Competition time (2)

For those allergic to cats............... I also propose to award a prize to the reader who is able to save and send me a copy of the home page of Salut! showing the counter on 50,000.

This should also be sent to me at colinrandall2001@yahoo.fr

I realise that a really determined individual could sit from now to 50,000 refreshing the screen until the magic number comes up. But then again, how would they know that others were not up to the same trick and might beat them to it?

The prize, returning to the theme of my painstaking search of France for a good Indian curry, is a splendid sounding book by Reza Mahammad with the self-explanatory title of Rice, Spice and all Things Nice , published by Simon and Schuster.

Another fine publication, 50 Great Curries of India by Camellia Panjabi and published by Kyle Cathie, is the reward for coming up with my cat's name - and being chosen from among all the correct answers received by next Wednesday, 6pm French time.

The more alert will know that perhaps the best curry I have eaten in France was served by a friend using a recipe from the French version.

The 50,000 milestone was reached a short while ago. I will let you know if anyone succeeded in the mission set be me earlier.

Competition time (1)

Can it really be so?

From the long, dark nights of fevered imagination to the contented glow of a man who has got something right.

Today, tomorrow or very soon, Salut! will reach a significant milestone: 50,000 hits.

Having just attended a seminar at the London School of Economics on how journalists can make the web pay - in short they probably can't was the message I sort of received - I know all about page impressions and uniques.

But while I readily confess to not knowing how many individuals have visited this site since its creation last October, I can also tell you that we have already passed the 50,000 mark for visits (even if that is two people making 25,000 each).

Hundreds if not thousands of people had already been here before I set up the counter that you see somewhere down the right hand column.

It often strikes me as a little hard to accept that Salut! has not attained any ranking in the only blogger chart I have come across, the Technoranki one.

I swear I even saw a couple of oddball sex sites creep in towards the bottom of that hit parade for a week or two. But no sign of Salut!, and no way of knowing - since Technoranki jealously guards the secrets of its trade - what I need to do to make my breakthrough.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that I have been given massive public support in the small, income-free corner of the web that is this site.

My hope is that it will get better still, though that is likely to necessitate a move to new accommodation quite soon, and that more people will be attracted.

But as a mark of my appreciation of your support - whether as readers or readers leaving comments - I offer a small commemorative prize.

To qualify, all you need to do is trawl through my blogging history - here and/or at the Telegraph - and tell me the name of my ungovernable (thanks, John M) French cat BY E-MAIL PLEASE TO

colinrandall2001@yahoo.fr

PLEASE DO NOT POST THE REPLY AS A COMMENT ON SALUT!
The prize - perhaps even prizes....let us see - will relate to my interests, well documented here, in food and/or France. Arbitrary rules will apply*.

* The closing date is 1800hrs French time on Wed April 3. Winner or winners will be drawn from the correct replies received by then........