The Block – Mon-Fri 7pm, Ch9
http://homes.ninemsn.com.au/theblock/

As if one night in Sovereign Hill wasn’t enough, the contestants get another one! This time though it’s all about that great Australian past time: gambling. Once they all get back to The Block though, it’s attitudes at 20 paces as the teams realise they’ve got an awful lot of work to do and they’ve lost tonnes of time filming some other distraction. At least it makes for good TV, even if it raises tensions and fractures in otherwise healthy relationships. Here comes another one… BOOM!

It’s the morning after the night before, and everyone’s enjoying a nice sleep-in and it’s the camera crew’s job to wake everyone up and find out what they’re gonna do at the gambling challenge. Even the peacock they roped in has an opinion. The Block has sucked everyone in.

On day 2 of the Goldfields challenge, will Mike & Andrew risk their huge $1,300 on a double or nothing challenge? What of Dale & Sophie and their monstrous $1,600? Brad & Lara and Dan & Dani legitimately have a decision as winning over $3,000 could mean they stand to score big for their budget or be in no better position though having lost two days. Will they get a choice? It seems only the winner of the gambling challenge doubles their money and not everyone as was suggested last night – suckers!

Lara’s not too happy about this, as surely they could use their cash won to get a tradie on site to help catch them up. The teams are paired for the challenge – Brad & Lara and Dale & Sophie vs Dan & Dani and Mike & Andrew. Dan & Dani are suitably understated in their assessment of the situation: “Come on boys, time to lift your game, you’re playing with the A Team now,” says Dan.

It’s a best of three challenges, and you’d expect the challenges would be something worthy of the money they’ve won – right? Wrong. The first challenge is a horseshoe throw, which Scotty (through the magic of television) shows how amazing he is at it. When the challenge ends, only Dani has secured one horseshoe on the pin so the Dan/Dani/Mike/Andrew team won the first challenge. By one horseshoe. The losing team reflect on Dan’s pathetic celebrations at winning: “He’s being a bit of a dick,” says Brad. So much so you can see the glans on his forehead.

All is not lost with two other challenges to come. Though Dani has to explain to us how a ‘best of three’ challenge works. Dale sums it up best in offering his thoughts on why their team now wants to win the challenge: “Just to take their money and see them sook for a day would be nice, actually, yeah,” he says.

The stakes are high as the teams line up for the second challenge – a game of 9 pin. The team with the highest points at the end of the game wins, and it’s not as simple as knock down the most pins. 9 pin rules allows for special scoring based on which pins you knock down and which ones you don’t. How very sneaky. The winning team from the last round get to go first and end up with a total of 38 points. Dale/Sophie/Brad/Lara give it their best shot and end up with a total of 32 points – Bring It Home Brad couldn’t bring it home. Dan & Dani celebrate a little more than they should have and the boys because “we’re a part of those guys getting even more money”. Dan & Dani have finally cottoned on that people are becoming tetchy about the fact they’re winning all the money challenges. Not that they care. Na na na-na na.

“I’m not fucking happy about it,” says a bleeped Andrew. ABOUT TIME some interpersonal happy camper feelings were kicked to the curb and contestants told us what they really think! Everyone’s getting a bit fruity with their bleeped language, too.

Everyone races back to The Block as soon as they’re allowed as they’ve all got a LOT of work to do. Dale’s special song he sings about Dan & Dani’s continuing victory is quite funny, further proving why he’s become one of the most likeable guys on The Block this season already.

Five days left to build their Master Bedroom and Ensuite, and the teams are to be welcomed home by Site Foreman Keith (Keefy!) with news that will completely screw their plans up. If they ever make it home. Dan & Dani have already diverted themselves to go shopping on the way home to spend some of their winnings. Everyone else goes straight home. Hello Keith – what’s that? Stegbar want the ensuite wall and bulkhead above the robe up ready for 8:30am tomorrow so they can measure up for the shower recess, glass etc. “I reckon the teams have got eight hours work to do in about two hours,” says Keefy. Someone has to deliver the bad news and it may as well be him (remembering the power tool noise restrictions).

Brad and Lara are first to hear and Brad looks like he’s been winded. Dale & Sophie are told it’s so Stegbar can measure up and everyone needs to work to the same measurements as there’s no second chances for delivery on this one. Andrew tells Keith he can have the blueprints ready by tomorrow afternoon – nuh-uh, it has to be ready for tomorrow morning. “It’s gonna be a busy morning,” smiles Andrew.

Can’t wait to see how Dan & Dani take the news. Oh, wait – they’re out shopping for gear for their ensuite. Dan was really happy as they had it all planned, but as they were leaving SalesLady calls them back to show them some other stuff and now Dani has changed her mind entirely. Still, at least he and Dani have it all worked out. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

“I think they’ve lost a crucial three to four hours today,” says a concerned Keith. “Stegbar can’t come in and measure up and that’s gonna put Dan & Dani behind the 8-ball. Stegbar won’t be very happy with them.” Meanwhile, Dan & Dani are on their way home after spending four hours (“Four hours!?” smiles Dani) at Reece picking ensuite gear, driving into what will become their Waterloo. Because of an Ensuite. Their Waterloo. [pause for effect] [accept plaudits]

By the time Dan & Dani get back to The Block Keith had gone home for the day, so he doesn’t catch up with them until the next morning – an hour or so before Stegbar arrive. Obviously nobody talked to them as the news Keith delivers is an absolute bombshell. The karmic justice is delicious. Dan understands what it means, and he acknowledges the $7,500 they’ve just won may have to be spent on trades to help them get the job done in time.

Mike & Andrew are trying to work out how to maximise the space for their Ensuite by recessing their toilet into the brickwork, but they’ll need Keith’s approval first. Conveniently he’s on hand to speak with immediately. Unfortunately as the wall they want to cut into is a firewall they can’t compromise it. They’ll have to provide a more creative solution. Dale & Sophie are looking for the very same solution when their tradies suggest making the Ensuite a wet room, which would put the toilet pan in/the other side of the shower (meaning you’d have to walk through the shower to get to the loo). Dale likes it but doesn’t think Sophie will. “I’ll just have to fucking tell her,” he says. He tries and she rejects him flatly. More thinking required, Dale.

In the most blatant cross-promotion/product placement situation yet, Scotty swaps the biggest car in the Suzuki Car Pool that Mike & Andrew had been using with the smallest, and packs their gear into it to prove how much space it has. Once they realise the swap is intentional and not that the 4WD has been stolen, their reactions are… like a Suzuki ad. Sweet merciful crapballs, that’s just horrible. I can feel the leveraging from here.

Dan’s digging in with the tradies he’s hired to try and get everything done for their Ensuite which means relaying the floor AFTER laying the insulation they should have done in the week 1 ceiling, lay all the pipes and form up the wall and bulkhead. “It has rattled me a bit,” says Dan. “It’ll be interesting to see how we go this week.” The sizzle before the ad shows crisis after crisis… what *have* the teams gotten themselves into?

Coming back from the ad, Scotty recaps everything that’s happened in the past two episodes. Everything. We already know this!? What’s doing, champion?

Brad & Lara are looking at shifting the ensuite wall and putting in a walk-in robe between the bed and Ensuite to help maximise the space. Could prove interesting. The great wet room debate continues to simmer for Dale & Sophie, with Sophie disgusted at the idea of showering over the toilet. “It’s disgusting,” she says. She’s so disgusted. “She’d be much easier to get along with if she didn’t have an opinion,” says Dale. Sophie went to the brothers for some ammunition and moral support against the wet room. They both know they need to maximise the space, but Sophie’s not budging. This is gonna take Dr Happy from Excess Baggage to solve this.

In House 4 Dan & Dani are powering on trying to prepare for Stegbar to come and measure up. The rep has worked through houses 1-3, and arrives to what Keith describes as “a bit of a dog’s breakfast”, in that there’s dog food all over the floor and someone has fouled the corner of the room. The Stegbar rep is a bit direct about them not being ready, and Dan apologises for them not being ready when told the rep will have to come back. Most importantly this will put the manufacturing of their screens and such at least a day behind the other teams… but it doesn’t look like Dan’s connected those dots yet. He’s lucky to be able to beat himself at a game of ‘rock, paper, scissors’.

Still no solution to the great wet room debate. Well, there is, but the solution is no wet room. “Multi-million dollar buyers don’t have a shower in their toilet,” says sophie simply. “They may have to squeeze through but they’ll be fine with that.” Dale’s not happy, but he has no alternative. UNLESS… no, they’d never go for that.

For all the effort that Dan is putting in (where the hell is Dani in all this??) it doesn’t look like they’ll make it. “Dani just seems to think it’s all gonna get done,” says Dan. OF COURSE Dani is out shopping, and now she’s having second thoughts about the vanity they selected yesterday. THAT THEY SPENT 4 HOURS SELECTING. She wants to do the presto chango on the supplier to free up some cash, and Dan’s stressed because it’ll put extra pressure on him. “Why is it gonna put extra pressure on you?” says Dani who promptly hangs up on him, adding, “What an arsehole.” If it’s not Sophie being precious it’s Dani being flat rude and petulant. There are two little girls living on The Block this year, and there’s gonna be some serious issues in weeks to come if they don’t invest themselves and understand what’s involved in renovating a house.

Mike & Andrew are gonna cut a hole in the wall for their room, but their builder is away and only the apprentice is on site doing the work. Keith’s concerned they’ll need to support the new doorway on the first floor all the way down to the ground, and the apprentice knows that’s a massive job and they’ve only got 5 days to get it all finished (there goes the episode timeline out the window).

Both Dan & Dani are frustrated, and now because their windows aren’t in their master bedroom Dan can’t build the Ensuite wall for Stegbar. “Can’t we find a way to work around it? We have to get it done” asks Dani. The windows should have been done by the time they got back from Sovereign Hill… and this leads Dan to tell Dani that they’re not gonna get it done this week. “We have to – we’re not wasting half a day we can use tools,” says Dani. An illogical force meets a immovable object.

Dan phones the window guys to see if they can be installed first thing and the best he can get is “I’ll see what I can do”. Dan understands Dani’s frustration – there’s nothing he can do. Doing nothing like a fox!

If there’s not a tradie rorting the work that needs to be done on The Block then they aren’t trying. Dan & Dani’s windows are finally in and Dan can finally frame up the wall between the Ensuite and master bedroom. He’s back to his not-so-quietly confident self again. Every team is using colour backed glass panels in their Ensuite, but given they’re cut off site the measurements have to be PRECISE – so everything they’re building needs to go exactly where they said it would. EXACTLY. Mike nicks off to double check some measurements for a basin they’re having in their Ensuite as there is no room for error.

Dan & Dani have missed their window to have the glass walls so instead are picking some tiles for their walls. Dale’s hedging his bets for the Bogan Villa by getting Sophie to order tiles as well in case their massive glass wall doesn’t fit as perfectly as it should. Sophie’s confused, but when isn’t she.

Brad hasn’t been able to give the Stegbar rep his measurements and they’re ready to pull the pin. Keefy turning up doesn’t help any, but in the end Brad relents and allows a 20mm leeway at the top/bottom to account for fit and estimates the measurements for fittings(!). Andrew has scribbled specific measurements on his wall… and just needs the pipe sizes from Mike. Given their explicit measurements they look to be the only team that’ll get glass panelling for their Ensuite. That is until some water sprays everywhere in their unprepared Ensuite and Scotty turns the worry factor all the way up to eleven. It’s probably nothing*.

*It might not be nothing, but it is reality TV.