A BOB sounds much more exciting.
The police should have adopted the term BOB, bug out bag, rather than grab bag. Grab bags to me are oversized packets of Walkers crisps (or should I say “chips”)
I reckon a BOB is kind of essential, though I don’t actually have one. It’s a valid excuse to buy a new bag specifically for a purpose, and spend time filling with bits of kit. Always fun.
. Lots of us jumped on the heads up on BB and got one, it’s been brilliant as airline carry-on and small essentials. It lives part loaded all the time, always has a couple of packs of tissues, small first aid kit, some meds, Swiss Army knife (dunno model, small with scissors, toothpick, tweezers on board). Enough room and organised spaces for iPad, Kindle, USB cable, 12v lighter adaptor, battery pack, torch, spare pants, socks, t-shirt, water bottle.
I suppose my basic ready, grab, bug-out bag is the Maxpud Jumbo Versipack. Some crazy overstock on Amazon a few years ago and the orange versions were priced at a bargain £35 if memory serves. I bought two, and His and Hers patches to embarrass Madam
But a bigger BOB has been prepared and put in the car after the winter we had in 2010 (I think ?). The winter was cold and unpredictable, so I bought a 5.11 X-Ray Duffel and put a couple of blankets, down bag, folding shovel, gas can, stove, pan, 2lts water, tins of M&S curry etc. It felt good to know I had some kit with me.
Course, we haven’t had a winter like it since, but I can definitely see the BOB as positive thing.
Being picky, I get the need to have the car kit, while I don't drive, the missus does and I've put a small bag in her car, as big as she's agreed to basically. I see that as different to the 'BOB' that people (at least the ones I've seen on youtube) seem to have ready to run off to the woods etc as opposed to being caught out. Maybe somantics and definitely if it works for you that's all that matters. My understanding of a 'BOB' is a bag that people have them sat there doing nothing, just waiting for that dash to the woods to get away from the zombies or whatever. I use the stuff that I would put in that bag so balance the need to have it sat in a bag against regularly packing a bag for a specific weekend trip.
My BOB would be my big bag (110L), I'd be putting as much stuff as I could into it as I could if I was running away. My 'grab bag' is about 30 litres and I can fit other stuff in it, it should have enough in it to keep me going for a couple days although I have the odd calorie stuck away under my T shirt.
This is a bit pathetic really for britian, tiny over populated rich island. If anything happened id expect the people we all pay taxes too to do something, such as child education, suppose though its gone the way of legal aid, do it for yourself. Maybe a roll of 5 pound notes ?
Yes we do seem to expect the government to sort everything out and not do for ourselves. Personally I rely on myself not the government as in my mind they havnt got a clue. But that is me.I'm not going to get political here. We don't realy have a tradition of being self reliant and moan when things go wrong and expect someone to come and sort it out. Heaven help the population if we did have a major disaster. It's always possible. We have had sunamis in Britain tho not for hundreds of years.. (12th century bristol channel. ) We have had major earthquake again not in recent history the tower on glastonbury tor is all that remains of a church after a major earthquake . It could happen again and will one day. Hopefully not in our lives but it's easy to say it won't happen here and not bother or teach our kids how to cope with major disasters here. Other parts of the world it's a very real threat and despite being prepared still need major help from other countries when a disaster happens. Look at the Bahamas recent disaster. No amount of bug in or bug out would have helped. Almost a whole island population with everything wiped out. So sad... (please make a donation to shelter box )
Politics aside, Petrochemicals made other valid points: you are on a small overpopulated island (even without the government, neighbors and others should be close by to help) There are few natural disasters which might disrupt normal routines for very long. I suspect his comment a roll of £5 notes being something to have was made a bit sarcastically but having cash is really good advise —- during power outages plastic cards won’t work.
