Anyway ... first time I remember prepping anything at all was the Y2K - I suspected the banks might get a glitch in their computer systems for a few days, so I kept a prudent amount of cash on me. And I lived in a bigger house then than I do now, so I did actually store quite a lot of water - I'm very glad nothing bad happened!
Nowadays, I see the main danger as a long, slow decline. I'm also interested in the stock market, and supercycle theory, and its a fact that since the years around Y2K, peaks and troughs in the stock market have been lower. I'm an environmentalist too, and I run a website, so I do a fair bit of research online rummaging about behind the scenes; there are a lot of numbers, and a lot of new feedback loops being discovered, that concern me.
As to preps right now? I made an exception to the "store what you eat and eat what you store" thing for 72 hours food in the house - I'm vegetarian, so nearly all my normal food is dried or fresh. I compromised by buying Sainsbo Basics range, 3 days worth of tins of potatoes, carrots, peas, veg. soup and the baked beans I normally eat. Along with the nuts, seeds, and dried and tinned fruit I have in anyway, I'll do very well, even if I can't cook. Otherwise, lots of dried peas and beans and rice, with ambient nuts and seeds, I'm not too bad at all on that side.
Water is an issue. I have 3 demijohns, but they have to be cleaned and disinfected. I have 2 or 3 watercooler plastic bottles I rescued from somebody's rubbish bin, but they're stuck behind a ton of rubbish in the shed at the moment.
I have a ton of candles and matches, some led lights, a windup torch somewhere (oops - I'm repairing my airing cupboard, and everything is *everywhere* right now). Its in a little bug out bag actually - an online acquaintance had to evacuate from a hurricane in the States last year, and it brought it home to me - even in the UK, we do need to be ready to leave the house within 5 minutes - for "big normal" stuff - gas leak, chemical spill, and even right now, there's flooding. I consider myself to be a fairly quiet person, but I've been trapped in my house by a gunman outside while the police searched for him, and my place of work in London was evacuated by a bomb threat. It really does happen! Enough for now ... off to the forums, now I can post
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)