I considered going for yet another hike yesterday. I didn’t, for two reasons. The first reason is that I had to commit on Wednesday night and I wasn’t ready to commit on Wednesday for Saturday. The second reason is that the group has a black list for people that don’t turn up with a valid reason. I much prefer the “If you’re late we won’t wait” school of punctuality. I decided instead to join a Bike club Switzerland ride.

A few days ago someone wrote something about chocolate croissants. I then wrote something about Chocolate easter bunnies. A third person then said “please don’t have conversations, there are hundreds of people reading this exchange”. This is on WhatsApp. WhatsApp is, or at least was, an IM client. For those of a certain age an IM client is a conversation app. It’s the type of app that includes AIM, ICQ, Messenger, Skype and many, many more apps.

This weekend seems to be quiet, hiking wise. So far I see just one event, organised. Sunday would have been an option, except that it could be stormy in the afternoon. If light rain falls, then that’s fine, but if it is hail then it is better to avoid. I think that’s why we have gone from five hikes in a single weekend, to just one. Yesterday I studied the logistics for this hike, and I got everything ready.

This morning I was studying the logistics for Stage 8 and 9 of the Jura Crest Trail before thinking, “This is too complicated, to be interesting”. Specifically, I noticed that if we finish at Vue des Alpes we have to go via La-Chaux-De-Fonds rather than via Neuchatel. This means that if we go by car, and park in one valley, we need to take multiple trains to get back to the other valley.

Yesterday I went for a walk and during this walk I kept looking at the Jura. Above the Jura I could see a cumolonimbus cloud mushroom and grow upwards, before spreading out. This morning I read about a huge hail storm. I photographed that storm cell as it was growing. Yesterday I could see a few storm systems growing and I thought “maybe we’ll have storms this evening.” We didn’t, but some of them did.

This weekend I didn’t blog because I went on two hikes. The first hike was with the History hiking meetup group, and the second was with a GoSocial group. Both hikes were around 10km in different landscapes. The first one went from Bière to Allaman and the second one went from Haut-De-Caux to the Dent De Jaman and back. From Bière to the Arboretum The first hike was with a larger group than usual for this meetup group.

Yesterday it happened again on Whatsapp. Someone said ‘avoid having too much chatter on this group, there are hundreds of people. When I see such messages it frustrates me because at its core Whatsapp is designed for people to have conversations. The idea that we would join Whatsapp chats, to speak very little, to me is absurd. Whatsapp is designed for instant messaging. This is not a cloister where we have taken a vow of silence.

This weekend I have the choice between running, hiking, walking, via ferrata and probably more. Years ago I would have automatically gravitated towards Via Ferrata because that is a sport I really loved. These days I’m not so sure. It’s especially that the VF would take one and a half hours of driving, which isn’t really the issue, but that it starts at around 11:30, which, for me, is late.

This year, as I walk and hike with others, and as their activities are shown along my own, in the list of participants, so I begin to follow people I know on Strava, Komoot and other social networks focused on sports. Notice how I didn’t call them social media. The reason for this is simple. We’re sharing GPS tracks that are categorised by sports. This weekend I saw that one or two people I know seemed to do group activities and I felt left out, because I had not seen them advertised on GoSocial or Meetup.

I write this as a joke, rather than as a serious post. I have access to two EVs. The first is a Fiat 500 that has a potential range of 180-200 kilometres although in Switzerland with the hills and more the range is theoretical, rather than practical. The second option is much smaller and can be taken in a lift or on a train. That is an e-scooter. By e-scooter I mean one of those that you can stand on.