Lockdown, Part Two: "It's not that bad!"

It's week two of the lockdown and if I'm honest, it's not that bad. It's also week two of my daily cycling. Last week I rode six miles a day, with Sunday being my day of rest. Total mileage last week, and remember that my week runs from Tuesday to Monday, was 36 miles. Yesterday, which was day one of week two, saw me ride eight miles and the plan is to keep that up for the whole week. Sadly, today, I only managed to ride six miles so somewhere along the line and before next Monday, I've got to add two miles to one of my rides OR ride a six-miler on Sunday, which would make my total mileage for week two around 52 miles (that's four miles on top of what I was planning to do). Let's see how things go.

Cycling 52 miles in one week is good news. Slice that figure in half and it averages out as two 26-mile rides, so more than what I normally ride in a week when Andy and I are just riding at the weekends.

My plan with all this is to creep up the daily mileage to 10 miles, making 60 miles over the week which, give or take a couple of miles, is like cycling to the lakes twice. Whether I can take it above 10 miles per day is another story as that would likely involve riding to Botley Hill and back, daily, which would hike it up to 14 miles per day - not bad going if I can manage it.

The six-mile hill ride, as I've been calling it, is a pretty straightforward route. Along Ellenbridge, briefly on to Southcote, right on to Elmfield Way, left on Morley, right into Church Way, left in to Norfolk Avenue, follow the road round and up and then down, left into Arundel Avenue, down the hill and round and down and then left on to Ridge Langley, then a complete circuit and returning to Arundel Avenue where I turn right and cycle up hill, turning left into (ahem) Arundel Avenue (believe me it gets confusing) and then right on to Norfolk Avenue. I then ride up and down the hill, bear left and turn right on to Church Way, loop round the Morley/Arkwright roundabout and back up Church Way, turning left into Norfolk and repeating the route that takes me round Ridge Langley and back up and then down Norfolk until I emerge, for a second time, on Church Way, but this time I turn first left into Arkwright, then right on The Ridgeway, right on to Southcote, left on to Ellenbridge and home. Adding on another loop takes it to eight miles, although yesterday, on completion of the third lap, so to speak, I rode the length of Arkwright and turned right on to Hook Hill, following the road round, crossing The Ridgeway into Southcote and then left on Ellenbridge and home. Phew!

So tomorrow I've got to make up the lost two miles from today.

Andy finds a horse

While I've been doing my local rides, Andy's been pushing the envelope a bit, heading out to places like Westerham alone and finding horses on rides closer to home. I might well take a longer ride at the weekend.

On returning from one of my shorter rides I chill. At the moment I'm listening to David Gilmour's Rattle that Lock album, which is excellent. It's interesting how we've stopped watching television. Normally, when I get in from work, the television is on and it remains that way through to around 1030hrs when the news ends, it's just wallpaper really as there's rarely anything on the box that's worth watching. But now, we sit and listen to music, we chat, and the TV stays off until around 2200hrs when it might go on for the headlines, but the news is always the same, it's always about the virus and what is there to know, seriously? There's a virus, people are dying, the Government wants us to die, it hasn't really got it's act together, it's aiming to get us all infected and sod the old and infirm. What else is there to know? We're all at home until at least June, people are losing their livelihoods, it's all very boring, but strangely, the PM has the virus (really? Does he?). Similarly Jiminy Cricket, the health secretary, has it (Really?). Prince Charles had it! Oh, well, if he's had it, what's good for royalty is good for me! Quite frankly, I'm astounded that they clearly didn't take any real precautions.

People keep asking for 'clarity', now there's an over-used word in these troubled times. All you need to know is this: we're all in the shit, the Government isn't going to be much help and eventually it will be over and then all the nobs who voted for Boris will start praising him and likening him to Churchill. He's no Churchill, he's not even the Churchill Dog.

Once the headlines are over I switch on Prime and watch an episode or two of the X-Files and then I head for bed and the whole thing starts again, like now, I'm sitting here, I've just eaten breakfast (porridge with banana, blueberries and grapes, a cup of Earl Grey without milk and a peanut butter sandwich). Radio Four is on and they're talking about the virus. Not enough testing being done. I'd better get ready for work.

Late night mid-week ramblings...

One of the best programmes on television? Well, there's quite a few, once you've sorted the wheat from the chaff. The other day I watched an excellent documentary on David Gilmour, the lead guitarist of Pink Floyd: brilliant. Then, there was an Arena special and today – arguably the best of the lot – Timothy Spall's six-year circumnavigation of Great Britain in a seagoing barge : wonderful. And I've forgotten one of the best programmes I've seen in a long time, that of Julien Temple's film about Wilco Johnson, the former Dr. Feelgood guitarist and long-standing resident of Canvey Island, and his reflections on life and death following his close shave with the latter and his subsequent recovery.

And now I'm watching the more depressing 10 o'clock news. I'm not sure what to think about bombing Syria. Half of me thinks we ought to get in there and kick some arse, but the other half tends to agree with Corbyn and the fact that there's no real need for us to join the USA and France and Turkey and all the others dropping bombs on Syria. Surely, there must be nothing left of the place already without us going in? What's left to bomb? "Britain is the one dragging it's feet," somebody has just commented, meaning we ought to go in just for the sake of it.

There's some real concern over whether we'll mess up in Syria, just like we did in Iraq and Libya and Afghanistan. As many people have said already, there's no point in air strikes alone. We'd be better off chucking a few soldiers in there too – 'boots on the ground' as they say. The problem there is that nobody wants to commit troops to the cause so it's all looking a little uncertain. My guess is that we will go in and we will mess up. The bombing will stop, ISIS will be stronger than ever and everybody involved will be less secure than they are now.

The British government simply wants a fight. It knows that air strikes alone will get us nowhere, but it goes ahead anyway. I always find it amazing that we are told there is no money, that we are 'battening down the hatches' with a view to getting our finances in order, but when it comes to war there seems to be a bottomless pit of cash.

There's going to be a debate in the House of Commons tomorrow followed by a vote. Corbyn could have set the cat among the pigeons by insisting that his MPs vote against the motion for air strikes. Instead he's allowed them a free vote and it is widely believed that within a few days the British will be bombing Syria.

I've switched over to Newsnight with Kirsty Wark. There's a live television debate and one of the audience members is worried that we might be repeating the mistakes made in Iraq. Can we make a meaningful difference? And do we have an end game? David Aaronovitch believes we can degrade ISIS forces by bombing them. But others believe that airstrikes alone won't be enough. Who will supply the local ground forces to defeat ISIS on the ground? Cameron talks of an existing force of 70,000 ground troops, but many think the people concerned are not to be trusted as nobody really knows who they are.

What to expect next...

1. Propaganda footage from both sides. ISIS will be showing images of civilian casualties – probably caused by themselves deliberately. The British media, of course, will be gullible and stupid enough to give it plenty of air time. Cue Piers Morgan, Huw Edwards and Louise Minchin with 'concerned faces'.

2. Similar propaganda footage by the 'coalition' forces. That phrase 'coalition' reinforces the notion that 'we're all in this together', despite the fact that less than half of the voting public in the UK support air strikes (according to a YouGov poll in The Times).

3. British casualties. A lone pilot, maybe, but he'll be held prisoner by IS and probably beheaded by 'Jihadi Joe' or 'Islamist Irene'.

4. A terrorist attack on British soil coming to a street near you! Rumour has it that a supermarket might be attacked – or is that a ploy by supermarket management to boost online shopping sales in the lead-up to Christmas?

5. News that ISIS is 'stronger than ever' and that air strikes have been a complete and utter waste of time and money.

6. It's going to be a complete disaster – remember you heard it here first, folks – and we won't be seeing the back of ISIS for 'many years to come'.

I know what I'd rather be doing: chugging around the coastline of Britain with Timothy Spall in Matilda, his sea-going barge, or living in a crofter's cottage in Applecross like Monty Halls did a few years ago (another great television programme).

In other news....

• Peter "the Ripper" Sutcliffe, currently residing in Broadmoor, a hospital for the criminally insane, is getting a little hot under the collar about his impending move back to a proper prison. It turns out he's no longer a loony and more than fit to enjoy prison life to the full again. Imagine how mad you have to be to regard a long-term stay in Broadmoor as 'cushy'.

• David Cameron has being slinging mud at Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, calling him and his followers 'terrorist sympathisers'. Ultimately, I think Corbyn's stance will be vindicated as things will get steadily worse, not only in Syria, but around the world. When, I wonder, can the UK expect it's next terrorist attack? Place your bets, please! Of course, the problem with a terrorist attack is that it will stiffen Cameron's resolve to step up British involvement in the crisis.