Johnathan Laird
GEORGE, Tom, Bruce and Robert had been friends for years. This little story describes a road trip across North America they recently took together.
They had been looking forward to this trip of a lifetime for many years. The idea for the trip was conceived years ago when they were still at school. It would be a true adventure.
The first tricky question was to decide what type of vehicle to hire for the journey. Robert piped up and immediately suggested they hire a 300 horse power, bright red Corvette. Bruce thought that maybe they could design their own car. Meanwhile Tom was nowhere to be seen because he was inside trying his best to research the best car for touring. He was searching far and wide on the Internet to make sure they made the correct choice. George was just happy to be there, because he knew he was spending time with his friends. The choice of car was not so important to him.
They decided to hire a Volvo estate. Tom was delighted with the choice because of the cars excellent fuel economy but he did compromise with Robert by choosing the red sporty model. Both could not understand why on earth Bruce would bother even considering designing his own car when there were so many excellent cars already on the market. They all concluded that Bruce did often have some wacky ideas!
They had been driving for five days and everyone was having a great time. Tom had quietly suggested a suitable route that would take in the best views along the way. However Robert had other ideas. He set high, but in his opinion achievable, targets for the number of miles they would cover each day. He also wanted to pass through the large towns and cities along the way so that the group could show off their cool red sporty Volvo! Bruce was quite upset and a little frustrated because he had no opportunity for adventure. His idea of a good time was to first throw away the map and second head into the wilderness. Again George was quite happy because he knew that he was spending time with his best friends.
The friends had travelled 1,800 miles round North America. For all of them it had been the trip of a lifetime.
It was the final day and to George’s delight they were having a social night before flying home in the morning. They were heading out to a burger restaurant. Tom had phoned ahead to check availability of tables and made the booking. Tom was often frustrated by his friends because they all were in his view so disorganised. Bruce found the idea of getting a burger frankly a little boring but he was a loyal soul and did not want to offend Tom because he had put quite a lot of thought into planning the evening. The table was booked for 7pm and Robert made sure they got there on time. He hated being late.
The burgers were great and afterwards they celebrated by taking part in some karaoke. Robert was showing off by the end of the night, Tom was already planning the trip to the airport in the morning, Bruce was considering singing a song he had written himself and George again was just delighted to be having a great last night with his three best friends.
On the flight home they reflected together on a wonderful adventure. They laughed about the fact that their personalities were all so different, but together their little group worked very well!
So the question is…who are you?
*By the way I decided on the names for this little tale randomly. If you read this and the characters are your namesake this was coincidental.
**The fact that the characters are all male is irrelevant. Female characters or a mix would work just as well.
Johnathan Laird is a community pharmacist independent prescriber with a special interest in asthma. He is based in Aberdeen
Follow Johnathan @JohnathanLaird