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A Return To Climbing

Last night after about a year without climbing I finally returned to the sport and I saw a familiar face but I couldn’t remember why. Eventually, I remembered that it was Cedric Lachat. I remember him from some climbing videos I watched. I also saw many of my climbing friends. On the first belay I made sure to remember all the skills. It had been a while but when you’ve belayed hundreds of people the skills have become muscle memory.

Mouse trap videos

When I lived by the seaside in England I was told by one of my flat mates that they had seen a rat go into my room and I don’t remember how I felt about it. Rat traps were soon placed to catch them. A few years later I saw a flat mate have the comic book reaction of fear upon seeing a mouse and I found it deeply amusing. I was also surprised by how ugly that mouse was.

Replacing the scooter with an electric bike

I have been thinking of replacing the scooter with an electric bike for a while now. I am discouraged by the cost of electric bikes. Electric bikes range in price from one thousand to four thousand francs or more and their range is from fourty to one hundred and eighty kilometres. They are also limited to 25 kilometres per hour if you want to preserve the right to use cycling paths in Switzerland.

On the origins of OK

If you’re a french speaker you will probably remember that scene from Les Visiteurs where they say “OK” over and over again. You might also remember it from films like “The Right Stuff” when they speak about things being a-ok. The history of the word dates back to the 1800s when people would say “all correct”, then “all Korrect” and because they liked abbreviations it eventually became OK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UnIDL-eHOs Knowing this has no effect on the quality of our lives but it is nonetheless amusing since it has moved from English through two or three centuries and across languages so that “ok” is recognised in many languages.

Listening to podcasts with the Apple Watch

This morning I was listening to podcasts with the Apple Watch I have. I like that I can listen to podcasts that play straight from the watch because more often than not I have the watch on my wrist almost all the time. This means that I no longer need to keep the phone in the same room as I am in but it also means that I can leave the phone to charge in one room while roaming around.

Summer without a car has taught me to live locally

This summer I was thinking of buying a car until I found out that my contract break was for six months rather than three. As a result of this my ability to buy my own car vanished. I used the scooter, my feet and eventually the bike to travel thousands of kilometres. I rode the scooter for at least four thousand kilometres and I cycled for around 1000km. I also hiked Self powered Break this year This year I have logged 121hrs of moves over 1500 km and 19395 metres in vertical movement.

Cycling to the Vallée de Joux

Yesterday I tried cycling to the Vallée de Joux and succeeded. A few weeks ago I cycled up to St George and I saw a sign that said that the Col De Marchairuz was less than 6km away so I decided to try it. When I succeeded that I saw that getting to the Vallée de Joux would be possible. On Sunday due to the weather I thought that I would go for a small 30km loop to avoid the bad weather and rain.

Cycling into the wind

Yesterday I cycled my first 100km ride. It started as a simple ride towards Geneva and back but by the time I got back to Nyon I felt that I had enough energy to go further so I set the goal of getting to Rolle and after Rolle I set the goal to get to Morges before getting distracted and heading up towards Bière. During this ride when cycling towards Geneva I saw a peloton cycling together and taking turns leading and sheltering behind each other.

The best edit suite is the one you have with you.

You remember the old saying. The best camera is the one that you have with you. Today the same can be said about “edit suites” that you carry in your trousers or jacket pocket. I’m speaking of edit suites that work with your iphone or ipad. Lumafusion is one such example. It differs from other mobile editing solutions in a number of key ways. The first is that it allows you to edit on a timeline with three video sources at once This means that you have more control.

Glacier Exit - A short documentary showing a glacier's retreat

https://vimeo.com/198306286 Originally they meant to go out to have an adventure. They interviewed an individual about how the glacier’s rate of retreat has been increasing over the years. “I used to come here with a snow plow. Now I need a lawnmower”. Global warming is visible around the world. Rockfalls have made hiking dangerous. There have been rockfalls at “Les Cosmiques” as well as along one of the routes I walked last year near Zermatt.