You've got bigger - we've got older.

DEAR SPOOK, are you being competitive? I send you photo's of our biggest mountain and that really steep bit Sara ran up, and you send me a photo of NZ's biggest mountain and a scree slope that I'm quite sure our Sara could run up before breakfast and still be smiling.......maybe.

So I sent you one of Castle Stalker on the way to Oban this morning, and the Isle of Mull ferry coming into harbour. Ye canny match that!

I suspect you probably also couldn't match what happened just after I took the Castle photo at 8.15am. I came round the very sharp corner at the bottom of the road to find a woman on the other side of the road fervently gesturing for me to stop. I did, and she ran accross and jumped in the car. I did comment on it not being a very safe place to hitch, just as a van came round and had to take evasive action to avoid me. But she just pointed forwards and I drove off. I asked where she was going and she pointed ahead, again. I tried once more and she wrote on a pad "this way". She was in her mid-thirties and was clutching a book to her chest. I thought she might be

• unable to speak
• unable to speak English
• or just not wanting to speak

The clue came from the book title 'The Essential Dali Lama' and the fact that she sat with her finger sitting lightly on her lip in a 'shsush' gesture. The finger sat on her lip, the way a hand would rest in a lap. She was delicately chewing gum and brought a nice minty smell to the vehicle. I drove in silence, and wondered if I would be able to persuade her to get out the car on Oban High Street or if I would have to explain to Dad and Mum that they would be driving home sitting in the back seat, and most likely in silence. I wondered if she might even still be there when I picked you up at the airport on the 19th December. It was difficult to know what to expect, with the lack of communication. I had the red light against me at Connel Bridge, (10miles down the road) at which point she gathered her bag, gave me a thumbs up sign and hopped out the car. She crossed to the other side of the road and stood gazing at the currents that rage under the bridge. I wondered who else would be treated to the silent treatment and how they would cope. It looked as if she was going to head back in the direction we had just come.

I had a lovely drive down through Argyll with Mum and Dad. It is so pretty and was nice to see the places that Sara, Julie and I had cycled through on our cycle holiday, May 2008.

I dropped M&D at home and turned to drive straight back up the road to be home for the children. It was a bit wild crossing Rannoch Moor, but I wasn't really sure what it was doing. The gritter lorries had been out and there was a moon around, but a head wind was blowing what looked like snow into my windscreen which wasn't really getting wet, but smeary. I think it was very fine rain which was highlighted by the headlights, and the grit was smearing the window. There were quite a few fine Stags grazing by the roadside, reminding me to take it slowly, as they have a tendancy to want to join you in the front seat of the car too, via the windscreen, and although not budding Buddhists, they are not very chatty iether.

I forgot to tell you yesterday that you can buy 10 donuts for $2.60. Compare that with one pain au chocolat in Wanaka at $2.29 and no wonder we can be poor and fat in this country. Yum yum.

Paul Henry, the breakfast TV presenter in NZ, has made it to my favourite sunday paper, by calling Susan Boyle 'retarted'. He is making no apology. Hmmmm. He wouldn't last long in this country. Methinks he is not doing NZ any favours.

3 weeks and you are home, honey.