It's been a good week for … number plates
It's been a good week for … number plates
I've never really got the personalised number plate thing. Surely they just attract attention to yourself? Often, the hot shots with the big cars sporting them are also the drivers shrouded in identity-concealing darkened glass. A bit of a waste of time when you've got B18 T0NY on your bumpers.
Nevertheless, vast sums of money have been offered for personalised car number plates in Qatar. An online auction by the traffic department saw someone bid 200 million riyals (£35 million) for what the Doha News website described as a "fancy number plate". It reads: 333355. Enigmatic to say the least. There are 19 plates currently up for grabs, all starting with the number three.
Stumping up for memorable number plates or phone numbers is common in the Gulf, especially when repeated numbers or a birthdate are involved. Go figure.
Earlier this year a bidding war took place in the United Arab Emirates for a phone number. Some 60 people battled it out for the number - 777 7777 - which eventually went for 7.9 million dirham (£1.4m) in a charity auction. .
Confession time: I have a personalised number plate. My swanky wheels (OK, he's a Peugeot 107 called Gilbert and he'd fit into the glove compartment of most 4x4s) came already bearing his special reg.
He'd belonged to an octogenarian who'd ramped up the grand total of 1600 miles in four years. Hardly racy. But the "fancy number plate"? It all seems a little incongruous.
So I have a car with a personalised registration that means nothing to me. I'd love to know the secret behind the mysterious combination of numbers and letters. Alas, Gilbert will not step up to the plate and spill the beans.
It's been a bad week for … cats
A cat in West Lothian - let's call him Pongo - said goodbye to one of his nine lives after falling 20 feet into a sewer tank.
A worker at the Armadale sewage plant raised the alarm after hearing the animal's cries, and firefighters came to the rescue.
The lucky feline was then taken to the Edinburgh & Lothians Animal Rescue centre in Balerno, and was finally reunited with his owner, Pamela Reid from Armadale. Understandably, he's been a bit of a sewer puss about it all …
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