Today I was herded like cattle at the shops and walked along the edge of a field I had never walked along before.
At the shops they put tape up, like a maze to force people to walk a certain circuitous route. The circuitous route would be fascinating if the shops were full but they weren’t so it was a hindrance. The issue is not walking. I love walking. The issue is that you get stuck behind people and people then get in closer proximity within the shops.
Today’ 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.
Both Digitec and Galaxus allow people to order online and choose which shop they want to pick up their purchases. This idea is relevant today because Migros, Coop and other shops are now forcing people to queue outside shops before being allowed to go in and make their purchases.
Today is Day Four of Orca in Switzerland and I saw that the Canton in which I live has the most active cases of COVID19 so my motivation both to go to shops and to go for walks has taken a hit. At the same time I don’t know whether it’s COVID 19 that is having this effect or the fact that I walked a theoretical 197.2 kilometres since the start of this month for the March Activity challenge.
During the weekend I thought that being in self-isolation would be a pleasant and enjoyable experience. The sound of cars is diminished. More people are walking and going for bike rides and the level of pollution could decline for at least a few days or even weeks.
On the flip side I saw that the shops were crowded and that people were panic buying. People are panic buying because they’re afraid that the shops might have to close down if the virus spreads too extensively in Switzerland.
In theory, pandemics are terrible for your social life because you go from socialising in bars, pubs, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, and cafés to having to stay home like an indoor cat or a fish in an aquarium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrHkKXFRbCI
For people like me, the thought of not being in crowds of 50 people is not worrying in the least. I love summer sports where we’re never more than 20 or so people anyway.
On one side of the Channel, you have people like Colin Furze building fun machines that have the fatal flaw of having an internal combustion engine. On the other side of the Channel, you have people like Marc Gyver building an electric car with easily bought components. The video below shows the construction process without talking, and without music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FIznSec7BA
For about 2000 Euros, with bike parts, and the right skills, you can build your own cars.
Although this article is two years old La Tribune de Genève wrote again about it and it appeared in my Google Newsfeed. I am not opposed to making cities pedestrian because I love to walk more than I like buses, trains, or other forms of transport.
I actually do like trains. When I lived in London I liked to take the tube everywhere. I wish someone had encouraged me to try cycling in London because I would have used a bike to get everywhere.
They announced that it would be windy today and it is. Windy days are fun because the lake goes from blue or green to English Breakfast tea brown. The waves crash against the walls and spray the promenade that goes from the Pont Du Mont Blanc to the Jardin Anglais. For now it’s getting things wet. With the right wind and low temperatures it could be great for the taking of photos.
Cloud timelapses are fun when you can put the camera somewhere and go and do something else. Yesterday I knew that we would go from blue skies and sparse clouds to overcast and rainy so I set up the camera to record a timelapse. I set the interval to one setting and the number of frames to one. You see the rain clouds form and then the rain starts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQPB9pQGN9A
In July this year I took half a million steps as I was banned from driving. I’m using that phrase for comedic effect. As I had one arm in a sling driving was out of the question for a few weeks and then it was out of the question because my tendons and muscles were in need of physio therapy.
Carbon Footprint By not using the car for around one and a half months alone I avoided using at least one tank of diesel for every month of injury and one scooter tank of petrol per week of petrol.