Yesterday I went for a 50km bike ride that took two hours. During the first half the weather was good, and it felt warm. I cycled down to Nyon and towards Prangins, before cycling back towards Nyon before heading to Duiller and from there up towards Genolier, but not the direct route because of roadworks. I went up via a smaller town. When I got to Genolier I then went down the hill before heading back up to the road that takes you via the top of Trelex before cycling to Gingins and up via the golf of Bonmont before riding to La Rippe and up via the upper route that takes you to Divonne via the upper route.

Most people will automatically get an Apple watch because it can track fitness and do other things. Others may go for a Garmin watch, a Suunto or a Fitbit but if they do then this is for step counting, run tracking, cycling and more. For 30 CHF, at the time I’m writing this blog post you can get the Xiaomi Smart Band 8. It’s cheap, it’s affordable, but it’s mediocre.

Paradoxically what makes it mediocre is not the device itself but rather how Apple iPhones throttle GPS and other feature access from mobile devices. Yesterday I went for a 27km ride but the device counted 600m of travel. It’s missing 26.3 kilometres.

A few years ago I signed a contract to generate 360 content but the contract ended after just a month because the company restructured or something similar. I then bought a 360 camera and played with it to film interesting angles.

I keep forgetting that I have this fantastic camera. It’s fantastic because with 360 videos you can either allow people to see what they want to see, or you can frame the shot just as you want it to be. With a normal camera you need to place it so that you can film what you want to film. With a 360 camera you film everything and then frame the shot.

On Sunday, after Saturday’s via ferrata I went for a walk along the Areuse river. The hike started in Noiraigue and went along the Areuse river and two gorges. In reality it’s one gorge but there are two parts to the gorge seperated by a long flat bit that is more friendly to people who are slightly, or quite afraid of heights.

This experience wa organised via GoSocial rather than Meetup.com or other sites. Initiaully I was sceptical of such an activity because there are over 50 people signed up, and only 25 spots so I expected not to be able to go. Luckily people signed out and a spot cleared for me the evening before the hike.

There was a time when I would have gone to Charmey and climbed the Square Vide II route without hesitation. This is a K6 route that starts with an overhang, before continuing over several more overhangs. I tried the first part and decided not to continue. I climbed back down before getting over the overhang.

Years ago I would have done it because I went to climbing gyms every Thursday evening, and did via ferrata almost every weekend so I had a much stronger upper body. After six or seven years of not climbing much I have the upper body of a cyclist or hiker, rather than a climber.

I live in a Minergie, which, in theory, means that I never need to worry about climatisation because the building keeps itself warm in winter and cold in summer. In practice the features that make a flat fantastic winter make it awful in summer.

Good in Winter

Large windows, in winter allow heat radiation in, so you use the sun to heat your apartment. From Spring until Autumn it has the opposite feature. It turns a room into a sauna, rather than giving an enjoyable temperature.

As it is meant to be warmer over the next few days I went for a bike ride this morning, rather than in the afternoon. The rational is that by going for a morning bike ride traffic could have been less. The other reason is that it’s slightly cooler in the morning than in the afternoon.

Today wasn’t a warm day, but I felt like going for a bike ride, and I wanted to see if a different time of day made it more pleasant. It did. I also tried an elongated loop this time around.

I understand Meetup, GoSocial, Facebook Events and other event based social networks. The one that I don’t understand is GoSocial. It’s a social event network that has visibility on Facebook but you can’t comment, and chat rooms for Geneva, Lausanne and other places.

Instead of creating an event where everything is visible with ease, as with Glocals, Meetup.com, Facebook events and other social networks it is a pig’s breakfast of one chatroom per event, and a list that is manually updated for participation that is only visible when you’re already included within the chat when it’s updated.

If the Lammenhüutte is too strenuous for you there is an easier option. A walk to the Majinsee and back, via the Thermal gorge. This is an easy hike with 300m of climbing and descent on wide gravel paths rather than narrow hiking paths. It takes you by a cold water lake before taking you through a vertiginous gorge that is not for those that suffer from a fear of heights.

I have gone up to Leukerbad at least three times for the via ferrata and this could have been the fourth or fifth time that I do it. I chose not to do it. During the pandemic I spent a lot of time hiking, with little to no exposure to heights. As a result of this I lost the habit of being high up.

I realised this when I was just three or four meters up on a sea defense in Javea/Xabia and felt afraid of the height I was at. In the past I would have been oblivious to it.