Get through it!

One thing that strikes you when you move to New Zealand is the emphasis on disaster planning. There are TV adverts where a very shouty Kiwi man exhorts you to have enough canned goods and water to survive in your house for 3 days. "When it happens, get through it!" is his none too catchy and rather alarming tagline. What 'it' is exactly is yet to be fully explained. You see, here there are new dangers from the London life. So, no one is going to push you into the path of an oncoming tube/bus/rickshaw, but there could be a volcanic eruption, earthquake, tsunami etc.

Disaster management in the home is one thing (I should at this point admit that I had canned goods and bottled water at home in the UK in case of emergency and Anthony used to laugh at me about them). At work it take on a whole different dimension. I had my induction at work yesterday and there was a whole disaster management section to it. On each floor they have enough canned goods and water to survive 3 days. That's right, 3 days trapped with your work colleagues! There are also orange emergency rucksacks under each desk that you are supposed to equip with trainers, water etc. Apparently the command will be: "take you rucksacks and run!". Very reassuring!