Farming In Switzerland

Byrichard
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Pandemic is alive and well and I am still walking around in circles. I would go for bigger, more interesting adventures but no one is publicising those events until after the fact. During a pandemic it helps to be misinformed, an alcoholic and a festival goer.

If you like real sports, like climbing, cycling, group hikes etc then you have to wait for months, or at this point, probably years, for the pandemic to end. Last year when the government made the mistake of opening too early you could believe they were silly. By making the same “mistake” again it starts to look like government policy. That leads to the obvious conclusion that at the current level of incompetence the pandemic will never end.

A tractor tending to a field with the alps in the background.

The way that countries around the world are making the same mistakes, in the same way, at the same time, is leading people to discuss whether eugenics is being experimented with. I prefer to think of it as incompetence, rather than deliberate.

Israel, England and the United States are clear indicators of what Switzerland can expect from the pandemic and yet they fail to take the lessons and warnings on board. Instead they let the situation degrade and get worse. We are now at 20+ percent of ICU beds taken up by COVID patients, out of 79 percent occupancy, according to the RTS.

The Swiss have a strange threshhold limit. They prefer for it to reach a certain critical limit. I’m impatient for the next soft lockdown, as that is when the numbers will decrease again.

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Learning to Slow Down with Electric Cars

Learning to Slow Down with Electric Cars

Byrichard

One of the weaknesses of Electric cars is that they take longer to refuel than a petrol burning car. One of the advantages of electric cars is that they take longer to refuel than a petrol burning car. For some people this is a deal breaker. They don’t want to be forced to wait from two to 12 hours for their car to charge. I think that this could be a strength of electric cars.

Taking a Break

When you drive a conventional car you go to see people for an hour or two, and then you get in the car and you drive home. With an electric car you don’t behave like this. You drive somewhere that has a plug. You plug in the car and then you sit down, write a blog post, and then you go and see people. You even go for a walk with this people, have lunch, and more.

With a petrol car you go to see people and you can leave whenever you want. With the electric car you need to slow down. You need to give the car time to recharge from an ordinary wall socket. Plenty of buildings do not have the capacity to fast charge cars, so that’s where learning to slow down comes in to play.

Driving Speed

Yesterday I drove home at rush hour and I welcomed that traffic was slow. In a petrol car I would be frustrated and impatient to get from A to B but in an electric car I am not. The reason is simple. If you accelerate fast you waste energy. If you drive fast you burn more energy. If you drive at traffic jam speeds you use less energy for your trip. Instead of using 10 or more percent for a set journey you use seven to eight percent. When 10 percent equates to two hours of waiting for the car to charge, it pays to drive more conservatively.

If you drive at rush hour you can drive more conservatively, without annoying other road users.

The Jubilee Line Experience

When you take Jubilee line trains, or electric buses you hear the sound of the motors as they accelerate, or regenerate power as they slow down. It is a fun sound. You get a tamer version of this with electric cars. I find it fun.

And Finally

If I was driving to the shops and back I would be using one percent or less per trip. To recharge the battery after such trips would take a few minutes, rather than a few hours. Electric cars encourage short trips as charge times are lower but they also encourage longer drives to be for longer periods of time. In so doing electric cars encourage us to take the time to experience the places we drive to.

No Desire For My Daily Walk
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No Desire For My Daily Walk

Byrichard

For years, or even decades, I have gone for daily walks. For years I have enjoyed them and for years it felt like freedom. Since a dog charged at me, and nearly bit me in Autumn last year, and since cars are in the habit of driving too fast and too close, on a regular basis, my desire to walk has evaporated.

Looking Forwards to Heatwaves

I find myself impatient for the heatwave to come back. In a heatwave dog walkers and normal people stay home. In a heat wave you don’t live in fear of a dog sensing that you’re afraid, and attacking. In a heat wave you have the freedom to walk off of roads without getting muddy. The ground is dry.

Dogs and Cars

I used to walk on agricultural roads but I stopped. Either you had dog walkers with large dogs, or you had people in cars driving fast. The car drivers thanking me for stepping off the road. I step off of the road, into the muddy field because I’m tired of them driving too fast and too close on roads where they have no reason to be. It’s a farming road, not a main road. During the pandemic farm roads were nice because few people walked, and few people drove. Now that traffic is back to normal the dangers of dog attacks and being hit by a car are back in force.

Of course I haven’t been hit by a car, or bitten by a dog in years, or even decades. It’s the risk that became toxic. It’s the nead to be cautious that tires me. Even with a pram people do not slow down, as I was reminded of yesterday. Even yesterday a dog was threatening. I crossed the road. The dog barked.

The owner said “that’s strange, he doesn’t usually bark at people”. One person had tried to get its attention, but then didn’t consider that others are afraid of dogs. Since last Autumn’s incident I never get near big dogs. I’d rather walk across a rain soaked field, and mud, than have to overcome my fear of dogs.

A More Varied Life

There could be a positive reason for my desire not to walk the same routes every single day as I have done for four years or more. My routine isn’t as routine as it was. I went to Spain for three weeks, and I often drive to walk in another village more regularly. That my routine varies, may be why the sysiphean walk has grown less appealing with time. Before I walked five or six routes, both clockwise and anti-clockwise and now I walk just two or three variants.

I’m tired of facing my fear of dogs, and tired of bad driving because I’m ready for a change. Thst’s a good thing.

Learning to Prepare an Americano In A Sigg Miracle

Learning to Prepare an Americano In A Sigg Miracle

Byrichard

I love drinking espresso and preparing them but there is one big drawback. You drink them within a single sip and the pleasure of drinking coffee is over to soon. That’s where a quick google search provides the answer. An Americano is either two nespresso capsules of coffee poured into a mug of boiling water, or 15 grams of coffee per 150ml of water in a Moka coffee maker.


Today I tried Option one. I boiled water in a kettle, eyeballed the appropriate amount of coffee and then put the Sigg miracle berry mug under the nespresso machine. It spilled onto the lip of the cup and onto the counter so I quickly held the mug in the right position. I lost a little espresso but it’s a mistake you make once, for a story to tell. The second shot went in without problems. I closed the lid, went for a short drive, and then took a sip. Oups, this tastes awful. I added a little sugar and then it was perfect. A coffee to go, prepared within a very short amount of time.


Perfect for a road trip or the commute to work, when we can drink in vehicles, at the end of this pandemic.


Plenty of people write about why they love the Camelbak tumblers because they keep the drinks warm for hours, but I am going to take the opposite tact. What I like about the Sigg Miracle Berry is that it keeps a hot drink for a theoretical hour, before cooling down. That is plenty of time to prepare the coffee, walk to a train station, and then sip it as you wait, without queuing at a café or coffee shop.


Conversely the form factor should make it possible to get hot chocolate and coffee from automatic machines. You can refill almost anywhere and because of its lid you can transport it, without fear of spilling. You can almost gesticulate whilst talking with it in hand, without worrying too much. If you gesticulate, make sure you haven’t just taken a sip, as some residual coffee may fly away.


I have both the 0.47ml and 0.27ml versions because whereas the small version is good for Café Lungo, and coffee, the larger one is good for hot chocolate and tea, although after hot chocolate I would dismantle the cap and remove any traces of residual milk. The same lid is used for both sizes, so you can swap them around if you need to, or replace a lid if needed.


I am choosing not to write about the pandemic at the moment. If we lived in a free society where liberal values, rather than populism, were prevalent, then I would write about the pandemic. It is important to document this moment in history, but when it is appropriate to do so.


Roses From A Daily Walk
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Roses From A Daily Walk

Byrichard

Sometimes you go for a daily walk and all the roses are starting to emerge, and these are not tiny ones. These are saucer sized roses. They are mainly growing at the side of orchards. These are Red and pink, but there are other colours, so if I walk in the right places I should find them too.



I could have posted these images to Instagram or Facebook, but I’d rather post them on my own website, for the world to see, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually, three to six years from now. 😉

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