Saucy Girls picture viewed 1000 times!

It is without a doubt that the HP Sauce Gallery is the most viewed area on the site. This is due in large part to the people who have simply appeared out of the blue to submit some absolutely fantastic pictures for the gallery! One such contributor now not only holds the title of being the sites’ #1 contributor, but whose picture of the “Saucy Girls” has now broken the 1000 views milestone! Congratulations Mandy!

Other notable mentions go out to:

“Go Team Canada” submitted by Dave G - 802 views
“Mum & Daughter” submitted by Mandy - 760 views
“Lionel Ritchie” submitted by Pauline - 675 views
“HP Wonder Woman” submitted by Mandy - 667 views

*Note: Some of the photos in the gallery currently don’t link to the larger size but rather redirects you back to the gallery page. The gallery software I am using can be somewhat temper mental at times. I am working to resolve it. Sorry for any confusion.

Thank you all for your pictures, and please - keep them coming!

Birmingham’s Lament

I’m not sure how to introduce this next segment as I’m not really sure how it came to be quite honest.

About a week ago, our dear Adham (see the bloke in the towel above) wrote me and told me he was going to open a show for his band with an mp3 I had sent him earlier this year. I was mortified! The mp3 I had sent him was a little ditty I had done in about half an hour after receiving and setting up my new synthesizer keyboard for the first time. At the time I was simply pleased to have gotten any sounds out of it at all..so pleased that I emailed it to Adham; and now here it was, some months later biting me in the butt.

I loaded up the mp3 in question and had a listen. It was horrible, and by no means something that should ever be played in public to be sure, and I had to do something about it. I pulled out the keyboard once more and dusted it off (hey, maintaining a brown sauce site takes a lot of work you know!) and fired it up. An hour later I had managed to hammer out a track which I have since called “Birmingham’s Lament”. It turned out quite dark, and at first I wasn’t sure why. I later realized I had created it same evening I had posted Heinz Removes Machinery, Leaves Broken Hearts. Then it all made sense.

Methinks I’m taking this all a bit to seriously?! In any case, here you go Adham. Please play this track at your gig and highlight the plight of the workers at the Birmingham factory.

The final act of moving production of our favourite brown sauce to Holland has begun. Birmingham Mail has reported that HP Sauce workers who are to be made redundant in March of 2007 were reduced to tears last week as Heinz brought in heavy equipment to remove a new production line - installed only 2 years ago.

A worker who wishes not to be named said:

“When the cranes turned up to take the machinery out, we realised it was the beginning of the end - morale is dropping by the second.

Jobs are being offered in Worcester but, for the vast majority of us, there is nothing. For 80 to 90 of us, there’s no chance.

The new line that was installed less than two years ago is now being ripped out and is being taken to Holland.

Workers have had to stand and watch the cranes being brought in and some of them have been in tears. Reality is kicking in now.”

Heinz spokesman Nigel Dickie said:

“I can confirm that all the lines are being taken out as planned and as discussed with the employees. That will take some weeks.

The redundancy terms are as generous as we can possibly make them. We wanted to make sure that we came to an arrangement which was as generous as possible. We anticipate that work will continue until March.”

In terms of redundancy packages, workers have been offered £6,000 to stay on until March 23rd, however it is speculated that those who are on sick leave may lose some of the retention money. Workers however aren’t pleased with the package - “The majority of people are not happy with what is on offer. I think that Heinz could have offered us at least £15,000 on top of the redundancy.” said a worker. The redundancy offer amounts to four weeks’ pay for every year of service for qualifying staff.

Authors comment: I have watched this story unfold from the beginning early this year and I sympathize with the workers at the Birmingham factory. I wish there was more I could do.

Site News:

I’ve a bit of other news to pass along today albeit on a much lighter note (to some). It seems that one of the new (unadvertised) additions to the site has been getting some attention since its debut along with the new theme earlier this month.

On the Contact page you’ll find the usual contact form whereby you can continue sending me all sorts of feedback. The point of interest is however the new Instant Messenger feature in the sidebar. Yes, now you can chat HP Sauce with me directly rather than waiting the excruciating 10 minutes for a reply via email.

Some visitors have already used this IM feature to great effect. Joshy, if you reading this - I am sorry to hear about your pony “barnacle” (funeral apparently to be held sometime today). Be sure to give him a proper send off with loads of HP Sauce! Be sure not to skimp with a lesser sauce!

This past week I finally got around to updating the site theme. The new theme is a modified version of John Wrana’s excellent Relaxation 2.0 theme. The new theme is wider and sports some muted colour tones which I believe are more consistent with the overall look that I originally had in mind. In short, I hope you like it!

With the look of the site updated, it’s time once again to turn my attention back to the actual meat of the site. I often get emails requesting where people can buy the HP Mild & Fruity variety. Sometime in 2004 - 2005 (someone please correct me on the date), HP Foods re-branded HP Mild & Fruity as Chicken & Rib. The ingredients and the order in which they’re listed on the label however are identical between the two varieties, and I can say with some confidence that they are in fact the same sauce. I’ve updated HP - The Sauces with this information and I hope that helps to alleviate some of the confusion on the matter.

New Insights…

Those who have read through The HP Sauce Story will now be familiar with the basic outline of how HP Sauce came to be manufactured by the Midland Vinegar Company back in 1899. This story is well documented and appears in the books “The Road from Aston Cross” and “The True Story of H.P. Sauce”. Googling “HP Sauce” will also no doubt produce reference to either account, however there is another side of the long published, official story as told by HP Foods.

I have been contacted by a descendant of the Nottingham grocer F. G. Garton, creator of Garton’s H.P. Sauce. According to this individual, there remains some controversy over how the Moore’s actually acquired the rights to produce H.P. Sauce in 1899. If his account of events bears out, this does indeed indicate a need for some rather rigorous revisions to the story as told on this site. I’ll update as I learn more information.

What is immediately evident however is that even in 1899, HP Sauce was already a hotly contested item, having changed ownership very shortly after it was first created. Change of ownership of HP Sauce (most recently to Heinz) is not a new thing, not by a 100 years.

Random Thoughts…

I had a couple of rather odd experiences this past weekend. Not genuinely odd in a real sense perhaps, but odd enough to sit up and take notice. The first happened when I saw the movie “The Prestige” this past weekend. The movie which takes place at the turn of the century, has numerous scenes of old buildings in Victorian London. In one such scene, we follow the characters as they talk near a fireplace. On the mantle was a clock and if one looked closely, one could just make out the time. I must’ve been bored with the dialogue, as I for whatever reason had to make out what the time on the clock was! “Hmm, 19 minutes past 8″. I look down at my watch. “19 minutes past 8!” - too weird!

The second event was on Saturday - Remembrance Day here in Canada. I was walking with my family on the sidewalk on our way to a Remembrance Day ceremony which was to be held at a local school. Suddenly, a full grown white tailed deer ran oun from a driveway 2 houses in front of us - in full gallop! We didn’t have any time to react as it ran towards us. Fortunately, rather than bowling us over, it ran around us (within arms length!) before turning and galloping down the adjacent street; it’s eyes wild with panic.

I should point out that the presence of the deer itself wasn’t really odd. I do live in a suburb of the city (or as the Pet Shop Boys would say “Suburbia: Where the suburbs meet utopia”) and as it is close to rural areas, deer are known for wandering inside the city limits. Still, I’ve never encountered anything like that before!