car not far away, a large scaffold collapsed onto cars in the next town north, a big tree down on the main road south about 100 yards away from here, a tree down in the river by the shops forming a very effective dam. Friends in the north of the county were without electricity for most of the day. It felt very much like that "once in 500 years" hurricane in 1987... It's very easy to forget wind as a major cause of mayhem!