This weekend just past was going to be a laid back, relaxing and soothing few days of rest from the riggers of work. But, I forgot Carmen had other things planned. We started off on Saturday morning by trucking into town to EasyCar to hire a car. After walking into an underground car park, we started to look around for the rental office, before it drove up beside us and parked. Looking sideways at the little man inside (who wouldn't let us take his photo) we gave him some cash and took the keys.

Although an ongoing theme, we had finally made the decision over Christmas, that we were going to have to find a flat in Croydon / Redhill as soon as possible so that Carmens work journey was less than an hour instead of 1:45+ each way. After a couple of weeks fluffing around we were driving to Redhill to drop in on some agents to get a flat. We looked around; they weren't to bad, small, around the £550 - £650 /m mark but most importantly, close to the train station. No decisions made =(

After spending the better part of the day in Redhill, we drove out to Carmens work Xmas function (yes after Xmas). Food was good, people were friendly and the setting was great - except for the fact it was in the middle of the whoops. As soon as the food was consumed, unlike most of these functions the crowd bolted for the dance floor. I was shocked...80% of the people were on the floor by the end of the first song.

Next morning, changing the EasyCar contract online to unlimited miles, we decided to make the most of it and head out to Stone Henge. Few hours to cross London then a few more hours on the other side, we got to Stone Henge about lunch time. It is pretty impressive, although not massive, you can't but be bewildered by the fact these stones were dragged hundreds of miles as far away as Wales. Surrunding the Henge are burial mounds, scattered in no particular order over a large area. You aren't allowed to go up to and paw them so after looking at the rocks on the ground, we had heard about another less famous rock formation about 20 miles north at Avbury. Avbury is about the same age as Stone Henge, 5000 years old. While, Stone Henge is about 20 meters in diameter, the outer circle at Avbury is about 200 meters, with smaller formations inside the outer circle. The whole arrangement is encircled by a 10 meter deep ditch which is as old as the construction. You can touch these ones! To be honest, although there are a lot more stones and a larger formation, the stones have not been shaped into the rectangles you know at Stone Henge, and they aren't any on top of each other. So I personally found it less impressive, but still cool.

By the time we returned the car, we had clocked up about 350miles in the two days, which amounted to about 20% of the one-month-old rental cars total distance travelled. I smiled.

Pulling ourselves out of bed early on New Years Day, we embarked on the journey to Inverness. Needless to say the streets were very very quiet as we left Edinburgh. After a number of heated discussions over who was in charge of navigational duties we were on our way via Aberdeen and some random tourist route that was to take us past lots of castles.

Unfortunately castle season occurs from something like March to October so the opportunities for checking out some more for our bonified tourists, Andrew and Neroli, were somewhat limited. Luckily, just as it was getting dark (about 3pm) we stumbled across the ruins of Huntly Castle (just as well, cos otherwise there might have been tears). We jumped the fence (as there was no one there to take our money) and went exploring. To be honest, I enjoy castle ruins a lot more than castles that have been restored - there is more a sense of realism to them somehow.

Negotiating our way to the B&B just as the snow started falling, people were starting to seriously doubt my choice - it definitely did seem we were in the middle of nowhere! However, once we were inside being fed christmas cake and hot coffee and dumping our gear in lovely rooms, the fears were allayed. In fact, if you are going to be staying in Inverness at any stage and have a car, then I would definitely recommend Gask House (only £20pppn including superb breakfasts)!!! We ducked into Inverness (10-15 min drive) for some dinner as by the time we got back (less than 2 hours later) there was about 15cm covering everything.

The next morning, with full tummies, we were out to play in the snow!!! Then off to see Nessie. We headed to the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre after we had little luck in persuading Andrew to go for a swim with Nessie, and up to see Uruqhart Castle on the edges of Loch Ness. We didn't see the real Loch Ness monster, but we did find this very realistic looking one in a pond close by.

The only thing left to do was undertake the journey back to Edinburgh and part ways at the airport (only to meet again at our flat in London). The 2 prerequisites that Andrew had told us about before they arrived were Castles and Whisky Distilleries. We'd managed the castles bit, but with it being a bank holiday, all the distilleries seemed to be closed. Just as they thought they were going to miss out, we managed to find Edradour (the one we visited last time we were in Scotland) and it was open. So once again, whisky saves the day in Scotland.

Arriving in Edinburgh on the 29th gave Aaron and I a much needed chance to detox and catch up on some sleep after being in Wales before Andrew and Neroli joined us. Andrew and Neroli, now living in Melbourne, had been in Belfast for a big family reunion and decided that while they were on this side of the world, a trip to Bonnie Scotland was in order.

The early essentials to our stay in Edinburgh were seeing the Edinburgh Castle and walking the Royal Mile. When we arrived at Edinburgh Castle (and picked Andrew and Neroli's jaws off the ground as they calculated the price back into ozzy money), it was very very cloudy, which is a shame as the Castle is perched right up on top of a hill. But by the time we'd finished our tour, the cloud had cleared and we were able to get our bearings over Edinburgh.

After doing all the usual castle things, like hanging around in the dungeons and playing with tanks, we were all ready for a quiet afternoon bad-mouthing british television. That evening, we headed out to the pre-hogmanay party on George Street where there was plenty happening including the world's largest 'strip the willow' dance, some huge wild beasts roaming the streets and some french street play about beating babies (not kidding, it was highly disturbing and no-one knew where to look).

Unfortunately, New Years Eve was a bit of a let-down. The truth was that we had heard big things and were expecting big things, but really it was just 40,000 people standing around in a street. There were only a couple of stages and even then there wasn't that much happening on them. I expected more street performers, food, drink etc. I was however impressed by the fireworks which happened unbelievably close to where we were standing ensuring we were covered in ash by the end of the night. All in all the night was OK, but could've been better...