Yes, I'm building a resilience store. There isn't one event to prepare for, and it isn't like the government knows something we don't.
This winter will see what the strongest El Nino ever recorded does to our weather. It will definitely bring storms, which are likely to bring power cuts and if the weather fucks things up in the countries we buy food from, that food won't be available to us. It isn't just short term power outages we need to think about. Stuff like tomatoes, coffee, pasta and rice may be in short supply.
The government is openly saying the country is at risk of attack from Russia. Our army is preparing for war. It was reported on BBC Breakfast just yesterday.
What that war looks like is anyone's guess. Traditional warfare? Cutting the cables of our internet connection? Blowing up gas pipelines? Hacking, like we are seeing already. They spoiled all the food in major supermarkets across France.
So yes, I'm stockpiling. Because I don't want to eat the chickpeas and beans in vinaigrette that have been in the back of my cupboard since time began.
I've bought tinned meals from M&S and Aldi - curries, bologneses. Lunch pouches and soups. Tinned fruit. I've frozen strong white flour and plain flour - it keeps forever - and yeast, and can make stove top breads with it. We've bought a load of butane for our camping stove. It's all stuff we'll eat, and now we've got it we'll rotate it.
We have jerry cans of water.
We've added to our camping lanterns, bought head torches and a wind up radio.
We're keeping the power bank charged.
In all honesty we should have done this sooner. We live fairly rurally and lose power LOADS. It's just luck that it's only ever been out for 12 hours overnight before. When you see how many people were without power this weekend just gone - this feels better.