During a pandemic one of the safest places to be is on a bike on quiet rural roads. The only people you meet are sporty so there is a higher likelihood that they are sporty....
Posts tagged “self-isolation”
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The Bike Ride — Jul 29, 2021
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Relaxing with Language Learning — Aug 18, 2021Today I practiced vocal German and I found it relaxing compared to being with people in person. This pandemic sees the opportunities almost impossible.... -
Justified Self-Isolation — Jul 9, 2021It is important to know that you are in Justified Self-Isolation. Over the last three or four days I have felt like an idiot for self-isolating, but I now see that this is entirely justified. The R number for some canton went from 0.70 or so up to 1.4 or higher in recent days. This is for Bern, Geneva and Vaud, and it should spread more with the weekend.... -
Four Hundred And Sixty Eight Days Of Self Isolation — Jul 1, 2021The pandemic is still alive and well and the hope that we might have had that the pandemic would end has been scuppered because governments refuse to work towards COVID-Zero, and they refuse to be cautious. It is disheartening to see with which complacency governments are sleeping back into exactly the same mistake as last summer. Last summer they allowed the numbers to climb, and ignored the risk of another wave, and this summer they are making the same mistake....
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Day Twenty-Two of ORCA in Switzerland – The Company of Cats — Apr 6, 2020Today during my walk this afternoon I surprised a cat on some stairs and I moved patiently. It brushed up against me so I started to stroke it. During this pandemic the only living things I have had physical contact with are cats. During a pandemic, if you’re not living with people, you are very limited.... -
Day Twenty-Nine of ORCA in Switzerland – A Desire To Go On A Hike — Apr 13, 2020We’re in day 29 of ORCA in Switzerland and I have an ever increasing desire to go for a hike. During today’s walk I listened to two podcasts about hiking and I walked yet another variant of my usual walk. Apple tree blooms are increasing in number and the Colza looks almost ready to harvest.... -
Day Six of Orca in Switzerland – Stricter measures. — Mar 21, 2020Today’ I’d like to discuss stricter measures. Coop and Migros both have online shops set up for home delivery but the system is overloaded by people ordering at the same time. They don’t have the truck fleet or staff to cope with the demand so I suggest a better solution....
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Day Seventeen of ORCA in Switzerland – April Fool's During Self Isolation — Apr 1, 2020April Fool’s during self isolation is not fun. People made jokes about how our freedoms would be limited even further. In ordinary situations those jokes would be detected but because we have the freedom to get food, go for walks, and sit at home we have no other rewards as such. One of the jokes was that bandwidth would be throttled. The second was that Strava would be used to track people and the third was that bikes with handlebars would be allowed but not racing style bikes.... -
Day Five of Orca in Switzerland – Next Time We Discuss Shaking Hands We Should Stop and Go Into Self-Isolation. — Mar 20, 2020It’s Day Five of ORCA in Switzerland. Next time we discuss shaking hands we should stop, and go into self-isolation. We had all the signs that a pandemic was coming. We knew about China and we saw what was going on in Italy. We knew that a virus was infecting people at a rapid rate.... -
Day 65 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland - Coping with Solitude — May 19, 2020Coping with solitude is one of the challenges that we, people who live alone, are going to become familiar with. It’s 65 days since I’ve had skin to skin contact, sixty-five days since I’ve given or received a hug. It’s sixty-five days since I’ve had a meal with anyone.... -
Day 64 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – "When I'm 64" — May 18, 2020Earlier today or yesterday at some point I was thinking of the song When I’m 64, and that I should share it. I’m not 64. Quarantine hasn’t aged me so drastically. I felt the need to make that joke....
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Day 63 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A 15 Kilometre Loop — May 17, 2020Today I walked a 15-kilometre loop because I saw people walking two abreast and decided to retrace my steps a short distance before trying a new bifurcation. By the end of this walk, my legs were starting to get tired. I walked non stop for over two hours before a quick stop at a petrol station to get some drinks before heading home.... -
Day 62 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Bee In My Helmet — May 16, 2020Today I was going to go for a walk but when I saw how beautiful the conditions were and how empty the roads seemed it felt like it would be a shame not to take advantage so eventually I got a bee in my helmet. Usually, you’d think of them as being in bonnets, but not today....
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Day 60 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – The Sixtieth Day of Solitude. — May 14, 2020It’s the sixtieth day of solitude for some of us and if we look at Twitter we see that people in other countries are suffering. One person spoke of the dark dog whilst another expressed distress. A third expresses another emotion. Around the world we see people suffering and trying to cope in their own unique ways.... -
Day 59 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Thunder As I Got Home — May 13, 2020For once I walked in the drizzle, rather than the rain but I could hear thunder as I got home. I have almost reading Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home during this walk. Poetically I was listening to her about walking with a storm on its way whilst a storm was thundering over the Jura.... -
Day 57 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Another Walk In The Rain. — May 11, 2020Walking in heavy rain for two and a half hours doesn’t make much sense. You don’t see much. The more time you spend outside the more of you is wet, and by the time you get home you’re cold and in need of warming up....
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Day 54 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – The Via Ferrata Season Resumes on Monday — May 8, 2020The Via Ferrata Season resumes on Monday with La Via Farinetta reopening. This news came via the Via Farinetta Saillon official page, as seen with the Facebook embed below.... -
Day 53 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Rebooting Switzerland in Safe Mode — May 7, 2020We’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.... -
Day 52 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – More Cows, and Cascading Style Sheets — May 6, 2020While some of us have gone fifty-two days without being within two meters of another person due to the pandemic others walk side by side down country lanes, forcing those walking alone to make the decision of whether to risk infecting the vulnerable couple or stepping off the road and waiting under an electricity pylon while the selfish people clear the way.... -
Day 51 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Only Two People At A Time — May 5, 2020Today I went in to a shop without knowing that the limit was two people at a time. Paradoxically there were not two but five people in the shop because if you’re a parent with a child you’re allowed to be two, so there were four people. I saw no sign on the door because the door was open so I didn’t know. The shop in my village doesn’t have that rule.... -
Day 49 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Two And A Half Hour Walk At Dusk. — May 3, 2020I just got back from a two and a half-hour walk at dusk. I had no plan to go for such a long walk. It was elongated because I ended up taking a detour to see calves just as they were being fed. They’re quite excited about getting some food. They were very happy to get their daily milk, as you can see from the image below.... -
Day 48 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland - Calves And Their Mothers — May 2, 2020During 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.... -
Day 45 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland - The Need For Outdoor Exercise. — Apr 29, 2020This aftrnoon reminded me of the need for outdoor exercise. I was feeling lazy and unmotivated to go outdoors. I thought that the rain would come back during my walk, as it did during my scooter ride, and as it did yesterday. I checked the weather app and I saw that we should have good weather until tomorrow so I took advantage to go for my walk.... -
Day 43 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Caught Outdoors During a Thunderstorm — Apr 27, 2020Today 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.... -
Day 42 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Few Minutes of Rain — Apr 26, 2020Today 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.... -
Day 41 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Reverse Journey — Apr 25, 2020Today 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.... -
Day 38 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Contact Sports — Apr 22, 2020By 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.... -
Day 37 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – The Future, Or Uncertainty — Apr 21, 2020I question whether we’re living in the future, or uncertainty during this pandemic. One friend on Facebook wrote that Coronavirus is making us live in the future because of a number of reasons, as listed in the embedded post below.... -
Day 35 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Hike To La Barillette. — Apr 19, 2020Today I went for a Hike from La Barillette to La Barillette. It’s a shame that the restaurant wasn’t open to the public. It is currently marked as private, and scheduled to open on the first of May. Today I didn’t expect to do a long and physical hike. I expected to complete my usual daily tasks and then to go for the usual walks around where I live. In the end I did do such a hike, but it involved a slightly different geographic location.... -
Day 34 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Daily Bike Ride — Apr 18, 2020When the Pandemic was just starting I thought that this would be perfect for a daily bike ride and I was tempted to go to the mountains and to do other things. I didn’t though, because emergency services said "Don’t monopolise our resources getting injured because we may be required to help with the COVID-19 situation. Within three or four weeks they changed their statement to "if you need help we’re still here, our emergency services are still working as normal.... -
Day 33 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A video walk — Apr 17, 2020Today I went on a video walk with the DJI OSMO pocket three or whichever number it has and I took a series of frames. Before going for my daily walk I searched through the Vision Du Réel virtual Film Festival list of films and I found “The Bridge”. It’s available for all to watch during the festival. I didn’t watch it in full but from what I saw it’s a series of shots in the style of Dziga Vertov’s Man With the Movie Camera.... -
Day 32 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland - A Single Tab Open — Apr 16, 2020I have a single tab open in Chrome at the moment, my main browser. This window, to write this blog post. We are now in Day 32 of self-isolation and I’m keeping myself distracted through blogging, making webpages mobile friendly and more. I’m also limiting the time I spend on news websites, social media and more. I have a five minute time limit on social media apps on my phones.... -
Self Isolation and Avoiding the Common Cold — Nov 18, 2025For years I never had a cold because I was living in social self-isolation because I thought we still lived in the same age as when I was in Weymouth during the Foot and Mouth Epidemic. During that epidemic we avoided going to the new forest, we ensured our shoes were cleaned if going to certain places and we ensured that eradication was possible....
