I’m writing for future generations now. As I looked at the stats for the most recent posts i see that readership is low. I’m tempted to start writing about something else as a result. In two or three weeks if we’re still seeing low numbers of new cases I might.
The biggest change since two days ago is that when I went to the shops I saw that InterDiscount and other places are open. Restaurants are open too. I saw some people in these places but without counting.
Inspiration to write usually comes from meeting people and having conversations but it’s at least 58 days since I met someone new and had a different conversation so it’s hard to explore new ideas.
The CSS front page I’ve been working on for the past three or four days is almost ready to be shared. I still need to tweak three or four things. I’m happy about this. When I replaced the time I spent on social media with playing with CSS I gave myself a great opportunity to learn two or three new skills. I was afraid that I would be confused and lost but so far I’ve found the opposite to be true. I’ve found it relatively easy.
The biggest challenge is getting the content to be desktop and mobile-friendly so every experiment I run has to look good on both. So far this has been a good experience. It’s something that I haven’t done, possibly since social media came along, and distracted us. It’s a shame that social media didn’t grow in quality of conversations but it has benefited my drive to learn something new.
We have to keep upskilling, and upskilling by working on a website is good, because we learn skills that others can see and assess within seconds. The more time I spend tweaking the first page the better it will look, and the more knowledge I will come away with.
See you tomorrow for day 59. We’re just two days away from two months without being within two meters of another person.
This weekend I went on a two day hike. It was a combination of a Summit Foundation themed hike and a Wehike event. The hike was over two days and two nights. We arrived on Gryon on Friday night and stayed at the Chalet Martin. This is a nice relaxed backpacker hostel with a trampoline, bunkbed rooms, optional breakfast and more. It is located within easy walking distance of the train station and is easy to find. I slept well.
First Day
Gryon is an interesting village with some old chalets. Two of these Chalets are hundreds of years old and listed as national monuments. They are side by side with a short description explaining why they are significant. You hike through the village for a short distance before climbing through some woods before getting to a large parking. From the large parking you continue uphill towards Chaux Ronde. You walk along the road for part of the way with some segments where you walk to the side of ski pistes, through some woods and up some pistes. If this was done as a day hike it would be easy to moderate.
For about one to two hundred metres you walk along an Arête which some people might feel uncomfortable doing. You have a steep drop off on either side so being sure footed and self assured are useful.
This is the most exposed parts of the hike. If you want to continue prepare yourself for such moments. If you’re used to the Tour D’Aï or the Rocher de Naye this segment will be pleasant, especially since you can see the Tour D’Aï from here. This is one of my favourite aspects of this two day hikes.
This was one of the most beautiful passages of the hike. You have nice green fields with great potential for numerous flowers. You see Switzerland in all of it’s beauty. The path from this point on is easier going and offers some great views.
When we arrived at this portion of the hike both the clouds and the light were playing with the rock formations so I kept looking right and behind me to see how they had changed, waiting for some interesting lighting to take pictures. If you’re on a photowalk then I would recommend finding a good place to wait for the light to be just right for a nice image. In the wrong light they may look dull.
When the light and mountains play nicely together you get a real separation between the grassy meadows, the cliffs, the sky and more. You get a sense of scale and contour. The rest of the hike down was through trees and then along a road. As I was carrying enough equipment for two days I felt exhausted by the time we arrived in Villars where we had a good meal at a restaurant. Almost everyone had Röesti.
The primary focus of this hike was to pick up rubbish left by skiers, snowboarders and other sports enthusiasts over the winter months. We picked up plastic, cigarette butts, gloves and more. Some of us were less passionate about it. If you’re on a hike and you drop rubbish think of the effort that you’re making with a simple hike. By hiking and picking up rubbish the effort is greater. You bend down and get back up frequently. It’s an alternative to burpees.
Today I saw a picture of a frog sitting in a sauce pan on a cooker speaking to another, saying “I Know the water is heating up but that’s the next generation’s problem” and this can be a comment on a few things. The first, linear comment is of course about global warming and its consequences for current and future generations. Every generation, we, as children, want to make a better place when we grow up. The realities of adulthood make this more of a challenge than we had anticipated.
The second comment, and the one I leapt to is about the habit of saying “We’re safe, everyone can remove their masks and meet in big groups this summer, before, when winter comes, seeing that there is a huge new wave of Covid cases. In my eyes summer is the best time to work towards Covid Zero and be like most of Asia, New Zealand, and before recent changes, Australia.
The existential part of today’s blog post title comes, from knowing that the pandemic will get much worse again, and that we are windmilling towards another wave. Data I saw today suggests that the next wave is already on its way back. If this is true then self-isolation is not absurd.
In Summer it does feel absurd to self-isolate but at the same time there is evidence that it is not absurd, that it is rational, and normal. Another existential question is whether I want or need friendships anymore. It has been at least five years since I have had any. Any need, or deep desire has been muted years ago. Years ago I cried with pain, due to solitude. Now I think I’m blazé about solitude. I feel that if I wasn’t growing older I would be completely fine with the pandemic solitude I am currently living with, as well as the solitude I felt before the pandemic.
We couldn’t live in self-isolation for two years, going into the third if we were convinced that we needed to have a social life and all that other crap. People will think this is posturing but I’ve been solitary since some of my earliest memories. The pandemic doesn’t help. Neither does job insecurity, and neither does having to drive to see people who will never return the favour.
One of my reasons for not wanting to do things, either alone or with people, is that if you do things with people you need to walk close to other people who are not wearing masks. If you go to walk a mountain path it will be narrow and people will not be masked. If you wear a mask you will looked at as if you were swearing at them whilst playing a bagpipe. You do get strange, disapproving looks when you wear masks.
I don’t mind in the shops when I buy food, but in stairwells and other places it is uncomfortable. This discomfort is the government’s fault, for spreading disinformation about the pandemic being over, when it clearly isn’t.
Trevor Noah was at the correspondent’s dinner two nights ago and called it a super spreader event. This morning I saw multiple reports of people testing positive for covid, and aranet4 readings in the 2000+ range of c02 parts per million. Western countries are constantly selling the lie that the pandemic is over, when all of the data and previous seven waves prove are premature. The Northern Hemisphere should work towards Covid Zero but has chosen covid denialism instead, so the window of opportunity to stop covid before window is being missed. Spring and summer are the ideal opportunity to get to Covid Zero with the lowest social cost.
We have provided the virus with a pilot light of opportunities to spread this summer and we will pay the price in September, yet again.
When I check glocals I see that no events are planned anyway, so i am not missing out at the moment. Those that do sports where groups meet, and use cars, are still self isolating. it is only the alcoholics and others that are meeting and socialising without masks during a pandemic.
And that’s it for today. Less euphoric than sometimes, but this situation induces a level of fatigue that we just have to get used to.
We cannot always walk around in circles during a pandemic around where we live. I spent over a year walking around in circles near home in Switzerland but this Christmas I travelled.
I didn’t travel because I wanted to. I travelled because sometimes we need to see family. I also travelled to escape all of the Christmas rubbish in Switzerland.
We are in a pandemic. I haven’t socialised in over two years. If you want me to value Christmas give me a reason to celebrate it. Spending two years in pandemic solitude does nothing to enhance my indifference to Christmas.
I am safer in Spain than I would be in Switzerland. People wear masks in the street, and ffp2 masks at other times. The rate of vaccination is higher and the government stood up to populists. Children, at a young age wear masks. Switzerland saying that children do not want to wear masks is wrong, and shows cultural bias. England has the same problem.
I didn’t wear a mask as I passed people on the walk today but there was plenty of air around. The image you see as a thumbnail has Ibiza in the background. I think that on top of a cliff, in the afternoon, there is enough air to keep virus concentrations to a minimum, not that people on this walk, would make it if they felt bad.
I am demoralised by Switzerland and their indifference to the pandemic, the lack of effort to end it. With the current Swiss attitude the pandemic will last for decades. Migration could still be worthwhile. To a nation where health is valued rather than capital.
If I thought the pandemic had a chance of ending in Switzerland I wouldn’t have left. I would have stayed put. I stopped being like Rieux this year, by travelling twice. Why wait? Nothing will change until those in power are booted out by moral people.
Spring is finally back and the fun sports are about to start again. Via Ferrata, Rock climbing, hiking and other sports will be possible and we will see what new places I explore. While waiting for the season to start properly I took some time to film bees pollinating a form of apple tree. The images were captured with a Sony PMW-200. This camera records high quality images.
This summer I will work on projects and share them.I hope to realise my documentary about via ferrata at last. I have acquired some new skills but need to find people with whom to collaborate with.
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