1 bus, 1 car and 2 vans

Last weekend I was down in Ealing, London, for a friend's wedding. Had a great time. But you don't want to hear all the sordid details here, do you? You just want to hear about number plates! Not a problem.

After the wedding, myself and Steve from Uni had a short walk through the centre of Ealing to get to the car that was taking us to the reception, out by Heathrow airport. Rather excitingly, I saw a number E9 bus with a 79 plate at around five o'clock. Wow, my first bus! I nearly wet myself.

Then, as a bonus wedding present for me, whilst driving, I picked up 80 parked at the side of the road that leads to the airport. I have no idea what the road is called (or where we were really - possibly Hounslow?). It was 1725. We reached the reception with plenty of time for me to grab a quick shower before the reception started. Ummm, clean.

Today was also a good day. Two plates, both on unrelated vans which is quite unusual. The first van was for Chestnut fine foods at ten to nine this morning on Leeman Road. The second was in the town centre at lunchtime and was a Securicor van. That's 81 and 82. Yummy!

83 is pretty much a dead cert for tomorrow morning, I pass it most days. Fingers crossed.

Rollercoasters: Not a good place to spot from.

Earlier in the week, Tuesday, I travelled to Alton Towers. On the way home, I saw 76 parked in the actual village of Alton at 1707 and 77 on the M1 near Leeds at 1910. It was disappointing to find out that rollercoaster cars do not have number plates. Maybe that's something they could add for next year - I'm sure it would be a great attraction.

The excellent ride, Air, does at one point whizz you right past the main car park, so if the park had been busy, that could have given some opportunities for spotting.

The following day, I left the flat, and the first, yes the first moving car I saw on the road was a lovely 78. That event was at odds somewhat greater than 1000 to 1 (due to the vaguaries of the UK number plate system). The following day, this event did sadly not happen again, presumably because the odds would have been well over a million to one of it happening two days running.

Edinburgh 2: York 2

Edinburgh: Capital city of Scotland and so far an untried CNPS testing ground, for me at least. London had proved fruitful over the past few weeks, could it's northern sister do as well?

Not quite. But not too bad either. Queens St is a road parallel to Princes St but further into New Town. It doesn't have the shopping of it's princely brethren, but it did have a 72 at half past four. A 72 that turned out to be the first of three that I would see within the next ten minutes. This seems to be happning often. The rest of the day was barren, but whilst returning to the train station in Bert's car the next day, I did achieve the 73. Bert did try his best to make us miss the train by causing delays by pretending to lose his phone and then dropping us behind the station at a point where he could have had no idea where that there was actually an entrance nearby. But we found it! Ha! And caught the train too.

Back in York, traditionally things go quiet again, but today I have defied all my expectations - both of them in fact. 74 was a lunchtime affair at the end of Lendal - the car was heading north along the inner ring road, maybe going to the supermarket, maybe to the hospital. It was hard to tell and I was unable to stop the car and ask the driver his destination. I don't do that anymore.

One plate would normally be enough for me for one York day, but this evening I topped it and found 75 on Micklegate at a quarter to six. It was heading in towards town and again I did not stop to enquire about the destination.

Three to tango

On Friday I took the opportunity to sneak home for a 69. Well, I didn't know that was what I was going to get at the time, I just knew that I had a pile of exam papers that I needed to take home so that I wouldn't have to carry them around the York hostelries in the evening. It was clearly then intensely exciting to come across a black car on Leeman Road at around two minutes to three with an appropriate plate.

It strikes me that this must not make much sense to anybody being sent here randomly. For that, I do not apologise, but I will say "Hi"!

Today has been the following Monday and I got two plates on the way to the Monday Night Quiz. Where this week we came a lowly third. Not great, but much better than awful. 70 was seen at 2020 just outside my flat. The second moving car I saw on the trip out. It was lucky I was running slightly late compared to normal. Although possibly it wouldn't have made any difference as it would have just passed me further down the road if I'd been on time.

Second one was a 71 parked down a side road not too far from The Old White Swan itself. I kind of caught it out of the side of my eye so had to retrace my steps a little bit and get a proper verification. To anyone watching, I probably looked like a psycho on drugs. Anyone who was watching me though was likely to be a psycho on drugs themselves, so rather than feeling scared of me, they would have just felt a certain kinship.

More from London

I was visiting down in London again at the weekend, and had something of a 20 minute walk from my hotel to the restaurant. It was quite a busy road, rather unimaginatively called The Highway. It's in Wapping if you'd like to visit.

Since it's a busy road, I was in full plate-spotting lookout mode and it paid off nicely. On Saturday I got 66 at six minutes past five. On Sunday, I got 67 at twenty three minutes past eleven, and 68 a whole minute later at twenty four minutes past.

This now means that my last seven spots have all been in the London area. Is York dry for me now? Do I have to move to London to continue the game? I'm down there in three weeks time anyway, so hopefully that will prove as fruitful as my last two visits.