1.The Bachelor chose the single Mum! And boy, is that a problem.
Fans of Channel 10’s hit show, The Bachelor, in which a handsome guy supposedly chooses a life partner from a group of eligible women, were thrilled to see this year’s Bachelor, Sam Wood, announce that he had fallen in love with Snezana (as she herself said on the show, it rhymes with Parmigiana) Markoski.
Parmi (for short) was considered an unlikely pick, because she not only has a bitterly broken marriage in her relationship history, she also has a nine-year-old daughter, Eve.
Fans of the show were thrilled, because surely this means that single Mums, who regularly find themselves screened out on the dating apps before they even get a chance to shine their light, are just as desirable and maybe more so than somebody without all that baggage?
Trouble is, Sam is in real life based in Melbourne, and his new girlfriend, Snezana (as she says, rhymes with Parmigiana) Markoski, is based in WA with her daughter.
Her ex-husband, Jason Rapoff, has already told the press that ‘she’s dreaming’ if she thinks he’s going to let her move with their child.
And the law may well be on his side: the Howard government introduced a concept of ‘shared parenting’ in 2004, which essentially guarantees a child’s right to spend time with both parents.
Parmigiana’s ex-husband is a former drug addict who served time in prison.
He is also a paraplegic, having broken his back in a dirt bike accident when their daughter was two months old.
He told the Herald Sun this year that he blames himself for the collapse of his marriage.
“I didn’t cope very well (with the wheelchair) and went into a downhill spiral and pushed all of my loved ones away,” he said.
Bachelor Sam has recently spent time with his new love’s daughter, Eve, “playing boardgames and getting to know each other properly. It was a very small step in a very long road but it was beautiful.”
As for Parmi, she gets why her ex doesn’t want her to move, saying: “I don’t think any dad would want their child to move anywhere … it’s something we’re going to have to discuss and talk about.”
Sam says he’s happy to wait for a solution, saying: “There’s no need to rush these things, we want to be together forever so we don’t have to move in together tomorrow.”
The couple also revealed that she thinks he’s brave for choosing a single Mum, but he says: “I never thought it was a brave decision. It was just the only decision.”
2.Another big winner from last night’s Bachelor was NSW Premier Mike Baird, who live-tweeted the show in stunning style.
Baird told Twitter that he was home on the couch with ‘man-flu’ and the TV had been hijacked by his daughters who wanted to watch the Bachelor finale.
His Tweets suggest a man mystified by the show’s premise.
“He seems very sincere for a guy who is two-timing, live on TV,” said one of Baird’s Tweets.
Another said: “I thought he’d made his decision when he just kissed one of the girls! My daughters are laughing at me.”
Then, when an ad for next season’s Bachelorette, where the tables are turned, came on, he said: “Hang on. There’s a bachelorette?! Why don’t they just hook her up with this guy and save us all some time?”
Well played, Mike.
3.An Australian has died in Bali after falling drunkenly through a glass door and bleeding to death in his hotel room.
News Ltd reports that Perth man Daniel Evans, 24, was taken to hospital early on Thursday morning with serious injuries and later died.
The report quotes Denpasar police chief, Anak Agung Made Sudana saying the broken glass appeared to have struck a major blood vessel.
“Kuta police chief Ida Bagus Deddy Januartha said there was no sign of any crime having been committed,” the report says.
“The victim was drunk. He smashed down the glass in the hotel which caused injuries. The victim was brought to Siloam hospital but his life could not be saved,” Mr Januartha said.
“There is no crime that caused the death. We have asked his friends also and they also said that the victim was drunk at that time.”
4.A 35-year-old single Mum from New Jersey has been charged with child abuse after investigators found that she had tricked doctors into performing a range of surgeries on her daughter, who was never ill.
The New Jersey Herald says Malinda Lugin, 35, is believed to suffer from Munchausen-by-proxy, which prompts adults to fake sicknesses in their children, in order to gain sympathy.
Malinda’s seven-year-old daughter, who has not been named, is believed to have a feeding tube, but investigators say she doesn’t need it.
“Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Seana Pappas said from the time Malinda was pregnant she convinced doctors the child was ill and needed procedures that were deemed unnecessary,” the report says.
The report does not say how doctors became convinced that the child was ill, or how many surgeries she endured over seven years.
