Amazing Race: second last episode!

Greetings from Brisbane!

Hubby and I are up here visiting the very good friends who first gave me the idea of running a Survivor Sweep, and we’ve had a few Amazing Race moments of our own along the way (namely rocking up at the War Memorial to discover the opening hours were yet to commence, and driving from Canberra to Yass via Goulburn because we didn’t read the instructions properly). Anyway, we JUST made it into Armadale last night in time to catch this week’s episode so here’s what I can remember of it without having taken any notes.


Ron and Kelly had to beg some cash in Istanbul to get around, and Kelly (who has been stripped of all her makeup along with the less important possessions like clean clothes) actually begged a woman at the airport ticket desk to borrow her lipstick so she’d feel human again. It was a very nice gesture from the woman, but there’s some things I wouldn’t share with a complete stranger and lipstick is one of them, especially someone whose skin is clearly suffering from the daily layers of Polyfiller.

The feature city this week was London, or more particularly the pre-bombing London Underground (and not long after the episode finished we got the news of the newest attempt, which was kinda creepy). Once again Rob and Amber managed to get the best flights and a helpful local who was more than willing to tag along and provide specialist advice in exchange for his fifteen minutes of fame. It made a big difference, because he knew that the best way to get around London us underground, not in a taxi swamped by the traffic above. It also meant they had three people looking out for the next clue flag from the massive London Eye ferris wheel. Actually even Meredith and Gretchen managed to spot it fairly easily so it can’t have been that hard because their eyesight hasn’t been the best so far (I just hope that their kids inherited their ‘inability to read instructions’ genes because if they have they won’t have been able to program the VCR, and the oldies won’t have to see how crap and/or sheer lucky they’ve been).


Rob and Amber continued to demonstrate the difference smart Detour choices can make. This week was “Brains or Brawn”, and was literally labeled thus. Hmmm, if you were the oldies who’d struggled a bit on the physical challenges all the way along, which one would you choose? Maybe brawn was the right choice if they don’t have the brains to make that decision. The brains challenge meant tracking some really clichéd Sherlock Holmes clues down, while brawn meant hauling five rowboats out of a lake and half a kilometer up a path. Naturally Rob and Amber picked the brains one, and with their sherpa’s help were so far ahead that they completed the Roadblock challenge and were out again before Ron and Kelly even turned up to discover they’d been yielded. The roadblock was a driving test in a double decker bus, which seemed to frustrate everybody to screaming point (ie. excellent choice by the producers). Kelly volunteered to do it – go figure – and immediately had Ron shouting instructions. He later claimed he could have done it with his eyes closed on the grounds that “I drove a $35 million machine”. Hubby and I both screamed at the TV, “No, you CRASHED a $35 million machine” but I don’t think he could hear us and he clearly wasn’t listening to Kelly either by that stage.


It seems like they almost managed to beg $35 million because they had plenty of taxi money to spend. Some of that came from Meredith, paying back what Ron and Kelly had spared him when it was their turn to be non-eliminated. The other big caring and sharing moment came when Uchenna tried to help the oldies with the boats. In the end it didn’t make much difference, and Meredith and Gretchen miss out on a place in the final three. At least they said really nice things about each other, unlike Deanna and whatsisname, who deserves to be erased from memory because he’s a pig. You know who I mean.

So who’s going to win? The ad for next week shows everyone hitting major hurdles, but Rob and Amber have probably a two hour lead judging by the daylight difference between their arrival on the finish mat and the remaining teams. They’ve played the game extremely well so I’d be happy for them to get it. Joyce also won a substantial amount of respect from me for the dignity with which she just got on with the head shaving (and may I say again that she probably looks even better with the new cut than with the skanky dreadlocks) so likewise I’m happy for them to win. It would be very, very funny however if Ron and Kelly win just to see them pretend to be happy about it when they’re both just waiting for the whole thing to be over so they never have to see each other again. This time next week we’ll know.