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.
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.
Do you have that TGIF feeling like no one else does? In theory today is the day when people are happy, knowing that the weekend is about to start and they can do the things they love for the next two days. In this context though, that is unlikely. We’re meant to stay home.
This weekend is going to be extra special because the temperature is meant to reach 20°c, i.e. summer temperatures and so people will go out like ants on an applecore by the side of the road. If ever a weekend was likely to see a boom of cases next Friday it’s this one. According to the Swiss government people are good at following the rules but I still see examples of inconsiderate behaviour, both by young and not so young people.
Google has come up with the Google COVID-19 Mobility report. You may already be familiar with the discussion centered around how governments are asking telecom operators to provide them with mobile phone information about where and whether people are gathering.
Telecom operators, and application makers already have some information of where we are, where we’re gathering, how often we’re commuting and more. Google is making that data available in reports by countries. As I was curious to see this data I looked up Switzerland and then Geneva and Vaud.
The beauty of this data is that it shows the lag between the time people were told to stay home and when they did. It’s also to see where the peaks for parks, pharmacies and transit were. Last week we read about how the CFF are reducing the number of trains running. Today I was listening to the Don’t Touch Your Face episode discussing “The Airline Industry crashes“.
It’s interesting to think about transportation. Geneva is a city, and for a walker like me everything is within walking distance, if I have enough time. Vaud is larger so people are more used to using the car. This may explain why Vaud has a 68 percent drop in public transport use whereas Geneva has an 84 percent drop. Retail and recreation dropped by almost the same amount.
It’s interesting to compare Greater London with Geneva and Vaud because we see that the curves for transit and retail are more gradual, more rounded. The graphs suggest that Londoners started self-isolating of their own accord, and so when the order was given by the government to do so there was no great change. Of course the timescale is different so this might explain the softer change.
To some degree this pandemic is interesting because of all the data we can collect. Between blogs, instagram feeds, tweets, Facebook updates, mobile phone movements and more we really get a granular look at how the pandemic has affected people’s movements and habits.
During the post-pandemic discussions, studies and reports there will be millions of data points for people to study. Data analysts are going to have fun. So are big-data historians. This is a unique opportunity to see what worked, how long it took to be effective and more.
It’s a shame that Facebook and Twitter are so filled with marketers and PR professionals, rather than conversationalists. We’re going to have to see what remains of individual interactions later.
Do you have any interesting graphs or metrics to share?
We are in the middle of a pandemic and governments see no urgent reason to end it by rational means like soft lockdowns. As a result of this we can pay 1100 CHF per year to go to an indoor gym, rebreathing the same air as other people, using the same machines, and the same washrooms or we can go for the cheaper 49 CHF per month option but run the same risk. I found Option three. Some Freetness machines were installed in Celigny by a children’s playground.
These are just the type of machines that I like to use when I am at the gym. They’re not as resistive as I would like. They require workouts using our own body weight. Today, to escape noise pollution I found the motivation to try the machines. At first I did three reps of ten before following their recommendation of 12 reps, 4 times. I could definitely feel the effort by the last machine.
It’s nice to have machines like this outdoors because they can be used at any time of day or night, as long as you’re quiet. The other nice thing, is that if you have your own disinfectant you can clean your hands and the machines, before and after you use them, as well as your hands. There is plenty of fresh air, because you’re outdoors. The sun, rain and morning dew should help to keep them clean too.
The two machines I didn’t really like are the eliptical machine and the rowing machine. The rowing machine only works the upper thigh muscles, not the entire core. The eliptical machine felt far too light for me so within two minutes I stopped.
If the body weight machines are not to your liking then you have the body weight lifting bars where you can work on lifting your entire body while hanging from some bars. I didn’t use them today, because I was blown from the other exercises. If you went every two to three days you would soon see some gains, and you do have variations of excercises, to keep it from becoming boring.
There is an app, but I haven’t looked at whether it allows you to track what you’re doing, or whether it is just video tutorials on how to use the machines properly. I can check that before my next session. I might throw this into my daily walk, rather than driving to it. I feel a double workout would be more advantageous. This workout takes 10-15 minutes for now. That is too short.
I have been lucky over the last two days because the weather and visibility has been excellent. We can see really see everything at the moment. You can see the valleys on the French side, you can see the Cervin, the Dents du Midi, the Mont Blanc, Lausanne and more. If you spend as much time as me enjoying this landscape then you can see places you have been to in person from afar.
If you want to get to La Barillette and enjoy the views in person then follow this link
Going out is great, especially to an empty night club when friends of yours are present. It immediately becomes less fun when one friend decides to enjoy the freedoms of nature on a fence whilst a police car is rolling past.
At the time I was sitting in a kitchen with my back to the window when I hear the siren go off. What’s the cause of this I wonder and lookout. I spot two people I know and immediately I understand what they were doing. Harmless engineering term, up to you to figure out which one.
A friend standing behind me decides to yell out of the room “stop them, they’re terrorists” which in itself would be a harmless joke except for bored policemen. They decided to give the guy they had interrupted when nature calls an £80 fine. That’s annoying for anyone who’s been fined. You know the feeling.
It became more interesting when those two people came up to see me and ask whether I had caused those problems. Having a clear conscience I answered that I had not been the one to land them in trouble. Ok, who did, was the next response.
This person
Ok, now the situation escalated. At this point, both people knew who was responsible for what and they were willing to fight. I used all of my body strength to come between both individuals because I did not want to see a fight take place when I was a key witness in the unfolding events.
No fight took place but the echauffement definitely did. I was asked to leave the flat although I had done my best to avoid a fight and everyone went their separate ways.
That’s definitely not what I want to have to deal with after spending so much time and effort on the dissertation. When I wake up I’ll spend some more time adding the finishing touches to my dissertation before handing it in.
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