Fortunate Friday

On Friday, I travelled to the South of England on the train. I did not achieve any good spots on the train at all, but once I reached Hayes (a small uninteresting town which is nearer to London than Slough is) things improved hugely. Just 100 yards or so from the station was a 62 parked outside a curry house. I don't know whether its owner was inside having a curry or not - since it was only 1648, I would guess that they weren't. Pre five o-clock is a little early for curry.

I now needed a 63. I'd have settled for just one of them, but whilst a little taxi was taking me to my hotel I saw two (yes, two!) parked in Printing House Lane - a road near Hayes town centre. And then a third (yes, third!) one a couple of minutes later at around five minutes past five. I saw a fourth one later too. This was already shaping up to be a great day!

I arrived at the hotel slightly early and couldn't easily check in until the others arrived, so whilst waiting I stood at the side of the Uxbridge Road, lent on a barrier and watched the cars roll by. Quite a busy road, but I got 64 at 1736 and 65 five minutes later. I could have happily stood there all day watching the vehicles pass by me one by one (or sometimes three by three). It almost felt like cheating. But it wasn't. It's not even like I was waiting there with the sole purpose of spotting number plates, as I really was waiting for people. And standing by a road for hours watching the cars is an acceptable method anyway! Just possibly also a sign of slight madness.

I remember the 60s

The early 60s have stopped taunting me and have come out to play. The elusive 60 was playing with me at lunchtime at around 1240, heading south outside Waterstones. I'd just purchased my lunchtime sandwich and was walking back to work to eat it. Then, at 1912 in the evening on the way to Fibbers, 61 drove past me on Lendal Bridge. Annoyingly it was about 30 seconds after a 62 had gone past on the same road. It's a shame that time was running in it's usual direction.

Less of a social stigma these days

Now that Richard Herring has finished his show at Edinburgh, and has started to take it around the country (or London at least), I've found that it's possible to mention CNPS in conversation and not be guaranteed looks of pure confusion(/contempt). Last night for example, I talked to somebody who had seen the Edinburgh show. She assumed I had seen it as well, else why on Earth would I be doing this daft game? So I had to explain that I'd actually been doing it for getting on six months now, all of my own volition. Although the idea was from Herring. Just not Herring on stage.

Currently the early 60s are taunting me. That's the cars, not the pensioners.

Setting Goals

I went to the first in a series of sessions on "Performance Management" (Session 1: Setting Goals) at work today. It was held in the Ramada Encore hotel, York. Only a couple of hours long, but I was expecting it to be a bit of a waste of time. It wasn't though, it was actually really useful because parked in the car park of the hotel, at 1327, was a 59. Strike another!

I don't need a session on goal setting anyway. I have already set myself the only goal that matters: Get to 999 before I die. Only 940 to go.

3 more

Three more spots, but nothing hugely interesting about any of them, so I'll keep this short. 56 sped past us outside the Last Drop Inn at closing time on Wednesday night. 57 was then easy, as it's parked outside the flat quite often, so I was able to get it when I got home that night. And finally 58 passed me on Skeldergate Bridge yesterday, as we were walking back into town from the peace festival.

Beartrap

I think Bert has a 55 in his garage. Could have been an easy one for me, but he chose to not bring it to the barbecue at the weekend, and so I have been forced to resort to more conventional means. But yesterday, an opportunity arose for me to come at this one in a different way, literally from a different direction.

Normally, one is coming at these plates from below. Rising up through the numbers one by one, there is no ceiling for your next catch to hit its head against. It can always hover above you. But things do not have to be that way.

Yesterday I saw a 59, then a 58. I thought... if I could count down to the 55, as well as trying to count up to it, then I'd be able to trap it, like a bear in the woods. On the face of it, it should be much harder for me to go from 59 to 55 than just see a 55 on its own. But that is not how these cars work - you have to stay one step ahead of them. So on my way to work this morning, I saw a 57... and then just minutes later, 56. At this point, my trap was laid. I'd come up from below and down from above. Any 55s nearby could not get away from me now.

And my trap worked. Just as I approached work an X55 was just outside the city walls. Bingo bango. Now... just need to find the 56 to 59 in the reverse order to last time. They seemed very easy to find when they were no use to me. As ever.

New cars, out now!

As expected, 54 came relatively soon after my previous spots. Soon by my rubbish standards at least. They were released onto our roads yesterday, like monkeys released from an animal testing facility. And just like monkeys, I saw my first one outside Pizza Express this lunchtime. It was heading southbound. A few seconds later, another one passed me heading northbound. I thought it might have been the same one at first as it looked fairly similar, but there is absolutely no way that it could have turned round in that time. Must have been coincidence, a different car.

Whilst it is nice to know that in a year's time, 55 will become just as easy a spot, I really hope I do not have to wait that long.