https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03
type: Collection
type: Container
contains: photos-tirane
contains: week-in-review
contains: conveniences
contains: french
contains: photos-sarande
contains: photos-sarande-2
contains: js-scoping
contains: weather
contains: close-enough
contains: photos-sarande-3
contains: week-in-review-2
contains: photos-sarande-4
contains: going
contains: photos-sarande-to-ksamil
contains: photos-ksamil
contains: photos-butrint
contains: photos-ksamil-to-sarande
contains: hiking-ksamil
contains: coronavirus
contains: week-in-review-3
contains: kitten-shopping
contains: office
contains: banned
contains: wish
contains: crochet
contains: photos-pizza-lasagne
contains: meetings
contains: overcast
contains: falafel
contains: week-in-review-4
contains: curfew
contains: breakfast
contains: beans
contains: lockdown
contains: ramen
contains: pressure
contains: photos-sarande-5
contains: photos-isolation
contains: week-in-review-5
contains: bookingcom
name: Posts between 2020/03 and 2020/04
total items: 40

banned
type: Note
content: Albania has banned walking outside after 6pm? Apart from just making people stay inside more, I don't really get it. But uhh sure. Everything is fine.
in reply to: https://www.albaniandailynews.com/index.php
published: 2020-03-16T18:24:00+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: albania
tag: coronavirus
tag: travel

beans
type: Note
content: if anyone wants to airdrop a crate of baked beans to Sarande that would be super cool. Supermarket own brand acceptable. Heinz, whatever, I'm pretty desperate. Branston, however, unacceptable.
published: 2020-03-23T18:03:00+01:00
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: life

bookingcom
type: Note
content: Booking.com auto emails saying "[destination] is calling your name!" that used to come at least once a day have now stopped, which is good of them.
published: 2020-03-30T10:45:00+02:00
tag: coronavirus
tag: life
tag: travel

breakfast
type: Note
content: Sometimes you just need spicy rice for breakfast. (Sticky rice cooked with vegetable stock and tumeric. Tofu fried in olive oil with garlic, paprika and black pepper, then veggies thrown in: mushrooms, red peppers, peas, sweetcorn, green beans (last 3 from the freezer). When the water has reduced from the rice, mixed all the veggies in to cook together for a couple more minutes. Drizzled soy sauce and hot sauce. Coffee is balkan/turkish style.)
published: 2020-03-23T10:40:10+01:00
tag: fedikitchen
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: life

close-enough
type: Note
content: Ooooh I'm close enough to Greece again that cafes have freddo espresso.
published: 2020-03-07T14:32:00+01:00
tag: albania
tag: coffee
tag: travel

conveniences
type: Note
content: My favourite modern conveniences are hands down toastie makers and underfloor heating. (I have neither right now but had both recently and I miss them.)
published: 2020-03-02T19:57:00+01:00
tag: life

coronavirus
type: Note
content: I'm in Albania, in the south. All reported coronavirus cases here are currently in the north. After the first two cases a week ago, schools were closed. By the end of last week, tourist attractions, bars and restaurants everywhere were closed. This weekend, no public transport, no non-essential shops, and from tomorrow no non-essential travel of any kind nationally. Only ambulances and freight will be moving, basically. Most of the land border crossings are closed. These are far stronger measures for far fewer cases than the UK has. So far the streets are quiet, but that's normal in a holiday town at this time of year. I've seen a few people wearing masks and gloves, and all grocery store workers are wearing them. But there's no panic buying, at least in Sarande, and even hand sanitizer is on offer at the supermarket checkouts. To fly back to the UK I'd need to get to Corfu or Tirana, and while there seem to still be EasyJet and RyanAir flights (but not until the end of the month), currently the ferries and buses are cancelled so I dunno how I'd get to an airport anyway (okay, I do, I'd have to get written permission from the police to be on the roads - as a foreigner with a plane ticket, it's possible - then find someone with a car willing to drive me to Tirana). I'm going to get some more groceries later, just in case something flips overnight, but I definitely feel like I'm better off here than trying to get back to the UK any time soon. Plus the weather is really good and I have a nice sea view from my balcony. I'll be staying home mostly, or maybe going down to sit on the empty beach, and hoping the internet and power stays on.
published: 2020-03-15T13:31:00+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: travel
tag: albania

crochet
type: Note
content: Having trouble to stay focused even when I'm not working. Doing some crochet while I'm taking a TV break occupies my hands so I'm not constantly tabbing over to twitter or the news. It's totally normal for me to not go out for days at a time, and have no meatspace contact with people. I usually have good control over the compulsion to constantly rotate through all online communication channels, but the last few days this has gone out of the window. Some wisdom from coworkers about this yesterday; perhaps it's because the world is changing so fast in the background. It's hard to just carry on in default mode right now because when you check back in on the world it's more vastly different the longer you leave it. Will adjust to this eventually, I guess.
published: 2020-03-19T17:03:00+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: life

curfew
type: Note
content: The problem with the new curfew (outside hours 5am to 1pm), besides the obvious, is that most days it takes me hours to psyche up to go outside to get groceries or whatever. No way I'm gonna be able to do this by lunchtime.
published: 2020-03-23T10:02:10+01:00
tag: albania
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: life

falafel
type: Add
content: Last night I made falafel, based on a recipe by Jack Monroe. I approximately doubled the recipe, and didn't measure or weigh any of the ingredients; subbed the fresh herbs with carrot tops, and threw a clove of garlic in. Delicate application of water and flour to the final mix and it was pretty easy to get them to hold together. Delicious!
published: 2020-03-22T10:36:06+01:00
summary: Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

french
type: Note
content: A couple of weeks ago I ended up on the wrong train in Switzerland for complicated but totally valid reasons and managed to explain why to the ticket inspector sufficiently well that he let me off, in case you were wondering where my French is at.
published: 2020-03-03T15:44:51+01:00
tag: french
tag: train
tag: travel
tag: language

going
type: Note
content: I'm going hiking without my laptop for a couple of days, back on Friday.
published: 2020-03-11T08:41:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: hiking

hiking-ksamil
type: Article
content: On paper it's a 3 and a half hour hike from Sarande to smaller, even more touristy town of Ksamil. I decided to make a day of it and visit all the beaches along the way. There are so many beautiful ones, and at this time of year, absolutely nobody on them. So in the end, this took more than eight hours (here's the GPS trace) and was exhausting, but worth it. It's possible to follow the coast for a large part of the way. Sometimes it's interrupted by hotels, but when nobody is around I scrambled over rocks, hopped a few fences, and proceeded on. It was also necessary to plough up a few uneven brushy hillsides in order to reach a trail I was sure would be there.. Did I mention there are a lot of beaches on the way? Some are attached to hotels and bars, but all is quiet at this time of year. Others are coves with little trails or steps down to. And others aren't really accessible at all, except with some rock scrambling. Part of the way to Ksamil is the village of Manastir, so named for the Monestary on the hill (I presume). To walk through the grounds (it's empty, I think) is a small detour, but a worthwhile one. I lost the trail I was trying to follow from openstreetmap, but there were other trails or easy terrain down the far side of the hill. It was getting late and I was running out of steam, so for the last stretch I skipped a few beaches and rejoined the road. There is a dirt track running along by the coast through an olive grove in the immediate approach to Ksamil. Ksamil itself has many beaches, and I managed to catch the sunset. I stayed in 'Apartment Skrapalli', one of a set of small studio-style rooms with kitchenettes. It wasn't fancy, but it was €13 per night, had everything for cooking (including a drip coffee machine and a toastie maker!) and the hosts, an elderly couple who don't speak english, were charming and plied me constantly with homegrown lettuce, lemons, fruit juice (no thanks to raki) and coffee. The next day I let my feet recover, and just …
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Hiking to Ksamil and Butrint
published: 2020-03-15T09:33:21+02:00
tag: travel
tag: hiking
tag: albania
updated: 2020-07-07T15:30:00+02:00

js-scoping
type: Note
content: JavaScript variable scoping will be the death of me.
published: 2020-03-06T09:34:00+01:00
tag: nodejs
tag: javascript
tag: hacking
tag: ods
tag: openactive

kitten-shopping
type: Article
content: This is another in the series of very occasional posts about clothes and shopping because I do this stuff so rarely as to be a novelty worth writing about. My good friend KitB got married in February, and asked me to be his Best Man. Which was a really good way to make me come to a wedding in winter in the UK when I would rather be in Turkey. KitB also decided we should wear matching suits. The thing about that is, KitB has a well-fed, average-height, broad-shouldered sort of figure, and I am petite, short, with hips and boobs. It turns out your average - or even high end - highstreet suit maker does not account for this scenario. We took advantage of me being in Edinburgh last October to go suit shopping together to get this sorted out... and we couldn't find anywhere that makes their suits in a range of sizes and shapes. The whole affair is gendered bullshit, that can't conceptualise of a world where people with different body shapes might want to wear the same clothes, because of some arbitrary divide based on genitals. We quickly had to face the reality that we wouldn't find exactly matching suits from the same place. Particularly not in-person, at short notice. But what we did manage to do was get Kit to try on a bunch of things so he could narrow down what he actually wanted to wear at his wedding, which until previously had been pretty much completely up in the air. At some places, the assistant in the shop put a "men's" small on me and pinned it in a few places to show how it could be adjusted to fit. But in all cases it still looked like I was wearing poorly fitting clothes. There was nothing to be done. But Kit decided on navy blue and a waistcoat, and I committed the details to memory as best I could. We figured, somewhat dejectedly, that if I could get a navy suit that was close enough and we wore matching ties, that would have to do. The next day, alone, I hit the charity shops. Secretly I was a bit pleased we didn't figure this out from a proper suit s…
name: I am become Best Man, Best of All the Men
published: 2020-03-16T11:07:00+01:00
tag: uk
tag: kitb
tag: life
tag: wedding

lockdown
type: Note
content: I know it's not the isolation olympics, but wild to see UK people freaking out about 'lockdown' when they can still go out at any time, ride trains and buses and drive cars between cities..
published: 2020-03-24T08:51:00+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: life
tag: coronavirus

meetings
type: Note
content: We're having a few more and more intense Co-op meetings than usual at the moment, but they're all about how we can best look after each other under the current circumstances.
published: 2020-03-20T13:30:00+01:00
tag: ods
tag: work
tag: cooplife
tag: opendataservices.coop

office
type: Note
content: My office, for at least the rest of the month and probably longer depending on how things go. Not the worst. I can see two islands today I've never seen before. I think fewer cars around must mean the air is clearer.
published: 2020-03-16T17:55:00+01:00
tag: albania
tag: life
tag: workfromhome

overcast
type: Note
content: It's overcast today, very still, and eerily quiet. No cars, no people, barely the sound of waves breaking. A couple of lively nests of swallows live in the building across from me, and sometimes I hear a cockeral crow or a dog bark. Last week the curfew changed to going outside between 6 and 10am and 4 and 6pm only. On Friday evening, another update was issued, cancelling most of the weekend: From 1pm Saturday to 5am Monday, nobody is to go outside at all. Nobody seems to know what Monday will bring.
published: 2020-03-22T09:56:00+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: albania

photos-butrint
type: Add
content: Walked from Ksamil to Butrint, about an hour. No trails around the coast, so mostly just went by road. The ancient city of Butrint is a tourist attraction, and was closed by sudden government coronavirus measures. As if there'd be anyone there at this time of year anyway. A local at a nearby hotel pointed me towards a hole in the fence behind his property. Had thought I might hike around the area a bit and take a bus back, but it quickly became apparent the local buses had stopped running too. On the way back, detours to some other bits of the coast, and other beaches in Ksamil I hadn't been to yet. Route on runkeeper.

photos-isolation
type: Add
content: Isolation Kitchen begins in earnest! I bought a loaf tin along with masses of baking supplies I haven't really bought since I started travelling, so I could fully commit. Featured here: Ad-hoc buddha bowl Turmeric spicy breakfast rice Khinkali (Georgian dumplings, filled with mushroom or potato) Chocolate coconut cake (sugar free) for the Co-op's 5th birthday The last of my vegan cheese on another lentil lasgane Lemon and poppyseed drizzle cake (sugar-filled) Bean-burgers, made from mashed white beans, carrot, carrottops, and red onion; coated with dry mix of semolina, paprika, turmeric and salt before frying. Food is so good.
published: 2020-03-29T23:47:47+02:00
summary: Amy added 26 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

photos-ksamil
type: Add
content: A slow day, recovering from the hike, just exploring beaches in Ksamil (on runkeeper). It's a quiet town with no tourists, beautiful but for unfettered construction and lots of unfinished buildings too. You can swim to the islands, when it's warm enough. Saw a few people out in masks and gloves, and police were bellowing something through a loudspeaker.
published: 2020-03-12T20:11:09+01:00
summary: Amy added 51 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202003-al/
target: 202003-al

photos-ksamil-to-sarande
type: Add
content: Hiked back to Sarande from Ksamil (on runkeeper). Stopped by the beaches I missed on the way down. Found some under-construction super fancy houses and accidentally trespassed. Watched the sunset from my new balcony.
published: 2020-03-14T19:53:09+01:00
summary: Amy added 37 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202003-al/
target: 202003-al

photos-pizza-lasagne
type: Add
content: Using some of my precious vegan cheese supplies on delicious lasagne (with garlic bread and salad) and pizza (with homemade sweet potato and potato chips).
published: 2020-03-19T20:39:42+01:00
summary: Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

photos-sarande
type: Add
content: Arrived in Sarande, a seaside town that is quiet at least at this time of year. Explored the area, sat by the sea, ate Albanian food at te Beoua.
published: 2020-03-04T18:35:22+01:00
summary: Amy added 41 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202003-al/
target: 202003-al

photos-sarande-2
type: Add
content: A walk up to Lekursi Castle with views over Sarande and towards Ksamil.
published: 2020-03-05T18:48:56+01:00
summary: Amy added 27 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202003-al/
target: 202003-al

photos-sarande-3
type: Add
content: A torrentially rainy weekend inside, but the views were still nice. The balcony cover has blue sky and clouds pattern on the inside to make you feel better. Walks into town when there was a gap in the clouds.. cafe working, visits to some old ruins, and a pizza at Limani. Found a bakery that sells somun, and burek with spinach or potato! Good to enjoy by the sea. At the somun with homemade grah.
published: 2020-03-08T20:42:31+01:00
summary: Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202003-al/
target: 202003-al

photos-sarande-4
type: Add
content: Went for a hike around the coast to the north of Sarande. There's very quickly not much there. There's a rough road to follow for quite a long way, although the sea itself is only accessible in a few spots because the cliff is quite steep. There are lots of cows, and a few secret beaches.
published: 2020-03-10T20:57:01+01:00
summary: Amy added 60 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202003-al/
target: 202003-al

photos-sarande-5
type: Add
content: Isolation in Sarande: photos of the sunset from my balcony, the floofy doggo on the balcony in the next building, and the little bit of beach in front of my building. Some gratuitous spinach byrek by the sea when I went into town for essential things like a SIM card.
published: 2020-03-28T19:15:31+02:00
summary: Amy added 28 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202003-al/
target: 202003-al

photos-sarande-to-ksamil
type: Add
content: Hiked from Sarande to Ksamil, along the coast as much as possible. Some of this was trails, some was scrambling through undergrowth or over rocks or through the edges of hotel property or construction sites. Took detours to as many beaches as possible, until energy was low. Here's the train on RunKeeper.

photos-tirane
type: Add
content: I spent my first weekend back in Albania in Tirane. A good opportunity to eat out at Veggies, as well as grab a few more vegan supplies that are less available outside of the city. I found Edinburgh's Chocolate Tree chocolate in a bio store! Then on the bus to Sarande.
published: 2020-03-01T21:26:21+01:00
summary: Amy added 16 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202003-al/
target: 202003-al

pressure
type: Note
content: Some pressure to 'take advantage' of the non-curfew hours to go out and take a walk, but I don't need to and wouldn't on a normal day, so why now when going outside should be restricted to essential trips? Stop projecting restlessness onto me, I can sit still in my chair all week no problem.
published: 2020-03-26T11:01:00+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: life

ramen
type: Note
content: I really want ramen but I don't want to buy individually packaged single-portions of noodles. What do?
published: 2020-03-26T10:48:00+01:00
tag: food
tag: life

weather
type: Note
content: Weather on the Albanian Riviera seems to be scheduled around my work/days off. Aka it's hot and sunny when I need to stay inside on my laptop and forecast rain and storms when I'm free to go hiking or to the beach.
published: 2020-03-06T16:45:00+01:00
tag: weather
tag: albania
tag: travel
tag: life

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Came down from the Vipassana mountain and went to Bern. Changed my travel plans to work around Italy's coronavirus outbreak.. Bussed from Bern to Zagreb, spent the day, Zagreb to Dubrovnik to Kotor to Tirana for the weekend. Did some OpenActive dataset gathering stuff.
name: Week in review: 24 Feb - 1 March
published: 2020-03-01T23:59:59+01:00
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: openactive
tag: bus
tag: albania

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Explored my new home of Sarande. Continued to work on OpenActive stuff. Walked up to Lekursi Castle. Watched the rain.
name: Week in review: 2 - 8 March
published: 2020-03-08T23:59:59+01:00
tag: albania
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: openactive

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Worked at the weekend and early in the week to get OpenActive stuff moved along. Then left my laptop at home to go hiking for a few days, when the weather was good. I walked from Sarande to Ksamil, explored Ksamil and hiked to Butrint and back, then back to Sarande. By the time I was back in town, coronavirus lockdown measures were really kicking into gear. Stocked up with smoki and pickles.
name: Week in review: 8 - 15 March
published: 2020-03-15T23:59:59+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: travel
tag: albania
tag: openactive
tag: hiking
tag: coronavirus

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Had an unproductive, anxiety-fuelled week with lots of co-op meetings, as coronavirus exploded around the world and the Albanian government keeps switching around and strengthening its curfew measures. Pretty sure I will not be returning to the UK any time soon. Borders closed, flights cancelled, internal transit halted. Caught up on some blog posts and made lots of tasty coping food. Spent too much time on twitter and news sites. Started crocheting a poncho. Felt extremely grateful for my job, my naturally reclusive nature, my balcony, view, and the weather here.
name: Week in review: 16 - 22 March
published: 2020-03-22T23:59:59+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: ods
tag: week+in+review
tag: coronavirus
tag: opendataservices.coop
tag: food

week-in-review-5
type: Article
content: Curfew update: outside hours 5am to 1pm. Went outside via balcony, to the beach in front of the building, and into town for a SIM card and byrek on Saturday. Started thinking about declarations of interests of UK politicians, and getting back into memorious. Got stuck into figuring out the DID Registries stuff better. Binged Avatar: the last airbender. Cooked some very delicious meals and cakes.
name: Week in review: 23 - 29 March
published: 2020-03-29T23:59:59+01:00
tag: albania
tag: life
tag: week+in+review
tag: ods
tag: dids
tag: memorious
tag: food
tag: vegan

wish
type: Note
content: I wish I was one of those people who gets more productive during a crisis. Like, distract myself by burying my head in work. But I'm not. So you know. Sorry coworkers.
published: 2020-03-18T13:45:00+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: work
tag: life
tag: coronavirus

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03
type: CollectionPage
type: Container
contains: photos-tirane
contains: week-in-review
contains: conveniences
contains: french
contains: photos-sarande
contains: photos-sarande-2
contains: js-scoping
contains: weather
contains: close-enough
contains: photos-sarande-3
contains: week-in-review-2
contains: photos-sarande-4
contains: going
contains: photos-sarande-to-ksamil
contains: photos-ksamil
contains: photos-butrint
contains: photos-ksamil-to-sarande
contains: hiking-ksamil
contains: coronavirus
contains: week-in-review-3
contains: kitten-shopping
contains: office
contains: banned
contains: wish
contains: crochet
contains: photos-pizza-lasagne
contains: meetings
contains: overcast
contains: falafel
contains: week-in-review-4
contains: curfew
contains: breakfast
contains: beans
contains: lockdown
contains: ramen
contains: pressure
contains: photos-sarande-5
contains: photos-isolation
contains: week-in-review-5
contains: bookingcom
items: photos-tirane
items: week-in-review
items: conveniences
items: french
items: photos-sarande
items: photos-sarande-2
items: js-scoping
items: weather
items: close-enough
items: photos-sarande-3
items: week-in-review-2
items: photos-sarande-4
items: going
items: photos-sarande-to-ksamil
items: photos-ksamil
items: photos-butrint
items: photos-ksamil-to-sarande
items: hiking-ksamil
items: coronavirus
items: week-in-review-3
items: kitten-shopping
items: office
items: banned
items: wish
items: crochet
items: photos-pizza-lasagne
items: meetings
items: overcast
items: falafel
items: week-in-review-4
items: curfew
items: breakfast
items: beans
items: lockdown
items: ramen
items: pressure
items: photos-sarande-5
items: photos-isolation