The where and the how

Of course, this is the part that most people will be interested in, and luckily enough it’s a good story. Jenny and I have talked about becoming engaged before, and the only thing she asked for was that it be a surprise. Easy enough, you would think…

Well firstly, there’s the matter of the ring. The current trend seems to be for the couple to go out and shop for the ring together. But nope, part of my mission would be to source the thing itself. You can read the details of how I went about it above, but in terms of trying to find out the right size, I have to admit that it was a bit of a miracle. Through some combination of techniques such as sneaking different rings onto her fingers while trinket shopping and then trying them on my own, I eventually discovered that her ring finger is a fraction smaller than my pinky finger on my right hand.

After that was settled came the matter of informing the parents. As if the task itself wasn’t daunting enough, there was also the language barriers and the fact that other people can’t be trusted to keep secrets. At first, when Jenny’s mum and step-dad were visiting from Belgium, I sneaked in a quick conversation with them, which they then promptly relayed to Jenny – much to her chagrin. Strike 1….

Next, I informed my parents of the good news that I was ready to propose to Jenny, and they reacted in a way that I was totally not prepared for. In the Chinese culture, it seems, there is no engagement period. When a couple are ready to marry, they throw a big engagement party – and my parents, having recently undergone medical treatment, were in no condition to travel, so they were immensely offended that I intended to have a party without them (as they thought we were going to do). That, and the fact that they haven’t met Jenny’s parents yet, which is another big cultural faux pas. This particular problem ended up being resolved with a long-distance teleconference between me, Jenny and my parents. Strike 2….

Lastly, I had to ask Jenny’s dad for her hand. Learning from previous experience, I specifically requested that they keep it a secret from Jenny. However, the next day, Jenny gets a call from her cousin congratulating her – they had heard the news from uncle (Jenny’s dad) that I had spoken with them. D’oh! Strike 3!!!

By now, Jenny’s expectations had been growing and growing, to the stage where she was beginning to feel immensely frustrated that all this stuff seemed to be happening, but no proposal was forthcoming.

I had to act. Having decided when I was going to do the deed, I chose to work from home on the day, allowing me some time to prepare. But wouldn’t you know it, Jenny caught Laryngitis, losing her voice, and spoiling the plans I made. Honestly!

Fast forward 2 weeks…

Finally, everything seemed to be lining up. It was a Saturday morning and Jenny was at college. I set everything up as you see in the picture. The album consisted of a few collages with pictures, photos, print outs, etc. of sentimental occasions that we shared. (I got all the photos printed out during a Harvey Norman special – 15c for up to 200 photos… I printed 189. Hahaha…)

Jenny finished up at college and came around to my place. She browsed through the album, while I hid, and at the end, I came out and popped the question. The conversation went a bit like this:

Caesar: <comes out of hiding>
Jenny: No way! You can’t be serious. Are you serious?
Caesar: …
Jenny: You’re not serious? You are serious, aren’t you?
Caesar: Jenny…
Jenny: Oh my…
Caesar: Will you marry me?
Jenny: <grins> Nah!
Caesar: <flabbergasted> That’s your answer?
Jenny: No, of course not! I was joking!
Caesar: So?
Jenny: Oh, alright.

After about 2 hours of phoning various friends and family, we went out for dinner in Chatswood, where she finally said “a million times yes” to my original question. Then we went to Darling Harbour for a bit of a walk and some dessert.

It is done…

So at the end of it all, the ring is on the finger…

Floriade

I’ve put up a photo album with pictures of our recent trip to Canberra. My bro was in town for some training and wanted to catch up with one of his mates in Canberra, and it just so happened that we wanted to go to the Floraide. So while Eddie was off doing whatever it was he ended up doing, we spent the day at the show and took a whole bunch of cool photos.

During the drive up and back, we were playing this game where we took the letters of the alphabet and tried to name as many famous people as possible, whose (first) names started with that letter. For example, for “A” you could say Angelina Jolie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Angie Hart, etc. The last person to be able to name a name was declared the winner of the round. Naturally, I was kicking ass. So anyway we were going on for a while, and then we got to “J”, and we went through the usual (Jennifer Lopez, Jacques Cousteau, etc.) and then Jenny let rip most emphatically with “Jack Migger!” Hehe… yeah, she suffers a mild case of spoonerisms.

Back to Floriade then. The weather was fantastic, and they had free entertainment. One of the performances was this weirdo troupe who balanced on wobbly sticks and swayed to and fro to old style music while doing pantomime-type stuff. It was pretty cool to watch, ‘coz they were interacting with the audience quite a lot too, plus the music was cool.

Enjoy the photos.

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Yesterday, my very good friend Benjamin Lee was married to Joanne Low. The ceremony was very nice, and despite threats of showers, the sun shone magnificently throughout the day, with only a brief spate of rain at the reception, during which we were all safely inside the marquee.

Speaking of which, this rather ugly photo of me was taken mid-conversation – I have no idea what I was talking about. Whatever it was, I (right) seem to be rather blase about it, and Tom and Jenni (left) looked a bit concerned. So anyway, feel free to come up with captions and post them in the comments. No prizes, unfortunately, except a rare opportunity to ridicule me in public without fear of retribution.

Hmm.. and no lyrics this time, but I’m pretty sure you know the song I had in mind when I wrote this post (hint: the title might have something to do with it…)

Hooray, I’m musical again!

Today I bought myself a Roland EP-97 Digital Piano, thus ending a very long musical drought. When I was living in Adelaide, there used to be a piano in the house, but after I moved to Sydney, I no longer had access to any musical instruments (not counting my two recorders). There was a brief period towards the end of last year where I was playing on a crusty old upright piano belonging to one of my housemates, but he sold it before I had half a chance to practice a tune. I’ve also borrowed violins for various gigs in church, but had to return them soon after the performance. Its not like I’ve ever owned a violin before anyway, so no great loss there.

Its hard to say why I missed having a piano. I guess I’ll find out soon. Now, to figure out where to put the darned thing…