Pati Singe and other drama

I found out on Twitter that my gym closed down. I rushed over and bumped into an instructor. He said the boss decided that it’s not viable, but he’ll let me know if they open again. I wanted to cry.

I’ve thought about gyming for years, and even had a random session or two, but I mostly got bored. But some months ago, a good friend made me join. We figured we’d cope through the buddy system, and it worked for a while, mostly because the gym is right next door, so I can head there at 6.00 in the morning.

In August, I stopped for a while, but I meant to resume this month. Then I heard the announcement on Twitter. Le sigh. I could try Sadili, but that’s not exactly next door. With the *closed* one, I could literally work out in pyjamas. Le double sigh. I wallowed in blackforest cake, and am now looking for my Billy Blanks DVDs and Bellydance videos. I know they’re here somewhere.

Anyway, I enjoy Biggest Loser. It’s reality show about weight loss. I prefer the UK version, because there’s less fluff. Plus, I love UK accents. The OZ version is a bit like a soap, and it grates my nerves sometimes.

I’ve been watching Season 2 on E-Africa, and so far, I really like Pati. She seems really nice, and she has a pretty smile. I like Jules, Mel, and Damian, but Pati is my favourite. She seems to be the only one the game with no agenda.

Until last week.

In a well-lobbied elimination round, Marty was sent out. I was sad because throughout the show, everyone was strategising and backstabbing and dirt talking. Pati seemed to be the only one who was true to herself. Even my beloved Blue Team played strategy this time, which was sad because manipulation scares me. In the end, Pati went back on her promise to vote for Courtney. She voted for Munalita instead, causing a hung vote, and that made the Blues vote out Marty.

When the teams were discussing their opinions, Courtney said he thought Pati was a sham. He said she plays all nice and innocent, but that her real colours were coming out. Even the Blue team felt Pati was playing the game, maybe better than anyone else. Everyone likes her, so nobody thinks she’s a threat. It seems like a deliberate strategy.

The thing with reality TV is you see what producers want you to see. So it’s possible they’ve decided to paint Pati as the bad guy and are only showing negative reviews. It’s also possible they wanted her to look nice, so they just showed her good side before. But I felt really bad about judging Pati wrongly.

Later in the episode, she says she took the loophole. Voting for Courtney would be lying to Marty, and voting for Marty would be lying to Courtney, so she voted for neither. She knew a hung vote would take the choice out of her hands. She chose not to hurt anyone – at least not directly.

I thought her decision would affect her rank in the show, but I peeped on Wikipedia, and it turns out she made it to finals. Oddly though, I can’t find any pictures of her on Google, which is really strange.

I guess what made me sad is I’m a lot like Pati, and I see myself in her. She even has the pretty curly hair that I love so much, and she just seems … real. So when she went un-nice, I felt that by choosing to like her, I’d made an error in judgement. That always bothers me. So I felt better once I decided she didn’t lie. She just took a shortcut that was hard to understand. Plus, doing a bad thing doesn’t mean you’re not a nice person. A common analogy is that a long, straight line with a curve at the end is describes as a curved line. But in real life, greys do exist, and sometimes, a mostly nice person does a few shitty things.

I told Mr 3CB about it, and he said, ‘It’s TV. They’re not like that in real life, so don’t feel bad.’ How I love tha t boy. Plus, my Wiki-cheat showed me that Damian gets to finals and Jules is leaving the show, so I guess the suspense is gone. I’ll keep watching though. You never know what you’ll learn by looking.