TAR -All Stars Episode 3.

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 3 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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The last TARAS episode we saw here in Australia ended with Kevin & Drew being the last team to reach the Pit Stop and the second team to be eliminated from the All Stars edition of the show. The Pit Stop was located in the town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.

For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the Race:

1. Rob & Amber
2. Oswald & Danny
3. Joe & Bill
4. Eric & Danielle
5. Uchenna & Joyce
6. Dustin & Kandice
7. Teri & Ian
8. Charla & Mirna
9. David & Mary
10. Kevin & Drew


Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the Pit Stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').



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1. Rob & Amber


Last week: 1
This week: No change

Once again they finished first, but I’m a bit concerned by some happenings including them that appeared in the previews of next weeks episode. But I’m jumping ahead of myself. R&A got off to a good start in this episode by asking some locals for the address of a late night travel agency where they were able to book tickets on the earliest flight to the next destination. Apart from Rob taking a wrong turn based on a ‘feeling’ they went about their usual work and most of the time managed to stay ahead of the pack. Coming in first got them the extra prize of a home gym….as if they couldn’t already afford one!


2. Uchenna & Joyce

Last week: 5
This week: Up three places

I actually think these two played the smartest game on this leg. They were the second team to think about booking their tickets online rather than waiting for the airport counters to open. They even offer to buy the tickets of a few other teams who were also waiting at the airport. Unfortunately only one of the other teams provided the security code for their credit cards and so ended up on a later flight, but that was completely their faults. U&J also took advantage of asking locals for directions and I’m sure there was some other reason that made me think this, but I think they did this leg better than just about every other team, which jumped them up position wise, but not quite enough to beat R&A.

3. Eric & Danielle

Last week: 4
This week: Up one place

Eric has some serious explaining to do for that green tracksuit that he was wearing for the first part of this episode. He looked like the green M&M. Danielle once again proved herself fairly useless and held them up a bit at the fish transporting task. In fairness to her however, in this task where large, live fish had to be transported between breeding tanks, other team members had some fear issues with the fish too. Eric seemed to be the only one getting really annoyed has his partner for her slowness though.
E&D also had a bit of a run in with the old gay couple after they eavesdropped on them asking directions. The eavesdropping trick seems to be a common one in this game and the old gay guys tried to block E&D in with their car. It was pretty petty really.


4. Dustin & Kandice

Last week: 6
This week: Up two places

I thought the beauty queens were gone when it got to the last 10 minutes of the show, cause when they reached the finish line, Phil told them that he couldn’t check them in as they had missed a clue! This forced them to back track somewhat to find the clue they had missed. But either the other teams were way behind, or the clue mustn’t have been far away, cause by the time they got back to the finish line, they were still in 4th place!

Other that that rather big stuff up the girls did very well and from the start of the episode kind of partnered up with Ian and Terri quite amicably. They also had a bit of bad luck when they were leaving the second task, as their car would not start, which allowed a couple of other teams to leave the parking lot before them.


5. Oswald & Danny

Last week: 2
This week: Down three places

These guys dropped back a bit from last week and had a fairly uneventful episode. The funniest (and perhaps most un-PC) comment goes to one of them when they reached the finish line and saw that the person dressed in national costume was a little person, they said, “Charla’s (the only little person in the race) gonna be in love!”

6. Teri & Ian

Last week: 7
This week: Up one place

Even though they teamed up with the beauty queens, they still managed to end up a couple of places behind them. The team they had a run in with was Charla and Mirna, after Mirna tried to barge in when they were talking to someone behind the counter at the airport. From what I could see Mirna was totally in the wrong and was just being rude. Ian called for security, but I don’t think anything came of it.
The second task, which was the choice of doing a 40ft rock climb or going on a white water rafting trip (everyone chose the rafting, which they apparently decided was quicker) was the cause of a bit of a scare for these two. Terri fell out of the raft into some pretty serious rapids, but they were quickly able to rescue her and in the interview afterwards Terri said that the whole thing was very exciting!

7. Joe & Bill

Last week: 3
This week: Down four places

Once again one of these guys demonstrated their inability to read instructions and didn’t read a vital part of a clue that mentioned a place name. They were very lucky to find Charla and Mirna by sheer chance, who surprisingly told them the other place name (big mistake on their part too). These guys should have come last because of the seriousness of their mistake, but again, luck saves another couple of smucks in the race.



8. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 8
This week: No change

These two have become the masters of eavesdropping, but whoa betide anyone to tried to take advantage of information that they discover!
I was highly amused by how terrified Mirna was by the fish and it certainly took her a while to build up the courage to pick them up.
The other humorous thing was when they grabbed some local, who told them he actually had to go to work, and dragged him through the second part of the race with them. Mirna even apologized when they got back into the car still in swimsuits after the rafting task, but he didn’t seem to mind. In their rush they also forgot the keys to the car in the changing tent and had to go back and get them at a crucial time.



9. David & Mary: ELIMINATED!


Last week: 9
This week: No change

Personally I really liked these guys and was sad to see them go......just kidding Bevis!

This was another team that had fish issues, with David pretty much standing in the tank just looking terrified at first, but once he finally started he really picked up speed and got through the whole task quite quickly.

As far as I could tell, the loss was Mary’s fault. David saw a sign and pointed out that he thought there was something important on it, but Mary pretty much told him to shut up and keep going straight. This resulted in them going way off course toward the end of the leg and ultimately being eliminated.

In the post ending interview they stated their love for each other, so alls well that ends well.

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Last week's tips:

First Team: Rob & Amber. Correct!
Last Team: Charla & Mirna. (Wrong) - I should have just stuck with Bevis's prediction as I did predict! ;)

Yield? No. Correct!
Fast Forward? No. Correct!
Elimination Week? Yes. Correct!
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle. Correct! - I'm disagreeing with Bevis's assessment here as I didn't really notice David and Mary arguing. I thought they were communicating in the same way they have always done. Eric's cracking it at Danielle in the fish task really stood out more for me.

Smartest Team: Rob & Amber. (Wrong) – I felt it was Uchenna & Joyce, pretty much for the same reason Bevis did.

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Next week's tips:

First Team: Oswald & Danny .
Last Team: Rob & Amber (based on the preview, and in shows like this teams I like almost always have bad luck. I'm pretty certain that if they don't leave they will finish near the back. Possibly I should be predicting the same as Bevis though.

Biggest Argument: Charla & Mirna.
Smartest Team: Danny & Oswald.

NB. I will not be predicting the yields, fast forwards or elimination weeks anymore, cause in the previous weeks I was just using Bevis predictions for these as I have no idea if there is any science behind these catagories.


If you haven’t already done so, check out the review of this same episode that BEVIS posted on his blog.

The trials and tribulations of babies.

I won't go into a whole lot of detail about the birth of our son, apart from to say that at just over 9 pounds, it wasn't easy for my wife to push him out. As a guy, I must say that the toughest part of the pregnancy was hearing my wife yell out in pain at the contractions and effort of the pushing. It is not the most pleasant thing to hear, or feel I'm sure! When you see a doctor stiching up the incision that had to be made in your partners genitals to get the baby out, you wonder just how 'natural' the process really is.

Last night, was our first night at home with the new baby, whom we have named Jake. Our daughter went to stay with the wife's parents in the evening. Although Jake was very quiet during the day, at night he became pretty restless and started crying a lot. Mostly when one or both of us were nearly asleep. Thankfully it wasn't too difficult to settle him though.

Cut to 3:30am, when the wife's folks ring and tell us our daughter had woken, was crying and they couldn't settle her. Figuring she was homesick they kindly dropped her back at our place. She actually had the sniffles and pretty much woke up crying roughly every hour until the morning proper. Normally she sleeps through the night without any trouble, but for only the second time in her nearly 19 months we had to sleep her between us, cause it was just too frustrating to keep getting up to settle her. I think the wife and I got about between and hour or two of sleep the whole night. At 7:00am, she sent me to the shops to get some formula and baby bottles cause although she'd intended to exclusively breast feed, her nipples were already in extreme pain. I picked up a couple of danishes, some muffins, red bull and ice cream, just for good measure though.

I'm glad we have the support of family and friends who are sometimes annoying in the amount of times they all ring to see if there is anything they can do, but it is appreciated. Jake has been very sleepy today, so we can only hope that remains so tonight as well. I fear we're in for another sleepless night though.

Good news everyone!

At around 5am this morning, my wife gave birth to a 9 pound baby boy! Now begin the sleepless nights and learning to deal with two babies. As if I didn't have enough to do. Seriously though I'm thrilled to have a son and daughter now.

TAR - All Stars Episode 2.

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 2 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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(Bevis's Recap Begins)

The last TARAS episode we saw here in Australia was the premiere episode of the season, and ended with John Vito & Jill being the last team to reach the pit stop and the first team to be eliminated from the All Stars edition of the show. The pit stop was located at the top of Mirador Cotopaxi, a mountain in the Cotopaxi National Park, just outside the city of Quito, Ecuador.

For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the race:

1. Rob & Amber
2. Oswald & Danny
3. Teri & Ian
4. Eric & Danielle
5. Joe & Bill
6. Dustin & Kandice
7. Uchenna & Joyce
8. Charla & Mirna
9. David & Mary
10. Kevin & Drew


Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the pit stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').

(Bevis's Recap ends)

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1. Rob & Amber


Last week: 1
This week: No change

My favourite team came in first, yeah! At the start of this episode it was a bit worrying due to their planning an alternate route to Chile from the majority of the other teams, which would have gotten them there a little earlier. But due to bad luck this flight was delayed and so everyone else apart from Oswald and Danny got to the next airport before them. Thankfully (from my thinking at least) due to the equalising nature of certain spots in this game the delay didn't end up costing them much. This factor of the game where bad luck can be cancelled out by these 'time equalisers' can be pretty frustrating and adds to the random nature of the whole thing.

Rob proved his background in construction could come in handy during the detour task when he and Amber had to operate a large front end loader to shift a large pile of dirt. They finished this task first which allowed them to stay in front until the pit stop which was the next stage in this leg.

Although they tried to be too smart for their own good, perhaps with the initial delayed flight problem, the fact that they still came first demonstrated that they were the smartest in this leg IMO.

2. Oswald & Danny

Last week: 2
This week: No change

Not too much to say about these gays, I mean guys, cause the editors decided they weren't interesting enough to show much of. They must have had the same idea as Rob and Amber with the initial flight plans, and still managed to come in second place, so apart from the bad luck, they must be doing something right. The highlight was seeing Oswald crying at the apparent beauty of some desolate piles of white rock called Moon Valley!

3. Joe & Bill

Last week: 5
This week: Up two places

Another fairly boring couple. One of them read the instructions correctly in the detour task that stated that each member must take turns and the other ignored him. Only at the end did he realise his mistake and the other guy had one turn with the loader. I haven't seen anything yet to endear these two to me.


4. Eric & Danielle


Last week: 4
This week: No change

I'm not sure if Eric implied that Danielle was a dumbass near the start of this episode, but such a term could have been applied to him in the puzzle task. One member of the team had to enter a room that had pictures of various locations and their names on the wall. There were also a number of alphabet letters scattered around the place. It shouldn't take a genius to detect what the idea was. Still Eric ended up being the first or second into the room and one of the last few out.

I feel that Eric has a lot in common with Rob in terms of how ruthless they can be with their lies and behaviour, but of the two, Eric comes off more bullying and less personable IMO. I don't like him, but I would totally sleep with Danielle! ;)

5. Uchenna & Joyce

Last week: 7
This week: Up two places

The funniest thing about these guys was the way Joyce somewhat bragged of her observational abilities and yet nearly finished last in the letter finding puzzle! The look on Uchenna's face in the cab when Joyce was admitting that she didn't do too well was priceless. I've never seen anyone do a better facial impression that expressed the word, "DERRRR!"

6. Dustin & Kandice

Last week: 6
This week: No change

Whichever of these two did the letter puzzle, figured it out very quickly (or so the editors showed us), so there is some cleverness there. There was a funny scene where they were scared off by 'Mirna and Shmirna', who lost the plot over them following their car!

The only stuff up they made was taking a wrong turn, but they rectified that by asking directions. I'm curious to see how they go next week.

NB. I understand why Bevis thinks they were the smartest team, but they finished too far back in the pack to classify as 'smartest' in my book.

7. Teri & Ian

Last week: 3
This week: Down four places

These guys did nothing notable in this episode that I can recall.


8. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 8
This week: No change

I take back what I said last week about liking these two. They are clearly nuts! They get so stressed about everything and start yelling at each other and anyone else who's around. They made such a stupid mistake cause of their hotheadedness when they stopped their car (they were following a taxi-driver) cause Dustin and Kandice were following them. They confronted the beauty queens and demanded that they share the amount they were paying the taxi driver or get lost. Dustin and Kandice smartly decided to leave and went ahead while Mirna yelled at the driver about money and a couple of other teams overtook them! Absolute morons.

9. David & Mary

Last week: 9
This week: No change

Why the editors didn't incorporate 'dueling banjos' into the show's soundtrack for this couple is beyond me. They were very nice at the beginning when they stopped to tow Charla and Mirna out of some mud. It actually seemed like they might make an alliance. Then towards the end of the leg C&M overtook Dave and Mary in their car and it was 'game on moles'. Mary realised that being nice to other teams wasn't working for her and it was no more mrs nice hillbilly.

Oh, and calling out the answer to the puzzle test while a nufty from another team who hadn't solved it yet is standing behind you, ain't too clever either!

10. Kevin & Drew: ELIMINATED!

Last week: 10
This week: No change

Oh, lol, lol! Are these guys are a joke, seriously? How did they make it to 'All-Stars'???? Apparently Drew was the only person to need oxygen after getting altitude sickness after going 10m above sea level or something like that. Then Drew got them bogged in the mud and after using Kevin as a tree to pull them out, he almost dragged him along behind the car! Very dangerous and thoughtless.

Drew was just mean spirited when he pulled the hillbillies bags out of the overhead compartments at the front of the plane. It achieved nothing apart from annoying other people. He is either a hypochondriac, or is on some serious painkillers, cause he was clearly more focused on his own discomfort rather than what was going on around him.

The icing on the cake for these guys was when Drew insisted on driving at 40kph even after they had moved into the 50kph area as neither of them saw the sign. This stupidity of course allowed every other team to get ahead of them. When Drew stormed off after Phil told them they were last, it was a case for good riddence to bad rubbish for me.

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Last week's tips:

First Team: Rob & Amber. Correct!
Last Team: Kevin & Drew. Correct!
Yield? No. Correct!
Fast Forward? No. Correct!
Elimination Week? Yes. Correct!
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle. (Wrong) - This was clearly Charla & Mirna.
Smartest Team: Rob & Amber. Correct! (although Bevis disagrees - and I'll state here that in my tips whomever I say is the 'smartest' team has to come in the top 4 teams as well as doing something I consider 'smart', because smarts without application is useless. Ultimately Bevis and I don't have to agree on these things and such is the beauty of us both doing reviews. But seeing as how I'm right and he disagrees, logically he must be wrong! ;p hehe)



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Next week's tips:

First Team: Rob & Amber.
Last Team: Charla & Mirna (mostly to be different from Bevis, who I suspect will be right).
Yield? No.
Fast Forward? No.
Elimination Week? Yes.
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle.
Smartest Team: Rob and Amber (I can't help it, I like em. They do have to come in the top 4 and do something smarter than the others in that group though).



If you haven’t already done so, check out Bevis's review of this same episode on his blog (once he's posted it).


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TAR - All Stars Episode 1.

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 1 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!

Most importantly: If you're already ahead of the episode I'm reviewing where you live, please refrain from giving any spoilers to the rest of us in the comments. Thank you.

Also …

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm doing the reviews of this season as inspired by Bevis who will be posting his own (likely much more comprehensive!) reviews on his blog, so anyone who's interested can view the perhaps differing opinions of two evil masterminds.

You will also likely notice that the format of both of our reviews will be roughly the same and I give all credit to Bevis for the layout and finding source material (ie. photos, etc) .


The first episode of The Amazing Race All Stars began much the same as every other series with the introduction of the contestants, so I’ll begin by giving my initial opinions of the couple in this season.....




Host (lucky) Phil - To me this guy is a poor man's Jeff Probst (from Survivor). I don't dislike him, but there is something weird about him. I think it's just that I find it hard to read his emotional state from his facial expressions. After hosting all the previous TAR seasons, he is certainly very competent at his job.



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1. Rob & Amber

Having watched every episode of every season of Survivor (except most of the last season due to family commitments), I really like these guys. Granted they are pretty ruthless, charmingly arrogant and often seem like they'd stab their grandma in the back for $1 million, but hey they are interesting to watch! In the last TAR season that they participated in, all the other contestants were obsessed with them as they already had celebrity status from Survivor. It looks as though already in All Stars, the others are shaping up to do the same thing. In fact in the first episode another couple has already told them how great it was to actually meet them!

I really hope these guys win as they came season in the other season and they have only won $2 million dollars from Survivor, so they really need the money!

2. Oswald & Danny

I would say that they are the token gay guys, but there is another gay couple so I can't. From what I've seen so far, they seem to be quite nice and have been reasonably friendly with a couple of other teams. They were also working well together and often singing each others praises. As it's only the first episode, and I didn't see the other season they were in, I don't know what they're capable of.


3. Teri & Ian

Being ageist (joking!), I don't usually like the older teams much (true). They made have more experience than the others, but that often doesn't keep they from usually ending up close to or at the end of the pack and making stupid mistakes. I have been suprised in other seasons that the older couple usually do better than I expect, but often stay longer than I think they should, due to good luck for them, by other team making even bigger stuff ups and coming last.

4. Eric & Danielle

Eric did well with his previous male partner in another season, and yet has dumped him for one half of a more attractive couple, who did much worse than them in the same season. Because of this I feel that Eric is carrying a dead weight in All Stars, but time will tell.

5. Joe & Bill

This is the other gay couple. To be honest I haven't really developed any opinion of them at all cause they were barely featured in the first episode. All I recall about them is that they named their team after their pet dog, 'Guido'!



6. Dustin & Kandice


Dumb and dumber if you ask me. However I may be pandering to the stereotype. This is another couple I don't really have a 'sensible' opinion on. They didn't do much this episode.



7. Uchenna & Joyce

I believe they are the only team in All Stars to have won the previous season they were in, just beating Rob and Amber in that one. From the comments that they often make, they really seem to struggle with the concept of their relationship (possibly as a result of finding it difficult to have children) and they had a number of stressful incidents in the season that they won. Overall they do seem happy together most of the time and clearly have something going for them. To be honest I find them pretty boring to watch and can't stand the hairstyle she currently has (this haircut may have something to do with her head being shaved in their previous season though).


8. Charla & Mirna

As you might be able to tell, Charla is a little person and she certainly doesn't let it impede her in any way! Both these girls are very self assured and intelligent and I quite like them. I still have a feeling they won't do brilliantly, but I hope they at least make it to the top 5.




9. David & Mary


Hillbillies.



10. Kevin & Drew

When I first saw the pic of these guys I thought they were cancer patients, but it turns out they are just incompetent and slow. Firstly one of them was being beaten in a footrace by Charla who is probably between 3 and 4 feet tall, then later that guy falls over getting out of a car and thinks he's dislocated his shoulder, then they get a flat tyre and end up driving for quite a distance on the flat cause they believed that changing it would have set them back to0 far (possibly right as it turned out). I'd be very suprised if these clowns last all that long at all.

11. John Vito & Jill: ELIMINATED!

I think Jill is pretty cute, so I would've liked to have seen her around a bit longer, but overall I didn't have much vested interest in this team. A few of the teams whet to the wrong entrance to some national park and the delay put them all at the back of the pack. Ultimately it was just these two who paid the price for the mistake that a few had made.


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Next week's tips:

First Team: Rob & Amber.
Last Team: Kevin & Drew.
Yield? No.
Fast Forward? No.
Elimination Week? Yes.
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle.
Smartest Team: Rob & Amber .



If you haven’t already done so, check out the review Bevis has posted!
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Newz Flash!

In conjunction with Bevis enterprises, a deal has been signed whereby I will be posting alternative episode reviews of the tv show, The Amazing Race - All Stars series! By alternative I mean that they will be different from the ones that he is already famous for posting about. Amongst the 8000 other TV shows he already reviews on his afore-linked to blog.

So after reading Bevis's well thought out and intelligent reviews of each episode, you can come here and read a hastily written, gibberish account of my opinions of what happened. Aren't you lucky? This is only something I intend to do for this series and this show, just cause I want to see if it's fun and I like to steal the good ideas of others. Bevis is well aware of this and has endorsed it (probably cause in comparison his reviews will look even better!).

So stay tuned for the first episode coming soon!

PS. People overseas who see the show before we do in Australia, please resist the urge to spoil by mentioning stuff we don't about know yet....and I ain't referring to electricity or bathing!

I'm late, I'm late...

I haven't had time to blog recently as there has been too much going on in RL. Our 2nd baby is almost due and we had a false alarm the other week. We had some legal proceedings (working in our benefit) a couple of weeks back and it's my birthday in a few days. And that's just for starters. I'll explain all in detail when I have more time. In the meantime be well.