The Fitbit Charge HR is one of the better heart rate and step counting solutions out at the moment. It allows you to keep track of your steps and heart rate twenty four hours a day for a little less than a week between charges. It is a wrist worn activity tracker that detects whether you are walking, running or climbing up a hill. I tested it over a period of weeks while hiking, doing via ferrata, cycling and sleeping.
I took advantage of a rainy day to watch a series of documentaries by the BBC called Tudor Monastery Farm. It is a documentary series where three individuals live the life people would have lived at the relevant time period for a year. During this year they try farming, mining, fishing and other skills and crafts from the time. These are observational and experimental documentaries. They take the observational cinéma verité and Direct cinema approach to factual television production.
I really like this documentary series about Edwardian Farming. it is a fly on the wall documentary following three people through a year on an edwardian farm close to Dartmoor. They experiment with market farming, food preparation of the time, trout farming and so much more. It is relaxing and without an over-enthusiastic announcer/narration. It’s a fascinating glimpse at a way of life that those who remember it is becoming dead rather than living history.
When animated gifs were new and overused on geocities they were tiring. They were used by people whose homes are surely filled with kitsch. Facebook, with it’s declining user engagement decided that it would join the “me too” bandwagon. As a result of this we will see a noisier unsociable feed. Twitter has made retweets confusing today. When something is retweeted or commented on you want to see the relevant tweet with the comment.
Le Sentier des Toblerones Toblerones Walk from Mainvision on Vimeo. Hidden among the trees in the Canton de Vaud you can find concrete blocks put there as a defensive line to slow down invading armies. The concrete blocks have a similar shape to chocolate Toblerones. There is a hiking trail that you can follow from Bassin down to the lake side. Along the way you can find concrete bunkers camouflaged as houses.
Nice View of the Alps from the Tour D’Aï Tour D’aï via ferrata is a nice option if you are looking for a view of the Alps and of the Lac Léman region. You can take the telecabine from Leysin to the top and from here walk one hour and get to the base of the Via Ferrata de La Tour D’Aï. This is a challenging via ferrata if you are not accustomed to heights.
VIA FERRATA from Summitride on Vimeo. Of course riding a mountain bike down a via ferrata is impossible. What is possible is riding the bike at the start and end of a via ferrata. In this video we see an individual ride down some routes where we would not feel at ease with full safety gear.
[caption id=“attachment_2216” align=“aligncenter” width=“660”] The landscape visible from the Plan Praz Via Ferrata.[/caption]
Rock Climbing For Tourists Via Ferrata (VF) is rock climbing for tourists. It is a method by which non rock climbers can ascend a cliff with a minimum of training and effort. Hand holds and foot holds are placed within easy reach of these others. Participants in this activity benefit from a new perspective on the landscape and learn to handle their fear of heights and move at the group’s rate rather than their own.
Today with Tomtom Go you pay 20CHF per year for the maps and traffic information. When I first bought the TomTom Europe apps for iOS and Android they cost about 170CHF an operating system. If my memory serves me well traffic information would cost an additional 100 CHF per year. As a result of the high cost for traffic information I was in the habit of using Waze. As long as you have a data connection you get maps and traffic information for free.
Today Amer Sports announced that it has bought Sports tracker. Sports Tracker is an application that I have been using since I had the Nokia N95 8GB. I used it on symbian, iOS and Android devices over the years. What I love about this app is the way it displays information about the work out. It gives you several screens while you are exercising with the option to select which information you want to see most.