I had my reservations about going to Scotland in the winter. For much of my life I had lived in the South of England and had rarely been further North than Birmingham, and to be brutally honest that was cold enough. However a good friend had recently moved up there and had invited me for the weekend.

I decided to use a car hire firm in Scotland as I thought my little rust bucket, a classic Fiesta although great for running about town could not be trusted to drive all the way to Scotland and was certainly not reliable or warm enough to travel around the highlands.

After chatting to my friend we decided to put down a few details of the trip and he said it would be far easier to fly to Glasgow and use a car hire company at the airport. He had moved to the edge of Loch Lomand near the town of Balmaha, a more picturesque place could not be imagined and it seemed to contain the essence of Scotland.

As my friend was in the lucky business of being able to work from home he did not have a car, somewhat of a recluse in his Scottish idyll he insisted for the duration of my stay I would use a car hire service so he could show me some of the sights Scotland had to offer. Having never been this far north I was more than happy to do this although going just as spring was breaking seemed a risk to me, it snowed a lot this far past the Watford gap.

On arrival at Glasgow airport I went straight to the car hire company desk and after the usual procedure of signing forms and giving credit card details I got the keys to a Focus, this was quite a step up from the beaten up Fiesta on my driveway and far warmer as well.

Trying to find my way out of the airport was not easy but I was soon on the minor roads travelling through some of the most commanding scenery in Scotland, I could see why my friend had moved here.

On arrival in the small town of Balmaha the most dominant feature was the proximity to the huge loch, I headed in its direction for I knew my friend's house would be close to the water. There he was waiting outside his gate when I pulled up, his first reaction was to joke with me that the car hire company had provided me with a better car than the heap of junk back home, he loved criticising that car, despite it getting us out of many scrapes during our university days.

His house was beautiful, this time he had really landed on his feet, a three bedroom cottage overlooking the loch with a small jetty and boat to fish from. He hoped the weather would hold so we could sample the fishing that he described as the best in the Scotland. I had also seen the golf course on the way in and asked if the weather was good could we go for a round? After all going to Scotland and not playing golf would surely be a travesty.

That night we drank scotch and recounted tales of our times at university together, I had truly missed my friend and could see that he too had missed the company of close mates. For the next few days the weather held out and we got the round of golf in and fished to our hearts content, catching a rather good fish supper. We hardly left the town causing me to think that using the car hire service had been somewhat of a waste, a taxi to and from the airport would have probably been cheaper and easier.

I left for my flight early in the morning promising to see my friend soon, it had been great to catch up and clearly my friend's hermit like existence in Scotland was getting to him. Hopefully next time I would be able to rally a few of the other lads to come along, making it a bit of an occasion. I pulled into the car hire depot and deposited the keys at the desk.

A quick flight later I was back in the south, my fears about the Scottish weather had been unfounded and the golf courses up there were brilliantly kept. I would definitely be going back to Scotland but next time instead of using a car hire company I would either grab a taxi from the airport or take the faithful Fiesta all the way up. To see the look on my friend's face pulling up in the decrepit motor would make the arduous journey well worthwhile; it may even stop him constantly ribbing me about getting a new car.