Environmental

For years I automatically took the car for everything I did, or almost. Over the last seven or eight years that habit has changed as I grew used to walking locally, and catching the train to activities. This shift in habits is due to two things.

The first is that I met with people who take trains. If you meet with such people it makes sense to take a train with them. If you go by car the journey time might be shorter but the goodbye at train stations can be quite brutal. “Goodbye” and that’s it. The activity is over. With the train it’s just as brutal but at least you sat in silence before saying goodbye. When I say silence I mean that you listened as someone else talked.

Over the years I have enjoyed driving to the shops with a petrol driven scooter for daily shops. I liked that it was small, light and convenient. I only got rid of it, after sixteen years of use because of the cost for a service. Usually it was about 500 but I was quoted 500 CHF, so that’s when I decided to be done with it.

For a while I had no scooter, until I found an Ocean Drive E9 or similar e-scooter. This isn’t a sit down scooter. This is a standing one. Before ownning this one I had tremendous fun with a foot scooter, using it to get to the bus, and train, and then heading to work, and sometimes riding down from Grand Saconnex to Cornavin for fun. It was really enjoyable to use.

For several weeks I have been using CoffeeB capsules to prepare coffee in an environmentally more friendly manner. In the process I used an old ice cream box made from cardboard to store the punctured balls of seaweed coffee.

It doesn’t smell at all, so you can keep it in your kitchen without hesitation. As the capsules decompose they dry up and the surface becames like paper or a wasp’s nest. It feels light and fragile. It’s amusing because you have two piles.

In the good old days noisy music festivals made sense, because technology was not what it is today. There was no choice but to build huge speaker stacks with huge amounts of power, to deafen an entire crowd of festival goers. It was also a different age, where attitudes to noise pollution were different.

In the 21st century, as people are crammed closer and closer together in villages, towns and cities, so the need to control noise pollution should increase. In summer, if you live Nyon there are two awful festivals. One of them is the Caribana and the other is the Paléo. Both of them make noise for four or five days, from the sound checks at lunch time to the concerts that go until 0200-0300.

I have played with Dolce Gusto machines and Nespresso machines and both of them have the same flaw. They’re quick and convenient when you’re preparing coffee but less convenient when you need to get rid of the capsules. With Nespresso getting rid of the aluminium capsules is easy, once you have a container for them. You amass them at home and when you go to the recycling centre you have two wheelie bins devoted to the task of recovering the aluminium capsules and their content.

Intro

On Cloudneo are shoes that you rent, rather than own. They are designed for running but you can also use them for walking. They are designed for dry, warm weather, rather than wet. They are designed to last from three months to six months depending on how quickly you wear them out. They are brilliantly white when new, but within two or three runs they lose their luminescence.

Circular - Use - Reuse

These shoes are designed to reduce the carbon footprint of the shoes we wear. They are made from beans, rather than petroleum based products. Once you’re done with a pair you send it back to the manufacturer, so that they are grounded back down and turned into a new pair of shoes. In theory you never own them. In practice they are just extremely easy to recycle.

Sunak and Solar

Detached from reality’: anger as Rishi Sunak plans to restrict solar panels.

Rishi Sunak plans to restrict the installation of solar panels on swathes of English farmland, which climate campaigners say will raise bills and put the UK’s energy security at risk.

Solar Powered Shade

Solar panels, if placed high enough can generate energy whilst at the same time providing shade for grazing sheep and cows beneath them. If you look at the surface of barns and other farm buildings it makes sense to replace the old roof, especially if it’s not beautiful patterned tiles, with solar panels. There is a barn near Ikea, in Aubonne that is covered entirely in solar panels. This is probably generating quite a bit of power for the local village.

The Unilateral Solution

I stopped making a mess because I came up with unillateral solutions, until I found the ideal one. I experimented with skewers to remove the mud from shoes, I experimented with rubber boots that I could rinse under a tap. I tried with spare shoes in the letter box. 

A Simple Doormat

In the end my favourite solution was the doormat by the car in the garage. This is my favourite solution because it takes seconds to brush the mud off my shoes before going upstairs, and best of all, I walk with muddy shoes, into the garage where no one will complain. No more mud in the building. 

I went for a walk with the barefoot shoes for a second day in a row. I didn’t regret it. I need to pay more attention to how I walk, specifically I need to make sure not to slam my heel into the ground with each step and this takes focus, muscle use, and discipline.
This time I wore socks with the barefoot shoes and the sensation is different. I prefer feeling that my feet are protected by the shoe, and by the socks. I don’t know why I dislike walking without socks in these shoes. I suspect that it’s a matter of adapting, psychologically.

I walk around in socks when I’m at home, so not quite barefoot, but almost. The idea of barefoot shoes is to get the human body, and especially the lower half to get back in touch with walking barefoot.
Yesterday I went for an 8.55km walk in barefoot shoes. I didn’t regret it. I took some spare shoes with me in case I found myself in such agony that I felt the need to switch. The truth is that I didn’t. When I walked the same route with crocs, and again with wellington boots I felt pain quite fast, and I just wanted to get home. With the barefoot shoes I didn’t. The Shoes I have: Merrel Vapor Glove 6.