Pretty as this picture may be, it's also rather symbolic. Spring 2003, and poor old Nicolexia is sat outside redundant, needing major restoration to her chassis if she's ever to see the good times again. Trapped behind bars with no Get Out Of Jail card. The tax had been paid, she'd passed Go many times over, had often landed herself on Free Parking and had even passed a hotel on Mayfair, but now it needed somebody to take a Chance, else she'd end up in the Community Chest (the scrap heap).

Nicole continued to sit around until I returned from travelling later in the summer, at which point I had to make a tough decision about her future. The photo below was salvaged from somebody else's collection and only discovered some months later.