A frosty morning, cloudless blue and half an inch of ice on the pond - a perfect day to head for the heat. We were briefly regretting having to leave the not-yet-emerged daffodils and blossom behind us, but scraping the ice off the windscreen has reminded us that British ex-pats head to Spain for a good reason.We got away in time to enjoy clear roads and a beautiful sunrise. Mind you, in this part of the world, Sunday mornings are generally pretty quiet.

We paused for a few photos to mark the event but, since this is our own backyard, we didn't spend too much time on this which was, in retrospect, a mistake.

The "Great Dividing Line" - the Grampian Mountains - that adds an extra £10 on every mail order addressed to "The Highlands" looked spectacular with the morning sun on the snow but we missed most of the best opportunities to capture these postcard-perfect views. We decided right then that some discipline would be required in future or we'd just rush from place to place and not savour the moments that make the memories.

We elected to take the more direct route south which takes us through the mountains via the A9 trunk road. In our opinion the biggest barrier to commerce north of Perth, but one of only 2 viable routes to the north of Scotland unless you prefer to crawl over the ski route to Glen Shee.

We saw little traffic until south of Pitlochry but by then the churchgoers and last night's stopovers were all up and about. We thought we'd escaped unnoticed from Moray, but on the outskirts of Perth a white van passed "one-eighty by zero", as Mike would put it, with all lights blazing....2 colleagues from the Windswept Brewery on their way home - sorry we didn't wave back, guys! Given the amount of their product we've got stashed in the back it's a pity that we couldn't have arranged to collect it on the way.

Into Glasgow to have lunch with daughter, escorted for most of the way into the city by Dundee United fans on their way to get thrashed by Celtic I assume, anyway). At one point we were surrounded by cars and coaches with dozens of scarves fluttering from the windows, making us feel like we were part of some crazy cavalry charge from a Mad Max movie. Judging by the number of scarves littering the roads, they were going to have a cold day.

And so, down the M6 which seemed to take for ages. I had insisted on doing my bit of the driving to make things fair. Of course, that had nothing to do with the fact that Mike was getting tired and getting increasingly "mardy" as the locals say in Doric.

The satnav thingy said we'd be at the Holiday Express outside Coventry by just after seven. We arrived at 8.50. We had been told the adjacent pub would be serving meals till 9.30. They didn't tell us that didn't include Sundays. We managed to persuade the hotel kitchen to supply pizza...I did have to persuade Mike from immediately firing up the cooker in the van as I wanted my Pinot Grigio. He then spotted the lager on offer!

We hope to get another Internet connection tomorrow but if not this missive will have to wait until we get to Portsmouth -and the nearest Starbucks to the ferry.
Thanks, BTW, to all those old friends who've "checked in" as a resultof the link to this blog; we'll be in touch as soon as we get the chance.