I no longer carry a SAK or Leatherman when visiting London. Too many of the places I go to have bag searches & metal detectors. The woman at the Royal Galleries at Buckingham Palace thought my tiny Leatherman Squirt was gorgeous , but I still had to collect it on the way out.
When I was in London most recently I met up with an old friend. We thought we'd nip in a museum. She turned to me and asked "how big is the knife you have on you?" She appears to know me too well. On that occasion I had just my Leatherman Squirt, which security didn't even notice. Normally tho I tend to carry a Svord Peasant Mini knife, it's UK legal in that it doesn't lock, and is short. I tend to keep it in my bra, much to the amazement of people round these parts when I take it out to use it. I did so in a restaurant with a group of friends a few weeks before lock down. This then started a discussion on which surprised people more, the fact I carry a knife, or where I store it...
I don't consider myself a prepper, tho I have dabbled in bushcraft, I do have a week or 2's worth of camping food plus stoves etc... in the house. I was certainly better prepared when I lived in Kent, there I had an array of weaponry, 500l of water, and several weeks food, as well as knowing where I could forage locally. But as non of the weaponry would fit through Eurostar security (for some reason longbows and 2.7m spears are outside the luggage specs for said service...), I left it all behind.
Over here I normally do a home delivery from the supermarket every 6-8 weeks. This usually coincides with when toilet roll is on offer, and I get 2 16 roll packs for a couple of euro cheaper. The supermarket website has a handy feature for "add your usual stuff to basket" What I didn't realise is it doesn't check if you have already done this, meaning that having already gone through and added lots of stuff, including said 32 bog rolls, I then click "add usual stuff", and it added them again. Resulting in the guy arriving at my door with 15l of coke, 64 toilet rolls, and a couple of crates of food. This was in January, rather useful timing given what happened in March...
We got a letter recently telling us that the electricity company is coming to rewire the feed to the building, and we can expect to be without power for a whole day. I had a rummage, and have dug out the pair of 3kva UPS, and charged them. Then rejigged the network to run off a USB powered access point, meaning I can run it off one of my 100Wh battery banks. Meaning I just have to power my laptop and the cable modem off the UPS. Should last for most of the day, I hope.
I am realising that I am woefully deficient in solar power in this country, I left my panels in the UK.
When I lived in the UK I was an emergency response volunteer with a large UK charity, this gave me some useful training, and more importantly, an insight into what the UK has ready to roll in event of emergency. I'm not a prepper, I'm just a paranoid geek...
J