Apprentice Watch - Week 6 - The one with the apostrophe

Writing by aj@lecraic on Wednesday, 30 of April , 2008 at 11:29 pm

Cor blimey, it’s 6.30  and I didn’t get much feather and flip last night. It’s that old tart Sir Alan’s secretary on the dog and bone and she wants me down the old ‘ackney road. The ‘addock and bloaters will be ‘ere by 7 bells.

Doesn’t make much sense to me either and you’ll have to do the translation yourself but it’s all in honour of the annual trip down memory lane for Sir Alan. The candidates all met him in Hackney Town Hall right in the heart of the East End of London. It’s Sir Alan’s roots and nobody should forget that he comes from the school of hard knocks.  He told the candidates that his birth and marriage are registered there and that they’ll put him in an early grave, or something. Ha, ha, ha everyone laughed while we were treated to a close up of Jennifer Maguires rather large roman nose in the harsh winter sunlight.

This weeks task – come up with a totally new occasion for greeting cards, design them and then pitch the idea to 3 leading card sellers (Tesco, Celebrations and Clinton Cards).

Michael Sophocles was appointed team lead of Alpha with Matt Lucas (sorry, Kevin Shaw) leading team Renaissance.

I loved Kevin’s talking head piece this week. He inspires devotion and is inspirational – which sounds rather saint like. He had his first house before he was blah and second house at blah and then a porsche before he was 23. He is going to be the most successful businessman the world has ever seen by the time he is 40. That’s a lot to live up to when you have the handicap of looking like Matt Lucas and sounding vaguely like Worzel Gummidge.

Michael Sophocles painted a lovely picture of himself when he said he would screw anyone over to win. Nice trait to have that and very marketable, if you’re looking for a job as a ruthless for-hire hit man.

After what seemed like very little discussion or brainstorming from either team, they came up with their respective ideas for the new occasions. Alpha, led by Michael, decided on a Singles Day event to be held on February 13th. Worzel’s team came up with an environmental theme for their cards…

Singles day was an ok idea, but cards about the environment? Difficult to see how they could ever sell and this was the bright idea of her with the chin (Jenny Celerier).

Alex really showed his hand this week. Oh yes, he’s playing the game alright. He almost chewed the side of his jaw off sitting between Jenny and Sara while they had a bit of a contretemps about god knows what on the way to the graphic designer. There he sat, in all his prettiness wanting soooo badly to shout at the pair of them or possibly poke them both in eye, but he kept it all bottled in. I fear for his mental health, and that he is going to explode at the most inappropriate time and possibly take a flame thrower into the board room with him and unleash hell. I just don’t know what he’s doing on the show – is it to be talent spotted by a modeling agency perhaps?

Back to Michael’s team who spent an impossible to believe 3 1/2 hours trying to decide on where to put the apostrophe in the word Singles. Without looking it up, I would have said no apostrophe needed. Michael went on a hunt for the answer that involved ringing libraries, bookstores, authors, Chris Tarrant, Carol Vordeman and the editor of the Telegraph newspaper (maybe not all of those, but it seemed like it) He never did get a definitive answer.

Then it was on to pitching the cards to the buyers. Worzel did his best, but he’s lighter than lightweight and the person who does pitches for a living (Claire) didn’t seem to relish the idea of showing us all how good she is. In truth, trying to pitch cards about the environment to card sellers was a non starter.  Raef was passable delivering his pitches on Singles day but boy does he waffle. Apparently it is cool to be single and singletons are a forgotten part of society!

Cutting to the chase (as I realise I am now waffling) – Alpha won the task with their Singles Day card. The order of 19,500 cards from Celebrations sealed the deal for them and they were treated to a piano performance from Mylene Klaas. Is there no end to her talent? Didn’t know she could play piano as well as being the most famous mum in Britain and the face of M&S and so many other things.

Boardroom saw Kevin bring in Claire and Sara. I think he thought the ganging up on Sara earlier made her the weaker candidate and I really thought she was going to get fired. I don’t think Alex spoke a word and he managed to keep his jaw chewing habit at bay for the duration. Kevin was shown the door for his stupidity in not bringing Jenny back in to the boardroom. I reckon she would have been fired if he brought her in. I’ll bet he’s kicking the tires of his Porsche had tonight! The stupid banker that he is.

Until next week….

Worzlefired

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Category: the apprentice

le craic cracked

Writing by aj@lecraic on Wednesday, 30 of April , 2008 at 10:23 am

It wasn’t a hugely busy day for me yesterday. I got home just before 8pm, had a bite to eat and basically couldn’t stand due to a wave of tiredness so I retired to bed at 9.30pm and heard nothing until the alarm went just after 6.

I normally only get a chance to do posts for the blog the night before and I set them to ‘go live’ at intervals during the day, so this obviously didn’t happen last night. I expect the next post on here will be the amazing le craic review of The Apprentice. The TV reception has been decent enough the last few days so hopefully no high pressure sweeps over the country just as I sit down to watch tonight. High pressure makes the reception go to pot.

I’m after flying through a load of the comments as well, and I was great to see so many of them. I think Grannymar said that it’s comments that are the life blood of a blog and she’s right, wise lady that she is. Very wise.

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Category: ifiik

There are wise women in Ireland

Writing by aj@lecraic on Tuesday, 29 of April , 2008 at 2:46 pm

Wisewomanweekend

The wise women of Ireland are gathering for a weekend of womenly things down Sligo way on June 6th to 8th.  There’s yoga, workshops, art exhibitions and a pick n’ mix selection of the finest Irish confectionary.

One of the workshops is entitled The Way of the Seabhean.

Throughout time as we recall it, there have always been women who have held sacred The Way. These were the light bringers, the keepers of the Lore and Land, the Holders of the Sacred Spiral Wheel, the wise old woman, the Cailleach - the Seabhean.

We are now on a path of re-membering our heritage as women, as Seabheans, re-claiming again the serpent of knowledge and passion.

In this workshop we will use ancient pre-Celtic Shamanic paths to awaken again this aspect within us, journeying to the place of our ancestors and totems, using drumming, sound and movement. We will weave the web of our energetic bodies to live in the authenticity of our life, weaving the web of our physical bodies to create a web of holding within the group. Weaving the Sisterhood of the Seabhean.

Sounds intriguing in a tree huggy kind of way. A very interesting sculpture adorning the home page too, which I’m sure isn’t meant to be a comment on the Irish obesity epidemic.

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Category: reallyusefulgroup(tm)

One of our dinosaurs is missing

Writing by aj@lecraic on Tuesday, 29 of April , 2008 at 1:48 pm

Dinos

I think I will have to “borrow” my nephews and nieces and bring them to this… They have a few of the smaller exhibits on display in the Jervis Shopping Centre at the moment if you’re in the big smoke and wanna take a sneak peak. What’s not to like about

  • Life-size, life-like, fleshy to the touch, with movements and sounds, animatronic dinosaurs which form the centrepiece
  • Life-size dinosaur skeletons, ranging from small winged dinosaurs to a 60ft long monolith, represent their historical significance to the evolution of nature
  • An interesting and wide range of fossils and eggs from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods
  • An array of communications and interpretive display materials that add context and meaning to each exhibit which is meant to both educate and entertain

Here’s the T-Rex from the exhibition

Dinotour

Sounds like an ideal day out to me. It’s all on at Funtasia in Bettystown beginning next week and running all through the summer holidays.

Website – clicky click click

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Category: reallyusefulgroup(tm)

In the beginning there was Mirdles

Writing by aj@lecraic on Tuesday, 29 of April , 2008 at 12:23 pm

as reported by the professor of curiosity.

Now you can get these… Butt pads and pouch enhancement pads.

Buttandpouch

Special offer on them at the moment, buy 2 get 1 free. Super deal.

All for sale on (wait for it) the Bottoms Up website. Couldn’t have been any other name could it?

They also have stuff for the ladies as well, including silicone nipple covers. What’s the big deal about nipples showing through clothing, is this actually a problem that ladies have to deal with? I’ve never heard of it before I must say.

Comments (5)

Category: reallyusefulgroup(tm)

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le craic is a blog based in ireland which will feature various items that take my fancy. the "i" in question is me, alan o flaherty - an irishman. although the blog is based in ireland, it is not specifically and exclusively about ireland, so everyone is welcome here. thanks for dropping by, hope you enjoy your visit.