The Farmer Wants a Wife – not this season.
My favourite show has ended for another series. (Opens the door for Ellen to take the top spot haha). The Farmer Wants a Wife is beloved in my house, and amongst my friends. We don’t miss it, we inhale it and it’s the first topic of conversation at the pub on Thursday night.
We love it, because it has boys – lovely, cute, real boys who are looking for love. Apparently they are out there! And we love it because it has girls – stupid girls, naïve girls, hot girls and girls that aren’t so hot. Most that are looking for love and a few that are looking to get on TV. It has Nat – one of the best TV presenters and it has farms. For some reason, we like the farms.
The first season was exciting for it’s originality on Australian TV, and for it’s ridiculously exciting conclusion, with the engagement of Chris and Kim.
Season two, we knew what to expect and the marriage of Chris and Kim really kicked it off. We cheered for Rob and Jo who were clearly in love from their first meeting and we yelled at the screens at the stupid winemaker who picked the Miss Australia wannabe to be his “wife”.
Season three, which concluded this week was, well, a bit disappointing. The only real happiness came from – yep Chris and Kim again, announcing they are four months pregnant. Rob and Jo are engaged which is fantastic, but it puts some pressure on this season. And they couldn’t live up to it.
This season, there were more girls for us to hate than anything. And yes, we hate them. Mainly because we can see that they are not there for the right reasons, purely to get their mugs on TV Let’s start with Tim. Tim is an idiot. His girl of choice – 22 year old Cairns dance teacher, Ryley. He picked her over a country physio, who obviously liked him, obviously enjoyed being on the farm, obviously would have committed to the idea of a long distance relationship, and then perhaps a move to the farm. Instead, despite opposition from all sides, including his family and friends, (and even Ryley a bit if you ask me) he picks Ryley and right from the minute he told her, you could tell she wasn’t that fussed. Honestly, if a cute farmer told me he’d picked me over all the other girls on offer, I definatley would have pashed him on the spot. I think she giggled and said thanks.
So it was not surprising to anyone, when Tim told Nat that after he visited her in Cairns, Ryley proceeded to not return any of his calls or messages. Little bitch. What WAS surprising, was the fact she turned up at the finale show, with nothing to say except “I don’t know” followed by giggles and no looking poor old Tim in the eye. Oh wait, no that’s not surprising, of course she came – it’s on TV! Ryley really has been the Queen of fake and seeking her 15 minutes of fame, and poor old Tim returns to the farm no better off than when he started. But more fool him.
There was some mediocre viewing by way of Andrew and Jess not planning on pursuing a relationship, and Siri and Ralph being madly in love. Jenny and Owen acted like lovestruck teenagers, which is awesome for her, though I’m sure she could have done better on a night out in the Cross – Owen is a little bit creepy, but then so was Andrew so she didn’t have all that much hope. But I do hope she has found love – apparently in farming land 33 is old to be unmarried!
The highlight for me was Damian (my favourite) and Rachael (my favourite), seemingly falling in love. I’m stoked by this as they were both awesome but Rachael, if you change your mind, I’m next!!!
The shocker, the heart breaker, was Macca and Nerina. From the first episode, these two were in lust, and they gradually (seemingly) fell in love. Macca had been burnt, but he was the type to throw himself in head first. Nerina told the cameras she had never been happier, and the romantic dinner Macca set up for them last week brought her to tears. She met his son and went to a lot of effort to impress him. And then she dumped him.
Why Nerina?????? Macca is awesome, he’s in love with you and as he said, he would have treated you like a princess. More than anything Nerina, you need to give him a reason. And us. We’re dying! Good news though Macca – my sister loves you and she’ll gladly date you!
The reason we love The Farmer Wants a Wife, is we see the mistakes and fears of our own dating lives pouring out of our TV – and most of them are being made and lived by the guys! It’s refreshing to see the guys putting themselves out there and seeing them make stupid mistakes. I know that sounds cruel, but it’s true. I myself am a chronic attractor of emotionally unavailable men. So it’s nice to see that there are boys out there that have their own version of this problem. And I don’t know if it’s just my friends and I, but the idea of falling in love with a farmer and heading off to live on his farm is HUGELY appealing.
While the ending was a little disappointing (and I did get home late and miss the first hour of recaps from season 1 and 2, I wait with baited breath for series 4. I seriously considered applying for it (hey, I’ve got plenty of time to be gallivanting around a farm!) but chickened out, so I look forward to seeing who gets the farmer I was interested in, and I live in hope for another fairytale ending, and look forward to meeting some more awesome farmers, and inappropriate girls!
Ellen DeGeneres – my hero.
I haven’t really watched daytime TV en masse since the HSC. In those days, my study schedule revolved around certain programmes, namely Passions (oh what happened to Passions??). But for the first few weeks of my unemployment, my whole day revolved around certain programmes – get up at 11ish, watch the news, then Ellen, The View, All Saints, Entertainment Tonight, then freak out that all I’d done all day was watch TV in my pj’s! Realllly healthy time of my life. These days I’ve come to realise that I’m a much happier person if I get out and do something everyday, but it’s still OK to have the odd day in, catching up with old friends.
However. I am blessed by the fact that Ellen, my absolute favourite show (well it will be after tonight’s finale of Farmer Wants A Wife) is screened TWICE a day. So if I’m not at home to watch it during the day, I can watch it at night! Thank you channel 9 for making one of the best programming decisions EVER.
Why do I love Ellen? Well, Ellen is possibly the most genuine person I’ve ever met. Because I feel like I’ve met her, and I feel like I know her intimately. So happy all the time. Through my TV screen I can see the sparkle in her eye when she laughs and the glaze she gets in her eye when she’s doing something really good for someone.
The format is exquisite – arrive, be funny, dance, talk to amazing, inspirational but not necessarily famous people, play some games, give away some prizes, change someone’s life and make EVERYONE’s day. And the best part – no pretentions. I don’t ever feel like she’s doing it for the money or because someone told her it was a good career move, or so that she can lord over everyone with her knowledge and her connections. Nope, she does it for the love. Not just the love she gets, but the love she know she puts out there.
As I get older, I’ve become an increasingly emotional person – used to be the only movie I’d cry at was Heart and Souls (I know, how tragic am I??) These days, every time I hear about a struggling family or person, and then see or hear someone doing something to help them out, and seeing/hearing their gratitude – pure, unrestrained happiness and thanks – I tear up. Because it makes me feel good, that there are people out there who are still positive in times of trouble and need, and that there are people like Ellen who know how to go about changing their lives. In this day and age, where social injustice is rife, and an accepted part of our lives, it’s so refreshing and heartwarming to know that there’s good stuff going on out there.
Goals and values – keeping life positive!
This week, I made a decision to let a negative situation into my life. Well, it has a lot of positives as well, but the core situation is a negative. It’s not something I’m going to blog or talk about in detail, but what it has forced me to do is make sure there is a lot of positives going on, to balance it out. So I’ve been focusing on my goals and values.
When I first started coaching, I was a MESS. I was in uncontrolled debt, had just lost my job, and was failing at Uni (again). Coach made sure I focused on the manageable things first, getting rid of the easily fixed but continuously avoided issues.
Once my bills were paid and my life was seemingly on a (more) straight track, it was time to set those real, long term goals that would form and focus my choices and life. I’d never really done this before, and I can’t believe how different and more controllable my life is now.
The goals that I have now set are:
- To get (at least) a credit in both my last uni subjectst
- To eat properly and exercise at least 6 times per week
- To attend at least 1 cultural activity per week
- To read worthy literature every week (not uni related)
- To become a blogger, posting minimum of 2 posts per week.
Ok, so the last one is on track. The others are still gonna take some work. Well, uni remains to be seen – I have a lot of time on my hands right now, and no excuse to not keep up. So that one is also, seemingly on track. I’m going for a walk pretty much every day, but the eating is not so good as I’ve taken up cooking.
It was Greek independence day this week, and although I am not Greek, I made Moussaka and Greek Almond biscuits and they were AMAZING. So I’ve been eating that all week. BAD. But let’s be honest, my eating habits are a lifetime battle, so I’m really going to have to work on them harder. And perhaps I can count this as a cultural experience??? : )
Last week I went to the Art Gallery of NSW which was fantastic. I didn’t go to the Archibald – I ran out of time! - but will go and do that in the next couple of weeks. I saw Art Express, which was brilliant – I find it so amazing how talented 17 and 18 year old artists can be!! The best was a, well I guess it was a sculpture, where the student had taken a set of Funk and Wagnell’s encyclopedia’s and either folded the pages or cut into the pages in a heap of different ways, to represent the changing face of how we obtain and use information. It was brilliant (although I do struggle with books being damaged – I definately am not the “fold the corner to mark the page” type!!)
And finally there’s my literature – well I’ve not got into this one at all, focusing on reading my Greek tragedies for uni. So I really need to devote at least an hour a week to reading something non-uni related. Will just have to decide what book it will be.
I’m also focusing on my life values. They are:
- Friendship
- Inspire
- Passionate
- Satisfied
- Rule
- Spark
I like this list – it came about through a word elimination activity given to me by Coach. And it makes sense. My friends are SO important to me, and their friendship (and that of my Mum too), is what keeps my head above water. I’m constantly looking for passion and satisfaction in life, and now I have clear goals, hopefully it will be easier to find these! I do better with things and people and activities for which I feel a spark, and I work well when there are rules to guide and follow. And best of all in that list, is I think it really is my aim to inspire, rather than to teach or educate.
So now I have my goals and values , I feel that within my life I am actually serving a purpose. This was something I felt I lacked for a long time, but I didn’t realise that I was in control of setting that purpose. Now it’s there, and I’ve just got to keep working on fulfilling them all!
So I started a blog.
Me and about, well the rest of the world apparently! I started it last week some time, and I picked the name, and I wrote my about page and I thought I was REALLY happening. I chose my background, oh how pretty my blog looks! But when it came time to actually BLOG? Well, things went down hill.
My biggest problem, (in life and apparently blogging) is I procrastinate, and I waste time trying to make things perfect when it doesn’t really matter. I started a multitude of blogs in Word, about all different topics, because shouldn’t the first one be the best one? Ah, no – just get on with it. So here I go.
I’ve only recently entered the world of “online social media” which appears to be the catchphrase of the minute (and I like it!). I came here at the advice (persuasion?) of my life coach, let’s call her Coach. According to Coach, there was this whole world inside the web, with people and writing and information and opinion that I really had no idea about. I’d heard of blogging, but I was under the impression it was like a travel diary, or a life diary and possibly slightly narcisstic. And I guess to a point, it is.
But while blogging can be about just talking about yourself (and let’s be honest, if you read my about page, you know mine will be a lot about myself), I’m amazed to discover that it’s this amazing tool for networking, and creating opportunities and assuring you that you are not the only one in the world who: can’t find a job/is insecure/is looking for something/loves weird things/insert appropriate quality-issue-aim here.
I’m all those things, but the thing that most importantly brings me to this new world, is the fact I’m currently unemployed. Not important anymore, is how I got into this situation (I’ve dealt with it, I’ve moved on), but what is important is what I do now. As mentioned in my about page, I’ve done depressed, felt sorry myself and spent COUNTLESS hours on the couch, watching daytime TV and wasting seriously beautiful days, hiding from the world, because I could not believe this was happening to me.
Now I’m at get on with it mode. My involvement with coaching has been a HUGE thing in my life right now, and is helping me discover what I want, why I want it and how I’m going to get it. I’ve set goals, real, exciting, achievable, life changing goals that I am excited to be working on.
While not one of those goals, I’m throwing myself into social media. I have had Facebook for ages, but I don’t think it serves the same purpose as what I’m doing now. Facebook is about staying in touch with friends, stalking ex boyfriends…haha me thinks there could be a whole blog post in what Facebook is.
So I’ve joined twitter (twitter.com/boydie18)– shock horror to me, as I didn’t think I needed it in my life. But Coach assures me that it’s not about friends, it’s not about who you know and what pictures you’ve taken, but it is about connecting with interesting and intellectually stimulating people.
And low and behold, after over ten years, I’ve opened a new email account, putting hotmail on the backburner. I now welcome gmail to my life (Coach told me about tagging and searchable emails and the fact the blog pages I now follow come up in the account and I was sold!)
Finally, and most exciting to me is the subscriptions I have to a few blogs I have discovered. I plan on there being many more, and I’m excited about learning more about and from these new people.
Woah – new person. But that was the point wasn’t it?
