American plate fun

Although we got a limited sort of DIY option on our car registrations some years ago, it’s nothing like the US vanity plate option, which is almost unlimited, as long as the owners stay within some basic rules.

Even those seem unable to catch the ‘naughty’ ones sometimes, and some of the sneakier combinations do end up being withdrawn – once someone with a bit more imagination in the relevant department spots them.

I’ve had these living rent-free on my desktop for a while, but now need the space, so will just drop them off here, rather than delete them completely.

I suspect 3 of these might just conceivably be Trump loving MAGA cultists, possibly with a trunk load of guns, just in case someone cuts them off one day.

There’s more

Getting these moved has motivated me to dig out a collection taken from a series of live road videos I used to subscribe to, which eventually faded away.

I kept the plate grabs though, so think I’ll dig them out, make them smaller, and throw them in a follow-up post.

They don’t have any sort of theme, but caught my eye at the time.

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When in the West End…

I’ve given up on the classification of area around Glasgow, it seems to depend on whom you ask, why, and how they think their answer should be motivated.

Ask someone with property, and they’ll come over in glowing terms, “Best part of Glasgow you could wish for”. But ask someone with any political ties, and you’ll be in the “Most deprived poverty-stricken area”, desperate for handouts, sorry, grants.

Funny thing is, you’ll be standing in the same street for both answers.

Of course, the one thing I don’t have in the east end is students, and student accommodation, which I’m guessing is worth a fortune. On this sortie, the new thing I spotted was notices seemingly posted everywhere, applying, or notifying, of a property’s change in status to multiple lets or sub lets.

Being from the east end, I see lots of wealth signs when I wander the West End – but I know many of my neighbours are far from poor, with their Bentleys and Lamborghinis, even the odd Ferrari.

I wandered through a new part of the West End, to me, and it didn’t take long for me to feel out of place.

I don’t know why, because so many folk wander about dressed like tramps, but are obviously not, given the houses I see them disappear into.

It’s rather like seeing many drivers in 6-figure cars, dressed in rags and torn clothes, they look more like car thieves than owners!

This was just beside one tenement block there – I could have filled the post with nice plates if I hadn’t put my camera away.

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My neighbours from Jersey

It’s always struck me as a little odd that there aren’t more appearances of cars with jersey registrations amongst my neighbours – I suppose the reason is probably that they can afford to have cars sitting at all their houses, so don’t need to drive the one from their nice warm residence to their Glasgow hovel.

From passing them while out for a walk, it looks as if they leave them parked in their drives anyway, and I seldom see them on the road.

Even this was a random/chance spotting – I had more than half an hour to kill after the display at the bus stop suddenly changed to show that the ‘9-minute service’ of the bus I had gone to catch… wasn’t going to appear for more than 30 minutes!

Time for a wander since I didn’t feel like staring at the poster some anti-oil protesting loonies had placed INSIDE the frame showing the bus timetables (on top of the actual timetable – thanks guys).

This seems to be a new trick these nuts have learned, apparently now carrying tools to open the frames and place their posters inside – I’m amazed these morons can even use tools.

So, I went for a walk, and found this.

Pity I’ve never been able to catch the Guernsey plates that sometimes appear.

From memory, they’ve been more interesting, being the old silver on black types, and attached to classic cars.

Maybe one day.

On the subject of risqué registration numbers

Hot on the heels of last night’s subject of Sneaky smutty American vanity plates

I’m pleased to see we in the UK can still hold our own, and go with…

risqué
rĭs-kā′
adjective

• Suggestive of or bordering on indelicacy or impropriety.
• Suggestive of sexual impropriety; bordering on the indelicate.
• Suggestive of sexual impropriety

This arrived with no information, and I thought it was just somebody’s idea of a joke, and had been ‘photoshopped’.

But, being familiar with such things, couldn’t see any of the usual signs of an amateur job, so checked the registration online.

Sure enough, it’s real, and currently assigned to white, 2019, Fiat 500 Rockstar.

So, what I can say?

I guess DVLA was asleep that day, and nobody from the PC Brigade was looking.

An evening of assorted fun, topped off afterwards by a disgusting franchise outlet meal, which they probably won’t be able to taste anyway :-o

I suppose the only question that remains is – Are they running around behind this number having sought it out deliberately, or is it being driven by an unsuspecting vegan who doesn’t eat chicken nuggets, or other ‘meat’, and has no idea of the various interpretations which can be made of those letters and numbers?

So, now I know a little about registration plates of the Philippines

I’m usually too lazy to do this, but after seeing a (registration) plate with only the number 17 on it in a Philippines street, curiosity got the better of me.

I’d been intrigued by their plates for a while, as the system seemed to be inconsistent, but that was clarified when I leant that they changed their plate system a few years ago, in 2014, so there are still plenty of legacy plates (from 1981 onwards) to be seen, as the new system takes over.

I thought I found the relevant description of such a plate, but on reading the descriptions in more detail, found none of the options seemed to apply to something like the plain 17 seen.

Problem is that the number only schemes (normal plates have 3 letters and 4 numbers) are for diplomatic or embassy vehicles, and have 4 or 6 digits on a white background, plus a small decal at bottom left, describing their purpose. That does not appear to be present here.

Another option was the High Ranking Government Plate, a series which runs from 1 to 17:

17 – First Level Courts (Metropolitan Trial Court, Municipal Trial Court, Municipal Trial Court in Cities, and Shari’ah Circuit courts), added by Memorandum Order No. 297 signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on March 2, 2009 for assistant city prosecutors, district prosecutors and chief city prosecutors. Stamped with initials of 17*ACP (court branch number).

In fact, this IS the explanation of this plate.

The smudge below the 17 can, with some considerable effort, be enhanced to read ACP as per the description, and it is followed by another 3 characters, but can’t read without something like the clue the ACP prefix had. With a list of court branch numbers, it might be possible to pick the right one.

Philippines 17 Plate