Emergency supplies.

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Do you put away an emergency stash of food? I don’t mean in case of a Russian invasion or a nuclear attack, just something to tide you over if you can’t get to the shops because of illness or inclement weather. Our government has advised us to have some food and other supplies put away for such eventualities, but I wonder if they have a bigger eventuality in mind, such as the national reserves depleting because of war, natural disasters or the contrariness of some world leaders. Power cuts could become a regular feature of life. And it makes sense. If my wife and I both get flu we have no-one close at hand to go to the shops for us. If we get snowed in we could be stuck at the top of the hill we live on for weeks, and that doesn’t even take into account what stunts Putin, Trump or that North Korean guy might pull, disrupting supplies and plunging the world into further chaos. So every week I buy a few extra food items to put away - canned fruit and vegetables, canned fish, bottled water, pasta, rice and anything else I find that is long lasting and, above all, nice to eat. I only buy stuff that I would normally buy, nothing you “cook” instantly just by adding hot water to, like dried noodles. Nothing you need to freeze, and as much stuff that can be happily eaten cold. Recently it’s been jars of olives that I’ve been squirrelling away, and the problem with that is that they are just too available and I can’t resist olives so they get moved too quickly from the emergency store to the every day cupboard. Toilet paper, soap, torches, batteries, candles, matches, toothpaste, pain killers …. I’m no prepper (or am I?) but there’s little worse than being stuck in the house with no olives, anchovies or mustard, so it pays to exercise foresight. Do you have emergency supplies?