Monday

We aim to head back to London at 10.30 - but appear downstairs at just the wrong time and end up getting roped into helping the caterer back out with all his stuff. No matter, it's a small price to pay for what's been a brilliant few days, and it's nice to repay Ellie's dad for all the free booze and amazing food. We say our goodbyes and there's lots of hugging and even a little bit of drink to take home (not that either of us really fancy facing it for quite some time).

I get behind the wheel for the first part of the journey, which involves driving back to Bristol Parkway to drop K's sister off. On the way, Nick mentions a craving for McDonald's, which duly sets us all off and by the time I've navigated the Meriva around Bristol's uninviting ring road system to Filton we're all absolutely starving and a little delirious. Needless to say the Big Mac goes down a treat and we enjoy a little sun as the girls go for a nose around Matalan.

K takes over for the trip back to London and we have fun listening to the CDs full of old party tunes she brought down for the wedding. By the time we've slogged our way around the North Circular it's getting fairly late in the afternoon, so we take the car up to the rental place in Bounds Green. This is the nerve-racking part of hiring a car that I hate - I dread the possibility that we might rear-end someone or get a scratch on the way up Green Lanes, creeping through traffic and avoiding the assorted Wood Green nutters who all seem to love wandering out into the road. Happily, we manage to avoid any sort of incident and are soon able to hop on the 141 bus back south.

We head straight to Sainsbury's to fill the house back up with food - though we're both enormously tired and the sheer amount of information North London is feeding into my weary brain is a real shock to the system after the last 4 days at 0mph.

Eventually we get home and are finally able to collapse on the sofa in front of a bit of Mad Men (almost finishing the second series), and reflect on a great few days with a slightly surreal ending - breakfast in the country, lunch in a Bristol industrial estate, teatime battling through Harringay. It's part of why I love travelling around Britain - but, as the cliche goes, it's always nice to get home.