Chris Saul's Blog

Wednesday July 23, 2008

The UK Apprentice - perfect TV

I've just finished watching series 4 of the UK Apprentice. (Yes, that's series, not season. We have series in the UK and stick with seasons when describing the time of year, not our TV programmes).

Like the other three series, I love it. Definitely one of the better things to come out of the world of reality TV. I've only watched season 1 of the US Apprentice, so can't comment on what the others are like, but infinitely prefer the UK version to the US episodes I've seen. Some of that's clearly to do with the fact that I have more in common with the people and setting, but most of it's due to other factors. The BBC don't need to edit things around ad breaks, the production is simply superb and Alan Sugar's far more my kind of guy than Trump.

Much of the US version I've seen appears to be all about how amazing Trump is. Siralan's hardly a shrinking violet, but at least he doesn't feel the need to boast all of the time. His treats are far better too - I nearly fell of my chair laughing when one of Trump's treats was the chance to look around his glitzy apartment. Appalling.

Some observations on this series...

- Far less swearing. The effing and blinding in past series was over the top.

- Siralan's Emailer phones have gone. I presume he's given up on that particularly product.

- Gelled hair. If I were 8 years younger, would I be covering my head in splodge every morning to look cool? I hope not.

- Empty suitcases. I love the fact they all bring their cases to the boardroom and that the cases are clearly empty. You can't fit all your stuff in those tiny bags, or lift a full case so easily with one hand. Nice theatrical prop though.

- Lot of kissing hello and goodbye and constant screaming and hugging. Not very British, you know. Or am I just stuffy and out of touch?

Roll on the next series....

I would love to see a UAE version of The Apprentice, preferably a UAE Nationals only version (with subtitles of course). That would be great to watch.

Reaching out

Despite their fondness for throwing tea into the sea, America remains Britain's closest ally. I work for an American company and have the pleasure of visiting regularly. We also share a common language. This is an excellent state of affairs, as far as I am concerned.

I have no doubt that my US colleagues have a chuckle every time I say 'jolly good', 'crumbs!' and describe the United States as America.

I allow myself a little chuckle when my US colleagues ask me to 'reach out' to someone or for someone to 'reach out' to me.

'X will reach out to you' is a common phrase. I always have this vision of someone about to fall off a cliff reaching for me in desperation, arms waving, with a look of terror on his or her face.

All the person in question is usually going to do is drop me a mail checking on the number of servers we need to run a hundred Sun Rays.

Twitter twitter

I've been on Twitter for the past couple of months, after ThinGuy encouraged me to sign up.

Twitter's one of those things that's impossible to explain to people who aren't already Twittering. It just sounds rubbish. But it's fun. Basically, you have 150 letters or so to post whatever you want to.. Call it mini-blogging, if you will.

Me - You post a few words about what you're feeling, what you're doing, whatever. Friends subscribe to your 'tweets' and keep up to date with what you're up to.

Mrs Saul - Sounds strange. What do you write about?

Mr - Well, work things or whatever I'm up to or about to do. 'Just about to head off to the pool', for example.

Mrs Saul - Who on earth wants to hear about that? Who do you listen to and who listens to you?

Me - Well, I subscribe to a few work people's 'feeds' and they subscribe to mine.

Mrs Saul - Why do they care what you're up to?

Me = Well, I don't think they do particularly. It's just fun to keep in touch, so to speak.

Mrs Saul - Have you met these people?

Me - Well, I've met some of them once or twice and got on well with them. Others I've never met. I've 'known' them all for a few years via email.

Mrs Saul - Hmmmm.

Thus far, I love it. The fact I know that people I don't really know are off to church every Sunday, going to the gym or munching on a cookie is a bit odd, considering I have no idea what my best friends back home are doing for months on end. That said, when we do finally all meet, we'll probably feel like old friends. Let's see how long this particular Web 2.0 thing lasts...

Give us a language choice, Google

Come on Google. You do a great job in localising your web pages. Having had some limited experience of the cost and complexity and costs of localising products, I appreciate the fact that you go to the extents you do.

That saidm don't forget that not everyone that lives in a country speaks the language of that country, so give us a choice on your web pages. Yes, I'm a Brit in Dubai who doesn't speak Arabic (an interesting topic of its own), but I'm sure this applies to French people in Finland, Arabic speakers in Australia, Nigerians in Nicaragua and lots of other linguistic permutations.

Give us a button, a drop down list or something else so that we can understand what google.com, blogger or your other services are trying to tell us.