Author: richard

  • The WeWatt Bike wait

    The WeWatt Bike wait

    Reading Time: 2 minutes Today I experienced the WeWatt bike wait again. The first time I experienced it was when flying from Alicante to Geneva and the second time is when I was waiting to meet someone for lunch today. The principle is very simple. If you see that a wewatt bike is free for…

  • Strava – The Escape Plan

    Strava – The Escape Plan

    Reading Time: 2 minutes Strava – The Escape plan has the goal of getting people to move 15 minutes a day 5 times a week for four weeks. This includes all sports from Alpine Skiing to Yoga with walking, hiking, kayaking, cycling, swimming and more. In other words your walk to the shops, the café…

  • Half a Million Steps in July

    Half a Million Steps in July

    Reading Time: 3 minutes In July this year I took half a million steps as I was banned from driving. I’m using that phrase for comedic effect. As I had one arm in a sling driving was out of the question for a few weeks and then it was out of the question because my…

  • Slalom Swimming

    Slalom Swimming

    Reading Time: 3 minutes Slalom Swimming isn’t talked about enough. Slalom swimming is the type of swimming you do when you’re one of the stronger swimmers but not the strongest. You’re going fast enough to overtake certain swimmers but too slow to keep up with others. As you overtake some swimmers you’re forced to swim…

  • Forcing people to be active daily with Stories

    Forcing people to be active daily with Stories

    Reading Time: 2 minutes Facebook and Instagram both have “Stories”. Stories are temporary vertical pictures and video that are only available for a limited amount of time before they are backed up and saved for retrieval once you request your data. In theory, they are a fantastic way of sharing life as it happens without…

  • The Social Media Reflex

    The Social Media Reflex

    Reading Time: 3 minutes This morning I uninstalled Facebook and Twitter because most of the tweets I saw were people complaining about things or posts that would fit perfectly as blog posts on a website. We have moved towards the Social Media reflex, rather than towards an open sharing habit. Before social media, we would…

  • 134 days of Duolingo

    Reading Time: 2 minutes I have been studying languages with Duolingo for 134 days. For 134 days I have been studying German as well as other languages every single day. In so doing my reading comprehension has gone up and I no longer become a “deer in the headlights” when someone asks me a question…

  • The Phone Box library Walk

    The Phone Box library Walk

    Reading Time: 2 minutes If you’re looking for a reason to walk from one village to another the practise of using old phone boxes as free libraries are common in Switzerland. This means that if you’re shopping around for books in Switzerland you can either go to the shops and buy them with the car…

  • On Breaking an arm and replacing climbing with swimming and cycling with walking

    On Breaking an arm and replacing climbing with swimming and cycling with walking

    Reading Time: 4 minutes A few weeks ago I broke my arm while cycling. I was indicating that I was turning right while breaking with my left hand and the brake blocked and the next thing I knew the bike was on top of me. I extricated myself from beneath the bike and dragged it…

  • The Earth Race Documentaries.

    Reading Time: < 1 minute Sometimes I stumble across documentaries that I feel excel in their genre. One such documentary is Earthrace: The Power Boat Race around the World. This is a one and a half hour documentary charting the fundraising, awareness building, race preparations and then the actual race, including logistics and more. I…