Spot the Car
Being in a minority - British - in Charleston, with a unique accent, being quite tall, and generally known for being somewhat of an extravert clearly isn’t enough for me to want to stand out in this small town. And I do get spotted. A lot.
“Just passed you going the other way!”, txt’s my friend Nikki during the week, as I’m zooming down my local main highway when she spots my car … and it is extremely identifiable by its front license plate. That’s right, I’ve got the St. George’s Cross on the front of my car which makes me stand out from all the other silver Ford Focus’s that are on the roads.
Except that is … for the days when I decide to go for the full Union Jack - sorry - Union Flag, instead!
Most Americans recognise the flag of Great Britain, but don’t know about its composition from the respective nations. There’s a little lesson for you here, not forgetting of course how even WE in Britain sometimes get it wrong when it comes to displaying it.
So I have a choice of plates, which makes it look like I have two cars, and I had the idea of putting this rather fun photo together, with a little help from photoshop of course.
And for the complete multimedia experience, I thought I’d video myself doing it so that you can see how I did it, then write this blog post about it, and twitter about it too all at the same time!
After living in London for the first 33 years of my life and working for the 
So for ten weeks in June, July and August 2009, I drove 20,000 miles around the the lower 48 contiguous states of the USA visiting towns and places that shared the same name as places on The London
February 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
And you get another chance (remember the first time ?) to see my arse crack! Result!
February 7th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
The next time someone accuses me of being a social media slut who can only do something if I can blog about it, I shall just point to this video and say “well, I’m not as bad as *this* guy”. Love the fact you had to move the car twice to get it to *just* the right position!
btw, do you really have *two* cameras and *two* tripods ?!
February 7th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
er.. yes!? I have a stills camera (Nikon D200), and a video camera (Sony HVR-A1U) with a tripod for both, yup.
What I should have done was get my second (mini) video camera on it’s mini-tripod and video’d the video camera …
February 7th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
pfft. you don’t have a particularly recogniseable car. there’s loads of Focuses (Foci?) in town, and at least one other must have the Union Jack on the front - you should stick with the Cross of St. George. now, if you really wanted to blend in, you’d go with the Cross of St. Andrew - just count how many you see in a day. half a dozen shouldn’t be that difficult to reach…
February 7th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Classic! You personify the various geeky/ nerdy terms one hears. I love that you do all this stuff… and your OCD! Please please keep it coming, it entertains me no end!
February 7th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
i’ve seen other cars with the Union Jack - i even waved to one once, and the waved back - but not a Silver Focus like mine.
Happy to entertain, me…
February 7th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
It was interesting when the car drove past
February 7th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
I was going to mention the b*m crack, but you got in first. Actually you do have Scottish blood in you way back in History, as the name Marshall is Scottish, so you could do the St.Andrew’s flag as suggested by Jhota.
February 7th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Nice arse crack! … er … that makes me sound gay!
February 7th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Is that who I think it is on the soundtrack?
Tsk, you can take the boy from the cheese…
February 8th, 2009 at 12:00 am
the music is the Freaks, with Creep, Get on the dancefloor. i love that song Geoff, top tune!
February 8th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Samantha, it’s not cheese, it’s a fantastic dance track!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYE2uzQ4zuA
February 8th, 2009 at 12:53 am
But which flag will you get as a tramp stamp? That area’s getting more exposure than your car these days.
(To save some of you the time: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tramp+stamp)
February 8th, 2009 at 3:31 am
funny, the first thing I noticed was the arse crack too!
I thought we were going to watch you do the photoshop part too, like a tutorial. next time?
February 8th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
[...] my blogmate Geoff decided to post a blog about the numberplates on his car, and how he changed them. And he took [...]
February 8th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Now geoff you need to get a decent back number like the one I saw when I was driving onto the on ramp of the I405 in long beach, which said UK LAD, and it was on a porsche.
February 9th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
That I suppose is one of the differences between the US and the UK. If an American was to put the Stars & Stripes on his license plate, in the UK you would as say arrogant tosser.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Oh, we’re all calling him that here, fear not!
February 9th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
i never used to be so ‘patriotic’ until i came here. but with the abundance/plethora1 of national flags on display here by the natives, it somehow inspired me.
so i have a belt, wallet, t-shirt and license plate all with the Union Jack on.
i try not to wear tham all at the same time though.
[1] I couldn’t decide which word i liked better, so i left them both in. you choose.
February 10th, 2009 at 4:20 am
maybe you should post a photo of yourself using both words at the same time
February 10th, 2009 at 7:01 am
What about a Union Flag tattoo then Geoff, go the whole hog. Just read the ‘Tramp Stamp thing’, improved my education somewhat!
February 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
As a European all I can say is,Geoff with so many Union flags; you would fit right in in southern Spain in the summer. It’s hard to miss the (English/British), when they are on their holidays. I leave you to ponder whether the experience is of mutual respect.
My abiding memory is of scores of young men all wearing union flags, lying in the gutter in their own vomit, mumbling about WWII & ‘66. A real class act.
February 11th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Euww … less showage of the Bournville Boulevard / Cadbury Alley next time please!
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Please, can you PM me and tell me few more thinks about this, I am really fan of your blog…