Well it's safe to say last night's (4th April) episode of Married At First Sight Australia left viewers with a LOT of questions. Will Jesse and Claire's relationship survive? Will Hugo ever make it off the sofa? But most importantly, does Dan actually know what 'me time' really is?
To quickly recap: it's the start of friends and family week in the Married At First Sight Australia experiment and couple Dan Hunjas and wife Sandy Jawanda, were expecting the arrival of their friends at their apartment. Except, Dan was nowhere to be found.
Sandy spoke to the camera saying Dan had been at the gym for six hours since leaving early in the morning, the night after they had sex for the first time.
Sandy was seen visibly upset, and this isn't the first time Dan had been missing for large chunks of time, devoting his hours to his hobbies rather than his relationship.
When Dan eventually returned, Sandy asked him how they were going to progress in their relationship if they spent so much time apart. Dan spoke to the camera saying his biggest concern in their relationship was how compatible they are. Dan is into active hobbies, going to the gym and spending time outside, whereas Sandy is less fussed about it. Sandy also explained because of her eczema she can't go into the ocean, which is one of Dan's favourite things to do.
When their best friends showed up their individual interests became even more apparent when Dan said he expected someone to fit into his lifestyle. He also shared with his friend that he ideally wanted to someone who had the same interests as him so they could come together and enjoy them.
He said: "You know when two people do the same thing that they prefer to do independently, they come together and they amplify that."
After their friends had left Dan and Sandy had a very tense conversation, where their individual interests came up again.
Dan questioned their incompatibly saying, what he wanted from a partner.
"One of the big things that I really want is, and I spoke to the experts about it, is someone that’s you know very active, very into their fitness, goes to the gym, goes running, spends time on the ocean," he said.
And that's fair enough, he's totally entitled to want to be married to someone with similar interests. However, where viewers got a little confused is that he then shared he expected when Sandy is having her "me time" for her to have similar interests to him then too.
He said: "The me time is a classic example. When we’ve both got me time, how we choose to use that time is complete opposite and completely different."
Sandy went onto say she didn't understand where Dan was coming from as "me time" is "for me to go do what I like and you go to do what you like. But that doesn’t mean two people can’t be compatible, that when they do come together and spend time that they can’t do things that they both enjoy."
And she's completely right. Me time is literally for you to do whatever the hell you want to do when you get that precious free time to yourself. For one person that could be going for a run, for another it could be baking a cake, doing a puzzle or catching up on the latest Netflix series. It's your time to do exactly as you choose.
But for Dan, it appears he thinks that a couple should be so compatible that even the time they spend apart for themselves, they should be doing a similar thing, as that's indicative of their compatibility. Which, whilst a lovely idea, isn't always the most realistic to achieve.
Instead, like Sandy suggests they can still be compatible and focus on the things they do both enjoy when they spend time together, rather than focus on the ways they're different.
Dan later even admits 'me time' is for people to do what they want, when he said: "they do what they prefer and that’s what me time is all about."
So he does actually understand the concept of 'me time'? Make it make sense.
Regardless of whether they both have the same understanding of what constitutes 'me time', it's clear Dan and Sandy are on completely different pages when it comes to their relationship.
Will they make it work? Hopefully we'll get some answers in tonight's episode of MAFS Australia on E4.
