Day 32 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Single Tab Open
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Day 32 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Single Tab Open

Byrichard

I have a single tab open in Chrome at the moment, my main browser. This window, to write this blog post. We are now in Day 32 of self-isolation and I’m keeping myself distracted through blogging, making webpages mobile friendly and more. I’m also limiting the time I spend on news websites, social media and more. I have a five minute time limit on social media apps on my phones.


I wanted to write a Facebook post while on the escalators to go shopping but couldn’t because i was already up to the limit for today. Pandemics are funny because they end up being really boring. You can walk, you can run, you can river walk and you can cycle, but if you have technical issues you need to find a way home. You also need to creatively find routes that people are less likely to follow. People are discovering my snickets so I need to be more and more creative.


It would be so nice to get into the car and go somewhere but for now that idea is absurd. We have to wait for the right time. A few more weeks of nice weather and then, when the rain comes, we can start spending time outdoors again. I write this as a joke. It would suck if we did see that happen.


Coiffeurs, physiothérapeutes, jardineries et médecins seront autorisés à rouvrir leurs portes dès le 27 avril, a décidé jeudi le gouvernement.

Déconfinement coordonné et en trois étapes


From the 27th of April onwards people will be able to get their hair cut again, and to make it easier, people will be able to leave their children at kindergartens. On the 27th of April normal shops will be allowed to reopen and on the 11th of May children will go back to school. That’s if every step goes smoothly of course. In another article they mentioned that exams in Switzerland will be in August.


Poor teenagers, spending their summer holidays studying for exams. Does this mean they will head to university a month later?


When speaking with a neighbour/teacher two days ago he told me that some children and their parents went to secondary homes in France and other questions so the question is how will they get from their secondary homes back to Switzerland in order to start lessons on the required day? Is returning to Switzerland seen as a legitimate reason to drive over big distances?


Un été blanc et sec attend les festivaliers


Annulations Historique! Paléo, Montreux Jazz, Caribana, la Cité… Les grands rendez-vous prévus d’ici fin juillet devraient tirer la prise de leur édition 2020.

No festivals this summer


This summer may be one of the quietest in decades or even centuries. There is a chance that all of the music festivals will be cancelled for this summer. In one article I read that, if so many countries are still in lockdown then it isn’t worth going on a tour, as a band for just a few gigs.


The risk of forest fires is now severe enough for fires to be banned.


Although it feels like we’re nearing the end of the pandemic we can see that it’s still a month or more away, so our current lifestyle will have to be resilient enough to carry us through.


Time for a walk. See you later.

Day Thirty-One of ORCA in Switzerland — Plenty of Dust
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Day Thirty-One of ORCA in Switzerland — Plenty of Dust

Byrichard

You build up plenty of dust as you plow the fields at the moment. The drought continues, as does the desire for this pandemic to be over. For now, the downward trend continues so we could feel optimistic. I’m still optimistic than in two or three weeks recycling centres will go back to normal. At the moment recycling centres remind me of something else.





Looking at this queue of cars reminds me of something. All the engines are off. All the cars are lined up. Plenty of people are in their cars waiting. If you saw this in Calais you’d expect them either to be waiting for the Eurotunnel train to get back to England or for the ferries to take them.


This is an image of Swiss people waiting to get into a recycling centre. Despite this being the 31st day of the pandemic Swiss peoples’ desire and compulsion remains strong. For many people this is the lazy person’s equivalent of “getting out of the house for a bit”. I go for a one and a half hour walk and they sit in their cars, enjoying the fresh air, the tweets of the birds, and best of all a great view on the Mont Blanc. For the last two days we’ve had a good view.



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Colza and the Mt Blanc.

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Today I have spent very little time on Twitter and Facebook because I still can’t stand either of them. I’m thinking of deleting both accounts when this pandemic is over. I spent time modernising my weebsite instead. Pages that haven’t been changed since the late 90s are finally being updated and included within this CMS. The inspiration came as a result of seeing that Google told me in an e-mail that 21 pages were not AMP compatible.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEujwsNUxiE
in 1919 people made their own face masks as well. Getting a face mask on a cat does seem troublesome.


Last night I watched this during and after having dinner last night. I feel the need for watching people hike, and socialising. We’re now on day 31. We’re officially a month in. If we were in a different context then I would have almost completed one Via Alpina route by walking several hundred kilometres.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxg6Z6I4mxk


When I started reading about Thur-Hiking it was in blog form, with pictures, and then books, and occassionaly podcasts and then, during this pandemic, I started watching videos of people’s hiking adventures. It’s a way of seeing nice landscapes and imagining what would be possible in Europe. It’s good to plan for the future, and it’s good to have plans that do not require much or any contact with others. Via Ferrata, climbing and other sports may not start again for a while after the last new transmission of the virus. Hiking, however should be possible.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5F1llzscsQ
I haven’t watched this yet.


My project, for the next few days, is to continue shifting all my old website content to this blog. I should learn something new in the process.


I need to eat dinner now.

Day Thirty of ORCA in Switzerland — A Strong Desire to Go Hiking.
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Day Thirty of ORCA in Switzerland — A Strong Desire to Go Hiking.

Byrichard

I have a strong desire to go hiking. I would like to go on a hiking excursion that lasts for a few days. In theory I could do the Via Alpina route one starting in Nyon and ending in Lichtenstein. It’s a 21 step hike going north.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RsTPWkKZKk


I had lunch watching one and a half episodes of this video series. They’re short, lasting just ten minutes each so easy to fill spare time with. As I’m trapped walking around in various circles around where I live it’s nice to see people walking in a straight line from one side of a country to the other.


To do a long thru-hike would be social, at least in the US but also possibly in Europe. Hiking is usually a social activity. That is probably why I want to go hiking. In theory it has been thirty days since I last shook a hand or gave a hug. It may be even longer than that.


One of the things that isn’t discussed about self-isolation is that if you’re living alone when self-isolation hits you’ll be alone for the duration of the pandemic. It means that for however long the pandemic lasts you will have only yourself as company and conversations will, at best be from two meters away, but quite easily from one balcony to another, or from two sides of a road, taking wind into account.


I found that I really can’t stand Facebook and Twitter anymore because they’re used as RSS rather than a chat room and I’m looking to find conversations that I can join. My use of Flickr has gone up because at least that’s about sharing images. I also find that blogging helps.


“It’s incredibly useful both for us personally and on a historical level to keep a daily record of what goes on around us during difficult times,” said Ms. Franklin, author of “Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life,” which won the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography.

Why You Should Start A Coronavirus Diary


The New York times has an article speaking about why it’s important to keep a diary. The reason for which I’m blogging on a daily basis about life during the Coronavirus pandemic is that it’s a historical record of thoughts I’ve had, but also to some degree a reflection of how self-isolation is experienced. The three-year-old toddlers who are experiencing this today will skirt the topic if they study modern history. Modern history is up to fifteen years ago so in their final year of school they will explore this pandemic.


During the Pandemic


Clicking on the image above will take you to the photos I have taken and added to the “During the Pandemic” album on Flickr.


See you tomorrow,

Day Twenty-Nine of ORCA in Switzerland – A Desire To Go On A Hike
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Day Twenty-Nine of ORCA in Switzerland – A Desire To Go On A Hike

Byrichard

We’re in day 29 of ORCA in Switzerland and I have an ever increasing desire to go for a hike. During today’s walk I listened to two podcasts about hiking and I walked yet another variant of my usual walk. Apple tree blooms are increasing in number and the Colza looks almost ready to harvest.


We’re also going into a dry summer. During this pandemic we have hardly had any rain for a month. The whole of Switzerland is either yellow, orange or red with the risk of fire. I’ve been walking outdoors with a t-shirt.


We could be under the illusion that Switzerland has beaten the virus but that’s an illusion, because the risk of a new center of contagion is possible. We have to continue self-isolating. Today two children cycled too close to me so I crossed to the opposite side of the road because they stopped and would pass me again.


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@ladylockoff had some fun photo shopping this picture of @marcusblatherskite and I. It reminds me of a similar picture that our friend Matt photo shopped. When I posted Matt’s ball pit bouldering photo my poor mother thought it was real and asked me how long it took to clean up all those balls. ????? Good times. 1rst photo by @ladylockoff 2nd photo by @matt_likes_climbing #climbingphotography #climbing_photos_of_instagram #climbinginspiration #climbing #climbinglovers #climbinggirls #climbing_is_my_life #climbing_worldwide #climbingrocks #climbingnation #climbinglife #outdoorclimbing #crackclimbing #tradclimbing #climbingpicturesofinstagram #iloveclimbing #climbing_pictures_of_instagram #climbingpics #rockclimbing #rockclimbinglife #climbon #liveclimbrepeat #climbingisbliss #climbingnation #climbingday #doyouclimb #rockclimber #climberlife

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Day Twenty-eight of ORCA in Switzerland – A Photo Walk
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Day Twenty-eight of ORCA in Switzerland – A Photo Walk

Byrichard

Today I went on a photo walk. Since walking far is now out of the question if you want to be consistently socially distanced it makes sense to go out with a different purpose. When the purpose of the walk is to take photos you can afford to walk up a hill, or between two people to avoid being too close.


A cat naps in a courtyard in the middle of the day during the 2020 Pandemic in Arnex-Sur-Nyon.


When I passed by the barn where cats love to spend time I found at least two of them having their afternoon siesta. Sometimes at this barn you can find quite a few of them.


Easter Road traffic during the 2020 Pandemic between Founex and Nyon.


Motorway traffic was quite dense today. People were apparently choosing to drive from one point to another. We will see what the impact of this public holiday will be on the number of new cases one to two weeks from now.


Three groups of people walk along an agricultural road in between Eysins and Mies.


This weekend plenty of people were walking along agricultural roads and as you can see they’re walking two to three abreast. These are single lane agricultural roads so if I had been walking along these roads I would have come within two meters of many people.


I really wish that during the pandemic people would have the same decency as hikers on narrow paths. That decency is to walk in single file, and to allow people enough space to pass safely. I look forward to when I can walk my ordinary paths, without worrying about passing too close to people.


People walking during the 2020 Pandemic in the Canton de Vaud, with the Alps in the background


Aside from having the pandemic as a reason to avoid large groups such as in the picture above I think another motivation is to avoid the feeling of loneliness that some of us could feel. Tomorrow will be week six without human contact for many of us. No hand shakes, no conversation closer than a meter and a half. No break from the solitude of a pandemic.


Solitude is when you’re alone living as usual. lonely is when you’re reminded of what you’re missing and you pine for something that you may not really need. When the order is to stay two or more meters away from people for one and a half months seeing other people with the company of another person is already sub-optimal. Imagine seeing a crowd of up to five people.


I started compiling a collection of hiking documentaries on Youtube. One of them is a hike from Switzerland to the mediterranean and the others are hikes in the United States. It may seem paradoxical that after so much walking I would be thinking of walking even more but I love the idea of walking for a few days and seeing different places. I like the idea of leaving civilisation for a while.





There’s a good chance that rock climbing, via ferrata and other sports will not be possible for at least a few weeks so it makes sense to think about things we can do alone or in small groups. Maybe this will be the year when I do at least one variant of the Via Alpina. We will see, once the pandemic has run its course.


Camera used to take pictures










Day Twenty-seven of ORCA in Switzerland – River Walking
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Day Twenty-seven of ORCA in Switzerland – River Walking

Byrichard

My shoes are wet and my socks are wet because today I tried river walking. If a child was to do the same it would be called immature and irrational but when an adult does it then it’s adventure, and trying something new.


My motivation to river walk came from the pandemic, or more precisely from how people behave during a pandemic. When I walked yesterday I had a runner pass right by me and then spit on the ground a few meters ahead of where I would have been going. When I walked through the woods yesterday I could hear groups of people so I avoided walking along the same routes.


That’s why I placed both feet, and the shoes they were in, into the river and walked. I didn’t get that far. In fact I was only able to walk a few dozen meters before finding that the river would have required wading. I wasn’t prepared to do that. We’re not in a heatwave yet.


Channels are dug into the rocks


Although you can’t really see it in the image above grooves have been worn into the rock strata. As a result you shouldn’t spend all of your time looking forward because you’ll be caught out. River walking requires you to look at where you’re placing your feet. In the image below you can see these erosion patterns more clearly.


Grooves in the rock
Grooves in the rock


I’ve walked along the routes so much that now I’m starting to get to know the details. Now I know that the river is beautiful and that if you’re willing to get wet you can see some nice features. There are a few places I need to return to, and document through photography.


This morning I was looking through to see if Thru-hiking had started and to see whether people would still try to thru hike any of the main trails in the US and from what I see most people have not started and those that did have postponed their hikes for now.


As a follow up to this I listened to this episode of the Hiking Thru podcast. It’s about Chris Smead going for a lesser known Thru hike with eleven lenses, seventy five batteries and a monopod to document a hike with a group of people. The hike sounds like an interesting experience. It also makes a nice change from listening to so many news and current affairs programs. A moment to dream.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=161&v=dbkE6UbIiAU


I will keep exploring. To a large degree I treated today as if there was no pandemic and that was refreshing. I still washed my hands as soon as I got home. I just didn’t stay cooped up indoors without treating myself. Exploration is a treat.

Day Twenty-Six of ORCA in Switzerland – Playing With 360 Video
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Day Twenty-Six of ORCA in Switzerland – Playing With 360 Video

Byrichard

It’s Day 26 and today I was playing with 360 video. Specifically I went for a walk in the woods and placed the camera ahead of me to provide people with the opportunity to look around. Doing this is a risky strategy during the pandemic because if you cross paths with anyone there is nowhere to avoid them. I quickly went back to open space and retreated for home. One runner passed too close.


It’s a cruel paradox of pandemics that the people you would most like to spend with, and the activities you would most like to do are forbidden, and those that are chores are allowed. Shopping is allowed. Meeting people to climb is not, meeting people to cycle is not. Nothing is allowed except putting up with the noise of people not in solitude.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usG77hrI_DU&feature=youtu.be


Today I could stand neither Facebook nor Twitter so I spent time on Flickr insstead. I practiced writing captions by going through some of my images and adding titles and captions. I have over 30,000 images to work through so if I spend enough time I will perfect this skill.


What I want out of social media is to have a pleasant conversation about normal topics. For now social media is about three things. The Disease, thanking people, and blaming others. If you’re not in the mood for this trio of topics then it’s worth closing two tabs.


I continued Reading Pandemic by Sonia Shah. It’s interesting to note that denialism is nothing new when it comes to epidemics and the spread of disease. In the time of Cholera people would censor and hide that the disease was spreading. In another case people chose to take water from a contaminated source, rather than a clean river. Some unethical behaviours have not changed in centuries. Neither has the denialism. We have seen the health impacts of such behaviour. The US will soon reach half a million cases.


Blossom is still coming out from trees so I put the 360 camera right next to some blossom. Explore the image below to get a sense of spring.


Untitled

Day Twenty-Five of ORCA in Switzerland – The Passing Of A Friend
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Day Twenty-Five of ORCA in Switzerland – The Passing Of A Friend

Byrichard

Today I learned of the passing of a friend, due to complications after struggling to beat cancer. I was made ready for the news today by a post that he was very sick yesterday. I didn’t know the details at the time. It was one of the first posts I saw on Facebook this morning.


I would go to one of the local pubs and talk with the friend. We were studying on the same course and he worked at the bar so the pub became my living room. As I spent time at the bar I got to know the regulars, but I also got to know the town. I felt that I did know quite a few people well. If life had been different I would have stayed in Weymouth for the summer after the course and spent the summer diving.


Aside from having a pub to visit daily, and a place to read all the newspapers, (pre-smartphone days) he also spoke about martial arts films so I borrowed and watched plenty of Chinese and Hong Kong martial Arts films. It’s becaue I watched such a multitude of Martial arts films that I found Kill Bill such a mediocre film. The editing is too tight and is used to disguise that they are not martial artists.


Busy Shops For The First Time


Today I went to the shops at lunchtime hoping that they would be quiet but I found that the queue was so long that I aborted. When I went to see another shop I found that it too was busy. The queue went for a distance out of the shopping centre. In such a situation I see no logical reason to go to the shops. I’d rather avoid being in the same space as a crowd.


After over a year of thinking about it I finally went to the village shop but the selection was mediocre. It may be as useful as a petrol station shop, rather than a proper alternative to bigger shopping centres.


Public Holidays During a Pandemic


I question the rationale of having public holidays during a pandemic. People can’t do anything, can’t go anywhere and shouldn’t meet up In light of all these limitations I also question the wiseness of having people shopping en masse, to get food for a long weekend, when it runs the risk of spreading the virus.


I went to the shops to get a chocolate rabbit, but a chocolate rabbit is not worth falling sick for.


Surprised by the British


Recently I read Ravenrock, an interesting book looking at how the US had prepared to get the president and essential safe safely into bunkers within minutes in case of nuclear war. They were ready with several contingencies should the need crop up.


With the British PM falling sick, and upon hearing that there is no formal plan for when he’s sick I am surprised. I would expect England to be at least as prepared as the US in terms of succession but apparently this isn’t the case. It’s odd.


Before 17 Mar 2020, we estimate the basic reproduction number R0R0 of COVID-19 at 2.73 (95% confidence interval, CI: 2.42 – 3.12). Transmission decreased with the strengthening of social distancing measures by 78% (95% CI: 66%-90%). This resulted in an effective reproduction number ReRe = 0.59 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.36 – 0.89). Based on these estimates, we can project the future epidemic trajectory for the coming weeks (Figure).


Social distancing works and Switzerland has been able to quantify it’s effectiveness. Before the 17th of March 2020 the RO number of COVID-19 was 2.73 in Switzerland. After social distancing was enacted the RE number is of 0.59%. It has cut the risk of infection by a factor of five. Put another way before social distancing an infected person could infect up to three people through interacting with them. With social distancing there’s half a chance that a single person will infect another. The report is here.

Day Twenty-Four of ORCA in Switzerland – The Smell of Colza
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Day Twenty-Four of ORCA in Switzerland – The Smell of Colza

Byrichard

Today I walked along roads that would be filled with non-stop traffic if we weren’t in a pandemic. As a result I could enjoy almost the entire walk without avoiding people. In the process I passed by colza fields, an open garden centre and more. The image above is of a colza field, looking towards the lake, the Alps and the Mont Blanc.


I like that flower shops stayed open during the pandemic because it would have been a shame for all those flowers to have been left in the shop to die and become compost without being enjoyed. It’s not that I’m a flower person, but rather that flowers perish, so finding a way to sell them safely makes sense. It also offers moral support for those that need it.


During this pandemic I have hardly used Youtube. It takes so much effort not to watch videos without sensationalist titles that I’ve skipped the network for the most part. I did find some interesting content. The video below is a flight over Petra as a 360 video at 8K resolution. It is worth watching, even if you don’t have a 360 headset.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSiv4TkfSOE


I see people encouraging encouragement to people spending this lockdown in families but I don’t think that spending time with family in a lockdown should be seen as hard or difficult. In fact I think it would be exhausting but it should also be really fun. With to to four year olds you keep them entertained and you keep them entertained. Look at what Jimmy Kimmel and his children got up to.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0xSdI72ZnQ
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, Family edition


It’s worse for those of us in solitude. Imagine if the only way for you to socialise was to look at your company and visit social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Wordpress or others. They’re filled with impersonal sensationalist content that really does nothing to make you feel happy and content. Social media has not been the parachute that I hoped it would be.


The problem with social media during a pandemic is that you can’t take a break from the pandemic. It’s either pandemic or pandemic. There’s no other topic to read about. I mention this because i just took a break of sorts to watch this joke of sorts.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5CNHDeF2xA


For a few seconds I was relaxed, refreshed and thinking of other things. I then made the mistake of coming back to twitter and it’s nothing but pandemic talk. I don’t want pandemic talk every second I use Twitter and Facebook, as bizarre as this may seem.


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Why the three meter rule? A simple explanation.

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Day Twenty-Three of ORCA in Switzerland – The Chernobyl Fire
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Day Twenty-Three of ORCA in Switzerland – The Chernobyl Fire

Byrichard

In normal times a forest fire in the Chernobyl exlusion zone would attract attention and environmentalists would actively speak about it. The world would pay attention. Due to the pandemic the news story is low on the agenda.


I mentioned that a coffee shop and a pet shop had reopened on Monday and this morning I read that markets would be allowed to take place. Instead of the usual 160 stands, there would be just 30. In articles When reading other articles I saw that there was a mention that in order to be more confident that the virus was slowing down there would have to be zero transmissions for 14 days or more. We are still far from that today.


A gradual decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases in Switzerland


I’d rather sacrifice for two or three weeks now and preserve summer, than be too hasty, and lose the advantage we seem to have at the moment.



Click the image to read that story from Radio lac. According to Dider Pittet, speaking on RTSInfo we would need two and a half million masks per day to protect people in Switzerland alone. On a global scale many more masks would be needed.


Phone Addiction


Of course during this period when people are stuck at home, unable to socialise in person they are meant to turn towards the phone and use messaging and social media apps to share news with friends and family. Some people use this as an opportunity to say that people are all the more addicted to their phones than before.


I find the opposite is true. Yesterday I forgot my phone at home when I went for a walk and I could easily have gone back upstairs to get it but I didn’t because A) I didn’t need it and B) my walk was going to be short.


I should go for a walk now but I can’t really be bothered. I don’t want to avoid people. I don’t want to overcome my fear of dogs. I would love for this pandemic, so that I could try something different. I’d like to go for a bike ride but if I do that I need to be careful not to stray too far and I still need to avoid people.


The main reason for going out is to get some sunshine.


For exercise I have Zwift.


if you need a reason to stay indoors and to self-isolate watch the video below.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuzP-uLctYE&feature=youtu.be