This was Stephen's demise. His oily sales talk had got him off the hook when Jenna was fired last week. He offered the "let me lead" gambit and Sugar accepted. The task was about buying luxury discount coupons. Even in a recession there is plenty of spending power around for quality deals on everything from luxury car driving to fine dining. The watchword quality would be the judge of that.
Jade went to Sanctuary and tried to sell her 50% discount idea. Tom just seemed to sneer. Wricky resisted a trip to Hertfordshire, like he was being asked to go out into the dessert. Tring is famous among football fans for being the home of one of the Premiership's least liked referees Graham Poll. He was known jovially as the 'thing form Tring'.
As the golf experience began to look less luxury and as Gabrielle foundered, Wricky was tasked by Stephen to get himself up to Tring and wangle a discount for the excusive Champney's. Now even I know that foot nibbling fish massages are a bit passé, though maybe Tom could have re-branded them as Grignoter De Poission as I have (thanks to our fluent French speaking team co-ordinator Noelle) and they would have sold. French-ifying things does give them an air of luxury.
That said the very chatty French Maitre D who took Wricky on a long tour of Windows of the World, wasn't playing ball. When the astonished recruiter asked about a discount the answer was "non- negotiable!". Jade and Nick got themselves into a right fankle probably not understanding decimal places on a calculator as they tried to buy slots at Marcus Wareing's St Pancras bistro.
With Jade bagging discount from Sanctuary it was all down to Wricky and his visit to Champney's. Now Champney's may well have slammed the discount door in his face like Windows on the World or he could have negotiated great discount and massaged a pampering profit margin. We never got to find out because he wouldn't go there. Stephen told him "This is the decision I have made" and Wricky resisted, then Stephen relented.
The decision not to go to Tring was very costly. That meant the boardroom tussle between Wricky, Stephen and Gabby would be a finger-pointing fest. Though Gabby has been creative and quite energetic she discovered her inner wallflower just as she needed to sharpen her claws. This led to her sharp exit and Stephen breathed like a man left for dead by a grizzly.
But the old business bear came back at him and he finished off too. Wricky survives but his not-going-to-Tring thing was a sign of calculating hubris he won't get away with it twice. The calibre of what's left isn't great. I have gone off Tom and think Adam is beginning to look like the winner but maybe Sugar sees more legs in Tom's idea. Who knows?
PerformersAdam in getting a free tea and coffee thrown in to his excusive meal deal, when they wouldn't go lower. Every little helps.
PloddersJade and supposed geek Nick couldn't work out a cost per cover form a discount. Embarrassing numero-numptiness. Apparently not a round percentage.
Please stop!Tom's sneer when he isn't being listened to or allowed to expound his massive knowledge.
A trackback is a method for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking, and so referring, to their articles. Some weblog software programs, such as Wordpress, Drupal and Movable Type, support automatic pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be pinged when the article is published. The term is used colloquially for any kind of linkback.