The Bachelorette – There's a Little Sophie In Us All

So, call me hypocritical, but I cannot deal with watching the Bachelor but I have the Bachelorette series linked and am HEARTING the shiz out of it.

I have watched one episode of the Bachelor… EVER… and that's only because I had Laura (eventual winner) in my work sweep and I thought it my duty to cheer her on. I needn't have bothered because it made me really sad.

All that snogging was ridonk. I don't know about anyone else, but when I am into someone, I only ever want to kiss them and I would hope that they were only kissing me. Watching the last ep of the Bachelor and how full on his time was with both of the two final contestants i.e. so much affection and kissing and fawning, I can completely understand how women walk away from that show broken. It broke me watching it.

Then comes the announcement that Sophie Monk is our next Bachelorette and subsequent promos that are so endearing you want to swaddle her up and give her a cuddle. We have all been Sophie at some point. When she uttered the words “I’m just here because I want to find a good man, that I think would be a good father, and just someone that loves me.” I thought sing it sister. She laid bare what so many of us feel on the regular and as a public figure has decided to throw caution to the wind and see if she can find that through a very public dating show.

Now while us regular folk, can date and meet people as privately or as publically as we want, we can all take some really good tips from Sophie's time in the bachey mansion and quite frankly her handling of it as a real champion, albeit three episodes in. I name this piece, shiz that Sophie does that is key to opening your heart and finding love.

The meet and greet

While there were some obvious smooth operators in the meet and greet (Blake's box of goodies, was both eye roll and cunningly clever all at once) but for the majority it was mega awkward. My personal favourite James, was a good example of this. His gift of rose quartz, the stone of love vibing was a nice touch but he was two Sophie jokes away from wetting himself with nerves.

I bloody loved her putting all these dudes at ease, letting them know she was just as nervous and playing to the awkward banter conversation, it was real and it was endearing. Despite her job and life, she just like the rest of us mere mortals, suffers from nerves and I found this so lovely to watch, also a bit hide behind your pillow and pray for it to be over, but on the whole, real legend.

Getting out of her comfort zone

Now, she probably went too extreme with the fear of heights phobia date, with the chilling twist that date Jarrod was also scared of heights, shizzzzzzz. BUT the real point of this date was to test the person as to how much they made this date about themselves or how much they made it about her. Jarrod nailed the date, he was so comforting when Soph lost her shiz 30 cm into the high rise challenge and his reward was a cheeky pash under a marque at Spotless Stadium. I'll point out here that Jarrod is slowly turning into Glen Close from Fatal Attraction with his getting very head over heels very quickly and subsequent ugg boot gifting which sent Blake into full blown sabotage mode for stealing his idea, so she may have some real rose ceremony angst in future eps, but SM, I whole heartedly embrace you letting down your guard and getting yourself out there, active wear and minimal makeup included. I'll note here too that half the blokes in the country would be up for drinking booze at a footy stadium without lines and crowds, so that was a big well done too on choice of date location.

Being nice to everyone

Now when I picked Jourdan's name out of the sweeps at work, I immediately knew I had my work cut out for me with a win this time. The spelling is ridonk for starters only to be confirmed when he blindfolded her and ran away during his intro piece *face palm emoji*. He is not alone in his idiosyncratic behaviour, there are a few bacheys that possess interesting traits, but my mate SM, embraces all people before judging.

Jourdan was legitimately one of the most ridiculous humans alive during that first cocktail evening, call it too many beverages but you could have had a good old drinking game yourself if you were to take a skull each time Jourdan did something weird. Limping when there was no apparent injury and then being in a moon boot the next night *skull*, crying over a cheating allegation that never really existed *skull*, awkward portrayal of Bonnie and Clyde, where his Clyde came off more Pee Wee Herman than hunky outlaw *skull*. You get my point, Soph gave him the time of day, the fact he lasted through an elimination was miraculous to me and I applauded her for seeing how much crazy he could be and then deciding to deny him the rose.

Never being afraid to take the pi** out of herself

She's a self-proclaimed bogan and makes no apologies for who she is and this is the best bit about Sophie *love heart eye emoji*. I had the LOLs at most of her off camera remarks during the meet and greets, but also during the actual greets. On more than one occasion she referenced her serious hearting of the vinos, and my favourite off camera joke was Apollo's magic trick – "if he can turn a serviette into a rose, imagine what he can do with a bed sheet…?! I am not sure where I was going with that…"  So good. Many have panned the photoshoot and thought it was lame, I loved it. True dress up fans bloody love a make believe scenario and want to take everyone along for the ride. I loathe a fancy dress, but I always love people who love them because it is fun and a chance to be silly. She clearly wants someone who she can have fun with. Not to bang on my James drum again *boom boom*, but his Friar Tuck was too cute and really made Sam look like a jealous, bag of peens, which was a good tactic for he is the holder of the "Double Delight" and Soph has not been too keen to single date with him so far. By the way the Double Delight is the rudest sounding rose in the world.

I am looking forward to watching Sophie on this journey. I hear through the talk shows and the intrerwebs that she has found true love and gee whizz I think this is great! I look forward to more dates and I reckon she'll have some beauties up her sleeve, so you might have to suffer through part 2 of this blog. Watch this space!