Prepping

Hi Nick,
i would like to read your thoughts on prepping/survivalism after reading your opnion on guns and the Katrina/La riots situations.
I have read many sites (mostly americans) about it and while i find them paranoids (the end of world etc) have been thinking about it lately.
In my own city (South of Spain) is usually warm but we had a few days ago a snow storm (it's been years since the last one) and electricity and running water went off.
So i have been looking at my flat and have food for 2 days and a jar of water in the fridge

Hi mate,

Thanks for the question. I have mixed feelings about them. Some are very sensible and are doing nothing but preparing in case something happens. They feel it probably won't but want to ready in case (same reason I wear a seat belt)

Others however are so far out in left field it's not funny and they're convinced about black helicopters, new world order and govt roundups etc.

Me personally...I'm happy with a bug in bag and a bug out bag (the difference is the latter has gear to survive out in the wilds while the other one gets you home)

Nick

Thanks mate,i apreciate it.

Nick,

Would you mind giving a quick overview of what you have in your BOB and BIB ? (see what I did there )

Could make for a very useful discussion. Not least of all because we are experiencing some quite extreme weather at times over here in parts of Europe which really aren't geared up for it.

I'm with you in broad terms as far as those websites and survivalist nutjobs, my usual English pragmatism says "take your doomsday nonsense away from me until I've had at least my third coffee of the morning!" but having been personally involved in the fallout of terrorist activity (me and half of London) I'm also aware that shit sometimes does happen!

cheers
C

I'm not Nick nor do I play him on tv. Some of Nick's thoughts on this stuff. In reverse order from his old blog.

http://www.charlotteselfdefense.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-bug-in-bag-stuff.html

http://www.charlotteselfdefense.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-bugs.html

http://www.charlotteselfdefense.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&max-results=50

Thank you rasdj for the links.
Nick,really interesting articles,food for thought.

thanks ras...

Was going to go through and edit that stuff.

One thing one of my readers added which I thought was cool was a simple deck of cards.

He was stuck in a train for 4 hrs due to a blackout and passed the time away by playing solitaire initially and then with other passengers after they realized he had the deck.

Nick

Just read the bare bones thing there Nick and its more or less what I carry. Phone wallet multitool pen and notebook

I used to carry a flashlight but it broke and I've not found one I like to reaplce it yet, also there's a light of sorts on my phone.

What amused me was always how many people were ready to twit me for having so many thing in my pockets, then ten minutes later asking to borrow one.

That's the classic response. When I was bouncing a while back I had one clown I worked with (steroid weight lifter about 24 years old) who thought my lessons and equipment list were a joke.

He asked on at least 20 different occasions to borrow my flashlight and 2 times for gear from my first aid kit.

It's like driving round without jumper cables or a spare tire in my opinion. You're going to need it one day.

Nick

I once lent the wrench from my spare tire kit to a 'friend' the very next week I got a flat and no body was willing to drive down to loan me a spare.

It was the most humilitaing thing in the world to phone the RAC to come out and fix a punchure.

So yeah basically I know what you mean