Kuala Lumpur January 2024 "Numbers Up"
14/01/24 18:34
When I was a teenager at school I started car number spotting, the idea being that I would look out for the registration plate numbers 1 to 999 in sequence. I was helped at that time by the local bus company having a fleet of buses covering the entire number range so at first it was easy to see the next number in the sequence every day or two. However as time went on those buses were withdrawn from service and replaced newer ones which had numbers I had already seen. No matter there were plenty of cars around but the difficulty of seeing them in numerical sequence, rather than randomly like one would do in train or bus spotting, soon became apparent and it became anything between a week or two or more before I would see the next number in sequence. To cut this story short it took something like fifteen years to complete and I decided never to start that again!
Now roll on another thirty+ years and I am about to start this again in another country except I'll be spotting them in random order and enjoying discovering which number will be the last to be seen (in less than a year I hope). There are lots of cars and bikes here in KL but many have four digits and those don't count as I am most assuredly not going to spend any time looking for numbers above 999. Nevertheless after doing this for two months or so I am down to below one hundred required and certain tends have become apparent, in particular the number four is less common on a numberplate. About a third of those I still need to see have a four at the end of the number. This can be explained by the fact that, in spoken Chinese, four sounds like the word death and in KL there are a large number people of Chinese heritage so they avoid cars (and anything else) with that number. In some buildings you will find there is no fourth floor, it will be called 3A and there will be no house number 14 rather one numbered 13A. That I will eventually see the missing car numbers I have no doubt but I expect the last one will have a four in it!
Now this story is one about an unusual occurrence with no apparent meaning today but maybe one will reveal itself in the future. We had parked our car in a shopping mall multi-storey car park and were returning to it when my eyes see two similar looking red cars. I glance down at their number plates and immediately see they are both numbered 444. Now I don't need that number but it is not common and to see two of that number, on similar cars, parked adjacent to each other tells me they belong to the same family. It is not unusual round here for two or three cars parked on a driveway with the same numbers but different letters. Obviously two numbered 444 must be for the same (non-Chinese) family and I pointed this out to my wife. I thought of photographing them but the relevance of that number would be lost to most people so I left the phone in my pocket and immediately regretted it. Driving slowly towards us and about to pass the two 444 cars was one numbered 888, what a photo that would have made! Now to the Chinese the number 8 is prosperity and it is definitely not uncommon to see 8, 88 or 888 as the car number but at that point in time it was a wow moment for me.
Have I just seen some random car numbers or is this going to become another "Dock of the Bay" story (see April 2018). Only time will tell.
Now roll on another thirty+ years and I am about to start this again in another country except I'll be spotting them in random order and enjoying discovering which number will be the last to be seen (in less than a year I hope). There are lots of cars and bikes here in KL but many have four digits and those don't count as I am most assuredly not going to spend any time looking for numbers above 999. Nevertheless after doing this for two months or so I am down to below one hundred required and certain tends have become apparent, in particular the number four is less common on a numberplate. About a third of those I still need to see have a four at the end of the number. This can be explained by the fact that, in spoken Chinese, four sounds like the word death and in KL there are a large number people of Chinese heritage so they avoid cars (and anything else) with that number. In some buildings you will find there is no fourth floor, it will be called 3A and there will be no house number 14 rather one numbered 13A. That I will eventually see the missing car numbers I have no doubt but I expect the last one will have a four in it!
Now this story is one about an unusual occurrence with no apparent meaning today but maybe one will reveal itself in the future. We had parked our car in a shopping mall multi-storey car park and were returning to it when my eyes see two similar looking red cars. I glance down at their number plates and immediately see they are both numbered 444. Now I don't need that number but it is not common and to see two of that number, on similar cars, parked adjacent to each other tells me they belong to the same family. It is not unusual round here for two or three cars parked on a driveway with the same numbers but different letters. Obviously two numbered 444 must be for the same (non-Chinese) family and I pointed this out to my wife. I thought of photographing them but the relevance of that number would be lost to most people so I left the phone in my pocket and immediately regretted it. Driving slowly towards us and about to pass the two 444 cars was one numbered 888, what a photo that would have made! Now to the Chinese the number 8 is prosperity and it is definitely not uncommon to see 8, 88 or 888 as the car number but at that point in time it was a wow moment for me.
Have I just seen some random car numbers or is this going to become another "Dock of the Bay" story (see April 2018). Only time will tell.