Junior Apprentice

Today was the first real start on the intelligent web assignment. We made some progress but tiredness on my part got in the way and I made so infuriatingly silly mistakes with my regular expressions. It can often be quite difficult to work out where you have gone wrong without butchering it to death and writing special code to test it. I usually end up using Python to build and test the expressions before copying them into Java when they work.

I also decided to treat myself to a Subway - the first I have ever had in the UK. I am frankly disappointed. The bread is very nice but the price is simply not worth what you get unless you can take full advantage of all of the various toppings and sauces. For that price, I could have had a Boots meal deal with crisps and a drink and a much nicer and more filling sandwich. I certainly won't be making that mistake again anytime soon.

It was a bit of a tight squeeze trying to cram in all of the TV tonight. The usual Thursday night TV plus yesterday's Junior Apprentice which I will get onto later. First of all, a special mention to Chris Addison who was on particularly good form on HIGNFY this evening. I don't normally like him but I will admit that he was very funny this evening.

I missed the first episode of Junior Apprentice last night and so have caught up with it today. I am still not entirely sure about the idea of using young people instead of the usual age group but it will be interesting to see whether there is any difference or whether they will make the same sort of mistakes as the older candidates.

As for the candidates themselves, I have taken an immediate dislike to Adam, Jordan and Rhys. I am so glad that Jordan went - even if he has been running his own business from the age of 12, he clearly hasn't dealt with other people during that time because he considers himself to be so much more important than them like a sort of God complex which he doesn't deserve at all. It was also quite funny to see (in a guilty kind of way) to see him get fired in the first episode although when I saw him pick up his suitcase and he looked as if he was about to cry I did feel a bit sorry for him.

People to keep an eye on will be Arjun, Kirsty and Emma. I quite like Tim but don't think he is taking it seriously enough and I think Zoe is a bit too cocky. She is also the generic Ruth Badger type sales machine that never quite make it. As for Hibah, I think she got off lightly and would have almost certainly been fired had the boys not lost.

The other surprise for the night was Karen Brady. She is no Margaret and can never have the same comedic value for the wonderful facial expressions she used to come out with but that said, she did a really good job this evening and is a wonderful replacement.