Tuesday 9 November 2010

Just in case then I love you all

So apparently lots of people have predicted that the world will end today. I don't know why specifically and, given that it is nearly quarter to two in the afternoon, the prospect is seeming more and more unlikely.

It got me thinking however, I have always loved a good disaster movie. A teen of the 90s, I grew up on Independence Day (why hello Mr Smith and Mr Goldblum...), Armageddon and Deep Impact. There is nothing as exciting than watching the world in some sort of unending peril and, of course, berating them for the silly choices they make (DON'T STAND ON THE BEACH - THE ASTEROID IS GOING TO PLOUGH INTO THE OCEAN!).

Upon meeting Steve, I discovered it was a film genre love we shared, indeed, pretty much the only one (war films don't count Mr!).

It was a few years ago, after watching The Day After Tomorrow, that Steve became enthralled with working out what we would do in the same situation. He came up with a plan:

1. If we are separated then we get back to our flat asap. When there we assess whether we can make it to both our families in a nearby village (you think this sounds sweet don't you? It's not. He remembered that they have fireplaces and we don't).
2. Once in our decided upon safe house, we fill the bath up with water (in case the water supply gets infected) to drink and assess the amount of food we have.
3. We find things to burn (he suggested old school reports).
4. If the worst comes to the worst then we eat the whatever we can find, even if that means the Tofu in the back of the freezer.

There were probably more complex points but, to be honest, I really wasn't that interested at the time.

But now I am having a swift rethink. There are multiple ideas on what might end the world today but, whatever it is, I think I am wholly unprepared.

I have very little food in, I mean, microchips and dried pasta isn't going to get me very far is it? Plus I've just realised I don't have any good shops nearby to loot. I'd be fine for sweets, cigarettes and nasty cider but the big Tesco is a lengthy walk away and getting there would significantly up the risk of meeting zombies/freezing to death.

I should have really thought of this before we moved in.

3 comments:

Victoria said...

Christ, I almost went back in time for a minte there!! At primary school I almost had to have counselling as a girl I sat next to would spend hours telling me about preparing for WWIII fought with nuclear warheads. She'd scare me witless reading out excerpts from Cold War instruction manuals her dad had at home (why?!?!), about painting white paint on windows, filling baths with water or having a large receptacle for collecting rain water (so long as there were no gas attacks that might contaminate it!) having batteries at home for radios in case of electricity outages, having strong wooden tables and door frames to hide in, lots of tinned foods etc etc... Thankfully she left after a while... with all that fretting we never managed to get to the sand pit to learn about weights and measures (my excuse for drinking and eating too much nowadays!) or the maths corner to learn about simultaneous equations!

Still now those kinds of films get my heart racing more than your classic horror/slice 'em up/monster films.

Becca said...

@Victoria - that's such a funny story!

@Livy - I love me a good disaster flick! One of the reasons I love living in rural idyll is that I know we'll be safe from all the dreadful things that happen in the US, and then the capital cities (because that's the order things will happen).

We don't have a plan. I think we spend too much time watching old episodes of One Tree Hill, and not enough time planning for apocalypse. So long as I have my boy and my dog, I don't really mind where we end up!

Peridot said...

Perhaps the world DID end up there? Long time, no hear...