Dober dan and hello! I'm back from my holidays (more on that later), just in time to enjoy this latest episode. Firstly, there was no surprise that Greg & John extended their winning streak, winning their fourth leg in a row and that's really impressive - I now look back at their performance in the earlier legs and see a totally different light. But then again, given that the teams are setting off in the order they finished the last leg in, they were really only competing with Rob & Corey and Todd & Ashlie in this leg - both of these teams unfortunately made some silly mistakes in this leg which allowed Greg & John to cruise to victory with ease yet again, but hey, let's not take any credit away from them. They ran a flawless leg whilst the other teams all made some mistakes, some bigger than others. And as for Robbin & Chelsea, well - I always say the statistics never lie and whilst I like them as a team, it was obvious that they were on borrowed time this late in the season given how they have been consistently the weakest team statistically, in spite of some moments of brilliance every now and then. But in other news, Rob & Corey and Todd & Ashlie are still up there with very strong averages despite their mistakes on this leg and Steve & Anna Leigh staged quite a comeback in this leg after narrowly avoided elimination last week. Joel & Garrett equalled their best ever finish in leg 3. Now that we're getting ever closer to the grand final, we've a clearer idea which teams are going to make it into the finals based on the average ranking statistics.
Average rankings after leg 9 in Socerb, Slovenia
- Greg & John = 3.11
- Rob & Corey = 3.44
- Todd & Ashlie = 4.11
- Steve & Anna Leigh = 4.11
- Joel & Garrett = 5.11
- Robbin & Chelsea = 6.22 (eliminated in Socerb)
Robbin & Chelsea had a really bad day in the office.
It first started with Chelsea missing the rolling pin when attaching the wooden utensils to the wooden rack - making her the only racer to have not completed that detour in one go. Then as if things were not bad enough, they got hopelessly lost trying to find Pivka Jama cave - it was the confusion with the 'camping' sign that made them think that it was a road to a campsite rather than the cave. I can see how that has happened, but usually these places are pretty small and it's not like Pivka Jama would be a big town with loads of roads - no, it would be a campsite right next to the entrance to the cave. Perhaps they were overthinking it, perhaps it was a lack of experience but that was a costly error which meant they were so far behind they never saw another team since they left Ljubljana. Chelsea's mistake actually wasn't that costly, so ultimately it was really mostly the poor navigation error that got them eliminated. This seems to be a recurring theme in this season: the last two teams that got eliminated also fell prey to navigation woes that had cost them precious time.
There was a lot of driving in this leg!
Pivka Jama was 57 km (35.4 miles) from central Ljubljana and then from the caves to the the fish farm in Lucija, that is a further 75 km (46.6 miles). Finally from the fish farm to the pit stop, it is another 30.6 km (19 miles) right to the border with Italy. So in total, there was quite a lot of driving in this leg, I thought that was a chance for more teams to get lost but it only affected two teams: we already talked about Robbin & Chelsea but there was also Todd and his 'dad detour' that dropped them to the back of the pack. Slovenia isn't a big country but in these two legs they have actually covered a lot of the key sights in the West and central regions - there's still all of Eastern Slovenia though to explore next time if they want to return to this beautiful country. I am just going to put this out there: I actually would prefer it if there was less driving, if the tasks were actually closer to each other to reduce the possibility of teams getting lost or if the teams were forced to use public transport instead with clear instructions, like "take the next train to Ljubljana central station". Thus at least the outcome of the leg would be determined by the performance of the teams on the actual tasks and navigation will then be far less of a factor, but on this season it has been all about the navigation and their (in)ability to read a map.
Were the two tasks a bit too straight forward?
Whilst I like tasks that showcase the local culture, I thought the detour and the 3D dragon jigsaw was a bit too straightforward. Don't get me wrong, they both were time consuming and required attention to detail of course but if not for Chelsea's mishap, most teams simply finished the tasks in the order they arrived. I like it when there's a difficult task - such as 'the big picture' puzzle from leg 5 in Jaipur, now a difficult puzzle like that can allow some teams to jump ahead if they can solve it quickly and it may slow a team right down and make them fall to the back of the pack if they cannot solve it. It is important to create opportunities to mix the order up to create more drama, otherwise the episodes just become way too predictable if the processes are just so linear. Todd did the producers a massive favour by making his 'dad detour' as that added some drama to the episode but it wasn't something the producers had a hand in engineering.
Which detour was harder?
Actually they both looked pretty much the same, however Rob & Corey created additional drama by not reading their clue properly and probably wasted a whole bag of mussels that they dropped to the sea floor - I hope someone sends a diver to go and retrieve it as that's a lot of mussels there. Some of you did ask whether it was fair to make Rob & Corey go back to look for the bag of mussels they dropped into the sea, like why couldn't they just pick another bag? It was argued by some of you online that there were only a designated number of bags of mussels there and thus it was a rule that they could not pick a different bag and had to find the same one, otherwise there won't be enough for all the teams if all the teams wanted to do that detour. So despite the fact that Rob is obviously a very strong swimmer, they wasted a lot of precious time there and if they had simply picked the other detour (or not made that silly mistake), then they probably would have finished 2nd or at least 3rd in this leg so I hope they've learnt their lesson from it: read your clue a few times!
How hard was the kayaking?
Actually there's not that much skill involved as long as the water is relatively calm, I last kayaked when I was in Denmark this summer and it was a lot of fun. I had lovely weather for it but if you have strong winds and choppy waters, then you would have a lot more difficulty trying to steady your kayak. These kayaks are well built and you either need to be super clumsy or you need really rough waters to capsize the kayak; the teams were lucky to have quite good weather that day.
So should you be helping other teams at this stage?
I'm sure you have noticed that some teams are very hesitant about helping others at this stage of the race despite the fact that they were a lot more friendly and helpful in the earlier legs: here's the question I want to ask you: should you be helping other teams at this stage of the game? There are two possible answers to this question: no, you shouldn't help other teams because you risk eliminating that one little advantage you have over the last team and when there are so few teams left, it is too risky, you may make a mistake yourself that could lead to your own elimination, so it is better not to take that chance and just let the other team fail without your fault; this may seem unfriendly and heartless, but it will secure your place in the next leg of the race. But there is another answer to this question: you have even more of an incentive to help another team at this stage of the race with the finals so close in sight - we have a situation where we have had one team dominate and win the last four legs. If Greg & John make it into the finals, then any other team racing against them have little chance of winning - that's just the statistics talking, they are the strongest team. Therefore it would make sense for the slightly weaker teams to form an alliance to say, "we promise to help each other and we have the shared goal of getting rid of the strongest team in the race, so we can all have a better chance of actually winning this season rather than just take a back seat whilst Greg & John take home a million dollars." This would require a lot of strategic planning and corporation amongst the teams to execute a plan like that - we have seen alliances in past seasons but that has really not been a strong theme this season, which begs the question then: shouldn't teams in TAR be more strategic about forming alliances? Are the teams just going to sit back and let the strongest team win without coming up with a better strategy than this? Did it not occur to any of the teams to try to conspire against the best team?
Who will win the next leg? Who will be eliminated next?
Okay I was wrong last week when I predicted that Steve & Anna Leigh were going to be eliminated in this leg, they defied all expectations and credit where credit is due, they ran a very good leg. So I am just going to look at the statistics again and leave my emotions at the door - Joel & Garrett are now the weakest team and despite the fact that they just performed really well in this leg, I have to ignore that and just pick them as the next team to go. I was however, correct that Greg & John were going to win this leg. However, Rob & Corey have an Express Pass and they will have to use it in the next leg, If they do encounter a difficult task, then they can skip it and get a massive lead on the rest, so this must mean that Rob & Corey will win this next leg in Stockholm, Sweden. In the previews, we see Greg & John struggling with a food task, Todd & Ashlie just looking frustrated and/or exhausted and Anna Leigh asking her dad to run faster; so it doesn't look like any of these teams are going to have an easy ride on the next leg and therefore I think I can happily and confidently predict that Rob & Corey will finally get their first win of this season at last in Sweden, that's so long overdue.
Who will be in the final three and who will win TAR S35?
Based on the statistics, I have to pick Greg & John as the obvious winners of this season given how have really hit their stride in these last four legs, with no other team coming close to challenging them. Though I'd really like to see Rob & Corey win, they're truly my favourite team so far but right now, my heart says Rob & Corey will win, whilst my head says that it is pretty obvious that Greg & John will win. As for the third team joining them, again - statistically, they are tied at 4.11; I have made it clear that I do like Todd & Ashlie as a team and I don't have anything nice to say about Steve & Anna Leigh but the latter have won two legs (well, one was a keep on racing in E3 but they did get to the pit stop mat first) whilst the best Todd & Ashlie have managed was a 2nd place in E8. So once again, my heart is saying Todd & Ashlie as I like them, but my head is saying Steve & Anna Leigh - it is way too close to call but I really hope it will be Todd & Ashlie.
What have I been up to?
I have just returned from a trip to Moldova and Romania, you can see my photos on my Instagram here and it has been incredible. I have been to Romania before but it was my first time in Moldova and I loved it so much - it is a bilingual country where Romanian is the official language but Russian is very widely spoken as it used to be part of the USSR. Given that I speak both Romanian and Russian, every opportunity to interact with the locals was a lot of fun - I remember asking an older lady for directions in Chisinau and she was so surprised that I spoke Romanian. After all, I am British-Chinese, like I look Chinese, there are virtually no Asian people at all in Moldova who look like me at all. So this lady had to ask me why I spoke Romanian and we ended up chatting for a few minutes; then there was the bus driver in Tiraspol who just had to ask me where I was from as he had never picked up a passenger who looked like me before, we spoke in Russian for a while on the journey - my Russian is passable, like I can buy bus tickets, order a meal in a restaurant, ask for directions, handle simple transactions in a shop but he started asking me why the UK wanted to leave the European Union when Moldova is desperate to join the European Union. Oops, that was more than I could handle, we had gone from simple questions and answers like, "how much does the ticket cost? How long would the journey take? Could I take this seat please?" to something actually really complex.. Traveling like that is a joy as I get to meet so many people along the way and I love challenging their ideas of people like me - I doubt that older lady and that bus driver had ever met anyone like me before and I hope they enjoyed meeting me as much as I enjoyed interacting with them. In Iasi in Romania, I entered a small church and when I saw a group of older men in there, I asked them for permission if I may visit - again, they were so intrigued that someone who looks so Asian would speak to them in Romanian and we started talking; this is what traveling should be about, I love meeting locals and let's be realistic here, I don't think I am making friends per se here, it's not like I've added them on Instagram after we met but I really enjoyed having those conversations with them especially since I spoke in their language and not English - it is a sign of respect because I am a guest in their country, hence I must make an effort to speak their language and not expect them to speak English to me.
I'm through to the next stage of casting!
Some of you would remember that I'm in the process of applying for what I have referred to as the British version of TAR, I can't talk about it in detail but I'm pleased to let you know that I'm through to the next round. The format is quite different from TAR but since we do not have a TAR franchise in the UK (and as you know, only American citizens can apply for TAR USA - I am British), this is the closest thing that we have to it in my country. There are some similarities: the prize money is a potential one million GBP (which is the equivalent of US$1.26 million), you race in teams of two and you get to visit some pretty awesome places around the world. In series one, they have already featured Italy, Jamaica, Scotland, Chile, Turkey and Brazil - I'm sure there will be more awesome places but I am only up to episode 5 so far. I'm very impressed with it as it has a really high budget and no expenses are spared to get the racers to some of the most exotic locations in the world where they have to do some really hard tasks to win money. However, the key difference is that you are not racing against other teams (there are a total of 9 teams in the first season, however, teams can keep racing onto the next location as long as they pass a 'test' at the end of each leg. If they pass the test, they bank some money and move onto the next leg. If they fail the test, they are instantly eliminated. If a team passes every single test and makes it to the end, that team wins a cool £1 million. So potentially, they could have 9 teams all making it to the end and winning 9 x £1 million - 9 million pounds altogether but already in the first leg, two teams messed up and failed the test (ouch - one team was plain unlucky as they were given a crazy hard question in their test), so you know they're never going to have to pay out the full 9 million pounds in prize money but they need to at least allow one (possible two) teams to make it to the end and win that one million pounds as that's good for marketing. I'm learning so much about the casting process and I just did long interview this afternoon with the casting team where they're trying to learn about the team dynamics when answering difficult questions. It's not a done deal yet - the next stage of the process will only be in January when we're invited to meet the casting team in person in London. This is the second time I'm going through this process - I actually made it to the final cut for two other reality TV shows in the past but I pulled out of one as I couldn't get time off from work and I didn't make it through to the very last stage in the other one, but it was not the right kind of show for me.
Finally, am I too mean and nasty on my blog?
I read on Facebook some comments that I am too mean and nasty on my blog towards some of the racers and I'm not looking to pick a fight here - as someone who is trying to get on a very similar type of programme, I understand that I have to behave differently when I have a camera pointing in my face and recording every word I say - it is quite different from how I would behave when in private. This really isn't rocket science, if you are at work and you encounter an unreasonable client or customer who says something stupid, you don't just react by saying the first thing that comes to your mind. You would take a moment, carefully work out the right choice of words to say to deal with the situation and solve the problem. That is just what us sensible, working adults do every day at work - this is just a combination of common sense and social skills, so why shouldn't people who appear on reality TV be expected to behave in a reasonable and sensible manner when they know that everything they do and say is being filmed for the purpose of TV? When you go on such a TV programme, it is explained to you clearly by the producers that you will be filmed and you cannot tell them, "I had a terrible meltdown earlier when I totally lost my temper and argued with my partner, can we just leave that out of the final edit please? It would just make me look like a monster." No, you don't get to do that - but then again, how's that any different from say a waiter working in a restaurant who cannot lose his temper and argue with a rude customer? Thus if some racers want to behave badly on the programme, then they should expect the viewers to judge them. If you don't want to be judged, then either behave a lot better when there's a camera crew filming your every move or do not do reality TV at all. Yes I do judge these racers harshly but fairly, I have seen them receive far harsh criticisms on social media and it would be naïve to expect either complete radio silence or only nice things to be said on social media when it comes to reality TV. That's it from me, please leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.
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