Two or three weeks ago a friend asked whether I wannted to go to the outdoor cinema so I thought “maybe” and last night I did. We went to see La Venue de L’Avenir by Cédric Klapisch. Years ago I wrote an essay about Klapisch within the context of the Cinéma de L’Auteur. Author theory Cinéma. The concept is simple. Some directors are so individual in their art form that it stands out.

Walking and hiking are integral to my identity. I walk from four and a half to five and a half million steps per year. I walk in heat waves, rare snow and normal conditions. I hike with groups and I walk alone. Recently my desire to hike is much lower. This isn’t so unusual. I often get tired of going for daily walks so I have to work towards motivating myself to walk on weekdays.

People think that to be comfortable on a hot day you need to rush to an air conditioned room or building but that idea is wrong. When I worked on one building, for three years, I called it “air conditioned hell” for a simple reason. For the body to cool it needs air flow to help evaporate water. When there is no air flow it feels stuffy, and we interpret this as being too hot.

A few days ago I went on a group ride. I noticed that a high percentage of bikes had bike radars so I checked to see the price of these devices once again. For a year or two I have considered getting a bike radar but didn’t because I found that the price was too high. I believe that recently either the price went down or the offer of cheaper alternatives improved.

Yesterday I set off at about 07:20 feeling slightly tired and under the weather. While I rode into Geneva I felt that I couldn’t push too much and I questioned whether I should abort the ride. When I got near Geneva I thought “If I stay in my apartment I will be as warm as if I am outdoors, but without the breeze. I decided to go on the long variant anyway.

Yesterday we left Nyon through the “secret” passage that takes you from near Place St Martin to the lakeside. We had to take this route because of the défilé des enfants. Roads were blocked so some drivers might have been trapped for an hour or two. On a bike I was blocked from going one way so I went another way, and then I walked to the meeting point. Tête de Course is a group that meets on Wednesday mornings, at 06:30, Thursday at 18:00 and on Saturdays it depends, in so far as I can see.

When I look at Facebook, BlueSky and Threads I see a lot of content that should never be. I see sentences and phrasing that provoke hostility, and I see article headlines and more that provoke polarisation. In essence I think that social media is no longer a social network. I believe that social media is about emotions, rather than conversations, especially negative emotions. I bring this up because I can go for hours, or even days without looking at threads or FB and when I do I am struck with how negative posts are.

Recently I joined a cycling group and they require us to provide In Case of Emergency Information so that if we have an accident our phone provides people with names and numbers to call. At first I thought “Why would I want this, I have no In Case of Emergency person” due to being single and living alone. Now I believe that this is a useful idea. Nothing bad has happened that affected my point of view.

I think that tomorrow I will wake between 05:00-05:30 to be ready at the meeting point to go for a bike ride that starts at 06:30. The start is early because it is meant to be a “ride before work” for this group. The pace is tempo. On the flat I expect to be okay. It’s on the climbs that I expect to be left behind, between Tartegnin and the turn where if you go right you go to Signal de Bougy and if you go left you go through cement roads.

Two days ago I was cycling with a group and someone commented that the relaxed rides are no longer relaxed and that got me to thinking about organising a real relaxed ride, where the aim is to cycle at 20 on the flat. If I had had this option then I could have tried group rides much sooner. In fact the group rides that I tried last year would have been more comfortable.