Sometimes it seems Coronation Street gets more than its fair share of coverage on these pages as lately it seems that a week doesn’t go by when I’m not blogging about the likes of Fred Elliot who has made a habit of appearing in my dreams. They say that dreams mimic reality and if that is indeed the case, then I am either watching far too much Coronation Street or I am perhaps enjoying the show more than I ought to. Probably both would ring true in my case!

Regardless the outcome of my television viewing habits, I was very pleased to witness the Sauce being mentioned once again in this, the most posh of British soap operas.^* The first time I ever caught it being mentioned on this show was in Red vs Brown where Leanne and Danny discuss which sauce (red or brown) goes best on bacon & sausage. Danny argues that red goes on bacon (it most certainly doesn’t!) to wit Leanne determines his taste in sauce must be due to the fact that he is a southerner. After all, how else would you explain red sauce on bacon? I shudder to think!

In this weeks episode, there is a brief exchange between the despicable character Charlie Stubbs and his current live-in Tracy Barlow (equally despicable). I mean really, this woman sold her daughter to Roy Cropper! I digress. Take a look.

Charlie and Tracy are in many ways so right for each other. They are both scheming, reviled members of the local community, and rightly so. Still, one cannot fault dear Charlie for his taste in food, for when he is asked if he wants ‘owt special’ for his breakfast, Charlie answers in much the same way I would. He requests an egg and bacon buttie, ultimately warmed up with lashings of brown sauce! Excellent choice our Charlie, well done. Now if only we could beat into him some other equally worth while personality traits! Perhaps a bit of sauce will help him attain some moral fibre.

^*This episode only just aired here in Canada due to a 9 month delay. Thanks CBC!

Site News:

Back in November, the HP Sauce Gallery was increasingly being targeted with comment spam with the Load The Guns image being one of the primary targets. How ironic! It got bad enough that in December I had to shut down comments in the gallery altogether as I simply couldn’t keep up with it. If you never spotted any comment spam in any of the pictures then I guess I caught them in time, if not then I apologize for it having slipped through the cracks.

I am happy to report however that comments are once again allowed in the gallery. Adding comments now requires a pop-up and much like leaving comments throughout the rest of the site, it is captcha enabled. Please add your comments to your favourite pictures in the gallery and show support to those that make the gallery possible! If you would like to become one of those elite members who has their picture(s) highlighted in the gallery, please submit them here.

There is an issue with the gallery which remains outstanding however. Some images refuse to show their larger version when clicked on. Rather, you’ll get redirected to the thumbnail page. I’ve spent a fair amount of time on this issue and so far I’ve not been able to figure out what’s causing it. My apologies to those who’s images aren’t loading properly. Ack, that’s the second time I’ve apologized now in a single post! Enough of that!

Fred Elliot
Coronation Street
Image from www.itv.com

Wouldn’t you know it, but I’ve had a follow up to my Groggy Thoughts at 5:37 AM post a few weeks ago in the form of another dream. This dream was however far more straight forward than the first and before you read on, let me assure you I AM dreaming this…I couldn’t make this stuff up!

In this dream I caught up with our friend Fred Elliot (pictured right) as I walked the sidewalks of some nondescript city. “Fred!” I shouted as I ran to catch up to him. “Do you have a minute?”. “Oh! It’s you again!” he bellows welcomingly. “Yes” I say, catching my breath. “I meant to ask you, what do you think of Heinz closing the HP Sauce factory in Birmingham?”. “Ya Wot!” he exclaims before taking a moment to collect himself. “It’s a damn shame” he continues “It’s like throwing us heritage out int’ bin! I say I won’t be stocking HP int’ shop anymore…I say I won’t!”. And with that he continued his stroll down the sidewalk. I wonder if that’s the last I’ve heard from Fred!

Brad’s Rant (A glimpse at what I get up to when I’m not eating bacon sarnies dripping with HP)

Way back in March, 2005 I wrote about a movie I had recalled seeing as a child. I don’t know how it came to be that I ended up watching this particular movie, but I do seem to recall watching it alone at someone else’s house - at a friends place perhaps. Here it was now in early 2005 and I’m lying in bed trying to sleep. Suddenly a memory of this movie surfaces out of nowhere and I’m seeing young people on roller skates skating around, having the time of their lives in the hot golden California sun. But wait! There’s a bad man who wants to take away their joy and spoil their roller skating fun! I don’t recall any more specifics but the movie ends with some sort of roller skating “skate for your life” scene where the kids triumph over the bad man and his cronies! All is well in roller skating land once more!

I often get these flashbacks to some memory of my childhood and to be honest I’m sometimes unsure whether I should embrace them or run to a psychiatrist! One thing was certain however, this memory had made its way back to me and I had to find out what that movie was and in the following weeks I searched for possible movie contenders and ultimately concluded that it must be the 1979 movie Roller Boogie staring Linda Blair. Now that I knew what to look for, the search was on to find a copy of this movie!

It is now almost 2 years later and I can finally put this obsession to rest, for I finally found a copy of Roller Boogie on DVD at a local flea market! During the past 2 years I have looked everywhere imaginable for this film (including ebay, but I refused to take the easy road). I searched flea markets, garage sales and antique shops (though why it would be there I don’t know). I’ve searched locally and even abroad when on holiday and now here it was staring me in the face in a small pile of DVDs stacked on an overcrowded counter at a local flea market where I quickly grabbed it. The sticker price was only $6.00 and I happily took out some cash and handed the disc over to the man running the counter. Before I could get a word in, the man looked over the cover and said “Ahhh….just give me 5 bucks for it”. LOL Not only do I actually find this presumably very cheesy movie from 1979 that I had been searching the past 2 years for, but the guy discounts it from it’s already low $6.00 without me even having to ask! It must be fate.

So is this the movie which I’ve been looking for? Quite possibly, but honestly I haven’t been able to make it past the first 5 minutes of the film yet for I’ve been too busy snickering with glee as I see the film open with rows of young people on roller skates skating to a funky disco song in the California sun.

Happy New Year!

I hope you and yours enjoyed a happy holiday season whether it was spent celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah or Festivus (for the rest of us)!

The New Year arrived with presence here in Winnipeg. My family and I were out on Saturday evening when it started to snow…heavily. It was gorgeous. We drove through the downtown streets as the city lights shone through a thick, misty atmosphere filled with snow. It seemed everywhere we looked was a scene from a postcard. By morning we had accumulated some 24 - 30 cm of snow! New Years Day was brilliantly sunny with everything covered in a thick blanket of pure white snow.

Onto HP Sauce news:

Our beloved HP Sauce made its appearance at the table on a couple of occasions during the holidays. Perhaps I’ve been advocating the brown stuff for long enough now that it has become second nature to see it not only on our table, but on the tables of extended family as well. My reputation precedes me! On Christmas morning we debated on what should come first, the opening of the gifts or breakfast consisting of bacon, egg & tomato sarnies drenched in HP Sauce! As my son went for the tree, I went to the kitchen to cook up some bacon. Suffice it to say however, the gifts won out - though I did manage to get a jump start on that bacon!

I have two contributions to pass along this week. The first contribution celebrates the potential of HP Sauce’s future while the second highlights a slightly more controversial present.

The first comes to us from a new site contributor who has sent in some fantastic scans from his own private collection which I am delighted to share with you. The first scan I’ll highlight is this one from 1985 when Birmingham bid for the Olympics in 1992.

Birmingham Olympics 1992
Contributor: Droglite

The attached is a cartoon by the famous, but sadly now deceased UK cartoonist, Larry who was an HP Sauce aficionado. He was friend of mine who had many cartoons published in ‘Punch’ mag. and even appeared on a set of UK postage stamps. - Droglite

This is a fantastic sketch and one that I had not seen before. Many thanks to Droglite for sharing it with us! It will fit very nicely in the archives.

HP Tangy American Sauce
Contributor: Mandy

The second contributed item comes to us from our friend Mandy.

Mandy, who is now well known for her ‘Saucy Girl‘ contributions, is also passionate about the preservation of HP Sauce and its historical place in Birmingham’s history. This picture comes to us out of concern for where the HP Sauce brand itself is headed. Personally, I have never laid eyes on this seemingly new “Tangy American Sauce” variety though I have written previously about the “Sauces of the World” varieties to which this one falls under. What puzzles me is that to my knowledge it is not sold in either Canada or the United States. Where is this sauce being marketed? It would make sense to me that it be marketed to Americans who may have aversions to accepting a purely British sauce (from a marketing standpoint anyways). What are your thoughts on HP marketing a “Tangy American Sauce”? If you have more information about this particular variety, please let me know. I am also curious as to its taste. Would this sauce be comparable to the American A1 sauce? As always, I’d love to hear your feedback.