Hello - London light-weight prepper

[Londonpreppy]

Getting cross the river does worry me but I have a safe location in North London edge of zone 3 where my family would know to collect me and a safe person who my family could contact. So I've thought of somewhere to go if I can't get safely across the river.

I live in putney on a very residential street. But I work in trafalgar square. I do have some flexibility over start and finish times but I have to be there 9.30am.

The Swiss army knife is for both personal protection and as a handy tool. Of course Swiss army knives are only as good as the length of time it takes you to open the tricky buggers......

[11thhourdad]

It's good to see that I'm not the only one starting from nearly scratch.

Welcome

[Jamesey1981]

The Swiss army knife is for both personal protection and as a handy tool. Of course Swiss army knives are only as good as the length of time it takes you to open the tricky buggers......

Little tip I hope you never have to use, if you do need to use a Swiss Army knife to defend yourself, you're better off not opening it, as you said, they're tricky and take time to open, giving the attacker time to think how to counter it or take it from you, they can also close on your fingers which wouldn't be nice.
Best bet is to use it as a striking weapon, less lethal, so there's less chance of killing your assailant unless you go for the temple. Go for the collar bone if you can, if you strike downwards onto it with what is essentially a solid piece of metal it'll pop pretty easily, giving you time to make your escape, even if you miss, that area is softish flesh with a lot of nerves in it, so it would likely be enough to give you the upper hand, (and let's be honest, what you do then is kick them hard in the plums!)
If you look into Kubotan techniques a lot of the strikes can be adapted for a Swiss Army knife or any small hard object that will fit into your palm, a metal torch is also a perfect last resort weapon if you use it the same way.

Of course it's all very easy to say that from the comfort of my living room, but very different if you need to put it into practice, so my suggestion is to go and do a basic self defence class, chances are there's several running near you, they're usually pretty cheap, they'll teach you various basic techniques and they repeat the same defensive actions is a controlled environment, so if you need to use anything you've learnt for real then it happens without you thinking about it.

I actually think basic self defence should be taught to girls in school, certainly if I ever end up with a daughter she'll be getting some training, and some basic skills would be useful to anyone.

[womble]

...my suggestion is to go and do a basic self defence class...

If you really want to improve your chances of surviving a combat confrontation, you need to do more than a one-off (even if spread over a few weeks) class. A serious prep would be starting a regular marital arts class. That way the responses and reflexes would be truly ingrained, and instinctual by the time you actually have to put them into practice. Ideally you want one that will teach you weapons counters. Competition is useful in that it brings some of the adrenaline of a "real" combat situation, but a lot of styles that are competition-focused put too much emphasis on the rules of the competition, which can harm your chances of successfully escaping in a no-holds-barred, starting-at-a-numerical-and-physical-disadvantage situation. Find a dojo/ryu/gym that lets you practice with people bigger'n you, too: it's all very well being able to outpoint another sub-55kg fighter, but they're not generally going to be the ones trying to impose their physicality on you in a WROL situation.

A traditional or progressive (as opposed to sports) martial art dojo/ryu/kwoon/studio/gym which espouses some element of practical self defense "on top" of the systematic basis of reflex-building and physical conditioning would be something well worth looking into.