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The Apprentice 25/11/15 - PArty Planners


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Old 26-11-2015, 04:50
chrono88
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This was a dreadful loss. Gary's team started off well but completely lost it afterwards.
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Old 26-11-2015, 08:37
Vientre
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Gary should have gone, thought he was poor last week too, if I was LS I wouldn't invest anything with any of this shower, what a hopeless lot.
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Old 26-11-2015, 08:52
Aslan52
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Well, I'd have to admit that's the sort of task that might have baffled me.

It's hard to quantify what makes an "event" a success. You can spend a fortune and bore the pants of everybody or you could organize something that costs peanuts and everybody will have the time of their lives if you can manage to generate a suitable "buzz" about it.

The first thing that I noticed was that neither Selina OR Gary really displayed any special talent for organizing an event, despite the fact that it's what they're supposed to be good at.

Overall, it seemed like a train-wreck on all sides, with nobody really doing anything that made them shine.
Perhaps Brett and Scott did a good job during the "mini-olympics"?
Claude seemed to think they succeeded in making it enjoyable although we didn't see much to confirm it.

The main thing, in my opinion, was that David went about defending himself in completely the wrong way.
Ironing graphics onto T-shirts IS a specific skill.
It's no good Gary offering to provide his clients with t-shirts if they don't have anybody who can actually create the t-shirt.
David hasn't been terribly impressive through the series but it might've gone better for him if he'd simply acknowledged that he doesn't know how to iron graphics onto t-shirts and it was daft for Gary to offer that service.

Of course, I'm sure Alan Sugar doesn't really care if a prospective partner can create iron-on transfer t-shirts or not (unless that's their intended business) but the fact that David has shown himself to be somebody who can't really defend himself IS probably something that might be worrying.

I think it was the fuss over the nut-free cake that killed the whole day for Gary's team regardless of the t-shirts and Gary is demonstrating a spectacular lack of initiative, especially in a field that he intends to start a business in.

Charleine was, as usual, relentlessly nasty although, in fairness, it was nice to see neither Joseph or her didn't lower themselves to stabbing each other in the back as Gary wanted.

Hadn't really noticed much of Gary until last week but he's really showing himself to be a bit of a muppet at the moment.
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Old 26-11-2015, 09:56
Maxatoria
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For the lads thing i would of thought a few games of footy and other simple things would of been fine followed by a slap up nut free but meat feast and a cake and probably you can buy nut free cakes ready done so all you need to do is pipe on the name etc and job done as having mum sat 100 ft away just in case would of killed the mood as while i'm sure the lad would prefer to be playing with his mates the fact that mum is sat behind a fence wouldn't make it very appealing.

The girls, i'd probably of just gone for a hair and makeup theme with some hair and beauty stuff where they can all give that girly squeal and feel happy and if the girls are happy and bubbling with excitement over their new hair do the parents would of been over the moon.

Lets just hope Vana doesn't make a malaka of herself in the next few tasks
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Old 26-11-2015, 10:25
dmwat
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Once again the winning team won not because they were good but because they weren't quite as awful as the losing team. I don't think they deserved a reward at the end, they should just have been sent back to the house with a few bags of chips.

Not getting contact details was a huge error, and having to ask Claude to let the family know where the party was ffs, it's a good job they won.

I guess the mum didn't really have a nut allergy, otherwise surely 'may contain nuts' would still have been a no no for her. Although if that was a set up it was unfair to only do it to one team.

Charlene being called back to her seat for leaving before she'd been dismissed from the boardroom was one of the highlights for me

I don't think David should have been fired, it should have been Gary for the cake incident and because he was the project manager who apparently wants to set up an event planning business - hopefully with nothing to do with fun and children.
I know that Karren and Claude see more of the candidates than we do, and that the lucky things get to spend days at a time with them (they earn every penny they get with this lot imo), but for some reason Karren seems to have taken against David from the start. I wonder how much influence she had over his firing and if the advisers had been the other way round, would he still have gone.

I no longer care who wins this year, not that I cared that much before this week. I'd be happy if they all got fired and LS gave the money away to charities of his, Claude and Karren's choosing instead of one of these numpties.

Can't tell the difference between Brett and Richard
Me either.

I would have done paint balling for the lads party.
David's health and safety chat for that would still be going on. Remember what happened on Byker Grove (poor PJ, could have been Duncan).
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Old 26-11-2015, 10:46
parthy
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The girls, i'd probably of just gone for a hair and makeup theme with some hair and beauty stuff where they can all give that girly squeal and feel happy and if the girls are happy and bubbling with excitement over their new hair do the parents would of been over the moon.
The birthday girl wasn't a girly girl.
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Old 26-11-2015, 11:15
Philip Wales
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The main thing, in my opinion, was that David went about defending himself in completely the wrong way.
Ironing graphics onto T-shirts IS a specific skill.
It's not, you can train a chimp to do it, and within 2mins they'd be over qualified
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Old 26-11-2015, 11:16
seawitch
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Regarding the T-shirts, shouldn't Gary have anticipated that one or two T-shirts might not come out, and bought more T-shirts than were needed? The cost of a basic T-shirt isn't much. It was just putting the photo on that pushed the cost up (for the client). It is better to have too many than too few.
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Old 26-11-2015, 14:56
The_Bonobo
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As mentioned by others both teams failed. It was only that one team failed more badly. If this was a real business and a client was so unhappy they wanted a sizable refund the bad reviews/word of mouth would kill your business before it got started. No treat was warranted and maybe each project manager should have picked one other person and then Sugar could fire from that selection. (I wonder if I am thinking that partly so that Selina might off our screens. ) Also then Richard might have had to fully explain how penny pinching is appropriate in this type of business. Again, rather than thinking about the show, if this was a real business his strategy would reflect very badly on your business approach. Why he was being praised is beyond me. I guess it is another example of how the show is not actually about "real" business. In this field customer satisfaction is king, even if it means lowering your profits.

As for David, that's twice he has been criticized heavily for irrelevant skills. First the pole measuring now ironing transfers onto t-shirts. This task overall was a good example of how the "business" focus is laughable but he got it worse than normal. Neither of these skills make any difference to his business potential. Also on both occasions he made basic initial errors which can easily happen then put it right. He messed up the first couple of t-shirts only. If anyone has done that t-shirt transfer thing you will know that a few little mistakes early on can easily happen. The main problem was that they didn't have spares so that initial teething troubles could be handled. But even if he was simply rubbish at ironing transfers, frankly so what? Maybe he was due to go for other reasons but measuring and ironing?

Unlike some it seems, I love Charleine. Lovely looking woman and mad as hell. The attempted walkout was hilarious. I hope she wins.
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Old 26-11-2015, 15:16
striing
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The girls, i'd probably of just gone for a hair and makeup theme with some hair and beauty stuff where they can all give that girly squeal and feel happy and if the girls are happy and bubbling with excitement over their new hair do the parents would of been over the moon.
Did you watch the show? The girl said she didn't want anything girly.
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Old 26-11-2015, 15:58
dmwat
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If the basic fee was £2000 and neither team received £2000 how could either have been said to have won? Everyone should have stayed in the boardroom and Karren and Claude should have been able to pick two from the teams they followed to face LS at the end. No doubt Karren would have picked David and he'd probably still have gone home, but having Selina's team saying they won and Richard strutting around was ridiculous.

Regarding the T-shirts, shouldn't Gary have anticipated that one or two T-shirts might not come out, and bought more T-shirts than were needed? The cost of a basic T-shirt isn't much. It was just putting the photo on that pushed the cost up (for the client). It is better to have too many than too few.
Good point.
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Old 26-11-2015, 16:02
Philip Wales
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^^ I've mentioned elsewhere, I think the have a "book" which they get their party theme from, and it then lists the up sale items such as T-Shirts, Cakes etc. I assume they could only buy T-Shirts in set numbers (10s).
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Old 26-11-2015, 17:15
stupidityno1
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Another week of enjoyable enough entertainment, but I felt this episode was spoiled by bad editing - something that's increasingly common.

Was it just me, or was there one point in the boardroom where the edit jumped abruptly mid-conversation to a different subject? Of course I'm aware that the boardroom scenes are always heavily pruned, but I've certainly never noticed it be so obvious.

From the way it was presented, I didn't come away really understanding how Charleine survived. She was clearly not flavour of the month with Lord Sugar and she didn't appear to offer a solid defence of her actions - her attitude came across as very poor. but for all of the discussion there was about her culpability for the task failure, she might as well have been sent back to the house.
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Old 26-11-2015, 21:30
striing
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Another week of enjoyable enough entertainment, but I felt this episode was spoiled by bad editing - something that's increasingly common.

Was it just me, or was there one point in the boardroom where the edit jumped abruptly mid-conversation to a different subject? Of course I'm aware that the boardroom scenes are always heavily pruned, but I've certainly never noticed it be so obvious.

From the way it was presented, I didn't come away really understanding how Charleine survived. She was clearly not flavour of the month with Lord Sugar and she didn't appear to offer a solid defence of her actions - her attitude came across as very poor. but for all of the discussion there was about her culpability for the task failure, she might as well have been sent back to the house.
I might be wrong but the whole series seems to be spoiled to me by editing heavily in favour of Vana.
Spoiler
(Not really a spoiler but I don't want to get told off for speculating.)
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Old 26-11-2015, 21:44
Maxatoria
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Did you watch the show? The girl said she didn't want anything girly.
But the faces of her 9 friends certainly said they were not really up for it
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Old 26-11-2015, 21:55
striing
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But the faces of her 9 friends certainly said they were not really up for it
They did it though. I really don't think you could organise a girly party when the mum and daughter specifically said not to.
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Old 27-11-2015, 00:01
Lucien_Di
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I've just watched the episode. Regarding the "nut allergy" - from what I understand, the phrase "May contain nuts" means that, while the product doesn't explicitly contain nuts as part of the ingredients, it has been produced in a factory that does make nut-containing products, so there is the possibility of accidental cross-contamination. Since Cadbury's, and most other chocolate manufacturers, will produce nut-containing chocolate bars like "Fruit and Nut" on the same premises, pretty much any off-the-shelf chocolate they could have chosen will have that warning on it. It's basically a legal cover-your-ass statement.

Having said that, severe anaphylaxis is not something to screw around with - it's potentially fatal in minutes without professional intervention, due to the possibility of severe airway compromise - though I doubt the mother was that severely allergic. People who are at risk of that will usually carry 'epipens' and would not be prepared to risk any possibility of exposure.

Either way, it seemed a pretty unfair handicap to foist on one team.
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Old 27-11-2015, 00:22
washboard
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Jeez, I'm sick of hearing about this nut allergy!
That wife completely overreacted by sitting away from the party.
Just don't eat the cake, simple as!
If the nut allergy was severe, she could have had a reaction just from being in the same room.
Exactly. Thank you Rhumbatugger!

There are so many ways that the mum could have had a reaction, even without eating the cake. Getting a hug from her son, after he had eaten the cake. Cross-contamination from other foods, because they had been prepared or served using the same utensils.

The 'reaction' could have included anaphylaxis, or death.

EpiPens help, thank God, but it's far better to avoid exposure to the allergen in the first place.

It's also far better to avoid putting the allergy sufferer at risk - rather than exposing them to the allergen, seeing them suffer anaphylaxis, having a collective fit of the vapours over administering the EpiPen, watching them getting rushed away in an ambulance, and then visiting them in hospital to say:

"Oh, if we'd known that could happen, we wouldn't have insisted on eating the allergens while you were in the same room socialising with us...!"

My response was: "Are you seriously that fooking stupid??!!"

The family member who had the anaphylaxis episode still thinks that that was the worst thing that happened that day/evening

The Apprentice actually downplayed the risks of nut allergies to an extent which could be dangerous. OK, it's not designed to be a public service broadcast. In that case, simply leave out the bit about the nut allergy.
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Old 27-11-2015, 00:44
washboard
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In the end they used a Cadbury's Choc spread which said "May contain traces of nut".

If the wife's allergy was as serious as yours, then she really shouldn't have been chosen by the producers for this task.
Maybe the producers didn't realise they'd be dealing with such high levels of ignorance about nut allergies.

The candidates - Gary at least - told the parents that Nutella had been used to make the cake. Then he wasn't sure.

He certainly didn't recognise - at any point - that he was dealing with a potentially serious issue.

In fairness to him, it's now clear that he's not alone in that.
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Old 27-11-2015, 01:53
mimik1uk
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just watching it now on TiVO and charleine does my head in , i really couldn't stand working with her for more than 5 minutes without wanting to slap her
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Old 27-11-2015, 09:32
roddydogs
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Anyone think they really "Paid" £2k (less the amount held back) each.?
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Old 27-11-2015, 09:45
Maxatoria
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Anyone think they really "Paid" £2k (less the amount held back) each.?
It'll of been paid for by the production company more than likely, its like they say they have a 'budget' of £2000 and obviously lets say another grand for extra's between them so 5 grands not a lot for an hours worth of primetime stupidity.
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Old 27-11-2015, 11:42
WinterLily
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It's an allergy so wouldn't poison them.
No, not death by poisoning but death by anaphylactic shock!o

Customer choice? How would like to die madam?
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Old 27-11-2015, 13:42
Thrombin
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You're right! Sounds like a total set up to me. No one I know with my kind of allergy would risk being catered for by a team of apprentice candidates!!

Thanks for the info re the 'may contain traces of nuts' choc spread. TBH its hard to find anything shop-bought that doesn't say that, and (though of course she couldn't eat it herself) I find it hard to believe she couldn't be in the same vicinity as it
The problem was not that they had used chocolate spread that "may contain nuts". Given that the child had asked for a chocolate cake and that pretty much all chocolate spreads you can buy have the disclaimer "may contain nuts" just to cover themselves, that was fairly unavoidable. The problem was the way in which this was communicated to the client. The client was told that the spread used on the cake may contain nuts but was left uncertain whether it may actually have been a nut-based spread like Nutella. Until that could be confirmed one way or the other the mother was left sitting on the side-lines, unable to participate at all, until the exact nature of the spread could be determined.

She probably never intended to eat the cake and it eventually it turned out that it was the usual disclaimer which meant that she could actually be at the party after all but, in the meantime, due to the uncertainty with which she had been left with, she had been subjected to a fair amount of stress which could easily have been avoided if the nature of the spread had been communicated clearly and unequivocally from the start. It was the communication that was at fault and that's a fair thing for the candidates to be tested on.
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Old 27-11-2015, 13:45
Thrombin
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Regarding the T-shirts, shouldn't Gary have anticipated that one or two T-shirts might not come out, and bought more T-shirts than were needed? The cost of a basic T-shirt isn't much. It was just putting the photo on that pushed the cost up (for the client). It is better to have too many than too few.
I was thinking the same. You have to expect a few duds and allow for that.
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