Day 71 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – An Ingress Mission despite Lockdown.

Byrichard

Two nights ago we did an Ingress Mission Despite Lockdown. This was a Franco-Swiss Mission to create a field over Geneva. Normally with Ingress missions people would drive tens, or even hundreds of kilometres to capture and link portals but this time was different.


We all stayed in our little corners and we did whatever we could, however, small the task. We stayed on our respective sides of the borders. In my case I just had to Jarvis a portal one village away. It took minutes to get to and then I had to wait for the right time to carry out the action. Once my action was taken I went home to have dinner. It’s the smallest contribution I’ve made to an Ingress mission in a while.


It really annoyed players from the opposite team, the next day.


During this lockdown I saw people do much worse than drive a certain distance to hack portals or play Ingress. I saw them go to the Creux De Van, to the French Mountains or to Valais right in the peak of the pandemic. Compared to a few geeks driving a car, hacking and linking portals, hiking along narrow trails during a pandemic is acceptable.


It’s the most sociable thing I’ve done in two months. For two months I haven’t had any opportunities. At least with Ingress that changed for an hour or two.


I’m working on understanding CSS at the moment. I expected that it would be hard to understand and to grasp but so far I have found that the opposite is true. I have found that it is intuitive and that although I spend hours fiddling to understand its intricacies I eventually understand the topic I want to learn.


The result is that I’m taking content from a 24 year old website and making it look modern. I’m bringing new life into old content. I also consider expanding certain sections. I have quite a few pictures from a villa in Spain for the section about the Romans. I also have a lot of images of various types of rock from rock climbing, via ferrata and hiking, whether by the sea or in the mountains.


Yesterday we had rain for most of the day but I still managed my daily walk. It was less than ten kilometres long for a change. I went for a bike ride today and got stung by a wasp I think. I hope it doesn’t become a habit again.


A Fourteen Kilometre walk and I Crossed Paths With Just Two Other People.

A Fourteen Kilometre walk and I Crossed Paths With Just Two Other People.

Byrichard

Today I went for a fourteen Kilometre walk and I crossed paths with just two other people. It was a couple of runners and we crossed paths at just the right place as I could slip into a clearing, wait for them to pass and then continue on my way. I think this is the quietest walk I’ve been on in a while.


During the walk I saw that some fields had been harvested, that new barriers were being put up and that someone’s Mini adventure involved a bike in an open top Mini.


Before the daily walk, I continued studying CSS and after learning the basics I am learning how to fine-tune and control what CSS is doing with more granularity. The finished product is looking better and better.



Day 49 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Two And A Half Hour Walk At Dusk.

Day 49 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Two And A Half Hour Walk At Dusk.

Byrichard

I just got back from a two and a half-hour walk at dusk. I had no plan to go for such a long walk. It was elongated because I ended up taking a detour to see calves just as they were being fed. They’re quite excited about getting some food. They were very happy to get their daily milk, as you can see from the image below.


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Dairy… I mean daily walk.

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Day 46 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Contemplating A Walk In The Rain

Day 46 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Contemplating A Walk In The Rain

Byrichard

It’s raining hard today and I’m still contemplating a walk in the rain. It should allow for some different photographs than usual. If I go to the motorway then I can photograph the vortices of wind behind trucks dragging up water from the road.


If I go for my daily walk when it’s raining as hard as it is today I think It might make sense to wear shorts although I have no good option for my feet. My shoes would probably get soaked.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2vVI1qjG0o


Imagine like Carly is doing at the moment. She’s in France where you need derogations to go outdoors to go shopping and do other things. She speaks about getting help from some of the locals for water and for the permission slip. It’s an interesting life to live.


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What do you think you will take away from this experience of lockdown? . This was day 6 of confinement – it’s far away now but I’m still trying to keep the smile going strong! . We’re heading towards the beginning of the end now, in two weeks our restrictions will start to lift. For how long for? And to what extent? Who knows. But it’s the first sign of things to come. . At the start, the novelty of it all was entertaining, seeing everyone trying to adapt to be able to do their hobbies at home. Bouldering benches and tables, traversing stair cases, grass skiing….finding dry tooling routes around the van (in this case). . The level of entertainment gained from these things has started to drop off now and I’m just back to wanting to be able to go out and do the things I love for real. . But I love the smile on my face here and I know, once the world has healed and everything is back to normal, there will be some fond memories that I will look back on for the special experiences we have had and how it made us all grow as individuals. For good and bad reasons, this is a time we will never forget. . ? @mattgroom1 . . . . . #vanlife #chamonix #lockdown #smilemore #climbergirl #girlswhoclimb #alpinebabes #climbing_worldwide #climblikeagirl #climbingismypassion #mountainlife #vanlifediaries #vanlifemovement #vanlifeexplorers #vanlifeeurope #vanlifeideas #gymgirls #trainingmotivation #vanlifesociety #vanlifestyle #vanlifedreams #vanlifejournal #vanlifer #vandwelling #vandweller #homeiswhereyouparkit #vangirls #aiguilledumidi #alternativeliving

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Day 39 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Taking Portraits of Cows

Day 39 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Taking Portraits of Cows

Byrichard

I spent a few minutes taking portraits of cows during my afternoon walk today. Cows were standing by the barrier so it was easy to go up to each one and take their portraits. It’s not as if our vibrant social lives enable us to take portraits of people when we’re self-isolating. It’s day 39.


Daily walk day 39


Mobile First Website


This morning for three hours or so I continued working on making webpages mobile first and resubmitted them for indexing by Google. In the process I thought about how I have images that I could use to illustrate some of the points about geography, rock formations and other topics.


In the process I realised that some pages have been online for their fourth decade now. They were uploaded in the 90s, the navigation style was changed in the 2000s, they were dormant in the tens, and now in the 20s they’re mobile compliant. A side effect of this is that they now have a page load score of 100.


Day 36 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Disease Vectors

Day 36 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Disease Vectors

Byrichard

According to research done in Haute Savoie, France, children present a mild risk as disease vectors of the COVID-19 virus. According to this article in Le Matin, and a few other articles children are not as contagious.


L’enfant de 9 ans qui avait contracté le Covid-19 aux Contamines-Montjoie en Haute-Savoie n’a transmis le virus à personne dans les trois écoles qu’il a fréquentées,

The nine year old child, who contracted COVID-19 in Contamines-Monjoie in Haute-Savoie did not transmit the disease to anyone in the three schools where he went.


This would help to explain why they are deciding to open schools first, and to allow children to go to school. This is good news for children without brothers and sisters as they may finally have someone their own age to play with at last. Whether this means they will reopen swings is to be seen. I have seen seen individuals and their children playing on the swings on occasion.


If the return of children is a success then it means that parents too will be able to return to work in turn. For as long as their children are home they cannot leave them alone.


When looking at the roads today I think that I see more traffic both on motorways and on secondary roads. This might just be the monday effect, as shops open and people rebuild their stocks for the coming week.


I went for my usual two hour walk today and I went along a river before cutting up along a wood. In the process I walked by two tractors preparing fields for the next crop. When tractors till the soil they always attract swarms of birds looking for a free snack.


Agriculture during COVID-19


If you click through to the image on Flickr you will see birds of prey and seagulls looking for their snacks. This is a common sight. In the background you can also see that the fields of colza are nice, yellow and lush.


Agriculture during COVID-19


One of the side effects of the pandemic is that I have grown used to not hearing that many cars or planes during my walks and today, because traffic seemed heavier, I found that I desired for that quiet we had experienced to remain. It’s nice to walk without the sound of tires on tarmac all the time. After this pandemic is over I could quite happily go for a hike somewhere out of earshot of cars.


Day 36 Of Self Isolation in Switzerland.


I’m getting over two hours of exercise every single day during this pandemic. I’m getting enough sun and I’m staying healthy from that point of view. It helps with having good nights of sleep. I mention this because I see quite a few people mention that they are having difficulty in sleeping. So far although I could sleep more I am not finding it difficult to sleep through the night.


Day 35 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Hike To La Barillette.

Day 35 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Hike To La Barillette.

Byrichard

Today I went for a Hike from La Barillette to La Barillette. It’s a shame that the restaurant wasn’t open to the public. It is currently marked as private, and scheduled to open on the first of May. Today I didn’t expect to do a long and physical hike. I expected to complete my usual daily tasks and then to go for the usual walks around where I live. In the end I did do such a hike, but it involved a slightly different geographic location.





The road to the top is currently closed to cars but sneaky motorbikes and cyclists can still head up the mountain. Plenty of cars were parked along the road by the first barrier. Instinctively I expected that we would see plenty of people walking up and down the road to La Dole but that wasn’t the case. The road was busy with cyclists.


Groups of up to five cyclists at a time headed up to the mountain. Some looked comfortable heading up, others looked okay, and some looked to be making an effort. I was surprised to see one person riding up that hill on a tandem and to see someone else ride up the hill on an electric bike pulling a child’s trailer. I couldn’t see a child in either the child seat or the trailer but that’s still quite a bit of extra weight to get up a mountain. Although that’s a nice distraction it isn’t the reason for this blog post.


Self-isolation means that we have to keep distant from other people but walking along paths with high traffic makes that complicated. For those with a little more energy and a lot of time the solution is to walk from the base of the Jura to the top. Initially the plan was to go up via the road but my curiousity got the better of me so I checked on Komoot to see whether I could take a side road up to the top and when I saw that this was possible I took advantage.





You follow the yellow and the Red and blue markers. We took one wrong turn so we had to scramble through some underbrush and climb up an even steeper incline. At least two or three trees have fallen across the path but they can all be avoided by going either side of them.


Hiking To La Dole


The trail is not used as frequently as others so navigation can sometimes be more challenging. It’s good to have some previous experience of navigating in this type of landscape. There are no sign posts and the red and blue and yellow markings are irregular. Without Komoot I would have explored more. I know that the aim is to reach the top, so from that aspect the goal is simple, but you could spend time wandering around without getting where you want to be.


Hiking To La Dole


During the walk you go from paths that are wide enough for cars to drive along where orienteering is easy to narrower paths where navigation is hard.


Hiking To La Dole


In Summer, when the restaurant is open this would be a good variant. I would have enjoyed having a fondue or Entrecôte at the top. As it so happens that’s my dinner, but prepared by myself rather than someone else.


Hiking To La Dole


Hiking To La Dole


For people who love flowers now is the ideal time to go up. You see plenty of these flowers growing in patches all over the top of the mountain. You need to go just as the snow finishes melting to see them at their best.


Less worried about the Virus.


By meeting up with someone to do an activity I went against my self-isolation rules. Two weeks ago when I was asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride I flatly said no. Now that the virus appears to be on the decline and that the number of cases is dropping I am being less aggressive about my self-isolation. I still give as much distance between myself and others. We also met using two scooters, rather than catching the same car. When I was asked if I wanted to stop for a coffee I had to say no.


People were having a big song and dance about how we shouldn’t call it social distancing because social distancing has negative connotations. Today I wanted to say yes, and I wanted to get back to normal but I couldn’t because the rules are still in place and we’re not in the clear yet. Let me point out that this is day 35 of not having a conversation within normal conversation distance, or of a handshake or a hug. It would be nice to be able to say yes to all of these things.


People, in big families, will never understand what living through a pandemic, is like for people living alone.When we get the green light to meet people again we should celebrate, not by going to a bar but by going on a hike.


That’s it for today.

Day Twenty-Two of ORCA in Switzerland – The Company of Cats

Day Twenty-Two of ORCA in Switzerland – The Company of Cats

Byrichard

Today during my walk this afternoon I surprised a cat on some stairs and I moved patiently. It brushed up against me so I started to stroke it. During this pandemic the only living things I have had physical contact with are cats. During a pandemic, if you’re not living with people, you are very limited.


Yesterday I did go out for a bike ride with a group of people, virtually. Before the ride I was feeling really down, and negative. After the ride I was feeling refreshed and relaxed. For the first time in three weeks I was able to do something physical without having to avoid people, worry about routing or anything else. All I had to do was pedal to the limit of my motivation and endurance.


If we went into full lock down then I would treat it as if we were in winter. I’d train hard, on the indoor trainer, so that when we are finally allowed more freedom in the outdoors I’d be fit enough to explore new routes.


The Shopping situation


When I went to the shops they were the emptiest I’ve seen them in a long time. I didn’t even need to queue to get in, although I did have a brief moment of over-exaggerating my steps as I was behind people walking slower than me. Everyone, or almost, walks slower than me, so that’s not a criticism of the people ahead of me. It’s good for you. You can use entirely different muscle groups as you behave in an eccentric manner. Even the self-checkout was empty, just one other person.


Of course in the process I forgot to buy plain rice so now I’m going to have to cook with wild rice today. I think playing the COVID-19 lottery, by going to the shops once a day, is risky enough. Wild rice is meant to be healthier anyway.


A Slow Down In New Cases


According to the figures I see, and articles in the press, it seems that the Pandemic has reached a plateau and we may be able to feel optimistic about the end coming in two or three weeks. Of course we have to be wary. With good weather more people are going out to enjoy the conditions, and the likelihood of another flareup is high if people are not careful.


Having said this I saw a tweet that the Canton De Vaud judiciary is going to start work again today, I saw that a shop selling coffee was open again and that a pet shop was open again too. These could be seen as signs, that more people are optimistic that things are improving.


Societal Change


I see that people are discussing whether society will have changed when this is all over and I believe that it will not have because of two key reasons. The first is that the wealthy, those with the power to effect change, will not have suffered like those that do not have the power to effect change. As a result many things will remain the same.


The second factor is rate of infection. When China was infected every other nation on earth had the opportunity to react, but as we see, after Italy was infected, no societies changed. Switzerland, France, Spain, The United Kingdom and the United States did not change.


It took governments saying “stay home, and self-isolate” for people to take action. To me this is a clear sign that the societal change people idealise is just that, an ideal.


Update: Victorian England was afraid of germs and diseases, which is why they wore white gloves and tried to keep their homes clean. The problem is that the paint they used to cover their walls was poisoning them, as was makeup and other elements of everyday life.


Side Effect



I have seen the headline in French and English that according to some people, the earth is less seismically active than usual. As none of the reputable news services have written about this story I am seeing it as just a curiousity, rather than something serious. It’s more likely that with less traffic, whether cars, trucks or planes, that seismometers, may detect less background noise.


In theory now would be the perfect time to have the LHC running, as there is less background noise.

Day Twenty-One of ORCA in Switzerland – A Morning Walk
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Day Twenty-One of ORCA in Switzerland – A Morning Walk

Byrichard

I had a morning walk this morning because I found that there are too many people to avoid during my afternoon walks. During my morning walk I took images of flowering plants, bees collecting pollen from flowers, roses budding and Apple orchards getting ready to blossom.


During the walk I also listened to two Echo Der Zeit episodes in a row. I like to listen during my walks because I’m taking the opportunity to get used to hearing German, and as I become more fluent, so I can understand a bigger proportion of the podcast.


In Switzerland the discussion about whether to close tourism sites continues although for me the answer is simple. During a pandemic you should entertain yourself as close to home as possible. Every one of my walks starts at home and reaches as far as I can walk in an hour. The trip back might bring it to two hours but I’m within a radius of five kilometres of my home and i am staying local.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpc8FXhbWIw
Video of traffic at lunchtime at the Nyon motorway bridge.


The motorway is almost empty. At the same time of day in normal conditions both lanes would be filled and you would struggle to see decent gaps between cars. Now the gaps are large and it would be a pleasure to drive.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umk7gU2bVCk
In normal times this road would be full of traffic


Normally this road is filled with traffic on a Sunday as people head to and from Nyon and it’s surroundings. Today we see large gaps in traffic as so few people are getting into their cars for activities. Traffic, at least on weekends has declined.


In Grens you can see a sign from around this time still pinned to a notice board.


I followed the link because i was afraid that there was a new pandemic rule forbidding us from using vehicles on Sunday. Luckily it’s from a century ago.


Now that we’re entering week four of the pandemic it’s appropriate to mention this open letter. In the last three days I’ve seen two different neighbours have guests over three times. Tomorrow will be the fourth week from self-isolation where we have not been able to socialise in person and it does have a cost. We can’t shake hands, we can’t have a conversation from a normal speaking distance.


“Study after study demonstrates that even if there is only a little bit of connection between groups (i.e. social dinners, playdates/playgrounds, etc.), the epidemic trajectory isn’t much different than if there was no measure in place.”

Open Letter from Jonothan Smith, Epidemologist, yale University.


Apathetic and selfish people, who continue to socialise, and continue to see different people are making it so that those of us taking the pandemic will need to sacrifice for longer before the end of the pandemic. It does feel interminable. We chose to start self-isolating as individuals six weeks ago and now we’re in week four of forced self-isolation, and because people are not respecting the rules, it feels as if there is no end in sight for this pandemic.


In England those who like to spend time outdoors for walks, for runs and for bike rides are afraid that the selfishness of some will result in the removing of their last freedom. Enforced solitude and the ensuing loneliness is detrimental to people’s well being. Having the freedom to go for a walk, a bike ride or a run is beneficial because for half an hour to two hours we can spend time with our thoughts, but also distracted by the landscape in which we find ourselves.


The worst thing about losing the freedom to go for walks, runs or bike rides is that we lose the safety valve that enables us to cope with isolation. It also takes away our access to sunshine and daylight. If we’re stuck indoors without our daily walks we will see a deterioration in health. That in turn will lead to more preventable deaths.


Untitled


A bee pollinating


See if you can spot the bee.

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Day Eighteen of ORCA in Switzerland – Plumbing and Scuba Diving.

Byrichard

Plumbing and scuba diving are not unrelated. If you understand o-rings and pipe/hose connections then you’ll be fine. I dismantled a system, cleaned it, and then reassembled it, checked for leaks and then ran the tap to see if all was well. Once I saw that everything was indeed well, I struggled to place the drawers and then moved onto the next issue. 


My website was hacked again so I am now writing this blog post in the day one app, rather than directly to the blog. During a pandemic it’s frustrating to find that your website is hacked because life is already limited without adding new issues. 


Facebook and Twitter have still not been reinstalled on my phone. I see no reason for them to return. The beauty of not having either on your phone is that it takes longer to post something negative, so a negative thought, is abandoned .





Last night I watched two episodes of iZombie and for the first three quarters of the episode I thought I had found something that I would enjoy watching during this pandemic. Since then I’m not sure. We’ll see how it goes when I watch an episode or two today.


To Shop Or Not to Shop


I have the nagging feeling that I should go and shop today, so that I can skip the need to go tomorrow or the next day but when I check the fridge I have food for at least three days, and even a fourth. I think I still have a week of reserves so shopping is not urgent.


Is it worth going through the maze in front of the shop, to disinfect my hands, to grab a number, and then to go into the shop and get some drinks, and leave.


Back in the good old days, before the pandemic, people such as myself would think “I want a bottle of Apple juice” and we’d walk to the shop, buy a bottle of apple juice and it would take a minute or two. The same behaviour today would see you queue for half an hour. I hate queuing and because the rate of infection is not going down as fast as I would like I am happy to stay isolated.


In normal circumstances if I had seen that the sink was blocked I would have gone to buy a plunger and I’d have had some fun playing with it. Of course my goal would have been serious, but humour is useful in surreal times. “How was the pandemic for you?” “Surreal, but nice”.


I like writing blog posts because it’s like having a conversation. You start with an idea and you develop it, and you start to play and have fun, and by the time you finish writing a blog post you have cheered up. The solitary nature of this pandemic is negated for a short moment.