A Car on the ASDA Car Park

Now that it's so easy to look up facts on the internet it's surprising where you can be led when you spot things that look a bit out of place and investigate them on your computer. I spotted a car in the car park at the local ASDA store the other day and whereas at one time I'd have just thought 'That's odd', on this occasion I decided to have a dig round to see what I could find out. What I saw was this Nissan Micra with an unusual looking number plate:

Here's an enlarged view of the number plate:

It doesn't appear to be a UK registration plate and the 'Belleville Bulls Ice Hockey Canada' seems to imply that it might be a Canadian plate. A look at the rear number plate, however, tells you otherwise:

This plate tells you that the car was registered in Northern Ireland, and 'CZ' is the county code for Belfast.

So far so good, but I decided to see what I could find out about the Belleville Bulls and found that they're a junior ice hockey team based in Belleville, Ontario and this site tells you all about them. 'Where's Belleville, Ontario?' I then asked myself and this Wikipedia article shows you that it's on the northern shore of Lake Ontario and gives you a great deal of information about the city, one of the 'notable residents' being Avril Lavigne.

There's also a sticker in the rear window of the car:

Manchester Phoenix are, not surprisingly, a Manchester ice hockey team based in Altrincham and formed in 2003 after the demise of Manchester Storm. I remember in the 1960s making occasional visits to watch the Altrincham Aces ice hockey team play at the old Altrincham ice rink in Devonshire Road.

Thanks to the owner of the car for allowing me an interesting couple of hours researching all this, and if you're from Belleville, Ontario you might be pleased to know that you've got a fan in this distant part of the world.