Recent events in Spain is an illustration of why knowing how to take care of yourself for a few days with no phone/internet/banking/electric etc is quite important
French government expected to issue all citizens with survival manual
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Meh, they sleep from 2 to 5 they didn't miss much
Cash insulates one from a lot of issues.
I’d be perfectly happy walking through a Portuguese coastal village drinking cold beer (most bars seem to have generators) and eating charcoal barbecued sardines and padron peppers for a day. Easy enough to do with a couple of days of cash in the pocket.
I’d be perfectly happy walking through a Portuguese coastal village drinking cold beer (most bars seem to have generators) and eating charcoal barbecued sardines and padron peppers for a day. Easy enough to do with a couple of days of cash in the pocket.
Daughter-out-law couldn't do vital work from home, granddaughter missed two days of school, son carried on as usual on his off- grid finca.
Survival Lilly is a bit of a fearmonger as are many other online preppers. Some have good practical content. I agree with concept of prepping. It is common sense but some of these people can be a bit much. Ray Mears taught me so much about the subject and I didn't get frightened once. x
Town centre lost power a few years ago when lightening struck a substation. OH was in at the cheesemonger's shop at the time. Even though she had cash, the cheesemonger refused to sell her the cheese that he had already weighed out because the till wouldn't register the transaction on the paper roll.
Sounds like a dreadful business decision!
It’s bonkers how inflexible some businesses are.
Sort of on-topic (but perhaps more bug-out bagish), this is quite an interesting article from the Grauniad from 2022:
www.theguardian.com
Your life is under threat. You might have to run any second. What do you take?
From those at risk of wildfires to activists facing death threats – thousands of people around the world keep a bag ready to flee. What do they pack?
www.theguardian.com
If they’re a YouTuber then trying to provoke a reaction to get more views and more money is very likely. Got to feed the algorithm! Hard to take them seriously.
That's not joined up thinking.
Just write it down and ring it up later when the power is back.
We had a power outage last summer that lasted most of the day. Our local shops did just that. No business lost.
That's not so much a consequence of the power outage as of your cheesemonger being a tool. Seek a more reliable source of cheese!
I've a semi-retired friend who lives in a log cabin on his brother's land, not a prepper retreat or anything, one of those places built from a kit. He played golf and had a barbecue yesterday.
There's an American podcaster whose tagline is (very loosely) "Preparing for a better life tomorrow if times get tough, or even if they don't" which strikes me as being as good a philosophy about the whole issue as any.
I do a lot of work remotely. At the new place, office is set up with ability to connect to an Ecoflow Delta, and work internet is via a commercial Starlink (phone is over wifi not reliant on masts as signal is poor here anyway, and non-exixtant in the office room).
In setting this up, I had considered carefully the importance of being able to work if the power goes off for some reason, new place is rural so higher likelihood of outages especially in Winter.
Also have a Rayburn solid fuel range, a couple of log burners in key rooms and also an outside fire bowl with grid (and wood/charcoal available). Little suitcase gas stove in shed, I was using it inside before we had the (electric) cooker put in. Candles, LED Lights and hurricane lamps available. Plenty of matches and other things to light fires/candles.
But then, I remember the 1970's.......
..... I also carry cash, enough to fill my vehicle and get me back plus get some food. Was glad I had that a couple of months when the Barclays online systems went off for a bit.
Bit of resilience is good for everyone.
GC
The last time I bought petrol that didn't come from an electrically powered pump it was from a barrel by the side of the road and a hand pump screwed to the opening. Indonesia, late '90s.
Today, in France, I doubt that I'd be able to buy petrol with cash if there was a power cut. When we had a diesel car I could, for emergencies, have pumped a couple of gallons out of the heating oil tank.
There are strict rules concerning the amount of fuel that you're allowed to store in jerry cans at home; in the UK this is 30 litres (but there are other restrictions about plastic and metal jerry cans), and in France 60 litres.
Would petrol stations not have a backup generator of some kind? Seems crazy not to.
Do supermarkets have them to keep fridges and freezers running?
When I was living in Paris there was a heatwave one summer that caused underground substations to overheat and shutdown as a safety measure. The electricity company parked a couple of generators in 40ft containers in the neighbourhood to power the supermarket cold food section, but that took a couple of days to arrive.
I'd expect they do have them, with all the laws around keeping things cold throughout supply chain and the potential losses that'd be incurred from having to replace a whole supermarket of chilled/frozen stock.
It's possible I am wrong and am just assuming too much of them though!
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