Day 53 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Rebooting Switzerland in Safe Mode
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Day 53 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Rebooting Switzerland in Safe Mode

Byrichard

We’re just days away from Switzerland rebooting in Safe Mode. Rebooting in Safe mode means that children will go back to School on alternating days. Hairdressers and creches are already open. So are flower shops.


When I went to the local shopping the music festival maze to get into the shops was simplified and made more efficient. You don’t need to walk around so much. The doors to the shopping centers are also opening in the normal configuration again. Life is already to return towards safe-mode normal.


French people in Switzerland have fallen in love with the sentence «Il faut agir aussi vite que possible, mais aussi lentement que nécessaire». Translated it means “We must act as quickly as possible, but be as meticulous as possible” or something to that effect. It’s important to be responsive, and to take the time it takes, to get life back to normal, safely.


T-shirts with this phrase are selling very well. We know what to wear on the 1st of August.


Part of this experiment should include a smartphone app to track who we’re close to and when. It’s developed by the EPFL and we’ll see how it behaves and if it provides us with any interesting or useful information. I’m a fan of apps that provide me with information about the information I’m providing. I like Google Maps for this reason. I’ll have an opinion on Monday.


Rather than go for my daily walk I went for a daily bike ride. I went as far as Versoix and back in a respectable loop. The borders are still shut so the paths I like to take are not accessible yet.


@richardazia

Completely surrounded by ##cows in ##switzerland. Time for them to go up to the ##mountains.

? Originalton – leonii.lyy

Day 50 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Floating Border Bike Ride
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Day 50 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Floating Border Bike Ride

Byrichard

Today could be described as a Floating Border bike ride. During the bike ride I saw at least three or four patrols. One of these patrols had stopped a biker and were checking his papers, a second patrol was checking that the barriers were still in place. In a third case it was the Police Municipale driving towards me near Vevey.


It’s the fiftieth day of solitary confinement for me and I have moments when I feel fine and normal, and others where I don’t. I would love to say that I found an excellent way to celebrate the fiftieth day of self-isolation but I didn’t.


Fifty days in self-isolation would have been very different if the weather had been bad. If the weather had been bad I would have spent more time gaming and doing other passive things like watching television series or reading books. In theory life will be back to the new normal in a week.


I suppose that going on the bike ride that took me furthest from home in fifty days should count for something. The weather is nice enough to be in cycling clothes.


A glimpse of the flyby action.


When I was scrolling through Tik Tok videos I found one video that was ideally suited for a duet. It’s a pan showing the Swiss countryside with some music. I could attempt a dance duet but this is much easier. This is the landscape I cycle in.


@richardazia

##duet with @tinamariadurdov ##switzerland I’m on a bike ride.

? In The End – Mellen Gi Remix – Tommee Profitt

Day 48 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Calves And Their Mothers
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Day 48 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Calves And Their Mothers

Byrichard

During today’s walk I saw calves and their mothers. Their mothers were mooing me away but I was taking video so I didn’t move until one after another started to approach me. By then I had the footage I wanted to have. I had a strong fence fixed with wooden posts and a bush between myself and the cows so I calculated that the risk was low enough not to bolt.


@richardazia

##rain ##forestwalk ##hiking

? I Would Walk 500 Miles – MC Vintage

Day 47 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Walk In The Rain
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Day 47 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Walk In The Rain

Byrichard

Yesterday I went for a walk in the rain. I walked for two hours, took pictures and listened to Echo Der Zeit and this episode of the Thru-Hiking podcast. Gretel Scarlet was the interviewee. She talked about South Bound (SOBO) hiking the PCT.


It’s interesting to see how different her attitude was to most people’s, how being a dancer, and someone who considers nutrition, speaks differently of food and injuries.


Thanks to the rain most people stayed indoors. This was a good opportunity to walk along routes that I have been avoiding for weeks due to the pandemic. In the process, my trousers and shoes got soaked so I was squelching along. Even cars were not that frequent. I crossed two people during my ten-kilometre walk.


A walk in the rain during the 2020 Pandemic.


I walked through a wooded part and the trail that I usually follow was now a river. I had to step to the side of the path to avoid walking through the “stream” that it had now become. My shoes were already wet from walking through some tall grass earlier on.


I used to be a cold water diver so being wet doesn’t bother me. I was comfortable for almost the entire walk. It’s only during the last kilometre when I turned to walk into the wind that I started to feel cold and tired. By this point my trousers were soaked and the humidity was moving upwards.


I had considered making the route longer when crossing the last village before home but decided not to. I didn’t want to have to walk along the road when agricultural paths were clear of people. In light of how I felt on the last leg that was a good decision.


@richardazia

##rain ##river ##switzerland

? Let’s Do It Again – J Boog

Day 44 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Zwift session
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Day 44 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Zwift session

Byrichard

Today the weather was rainy so I had a Zwift session. I decided to cycle the Yorkshire circuit. Cycling indoors is not as exciting as you don’t see as much. I listened to a hiking podcast but I didn’t pay much attention to the Zwift interface for at least the first fifteen minutes or so.


For the first time in 44 days or more I started the car’s engine and went for a drive. I heard the engine making a slightly different noise than usual so I let it warm up a bit and then I drove to the shops taking the long route. By long route I simply mean the walk that I’ve done dozens of times. It’s around 10 kilometres of driving in total. As it’s a diesel car it makes sense to drive far enough to get the engine warmed up and ready for when life returns to “normal”.


Strava have an article about mental health today. They called it Looking After Your Mind.


1. Focus on your sensory perception.

To switch off during sport, try to designate ten minutes of your run or ride to consciously focus on the world around you. What do I smell, hear, see and feel during exercise? Focusing on the here and now gives a feeling of security and makes conscious enjoyment possible.

Eva-Maria Sperger


With all of the pictures, descriptions of smells and even river walking I think I’ve definitely lived up to point 1. I have been running, cycling, walking, river walking and exploring variants on the routes I walk often. I can now walk without crossing people for ninety eight percent of my walks. People in cars don’t count.


I have spent a lot of time on TikTok which is both good and bad. It’s good because it cheers me up and now I’m familiar with another video sharing platform for when I’m applying for jobs but it’s bad because I could do more during the day.


Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Day 43 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Caught Outdoors During a Thunderstorm

Day 43 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Caught Outdoors During a Thunderstorm

Byrichard

Today I was caught outdoors during a thunderstorm but rather than run to shelter or rush home I continued taking a timelapse video of some flowers. According to the apps we were meant to get some rain at 1800 so I expected it to be short lived.


This didn’t stop my clothes or my bag from getting wet but I was wearing hiking trousers and I wasn’t worried about the shoes. I didn’t expect anything to be soaked through and I did prepare to run home if need be. By the time I was ready to run the rain was stopping so I took out the phone and waited, and tried to capture lightning.


Day 42 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Few Minutes of Rain
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Day 42 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Few Minutes of Rain

Byrichard

Today at around lunchtime we had a few minutes of rain for the first time in weeks but it didn’t last long. By the time I went out for my daily walk the ground was dry, as if it hadn’t rained at all. There was no mud to walk through so I came back as clean as when I left.


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The daily walk is a good part of my day because it forces me to have some AFK (Away from Keyboard) time. That’s the thought I had when starting the walk. For two hours a day I spend time looking at the landscape, at how the plants and fields are changing day to day and more. I notice how paths are being worn where they would not be worn in normal times.


New trails are forming in some places. As people attempt to discover the area around them, and stay away from cars a new set of trails is emerging. Yesterday I was not even appalled by a woman showing off about walking with an umbrella in the mountains. Solitary confinement makes me long for the day when I can go back to hiking with people.


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On today’s walk I went to see the cows quickly and tried to get a few seconds of them mooing but they were uncooperative so I have several seconds of cows just staring. Some people think of them as sentient beings that shouldn’t be eaten but the cows I looked at today didn’t seem to have much intelligence. They certainly don’t have the same character as cats.


Cascading Style Sheets and Website Improvements.


I thought that the Latin page I have would take hours to make mobile friendly so I put it off for a few days as I took time to think of a solution. Today I used the viewport meta tag and CSS table options to make that page more modern. What I thought would take hours took minutes.


I went back to my first blog post and worked my way forward from there making twenty to thirty pages AMP ready. In the process I added tags to those pages as well as quickly corrected typos, dead links and related problems.


I also started porting my old “Surfing the World Wide Waves (WWW)” blog to this installation of Wordpress. My reasoning is that since it’s a blog it makes sense to combine two generations. When enough of the content is ported across to the blog I will use content views to provide a more contemporary looking interface.


These are time consuming tasks but now that I’m unable to use Facebook or Twitter due to the lack of social interactions in the physical world I feel no choice but to avoid them. Avoiding Facebook and Twitter has had a positive effect. The less time I spend on either the more I have to show for the day.


It was interesting to read blog posts I wrote as a uni student and articles I wrote as a school teenager. It’s interesting to see how things have changed today.


Having said that I really like the For You tab on Tik Tok. I get recommendations like these. I like these recommendations because they make me thing forward, towards the future, rather than feel negative about the present.


@freeridewtour

Hugo Hoff going to the speed of light! ##FWT20 ##ski ##freeride ##challenge ##foryou ##foryoupage

? Blinding Lights – The Weeknd

Day 41 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Reverse Journey
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Day 41 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Reverse Journey

Byrichard

Today I ran and then walked a reverse journey of what I did yesterday. I wanted to take a picture of the corkscrew tree. It would have required for me to wait for two slow walkers and their dog to pass and because they insisted on walking two abreast it made more sense to turn around and take an alternate route.


Slight increase in the number of cases in Switzerland.


Although my attitude may seem extreme there has been an increase in the number of cases. At least three times today I would have been within people’s personal space if I had not turned around, found a snicket through a forest, or stepped into a field. I look forward to the weekenders being back in their home offices on Monday. They shouldn’t be allowed in the wild. They lack common decency and courteousy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbm50zj0POQ


I watched Darwin speak about how quiet the AT has become as a result of the order for everyone to vacate the trail being given. This season will be a different one, if it takes place at all. It’s a shame that thru-hiking isn’t allowed. In theory they could easily sleep in tents and eat take away on the rare moments when they’re in town.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJduf7v4Wwo


I also watched this fifty minute video of a successful thru-hike in 2019. It looks like this was more of an adventure than other videos I’ve watched. It also looks like a lot of fun. I still dream of doing multi-day hikes again.


I also listened to the Thru-Hiker episode with Tip Tap as an interviewee. I’ve been watching the videos but I’m


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRY2Ys5ILL8


I think i finished the journey videos but I’ve lost track as a result of watching so many videos on this topic.


View this post on Instagram

Woman on her daily run. Maybe.

A post shared by Richard Azia (@richardazia) on

Day 40 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Local Adventures
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Day 40 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Local Adventures

Byrichard

For this 40th blog post on the topic of self-isolation, I’d like to speak about local adventures. I feel the need to do this because I see people posting about their trips to someone two to three hours from live and work during a pandemic and I strongly believe that getting into a car to have an adventure far from home at this time is short-sighted and selfish.


Between running, cycling and hiking I have got to know more and more of the local routes. I have found that there are a lot of nice places to walk off of agricultural roads where you can avoid everyone. Today I was walking in the woods by a motorway and I found what I call the “corkscrew tree”.


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Today during my hike I ranged further than usual. I went beyond my usual deflection and return point and kept on going and the reward for this was to see scenes and landscapes that I associate with thru-hiking imagery. i’m not thru-hiking. I am going around in circles and exploring every last trail and path, whether in the forests, along agricultural roads or the walkable space between fields. In some cases this includes fallow fields.


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We don’t need to drive for hours to see nice landscapes and to feel that we are visiting a new place. We just need to look around and see a path we haven’t been down, and proceed along it. The landscape above could easily be taken by a thru-hiker, but it’s in Switzerland, just minutes from villages and towns.


The pandemic is an opportunity to go back to the child-like habit of exploring every nook and cranny. By doing so we protect the environment by not using a car or public transport to get anywhere, and we get to find plenty of local gems.


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While driving to and from Geneva I often pass by this field and see these cows. Today my walking route took me by the cows and they were close enough for me to take a picture or three. This is local, and yet it feels like I’m travelling to Scotland or the US.



One of my habits, when living in London or visiting big cities is to walk for hours, until I get exhausted, and to return by public transport. I’m applying the same habit to explore the local countryside. I had already explored plenty of the local roads before, but because of the pandemic, I am being encouraged to explore ever more meticulously. By the end of the pandemic, I could write a guidebook about hyperlocal walks.


Aside from coming across cows with very long horns being suckled by calves in a field bordering with France and a corkscrew tree on a trail in the woods I also saw what I think are baby or juvenile apples just starting to grow. As I walk some parts of the routes so many times in a row I see them sowing the seeds, fertilizing, spraying with insecticide and harvesting. I also see how the crops change over time. Today’s reward were juvenile apples.


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My message is simple. During the pandemic, to avoid giving the virus an opportunity to leap between cantons, or from town to town, grab the opportunity to explore locally. You will be rewarded.

Day 38 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Contact Sports
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Day 38 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Contact Sports

Byrichard

By May we may be able to go back to doing sports in groups as long as they are not “contact sports” in Switzerland. For me this means hiking, running cycling and other related sports. For me climbing is a contact sport because we touch the same hand holds as everyone else climbing the routes, we use the same ropes and we share quickdraws and belay devices.


This being said I also have no desire to do sports like climbing at the moment because they require us to stand around and socialise and I haven’t really socialised in at least 38 days. I need to ease back into the world of the extrovert. Hiking is a good way to do that.


Visual Studio Code


Today I started watching a course on Linkedin learning about using Chrome for webmastering but got distracted with the idea of installing a server on my mac book pro. I then got even more distracted by Visual Studio Code.


I like this piece of software because it’s free, intuitive to use and quick. A few days ago I had spent hours playing with another html editing tool and the process was so laborious that i wasted a lot of time. With Visual Studio Code it’s fast and I’m getting through the task of making the old part of my website mobile friendly.



The process is interesting. The more pages I optimise the more experience I gain and the more efficient I become. I found that if I remove some bits of code the page is mobile compliant within two or three steps and I can move on to the next page, and the next one after that.


In theory these pages should always have been mobile friendly because they’re light. There is no CSS or other clunk. Images are also small as bandwidth was an issue in those days. It still is, but we have a firehose rather than a syringe today.


Webmastering is great because time really flies when you’re working on a website. You can easily spend ten or more hours a day working on something and still have a few more hours of work. That’s why some professions look so busy compared to others. Of course it’s time consuming because I am still perfecting the work flow. By the time I’ve optimised every page I’ll be proficient at an updated skill.


TikTok


Last night I was unable to focus so I installed TikTok and looked at plenty of videos to clear my mind enough to be able to think about dinner. I must have been in the right frame of mind because I enjoyed quite a few of the videos and flooded my facebook timeline with examples. Don’t worry though, out of the flood I only got one like. It seems that no one saw the flood so it didn’t happen.


1SE – One Second Every Day


More in character with me is the One Second Everyday app. I created a compilation for every day of quarantine so far but I won’t share the video too frequently because it will be most effective when it has at least sixty more days.


That’s it for today. Time to think about dinner.