..and at last, I get a chance to write and have some quality time to myself. The British Asian Wedding Marathon has been a blast of a time.
Over the last two weeks popularly known as Easter period, I have attended 5 weddings in 5 days (7th, 8th, 9th, 14th and 15th April). Not just attended but been pretty much part of the organisation of them too, including all the ceremonial activities, often expanding for couple of weeks prior to the big day.
Over the last few years, the Easter period has increasingly proved to be a popular time in the year for families to plan weddings. It has benefits for everyone. The kids are off from schools, students are off from Colleges and Universities and most people who work tend to take off holidays during this period, to be with their families and siblings and also to take advantage of the two public holidays (Good Friday and Bank holiday Monday).
As my wedding marathon comes to a close, I feel proud that I managed to be part of all the weddings, including planning before, during and after each wedding, and still lived to tell the tale(s).
Most of these weddings have been in the planning phase for well over a year and in one case almost two years. It’s been a sensation in watching each wedding come together on the important day(s) and in the end, it’s all been worth it without a doubt. Majority of these weddings were either relations or distant relations and a couple were of close family friends.
Many of you no doubt will be aware that Asian weddings are not ‘one day’ ceremony. Asian weddings span over couple of weeks of ceremonies, including singing and dancing, Mehndi night(s), and other ritual events often building up to the ‘big day’. These 5 weddings didn’t fall short of any expectations I must say.
It’s been the first time ever that I physically got involved in these weddings. Previously, I would have come up with all the reasons under the sun, for not wanting to attend such weddings and I have explained this in an early post. For some reason which is unknown to me, I couldn’t avoid them and in fact – truth be told, I actually wanted to be part of them.
Many people, who read this, will be accustomed to the grandness of Asian weddings, especially South Asian style weddings. There is never a small wedding and guest less than 400 are frowned upon as not being too Grand-enough.
Right now, I feel extremely tired, not just physically but mentally too (including financially). While I write this post, I have had a strong mug of coffee. Thanks to Amy (the Business Analyst) who made me one after instantly recognising that I needed one when I walked into the office like a zombie at 10:25. You may question “what’s the big deal with having a mug of strong coffee?” Well the reason why I mention this is because the last time I had coffee was in University during my studies and that was back in 2006.
For now, this is all I can physically and mentally afford to write. Stay tuned as I have more tales and stories to share with you from these five weddings, including my thoughts, opinions and views on many aspects of Asian weddings.
Today, the fourth episode of The Apprentice 2012 will be aired on BBC One at 9pm. In the last week episodes, which you can read by clicking on the links at the bottom of this post, we have seen the fall of three apprentices so far.
And, Week Three said good bye to – Michael Copp – they saucy guy.
Last week, prior to the show being aired, when I realised the task was related to food – I predicted that the girls team ‘Sterling’ would be victorious. I was right. Although Lord Alan sugar decided to switch few of the people around I couldn’t help thinking that the girls team needed some male muscle to help them – and again my thinking was correct.
Katie, the Blonde Assassin who was heavily criticised in previous two episodes, surprised me by her dominance of the male group. As the Project Manager for the boys team, she not only was calm and organised, she seemed to have understood a tricky situation really well and come up with a plan B for selling their source, despite losing the first batch to the guys badly following a recipe.
Nonetheless, Katie led her team to failure and currently is the only person who has been on the losing side 3 times.
On the Girl’s team, It appeared that the only two boys seemed to have had a grip on the task. Despite negative feelings from other girls they pulled it off with a win.
The remaining contestants have begun to show their true colours, and from them you can see who is a doer and who is just hot air.
Today’s episode (week four) Lord Sugar asks the teams to set up second-hand shops in London’s fashionable East End, home to a thriving market in retro and refurbished household goods. The teams must source second-hand stock from auctions, junk shops and car boot sales, and resell at a profit during a one-day-sale from their respective shops.
Today’s task is about having an eye for identifying items which will sell over stuff that simply is just crap – I feel (gut instinct) that the Boy’s team will win. They have proved to be more daring that the girls and better at sales.
What do you think?
Anyway, I’d like to leave you with a video below of some funny bits on the last episode. See you all tonight at 9pm on BBC One
Here in the UK we are blessed with a long weekend, as its Good Friday tomorrow and then Easter Monday, it means a short working week and an equal long holiday/weekend.
For me, although my working week may have come to an end, my family-social-wedding long weekend has yet to start. There are two weddings we (my family and I) need to attend this weekend. Saturday – a distant family relative have a wedding in which their daughter is getting married and then on Sunday, I am the Best Man for my friend’s wedding – for which his family and friends are travelling from pretty much all corners of the world to take part.
As the exciting working day draws to an end, and the end of the week fast approaches – I’d like to wish those in the UK a happy Easter break. For those who are reading this from other parts of the world – I wish you a lovely weekend.
Today, the third episode of The Apprentice 2012 will be aired on BBC One at 9pm. In the last week episodes, which you can read about here, here and here, we saw the fall of two apprentices:
Week One said good bye to – Bilyana Apostolova – Bulgarian block of flats – Watch her audition here
The last episode (week two) was a good challenge. The Boy’s team Phoenix and the Girl’s team Sterling went head to head to design a new house hold gadget. Team Phoenix won the challenge by creating an echo bin for the kitchen or a compost bin. Team Sterling, as usual, were pretty much all over the place. Their invention was something called Splish Splosh for the bathroom when given kids a bath – it was simply a screen to protect the water from splashing everywhere. It failed and so did the tem. In the end, sleepy Maria lacked ambition and enthusiasm which made her lazy and sleepy (if you watched this episode you’ll know what I mean) and Lord Alan Sugar fired her.
Team Sterling were lucky to have one out of three fired, as it seemed at the time that Lord Alan Sugar was prepared to fire two people or even the three of them – that’s how poor their performance was.
Team Phoenix had their fair share of problems too. Project Manager Azhar made a good decision to keep with their idea of echo kitchen bin, despite growing opposition from their sub group – who had other ideas. In the end, the boys decided to praise Duane who came up with the idea as opposed to the Project Manager Azhar who managed the team and produced a win. This was indeed an embarrassing moment for Azhar who was laughed at when he decided to correct the boys and make them aware that the win came about not just with the product but with this management.
Today’s episode will see, both team mix for the first time. The task is for both teams to ‘create’ and ‘market’ a new condiment brand. This will be time when both teams will need to put their creative culinary skills to the test in the kitchen.
Having the benefit of watching the last two episodes, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect. Considering this task is more natural to the girl’s team – as it includes cooking. I strongly believe the girl’s team (or whichever team has majority girls) will come through this and win.
What do you think?
Anyway, I’d like to leave you with a video below of some funny bits on the last episode. See you all tonight at 9pm on BBC One.
Are we making matters worse by misunderstanding the situation?
Back in 2000, I remember when entire England’s road network, businesses and services came to a standstill. The roads were empty and most business suffered to the point of bankruptcy due to fuel shortages. The fuel shortage occurred due to lorry drivers, truckers and farmers blocking fuel depots so fuel could not come in or leave the depot.
Back then, it was the first time I witnessed people ‘panic buying’. As a friend of mine worked at a service station near to my home – which was known as ‘Jet Service Station’ and I recall the cars queuing for hours in the bid to get some fuel. I was asked to help along with few other friends guard this service station as some people tried all sort to either obtain fuel, abuse the rationing of fuel per car or tried jumping queues – it wasn’t a nice experience.
12 years on, I’d hoped the government by now, would have learnt important lessons and understood the seriousness of a similar situation occurring again – especially at a time when the economy has stalled and no sign of growth – but the incompetence of this coalition government has made matters worse.
Despite cock-ups by the ministers in recent days advising people to fill up jerry cans and store them in their homes, the general public have made matters worse. By jumping to false conclusions and listening to rumours have gone ahead and started to ‘panic buy’ fuel which has led to more people joining them and has started to cause chaos around the country.
Let’s get some things straight here:
1. The fuel truck drivers (or whatever their official name is) have not set a date for a strike.
2. The Unions and Government are doing everything to prevent this strike from happening.
3. As a precaution the Army have been trained to deliver fuel, should a strike go ahead.
4. Do not panic and buy fuel, but buy fuel as you normally would.
5. Don’t spread rumours which you have heard.
6. Do not fill up Jerry cans and or store filled cans in your homes – it’s illegal and dangerous.
The government have done no favours in guiding the wider public and in fact they have made matters worse, and I can’t help thinking whether this was intentional to inject fear across the nation and add pressure on those who intend to strike in accepting the terms proposed by their employers or Unions.
Either way, the only way we can make matters worse is to panic buy, when there is no guarantee that the strike will go ahead. Besides, the government cannot ‘economically’ afford to allow this fuel strike to go ahead, consider the economical crisis we are already in, bringing a standstill to the road network and services, including millions of businesses that will suffer will simply collapse the UK economy overnight – as it almost did back in year 2000.
Today, the second episode of The Apprentice 2012 will be aired on BBC One at 9pm. In the Last week episode, which you can read about here and here, we saw the rise of many apprentices and the fall of one Bilyana Apostolova.
Although looking back at her performance compared to her ‘Sterling’ team mates, she didn’t do that bad, but she made the fatal mistake of opening her mouth when Lord Alan Sugar told the three remaining contestants in the boardroom to ‘shat-it’.
When the man says “it’s my time to talk, shut it and I don’t want to hear anything from anyone” he means it and at that point ‘silence’ is the key. For Bilyana silence was a weakness and she rose to challenge Lord Alan Sugar in speaking at him while he tried to utter some words. In the end, Bilyana – the Bulgarian block of flats came tumbling down – and she was fired.
Today’s episode is a slightly tricky one, at least compared to last episode. Lord Alan Sugar will address the candidates in Victoria and Albert Museum, where he will ask both teams, Phoenix and Sterling, to ‘invent’ a new household gadget. Their invention will then need to be pitched in front of the country’s biggest retailers.
In today’s task, the key is to find a ‘gap’ in the market, as the task is to ‘invent’ a ‘new household gadget’. Re-inventing the wheel (so to speak) will simply not do.
Going by my gut-instinct I think Sterling, the Girl’s team will do well in inventing a new gadget, since in the last episode they did have some creative people amongst them. That said, the key to this task as well as inventing a new gadget is the sales pitch and Phoenix, the Boy’s team seemed to have strong candidates in sales such as ‘reflection of perfection’ and ‘Master puppeteer’.
What do you think?
Anyway, I’d like to leave you with a video below of some funny bits on the last episode. See you all tonight at 9pm on BBC One.
As I get more and more older, I convince myself more and more, that all the problems we face in the world is a result of ‘failed / bad communication’.
Last Wednesday – my notion was given further strength when I witnessed two teams battle it out to win a ‘simple’ task. In life, somewhere and somehow we all go through an experience where we ‘over complicate’ simple tasks. We learn, as we get older that a simple approach to a simple task is the better way forward – less time consuming and less complicated but with the same outcome.
So What Happened: For those of you who watched The Apprentice 2012 Episode One – I won’t bore you any further with the details of what went on. For those who didn’t watch it or have yet to watch it – don’t worry there are no spoilers here and, if you are still wanting to watch it then I recommend BBC iPlayer (you have 7 days).
Over the years, I have seen Lord Alan Sugar explain his tasks to the apprentices. I admire his approach in explaining the tasks in less than 20 words. This first task was probably the simplest I’ve ever seen on The Apprentice. If I owned a business where I had a sales team – I would force my sales team at gunpoint to watch this episode for ‘how not to do business’.
The opening moments of this first episode showed the future of British commerce, I had to grit my teeth while I watched self-promotions of these individuals. I wrote a little about this few days ago and it’s worth the effort to mention this again as some had described themselves amongst other descriptions – ‘A master puppeteer pulling the strings’, ‘A shark and total reflection of perfection’, ‘Like an animal I will roar my way to the top’, and ‘A blonde assassin’ delivered with total focus without batting an eyelid
My first impressions of some of the apprentices when they first entered the boardroom, at the beginning of the tasks, was the group consisted of loatheables apprentices with the usual delusional declarations of egotistical self priced – despicable characters. Some were full of attitude and some were already raising their left eyebrows with a smirk as Lord Alan Sugar spoke at them.
So after regaining my consciousness after week one episode, I have compiled below ‘lessons learnt’ and where applicable tried to explain – how things should have been done.
Understand the Task: Often people fail at the first hurdle and one factor to this failure is not understanding the task. Understanding the Task means knowing what to do.
The Apprentice was no exception. The task was simple and required a simple thought out process. There was nothing complicated about it and neither did it need any debate. I think both teams understood the task but the Boy’s team now called Phenix had the upper hand, as they felt confident from the start – and I guess they knew how simple the task was.
Do your Research: In any market, be it business or your own profession – doing research is vital. Most people fail to recognise how important ‘research’ is. It prepares you to understand the future and more importantly prepares you to make those smart moves to keep you ahead of the game.
None of the apprentices made any effort to find out the market trend, potential explosive idea or even which area was strong to sell at.
Identify Individual Skills Set: Knowing what the strengths and weaknesses are can make all the difference in achieving the end result. This is more important to figure out in a group especially since you will be relying on those people to win you the task.
Both teams failed abysmally in my view to identify who will be good at what. If you are going to be working together in the future, it’s very important to understand the skill sets of individuals. Knowing who is good at what can potentially be a winning strategy going forward in this series.
Have a Strategy: Having the right strategy makes all the difference in seeing where you are and how you intend to get where you want to be. Think of it as a roadmap from A to B.
The Boy’s team seemed to have a good hold in this space. It was clear in their mind – how much to spend on stock, what end product to produce and once you have a product, depending on its uniqueness what price should it be sold at.
On the other side, the Girl’s team, now known as ‘Sterling’ were terrible in getting organised, let alone defining a strategy. They may have chosen a Project Manager who was in this trade already – and in theory should have already known exactly what to do, how to do it and when to do it – but the Project Manager lost her ability to get organised or set a long term strategy which should have made all the difference.
Identify a Unique Idea or Product: The product to sell and to whom is one of the most fundamental aspects of business. Although it’s not the only thing which can win you the task, and as the Girl’s team proved so successfully that despite having a good product, if you don’t manage everything else correctly – you can still loose.
With so many ‘so called’ bright people on both teams, identifying a unique idea and producing a unique product should have been a walk in the park. The unique product or idea sells itself, and both team failed to recognise this.
In the interest of keeping this post short, I’d like to sum up the remain points – as due to the amount of failures in the this task, I can go on and on.
In addition to the above, it’s equally important to ‘get your product right’, without which you can’t do justice to the good idea. The other aspect which I think the Boy’s team succeeded in doing was to ‘delegate effectively’, this in the end proved to make all the difference between both teams. The final point is to have ‘confidence to make decisions’, and again the Girl’s team Project Manager Gabrielle Omar clearly lost her confidence in making decision, especially when up against strong personalities constantly having a stab at you and your plan.
In the end, the Bulgarian block of flats came tumbling down: Bilyana Apostolova who works as a trainee Wealth Manager in the UK didn’t last long, and as I witnessed Bilyana beg for a second chance, despite my gut feeling that the blonde assassin was on the verge of being fired I think Lord Alan Sugar changed his mind in the last second to raise his finger at Bilyana.
The following video are a tribute to Bilyana Apostolova:
..and to see some funny highlights of this episode, check out an edited version below:
..and at last, I get a chance to write and have some quality time to myself. The British Asian Wedding Marathon has been a blast of a time.
Here in the UK we are blessed with a long weekend, as its 
Here we go again. 
