I imagine the 20 or so daily visitors that blog.co.uk invents for this page must be anxious to know how the land lies in the world of number plates.

I have exciting news.

Like Hillary and Tenzing standing at the peak of Everest, assessing their achievement and surveying the descent, so I sit with the symbolic number 500 in the bag. Anyone who thinks that the comparison is presumptuous, think again - it only took them a few weeks to climb Everest, and I've been doing this for about five years. If anything, it is inadequate to compare the travails of a couple of glorified hill-walkers with the dedication required to look at number plates in such a compulsive, irrational way. My commemorative stamp must surely be imminent.

So now it is just back down the mountain to 999. I have seen more numbers than I need to see. Just another five years or so without getting a life and freedom will be mine.