New social network site for Brits in N.America

Check it out, Its new but hopefully will be of help to some people once it gets more active.

http://britishpages.org/site/

Earthquakes

Following the recent devastation in Japan with the earthquake and tsunami, it made me think about how well prepared we are if such a disaster happened.

Being in the Bay Area we know we are at risk of an earthquake at anytime, as we live on the San  Andreas fault, its something that is always at the back of your mind, but at the end of the day there is nothing you can do until it happens, other than be prepared.

When we first moved here we bought cases of bottled water and stored them in the garage, and that was about it. We had a power cut not long after moving here and that made us think about what would happen if we had an earthquake and were without power, so we purchased a flashlight and also battery operated lights that we have stuck on the walls in certain rooms and named our earthquake lights.

So my task for this week is to prepare an earthquake/evacuation kit and hope and pray that we never ever have to use it.

There are lots of websites out there that tell you what you should think about packing etc, I'm going to be using this website and I also found a San Mateo county alert website that you can register for alerts on your cell phone/email. I believe that your land line is automatically called on what they call a reverse 911 call if there is a state of emergency. However in a power cut our home phone wouldnt work - maybe i should buy a cheap phone that doesnt require power as a backup, I think in a state of emergency cell phone service can be switched off, so we may need to rely on the landline.

One of the most worrying things is that if we need to evacuate and go to a shelter then we cant take the dogs :( We would have to leave them in the house with as many bowls of water and food as possible, and hope that they survive until a rescue team are sent out.

Also knowing that during the week Dave works in the city and if a big earthquake hits he is on the top floor of a building and it is so dense downtown, that if buildings were to fall and fires where to breakout it would be total devastation.

Its really scary and upsetting when you think about all of this, but as I said there is nothing we can do except be prepared, as there is no warning before it happens.

OK enough of the dwelling about it all, and time to get prepared.

What you should avoid saying to a British ExPat

Just found this article that is so true.

http://britishexpats.com/articles/usa/avoid-saying-to-british-expat/