So I’ve been listening to the new New Order album a LOT lately. I do this whenever I find a new batch of music that I like - I listen to it over and over until I can call up any part of any song from memory. This process can typically last for a couple of weeks until I finally get my fill and I don’t need to listen to it anymore. Right now, I’m starting week three with this album, so why is it when I wake up in the morning I have the new HP jingle (see ‘Spotted’ a few blog posts down) going through my head instead? “You’re the only one for me….come on baby can’t you see…I gotta have my Hhhhhhhhhh Peeeeeeee”. LOL Yes, I must be going mad.

After a couple of trips to Sobeys this past week to replenish some half empty bottles, I now believe I have about as many different HP varieties as currently exists - at least in my part of the world. I’ll have to make up some sort of “family portait” sauce pic to commemorate. THEN I’ll be digging into that HP Curry one. It’s not brownsauce I know, but Indian food is another passion of mine and HP Curry must be heaven in a bottle….

I’m thinking of writing the meat shop down the street to request they increase the size of their scotch pies. One just isn’t enough to satisfy, and two is just too much. Mind you, if they made it a bit bigger it’d no longer be as easy to hold and eat one handed as was demonstrated by the character Les Battersby on Coronation Street this week. And here I am eating mine from a plate using a fork all this time! Then again, Les didn’t have any brownsauce on his pie either. Tsk tsk! Time to write the Coronation Street producers as well!!

Yesterday afternoon I set out to perform an upgrade to the computer on which this little site is run. Within minutes of starting, I had computer bits strewn all over my laundry room. The monitor was on the freezer (containing steaks, scotch pies & numerous other goodies), the keyboard, hard drive, cpu and other miscellaneous bits on the dryer, and still more parts on the washing machine and counter. Approximately half an hour later all was assembled and running once more. With the site now running on some spicy new hardware, brownsauce is now being served up quicker than ever!

In other news:
My wife was out of province this past week, when sometime mid-week she phones me at home:

Mrs: I’ve found you a pressie today.
Me: Oh? What is it?
Mrs: You’ll find out when I get home.
Me: Pfth. Errr..wait, I bet I know what it is!
Mrs: How could you know?
Me: I dunno, I just do!
Mrs: Did *friend of ours* call and tell you what it was?
Me: *laugh* No
Mrs: Ok, what do you think it is then?
Me: It’s a bottle of HP Curry isn’t it?
Mrs: *sounding disgusted* What makes you think it’d be THAT?
Me: It is isn’t it!
Mrs: Pfth. No, it isn’t.
Me: *sulks*

Fast-forward to yesterday afternoon when, now at home, my Mrs catches me unawares and slyly produces a bottle of HP Curry!! LOL! I KNEW IT!

She was somewhat perplexed at how I’d immediately jumped to that conclusion the other day. Neither of us had talked about the stuff prior to her leaving. She knows me too well.

Btw, HP Curry normally isn’t available in Canada. She’d picked it up at an import shop. I can’t wait to try the stuff.

Here’s a couple of snapshots from the HP Sauce ad which is now airing on Canadian networks. Around a campfire, our friend the bull (complete with HP cowbell around its neck) sings the following:
*clears throat* memememe…

*guitar strums, harmonica plays & bull sings*

You’re the only one for me
Come on baby, can’t you see
I gotta have my
Hhhhhhhhhh….Peeeeeeeeeeeee

*logo “brands” itself next to the bottle*

I did a bit of digging around the net for other HP commercials as, like I mentioned earlier - I’ve never before seen a HP commercial before now and I’m interested to see how this would compare with others that might be floating around. After a bit of digging, I found www.visit4info.com which has a HP ad running in Britian. It’s an interesting comparison. My take on it is, they’re testing the waters here in Canada with this ad. Compared to the British ad, this one is very short and has a very western Canadian theme going on. I personally would never have associated HP with such a rural setting like that; HP to me has much more urban feel to it. Perhaps the marketing execs in Britain figure they’ve recreated a typical Canadian scene here. LOL. Images of Monty Python’s lumberjack sketch come to mind.

A special thanks goes out to Mandy & www.davidfarre.com for this weeks highlight! It’s much appreciated!

Yesterday evening, an investigative program called ‘W-Five’ aired on local television. I rarely watch this show. In fact, I don’t recall the last time I watched it at all, yet after seeing the shows’ ads running all week I set the VCR and forgot about it. I’m not sure why I did this, the topic on this particular episode dealt with corrupt used car dealers and sought out to expose their crooked ways. I should say that I’m not in the market for a used car, have never bought a car from such a dealer, and have only had positive experiences when buying a used car. Being the inquisitive sort that I am, I suppose I couldn’t help but be drawn to it.

Later in the evening, when we soon discovered that there was nothing at all to watch on tv. I suggested the ‘W-Five’ show and was in fact what we ended up watching in the end (after some mutterings of renting a movie, doing somthing else for a change etc). About 1/4 of the way through the program, I was fast-forwarding (VCR set on LP mode btw) when I thought I saw a HP bottle on the screen! It only showed for a split second but I was sure it was there. “Impossible” I thought, “I’ve never…ever seen a HP commercial before in my life. What are the chances?”. I told my wife what I thought I saw and as she rolled her eyes at me, I re-wound the tape. Sure enough, a HP Sauce commercial!

The commercial itself is very short - something like 10 seconds long. Had I blinked while fast-forwarding, I would’ve missed it completely. The ad shows a couple cowboys sitting around a fire. Next to them is a bull…singing. Around its neck is a tag, with HP stamped on it. Next is a bottle of HP sauce with the words (from memory) “HP Makes Beef Sing”. I’ll post a picture of it once I’ve had a chance to capture the commercial to my PC. I have to say, I’m more than half tempted to start recording a whole lot more of channel 5 at this rate!