IF ?

[Geordie_Rob]

I live in the same town as MetroYeti but have to commute into the city centre 5 days a week.

I would love to live in an isolated cottage somewhere with a bit of land to grown veg on. Sadly for my family, it's neither practical nor affordable.

I'm busy training myself new skills though & have a nice little side earner every spring through to autumn (although our dear leaders see to it that they get their cut aswell).

If I manage to get any spare time this year, I'm looking to get trained to be a plasterer. Hopefully once I've mastered the skill & served my time as a skivvie I can set up alone & start seriously saving to buy a property a bit more rural than where we are located just now.

[Metroyeti]

Geordie be very careful of those intensive courses, make sure they train you to level2/3. Most only do to level 1 and its not worth the paper its written on

[Hex]

I'm with metroyeti there, I'm just finishing up my level 3 diploma plastering and there is no way I could have learned half the stuff on a week's intensive course

[Geordie_Rob]

I was going to do one of those until I found out what they're like. I'm looking to be taught off a mate of mine. He reckons the actual skill of plastering can be taught in one day, although perfecting the skill takes a lot of practice (I've agreed 6 month part time slave/tea maker with him). I've got a whole house to practice on though, the walls are horrendous & the idiots before me loved artex so much they put it on walls aswell as ceilings.

[Metroyeti]

Your in for a fun time then, never tried plastering but humping the boards about was hard enough work for me

[MaryN]

I think anyone living in a large city needs to be awarded a medal for sheer bravery. I go into sensory overload just walking through a large supermarket. Having to live with 24 hour traffic noise, fumes, pollution and all those people would send me doolally within the week.

[Hex]

So anyway for me, I live quite close to Madgirl so I'm in a pretty similar position there. If I had my choice I would be away living in the countryside now however for me cash is the problem.
I simply can't afford it but if it was a good enough reason I do have somewhere I'll be BUGGING out to

[Tarrel]

I think this brings us back to the old conundrum of "when does business-as-usual stop being business-as-usual?"

Before we moved out of the South East, I often used to speculate about the possibility of an escalating crisis, and at what point I would decide it's time to bug out. There are powerful forces that keep many of us doing what we do, ranging from simple practical issues such as earning a living, through to things such as fear of the unknown or reluctance to step outside the comfort zone.

The closer you are to an environment, the more difficult it is to see it deteriorating. A bit like the frog boiling to death in the slowly-heated pan of water. When we'd been in Scotland for a few months, I had occasion to visit London for a few days. It was like arriving in a foreign country! (Soon will be, maybe lol!). Just a few months away had completely changed my perception.

My advice to city dwellers would be twofold:

1. Carry out an objective and realistic appraisal of the pro's and con's of continuing to live where you do. Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper and make two lists; pro's and con's. Try to look at your town from the point of view of someone visiting for the first time. See it as it is now, not as you fondly remember it from a few years ago. Then make your choice.

2. Delete the phrase "have to" from your vocabulary. We all have choices. Some of those choices involve negative consequences or, possibly, short-term loss for long-term gain. Some choices are very hard to make, and you may have to live with yourself and the decision for a long time if you make the wrong one. But the minute you find yourself saying "I have to", you become a prisoner. (No judging intended. Just a lesson I learned personally many years ago). Even if you decide that now is not the time to leave, start to plan for when that is no longer the case. "Have your ticket ready for when the ship comes into dock".

Hope this was useful.

[Prepper1]

Yet again... bang bang on about the city...
Why oh why is it still being mentioned?

We as city/suburban preppers are aware of our surrounding situation TRUST ME ON THAT.

If we weren't we wouldn't be preppers would we?
We'd be oblivious sheeple...

We have plans that include bugging in AND bugging out.

AS AND WHEN IT BECOMES NECESSARY.

We check intel sources, we keep our eyes peeled we are on alert, probably more so than our country cousins, with the odd exception BECAUSE of where we are.

Compare it to being in Belfast or Norway...different alert levels and responses...

We can or cannot move for whatever reasons move.

It's not going to change unless we win the pools...

I fail to see why the elitism is necessary or needed.

All the " I'm so clever because I live in the country" etc...

[NorthernRaider]

The information you are all so kindly providing is extremely informative and enlightening, I honestly am grateful for your contributions, and I have not yet see any angry or hostile responses only fair and level headed replies ( though I have not opened up to the folks on my ignore file thingy so as not not fall into an arguments) Again thanks for responding.
Respects
NR