On the first of September, 2012 a group of friends from Boxford College: Doodle, Daffodil and Bligh wanted something to do on a hot summer day. They were unmotivated to do anything, they saw an advert on their TV of a theme park that was nearby. As excited and hyper as they were, they decided on-the-spot they would pack their things and get going!

Bligh as the group leader, wheeled their suitcases as Doodle and Daffodil were on their phones playing an addicting multiplayer ping pong game whilst walking down the stairs of the flat. They were on the 34th floor, Bligh was exhausted by the time we made it downstairs. It was a pity that the lift was not working. Daffodil opens up a digital map on her phone to locate the closest bus stop. We shortly arrived at the bus stop, but no buses were to be seen. Only until further speculation, we realized that there was no bus in service. So, they decided to take their old beaten-up yellow Reliant Robin to the theme park. At first, the engine did not start, but after a few attempts it started and our journey began!

Doodle setup the GPS so we could find the quickest route, it was a bumpy journey at first, however we came across some roadworks. The GPS never warned us about this, before hope was lost, Daffodil was familiar with this area as she had seen it before, she said to take “one left, two rights, up that hill, around that giant oak tree, then go straight”. Bligh took her word for it, to be honest, it was quite the detour. We eventually made our way past the giant oak tree but the engine started to hiss. The vehicle slowly came to a halt. We were all in a panic and did not know what to do. Doodle had the idea of contacting the RAC to rescue our vehicle, so we called them. Now all we had to do was wait, wait, wait, and wait. We were bored to death with no internet connection, we couldn’t play our favorite mobile game and we were literally being sunburnt while stranded in the blazing heat.

One hour and eleven minutes later, a van went by, but it was not the RAC van, so we kept waiting. We heard a sudden noise; a truck soon collided with a fallen tree branch which caused a nearby explosion. We were all getting extremely inpatient. Twelve more minutes passed, and the RAC van had finally arrived! Apparently, our vehicle’s exhaust had fallen off whilst going over one of the bumps, so that was the cause. The RAC team had to replace the missing exhaust, and we were good to continue our journey. Onwards we went, we rebooted the GPS and the route was recalculated; we were on the right track. Daffodil had fallen asleep, Bligh was keeping a look out for the roller coasters, while Doodle was happy the internet connection had returned.

We were approaching the theme park, we found a spot to park in a express bay since we we did not want to walk an extra quarter of a mile to the entrance. Once we arrived, before we even said a word one of the ticket admissions staff were nodding at us; we were confused. So we approached her and asked for an entry ticket. She said the park had sold out for the day; we were all about to cry. We begged her to let us in, but access was still denied. Out of dejection, we decided to abandon the hunk of junk that was our Unreliable Robin and decided to take the bus back home. The moral of this journey was to always plan in advance, otherwise there is a much higher chance of unexpected occurrences.