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hnpccSo the first episode of the new Amazing Race (US) version screened on 7mate last night. The first task was getting themselves to Sydney, an then to Manly (and Oceanworld!) via the ferry. The whole way through the episode Dean and I were going "geez, it's beautiful weather - wonder when they were up there? Looks like it must have been the week before or the week after we were there... probably."
And then![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tra4ce sent me a link to this. And the very first screen cracked me up entirely.
So, what was I doing on 22nd Nov 2010? Oh that's right... I was in Sydney that weekend for the Urban Max, and on the 22nd... I was wandering around The Rocks and Circular Quay before catching a flight home. No wonder the weather looked so familiar!!
I haven't laughed so much in ages - we missed crossing paths with the racers by about 30 minutes at Circular Quay, and were in Manly the day before watching Tony Abbott fail to surf (amongst other things).
That is honestly the closest I've ever come to the race being filmed, usually I just wander through locations months to years afterwards. Heh.
Things that really surprised me about the episode? The Cowboys not changing into t-shirts - they must have been really warm, especially by the time they went back and forth to the skiff sailing club several times. And it was quite warm and humid that day - we had coffee in Hyde Park just before returning to the hotel to catch the airport bus and we were carefully sitting in shade and talking about whether iced coffee would have been a better bet. And this was from semi-locals who were appropriately dressed for the climate! That Manly surf pavilion shot - I'm guessing that was either done reasonably early before the teams arrived, as it was quite empty and I'm pretty sure the surf thing was still going that day, or it's a stock footage shot. At least they didn't show another Japanese Tourism Commercial Koala shot again. I was also surprised by the number of teams who were really struggling with fatigue - is that the longest starting flight the race has had (I'd have throught JFK-Johannesburg would have been longer, especially when you factor in that that wasn't the endpoint). Admittedly I tend to get on the LAX-Syd/Melb flight and fall asleep almost immediately though, so I'm probably not the best person to be surprised by fatigue this early in the race. And finally - the sheer number of teams who shared/were given the clue answer without actually solving the puzzle surprised me. I know you're all friends, but, guys, race!!
Other thoughts: the QF thing cracked me up - talk about blindingly obvious to an Australian, and seriously "Pan Am"?!? You do know... OK, obviously you don't know that they went under quite some time ago. I also giggled a lot at the teams having to go through the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX - been there, spent a lot of time, really not a great place to hang out actually, sucks to be you.
I admit to being jealous that they got to go sailing though - I was really wanting to go swimming that Monday, and we just didn't have time. :-(
Still wish the race would come to Melbourne - given that the Australian Tourism Commission fairly obviously had some sponsorship going with that episode it'd be nice if they could actually fund swinging past a few cities that neither TAR nor TAR-Asia have visited yet. Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide (flying through in TAR 2 doesn't count) - geez guys, can we get over the Bridge/Opera House combo and maybe have a look further afield? I can give you leg designs if that would help... ;-) Even Canberra has potential for hilarity, particularly if you force teams to self-drive without benefit of taxi navigation. I get lost every time I try to get from one part to another, I can't see that they'd do any better, and having teams end up in Fyshwick ("Firecrackers! Furniture! Porn!") every two minutes would crack me up at least.
Still laughing. Even if I'd been at Circular Quay at exactly the right time I would probably have failed to notice the film crews etc. Given that I've managed to do that several times at my workplace and all. I might possibly have recognised the Goths, the Globetrotters or the Cowboys, but to be honest I'd have been terrible at recognising any of the "normal" teams as I'm not great with remembering faces. Which is of course how I inadvertently ended up on Neighbours.
Edit: Hm, more Amazing Race trivia:
The flight from LAX to Sydney is normally 14 hours 35 min.
The flight from JFK to Johannesburg is normally 15 hours 05 min.
So that was the second longest flight they've started off with. I didn't notice quite as much fatigue in S1E1, but then again the time of year meant that the climate change also wasn't as much. And of course they didn't divert to Honolulu for a couple of hours...
And then
tra4ce sent me a link to this. And the very first screen cracked me up entirely.So, what was I doing on 22nd Nov 2010? Oh that's right... I was in Sydney that weekend for the Urban Max, and on the 22nd... I was wandering around The Rocks and Circular Quay before catching a flight home. No wonder the weather looked so familiar!!
I haven't laughed so much in ages - we missed crossing paths with the racers by about 30 minutes at Circular Quay, and were in Manly the day before watching Tony Abbott fail to surf (amongst other things).
That is honestly the closest I've ever come to the race being filmed, usually I just wander through locations months to years afterwards. Heh.
Things that really surprised me about the episode? The Cowboys not changing into t-shirts - they must have been really warm, especially by the time they went back and forth to the skiff sailing club several times. And it was quite warm and humid that day - we had coffee in Hyde Park just before returning to the hotel to catch the airport bus and we were carefully sitting in shade and talking about whether iced coffee would have been a better bet. And this was from semi-locals who were appropriately dressed for the climate! That Manly surf pavilion shot - I'm guessing that was either done reasonably early before the teams arrived, as it was quite empty and I'm pretty sure the surf thing was still going that day, or it's a stock footage shot. At least they didn't show another Japanese Tourism Commercial Koala shot again. I was also surprised by the number of teams who were really struggling with fatigue - is that the longest starting flight the race has had (I'd have throught JFK-Johannesburg would have been longer, especially when you factor in that that wasn't the endpoint). Admittedly I tend to get on the LAX-Syd/Melb flight and fall asleep almost immediately though, so I'm probably not the best person to be surprised by fatigue this early in the race. And finally - the sheer number of teams who shared/were given the clue answer without actually solving the puzzle surprised me. I know you're all friends, but, guys, race!!
Other thoughts: the QF thing cracked me up - talk about blindingly obvious to an Australian, and seriously "Pan Am"?!? You do know... OK, obviously you don't know that they went under quite some time ago. I also giggled a lot at the teams having to go through the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX - been there, spent a lot of time, really not a great place to hang out actually, sucks to be you.
I admit to being jealous that they got to go sailing though - I was really wanting to go swimming that Monday, and we just didn't have time. :-(
Still wish the race would come to Melbourne - given that the Australian Tourism Commission fairly obviously had some sponsorship going with that episode it'd be nice if they could actually fund swinging past a few cities that neither TAR nor TAR-Asia have visited yet. Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide (flying through in TAR 2 doesn't count) - geez guys, can we get over the Bridge/Opera House combo and maybe have a look further afield? I can give you leg designs if that would help... ;-) Even Canberra has potential for hilarity, particularly if you force teams to self-drive without benefit of taxi navigation. I get lost every time I try to get from one part to another, I can't see that they'd do any better, and having teams end up in Fyshwick ("Firecrackers! Furniture! Porn!") every two minutes would crack me up at least.
Still laughing. Even if I'd been at Circular Quay at exactly the right time I would probably have failed to notice the film crews etc. Given that I've managed to do that several times at my workplace and all. I might possibly have recognised the Goths, the Globetrotters or the Cowboys, but to be honest I'd have been terrible at recognising any of the "normal" teams as I'm not great with remembering faces. Which is of course how I inadvertently ended up on Neighbours.
Edit: Hm, more Amazing Race trivia:
The flight from LAX to Sydney is normally 14 hours 35 min.
The flight from JFK to Johannesburg is normally 15 hours 05 min.
So that was the second longest flight they've started off with. I didn't notice quite as much fatigue in S1E1, but then again the time of year meant that the climate change also wasn't as much. And of course they didn't divert to Honolulu for a couple of hours...
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 06:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 02:57 am (UTC)Still can't stand Jaime the cheerleader. Still like Justin and Zev (and cackled when I saw their shirts.)
Looking good!
I too wish they'd come to Melbourne. We're a lovely city! Make them do a hook turn!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 06:11 am (UTC)Jaime.. has not really gotten how she comes across at all. "Get off my foot" - yeah, there are several ways she could have asked that, and most of them would have been nicer.
I really liked TAR-A series 1. Would you like S2?