BUPK: Kitting out, the container

If this is not the first time you think about survival, you will know that the benchmark for such urban (and not-urban) kits tend to be the one presented in John Wiseman's "The Urban Survival Handbook".

The guy, a former SAS member, has a rather high-tech, high profile approach in its general purpose / wilderness survival kit, including things like a radioactive, tritium based, light source.

I must admit that his Urban kit makes a lot of sense... but I believed I could improve on that.

Container

Just while I was pondering about which container might be suitable, given a primary goal of having a kit the size of a sigarette pack... Lucky Strike came out in Italy with a special edition pack. Made of plastic and metal, light and reasonably resistent. Problem solved.

I've seen good alternatives, such as much tougher tobacco metal boxes (the SAS option), specialized survival plastic containers (costing you an arm and a leg) and so on. Another classic is the "Altoids Mint Tin" (or equivalents). My recommendation is: try to have fun.

Stay alert, you'll soon find some food or equipment container or some box originally developed for some completely different purpose that you can hack into a BUPK container.

It's much more fun to find clever and cheap solutions than to buy specialized equipment when not absolutely necessary; and especially when the price difference is not fully justified by performances or special features.

Basic Urban Pocket Kit - General, money

General Overview - Money

Money, in our society, has a tendency to come in handy. Is without doubt one of the greatest problem-solving tools we have. Therefore it can be very unconvenient to find yourself without.

I included several coins, glued (with a removable sticky paste called Blu Tack) to the upper cover. Coins are not good for phones here - coin operated phones seem to heve disappeared... I mean, any kind of public phone seems to have been removed, due to the enormous success of portable phones. Still coins are good for a coffee when you really need one and left your wallet home, to buy bus tickets or to unscrew some kind of big screws.

It would be wise to add stuff like:

* A spare money card/credit card...
as your BUPK could be stolen, though, you shoud choose (if available in your country) a prepaid credit card or a universal gift credit card - i.e. a card you can electronically charge with a certain amount of money (let's say 50 €) and that is (should be) very difficult for crooks to recharge from your bank account after they have spent the amount left in your stolen card - oh well, if you want more details, just go and contact your local bank.

* Bills (10, 20 or 50 €) would come handy but tend to take space, needing to be folded. I woudn't suggest you to take large amounts of money unless you are runnig away from your local mob, and remember that large denomination notes (such as 500 € bills) are not always accepted when you need just a coffee or just a newspaper...

Transport
is an other crucial area.
If you are always able to easily get back home, most of the problems you might meet in town tend to be much easier to solve (girlfriend/boyfriend apart, of course).

Being stranded, penniless in a different city or just at night on the other side of your town could be a real PITA (Pain In The Anathomy).

That's why I included a 1-hour bus/subway ticket in my kit. You just include whatever makes sense in your environment, or tickets valid for the different towns you visit often.

Basic Urban Pocket Kit - Knife, Lighter, Rope

Knife, Lighter, Rope

Now, when you talk about knives - with no exception (wilderness, hunting, cooking, eating) - it pays to go for quality. Forget about cheap chinese imports. I made that mistake.

Buy good stuff, possibly swiss pocket knives such as Wenger or Victorinox. Also remember that even small knives are forbidden aboard planes, so if you do not place you kit in a bag that will be stowed... well, you can kiss your tool goodbye.

For the kit I chose (and bought on eBay for $ 11,22) a "Victorinox Classic SD 53208 glow in the dark" knife. It has small scissors, a small blade, file, small screwdriver, tweezers (handy!!!), toothpick (not very useful, for me), nail file... and glows in the dark (kind of).

A possible good alternative would have been one of those models with a built-in LED flashlight and a tiny ballpoint pen. Alternatively, Victorinox makes a much thinner model, the Classic Alox (som 3-4 mm thick, I think) that would save a lot of space in your kit.

I might get one of those Alox later on but buy spare tweezers, as that model has no room for one (yes, they sell Victorinox tweezers as spare parts).

Rope
Well, not really.... I chose a thin, high quality string. Made by a renowned maker of climbing ropes (so they tell me) is very resistant and soft. I cut a bit more than a meter of that. Useful to tie things, to double as an emergency belt and so on.

You might want to add some dental floss. Not for your teeth (well, also) but because is very light, takes no space but is really, really tough stuff. Many survival experts suggest floss, and I fully agree (although I am no expert...)

I kept the string together with a couple of rubber bands (useful). I am also thinking about braiding the string, so that takes less space, provided I find a way I can unbraid it very quickly when in need.

Lighter
a) I'm unfortunately a smoker and b) I forget things. So a lighter is probably one of the elements of my kit I use more often. Apart form that, a lighter can always come in handy. The smallest Bics are still a bit too big for my kit. Got a cheap (but rechargable) gas lighter that is not really bad, but I still looking for something better and more reliable.

Don't go for Zippos: they are nice but gasoline evaporates, your kit will stink and when you need your lighter (after maybe 6 month...) it won't work.

Strike anywhere matches might be a good alternative, make sure to wrap them in a safe way, so not to accidentaly ignite the kit in your pocket (embarassing). I understand that dipping them in melted wax is a safe way of waterproofing them. You might want to give it a try, I'll stick to gas lighters.