Day 180, 31 December 2012 - New Year's Eve. Fort William to Mallaig (pictured) - scenic train journey. Mallaig to Fort William (boring, dark, wet train journey). Cab ride to Portree (Isle of Skye). Another cab to Knott. Finally. Oh what tangled webs we weave .... we we are too darn busy to check/double check and re-check travel conditions. Had a cracking night's sleep on the Caledonian and immensely enjoyed watching massive snow-fed lochs, red deer and snowy ...

Day 170, 21 December 2012, London (85%) France (15%). That's right - rather like Bill Murray's infamous movie "Ground Hog Day", it is Travel Day (again). Spent the morning convincing 3 tonnes of gear into 1 tonne of luggage. It was also Travel Planning day. Very hard to get our heads around the forthcoming month (one week Club Med, France then 10 days Isle of Skye, Scotland, then 21 days Bulgaria for skiing). So it was no relief at all to be booking train ti...

Day 169, 20 December 2012, London. Wardrobe replenishment via Charity Stores. Somewhat like starving, exhausted pilgrims near the end of a six month forced march, many of our clothes have fallen by the wayside of late. NotBeingGrownups unfortunately involves NotFlingingMoney about on luxuries like clothes - so after a exceedingly quiet morning, we headed out to a few selected charity stores and returned, triumphant, with new jeans and shirt for James and a snaz...

Day 168, 19 December 2012, London (in all it's glory) - Changing of the Guard, Bond Street (old and new), Lunch at the Coach & Horses (Bruton St), Carnaby Street (pictured), Liberty's (department store - frightfully expensive don't you know), National Gallery in Trafalgar Square - Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Covent Garden Markets, Dinner on Whitehall, WICKED! at the Victoria Apollo Theatre. Bed. Finally. Yay! It was (obviously) one of our big days! Had outstandi...

Day 167, 18 December 2012, London (again!) Easy day today - took ourselves on a self-guided Jack the Ripper walking tour of the neighbourhood immediately around our hotel. www.londonforfree.net We're staying in the East End, just near Liverpool Street Station and had a ball wandering around Spitalfields Market - even had Turkish for lunch (which certainly brought back memories). Took a stroll down Brick Lane - so many migrants and more so than the Indians and ...