Young Apprentice: week six

The Wikipedia definition of a “Dashiki” is “ a colourful men's garment widely worn in West Africa that covers the top half of the body”. 

Karren Brady, Lord Sugar, Nick Hewer

Until this weeks episode of The Apprentice I had no idea what this garment was and due to continual confusion, I thought it would be appropriate to clarify just exactly what the object is!

This week, Lord Sugar gave the candidates 10 hours to buy ten items at rock bottom prices. These items were to be used on waxworks at Madame Tussauds.  Having given instructions I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for Lord Sugar who was surrounded by the likes of Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and David Cameron, yet his own personal waxwork was nowhere to be seen!

After a lottery of decisions Haya claimed project manager and decided to split her three man team, leaving Harry H alone, a lucky week for him.  Haya lacked authority and her inability to create a management plan left her colleagues running around London on a wild goose chase. Haya’s negotiation style was dubious as she “complemented” the shop owners on their attire, leaving everyone feeling embarrassed. Despite her flirty negotiating, it was Harry H who misinterpreted the meaning of the infamous “Dashiki”, perhaps suggesting that he isn’t so capable on his own as we thought.

After hours of planning, project manager Lizzie decided to head to the streets. This played to their advantage as negotiation was quick and snappy and for the first time I felt hope for the contestants! This meticulous planning was a thing of beauty in comparison to Haya’s slap dash approach. It was down to  well-spoken Zara to discover the “dashiki” mystery, but its location in Croydon seemed to stretch her intellect as she failed to read the map and knew nothing about Croydon, just that it was “Cheap”. Despite the confusion, Lizzie assured us that everything was "ok", but having said this at least ten times, it was clear she was far from "ok"!

When arriving at the boardroom, the candidates melted like waxworks before Lord Sugar who grilled the contestants upon their efforts to haggle. The victory was shockingly awarded to Haya's team, but even more astounding was Harry M's escape from the final two to be brought back into the boardroom, lovely Lizzie freed Harry from Lord Sugar's furnace. This left the fiery girls to fight viciously against each other and after many a snide and undermining comment it was Hayley who felt Lord Sugar's wrath.

As the semi finals approach the remaining candidates will invent new flavours of popcorn and Lord Sugar will make multiple firings before the final.