Every Saturday and Sunday morning Sam and I go out for a bike ride. We go out around 9am and the village is usually quite devoid of people and cars then, with only the odd dog walker out who is unafraid to brave the elements.

Yesterday we had snow and ice, which is not conducive to pleasant bike riding. However, today is gloriously sunny, and so out we went at 9 o’clock.

It seemed as though the whole village had been suffering with a bad case of cabin fever and had decided to make the most of the sunshine. Whole families jogged along the roads, bikes that probably hadn’t been used in ages trundled along, and even old ladies shuffled along on sticks. Dogs ran riot off their leads, and it was chaos everywhere. There were even more cars than usual (where on earth were these people driving to so early on a Sunday morning?).

Sam and I had never seen anything like it. For the past 3 years we had cycled our usual 3 mile route and hardly ever seen a soul. What had happened? Well, Boris had told everybody to stay indoors apart from going out to exercise. If we had known that the whole village would all turn out at the same time we’d have gone for our bike ride even earlier!

Have you got cabin fever? Do you find that because you’re not allowed out you’re now going out more than you used to? Maybe it’s a fact that being locked down and told to stay indoors tends to make the more rebellious go out even more. We usually have one long walk and one bike ride every day, but apart from going to the dentist last Friday we haven’t been using our cars at all. However, today we saw people we’ve never seen before, and it’s only a smallish village. We expected to see the same three faces we always see, and we saw the world and his wife, kids and dogs!