It’s been one hectic week… How long does should it take to write a blog entry anyway? Five, ten days? :-S

I’ve been working on a new framework for the site lately, and with the possible exception of what to do for a new opening title picture, things were looking promising with some new software I’d been playing with. That was last Sunday. On Monday, I discovered that my previous attempts at securing my web server against attacks hadn’t worked. At about 9:30pm Monday evening, it’s bombarded yet again with more attempts to send spam through it, and once again I start working on stopping the flow. By mid-week I finally had it, and the spam attacks stopped. What’s interesting is that despite my email server being unavailable for a good portion of the week, I somehow managed to receive this weeks gallery submission. Therein lies the pleasure and the pain of running a site from one’s laundry room.

I’ve received some fab feedback this week, which has me thinking - perhaps a new section could be created where site visitors could post their own HP stories. Once I have the new site up & running, I’ll look into making this a possibility.

The other day we had friends over for supper where HP was proudly displayed on the table along with other condiments which are normally associated with “fresh off the bbq hamburgers”. Well, they are in Canada anyway. At one point in during the meal, one of our guests dared to try some HP on his burger. I should add that this was done with an absolute minimum of “encouragement” on my part ;-).After a few bites into his burger - now HP enabled, I waited for a response somewhere along the lines of say - “Wow, this tastes great with HP!”. Alas, the topic of conversation strayed, and no further mention was made by our guest as to the tastiness of his burger. Looks like we have some work ahead of us with this one eh? I’ll tell ya what, if I receive some letters of enouragement from visitors, I’ll be sure to pass them along to our friend here. Perhaps with some words of encouragement from “the community”, he’ll make another attempt at it. LOL

It has been an interesting weekend…

It has been made known to me that recently; a young visitor to the site had aspirations for some creative HP Sauce pictures. These pictures were to be taken while on holiday with her family in the southern United States for later submission to the brownsauce gallery. Unfortunately it became apparent to our friend that HP Sauce is simply unavailable to those living in the United States. This unfortunate discovery was made only after searching several grocery stores and finding only bottles of A1 and other miscellaneous sauces. Dreams dashed, she returned home with her family - sans pictures.

If our new friend is reading this, take heart. One doesn’t need to travel far to take a good picture of a bottle of HP. The point is to have fun, and that can happen anywhere! Perhaps you could get your friends involved, have a laugh together! Perhaps that way it may even have more meaning than taking a picture of a solitary HP bottle in a place you’ve never been to before.

In other news:

Attempts were made this past weekend by someone on the Internet to send spam through my little web server. The time came to put down the bottle of HP, switch hats & become an email administrator. confused look After some investigation, I managed to secure the server such that the relay of spam has stopped. switches hats again I’ve also taken some time to tweak the web server along with making some system level changes in Linux. The site may even feel a little more responsive now as a result. takes hat off “Now where’s that scotch pie I was working on? Pfth, bet its gone cold by now…”

An idea for a revamp of the main page struck me the other day as a consequence of those HP dreams I had the other night - for which I’ve been on the receiving end of numerous teasings btw.

If you’re looking for fame in the HP Sauce lovers community - here’s your chance to get in on the action! I’m looking for someone to model for a new title picture on the main page. If you’re particularly photogenic with a bottle of HP (and who isn’t right?) Please Contact Me!. Based on the number of submissions, I may either hold a small contest or, and this is the more likely scenario - I may end up nabbing someone off the street to do it. Don’t let some unsuspecting stranger end up representing the gallery which you’ve helped to create!

In other news…

My wife and I have decided that perhaps it’s best if we each obtain our own bottle of HP for nights in when items like Shepherds or Scotch Pie make it on the menu. Can you guess which one of us went for the Original and which showed up with the Mild & Fruity variety? LOL

One of my all time favourite meals that you can make at home has to be found in a “Indian Chicken Curry” packet which is found at some nearby grocery stores. Usually I stock up on a few when it’s my turn to go shopping, but as it happened the other night (as it sometimes does), I had mis-counted how many remaining packets still occupied that special place in our kitchen cupboard. This realisation came on my way home from work, where I’d spent the better half of the afternoon getting increasingly hungry for chicken curry. The only grocery store in the vicinity at the time was one close by my house, but one where I rather not frequent. It’s a last resort store of sorts - a place which I have certain issues with. It was there however where I would look for my packet of chicken curry.

Once inside, I grabbed a couple packets (thank heavens they were in stock!) and as it was Friday I picked up a newspaper as well. At the till, placed my three items down and waited for my total to be rung up. The woman working the till scanned my newspaper and grabbed one of the packets and hesitated. “Go on.” I thought “Scan it in!” She still hesitated, as if my thoughts and curious expression on my face somehow failed to register with her - not to mention the fact that she WORKS THERE. My puzzlement increased as she turned the packet over and started to read the ingredients! ????? Hello! My disbelief wavered and turned into laughter. I was just about to offer to fetch one for herself when she simply snorted with a little “hmmph”, and put the packet in the bag on top of the newspaper. Well!!

Somehow though, that packet of chicken curry didn’t turn out as well as it regularly does…most days.