Thursday 17 May 2012

Suffer The Little Children

Anyone watching the news last night could not be anything but moved by the pain and dignity shown by the parents of six children that died in a house fire in Derby. Losing one child is bad enough but to lose six, well the pain must be unimaginable. Yet despite the pain the father spoke with dignity and proved in very few words what a great father he is. Not only that but in the midst of his pain he was able to think of others and donate the organs of the eldest boy to the transplant service. This lad had survived the initial fire but died later in hospital. Like most people I have seen media reports regarding this family, the father having seventeen children via two women and thought here is another example of a lazy good for nothing using children to get more benefits. Having listened to him my attitude has softened because no one deserves what has happened to this family and I do believe he is a decent man who just loves children.

As for the scumbag who poured petrol through the letterbox while the family were sleeping. I just hope the police get to him or her before someone else tracks them down. I cannot understand how anyone could pour petrol into a house containing sleeping children, and they must have know there were children present. This is very obviously a personal attack by someone with a grudge, they will never be able to claim they did not know children were sleeping there. When found and jailed, and I have no doubts they will be, they will wish we still had the death sentence because they will not be in for an easy ride.

I have woken up with a cold, at least now I know why I've been feeling low these last few days. Thankfully it hasn't turned into a chest infection yet but I will be keeping a close eye and will be ready for a dash to the GP should things start to take a nasty turn. As I still haven't heard from the hospital regarding my line repair I'm planning a day of rest and relaxation in front of the TV drinking lots of tea in the hope a bit of codling will encourage my cold to remain just a cold. I know my immune system has improved a bit recently as I've avoided at least two nasty bugs that Andrew has brought home from school and I didn't get any infection after my last line leak. I've also been taking vitamin C and D regularly after being told I was deficient in January so I'm as prepared as I can be. I figure lots of rest and not over doing it might just tip the balance in my favour.

And so we come to The Apprentice and the 'promote something' task.

This year, being the jubilee year and Olympic year yardi yardi ya, they were tasked with promoting English sparkling wine over French Champagne. Not difficult you would think, wrong!

Team Phoenix, the losers of at least the last two tasks, got off to a cracking start having a wine expert and a web designer on their team. The web designer was left to tackle the technical side with another team member while the wine expert took his best mate off to do some wine tasting and get sloshed. They had a ball tasting wine after wine while turning a delicate shade of scarlet. In the meantime the design team came up with a rather obvious logo with ESW (English Sparkling Wine) plonked in the middle and a rather boring video.

Over at team Sterling having bemoaned the fact that they did not have any experts on hand they struggled to chose a name. Andrew and I came up with half a dozen in about ten seconds flat including Monarch and Regal. What did Sterling choose? Grandeur, yep a French name. The team then split, two to do research and two to produce the website and video, the team leader reminding everyone that the emphasis was on quality, quality, quality. The researchers headed to Tesco, quality, while the designers came up with a video the 'Carry On' team would have been embarrassed by.

Back in the boardroom Lord Sugar stared in disbelief then shook his head sadly as neither team really 'got' that they were supposed to be promoting not selling. After some deliberation he decided that Phoenix's effort was less embarrassing than Sterling's and Phoenix were sent off to drink Champagne in a hot tub. For Sterling it was the dishwater tea at the cafe then a grilling by Lord Sugar. Team leader Ricky rightly brought the two video makers back into the boardroom with him as fourth member Gabrielle had come up with the only good thing, a logo of a wine glass in the shape of a rose.

After at lot of blaming each other it was Jenna that got the boot while Ricky and Stephen lived to fight another day. Stephen is unable to rest on his laurels though as, having promised that the next time he is project manager he'd win, Lord Sugar promptly made him project manager of the next task without even telling him what is was. Just cannot wait for next week.

Well I'm off for a quiet afternoon in front of the TV and maybe I'll even treat myself to a nap this afternoon. I feel I deserve it.

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