jamisonprawn.net

Getting from Normanhurst to, well, seemingly anywhere, is a bit unpredictable it seems. Each trip in peak hour has been different so far. Heading to Parra is pretty ok… it seems to be around half an hour (although yesterday was 45 minutes). But heading to the city is pretty annoying - last week, leaving at 7 meant it still took me an hour. And then this morning, I was in the city, parked and heading for coffee by 7:30!

Anyway, I’m here in the city early. I was wondering what I was going to do with my time… but my boss has quickly fixed that by giving me some spreadsheet work that needs to be done before our meeting at 9:30. Sometimes I wonder if she forgets that I’m a salesperson, not a PA/sales reporting person.

We had our first proper dinner in our new house last night! Mum & Dad came over to visit and share more stories from their UK travels. Made me quite jealous - I hope to get over to the UK sometime in the next decade. But it was the first time even Debbie and I had eaten at our table. It was a great night, and forced us to clean up the house quite a bit too, so it looks pretty awesome at the moment :)

And Monday night was pretty exciting - aside from heading into the airport to pick up Mum & Dad as they flew back into Sydney, Debbie and I headed to Harvey Norman in Castle Hill. Aleesha had sent me an email about a special VIP sale - one of those ones sales where retailers try and get word out via word of mouth. This was Harvey Norman Castle Hill’s first try at it… and it wasn’t overly successful - the store was pretty empty at 6pm when Debbie and I arrived :) But after some catch up with Kate & Aleesha who were sitting out the front… the bed hunt began.

It was good to have a couple of hours to do it all, cos we were just able to go from bed suite to bed suite and not feel rushed. We found an awesome bed suite which we were both happy with (which included a bed frame, bedside tables, and a dressing table & mirror, and then it was onto the mattresses. That was fun too - lying in all these different ones trying to work out whether this one was more comfortable with that one over and over again. But we found one, and were happy with our combination. And then it came time to price it up.

The guy came over with some prices written on paper, and all my salesmanship training went out the window and I got all excited about the first price they gave us (it’s good not to seem excited about a good price or a good offer - it’s all psychological games). We ended up getting about 35% off the mattress, and about 25% off the bed suite (which was already reduced by about 20%). Incredible savings… and it makes me wonder about just how much markup there is on bedding and furniture!! But twas a very, very good Monday.

I’ve finally put some photos up on facebook. If you don’t have facebook, or aren’t my friend on facebook… then you can see the photos here.

So as you’ll know, there was the first property - Bellamy - that we applied for 3 weeks ago. And we just kept hearing nothing back about it. In the end we decided to move on and begin looking at other places last weekend. And that’s when we found this other property (don’t have a name for it) in Normanhurst, on Pennant Hills Rd. We applied for this also.

Just giving you the background so everyone is up to speed.

So this morning at about 9:30am, I get a call from the real estate agent who was looking after Bellamy. And as if it was scripted, she offered me the house. Thankfully, she saw the funny side of the situation too, and we shared a bit of a laugh. I said that I was hopefully waiting on another call, and so I’d get back to her within 24 hours, which she was ok about. I rang Debbie who thought I was joking. It actually took quite a bit of effort from me to convince her that I was serious! But we shared some more laughing together too.

But then, just two hours later, the wonderful Matthew at LJ Hooker gave me a call with the best news - that we’d been offered the place in Normanhurst that we wanted more. And all I could do after getting off the phone to him was to just laugh at God’s sense of humour in giving us both properties in less than two hours after waiting 3 weeks.

He was definitely teaching us patience - no doubt about that - but I wonder if He was enjoying being a little big cheeky as he set up both offers too… :)

But it is so very awesome to know that we now have a lovely house to live in. It’s so relaxing. The lease begins and we move in next Thursday (13th)… so I will take photos and give you all a virtual tour then.

edit: and yes, as Jenny said, it was a bargin. A good $50 pw less than most other places around Pennant Hills, Thornleigh… and way way cheaper than anything else in Normanhurst. Super!

What a Saturday that was. There was moments of stress and emotion mixed in amongst it, but overall, it was an incredibly tops day. Let me break it down for you…

The morning was spent with the boys in my bridal party as we headed off in search of suits to wear. We headed to Kelly Country in Granville, and before too long, we’d found a suit that everyone liked and the measuring began. In less than 45 minutes, we were all done and on our way to Parra Westfields for some Oporto breakfast :)

The rest of the day was a combination of rental hunting, and furniture hunting.

The furniture hunting was the best bit: Debbie found and bought a 7 piece dining table & chairs set at a garage sale type thing at Thornleigh Bapts in the morning, so we headed there for her to show me the awesome $60 purchase. While we were there, we found a large coffee table for $10. Such awesome finds! Later on in the arvo, we visited one of Debbie’s colleagues who’d offered us an old couch of hers that was almost destined for council cleanup. We got there not quite knowing what to expect in an “old” couch… but it was very modern, reasonably clean, matched our dining chairs in colour almost perfectly… and was free. Praise God! This is on top of already having a microwave and fridge for free, and a washing machine and dryer for $100.

Rental hunting was a bit stressful, as it has become in the last couple of weeks. But we headed to a house in Normanhurst, not holding out huge amounts of hope for it - it was on Pennant Hills Rd. But on arrival, we found a pretty nice looking place, nicely set back and down low from the road. And once the real estate agent turned up, inside was just gorgeous. The kitchen is beautifully retro (bright yellow!), rooms are big and comfy… it’s cool. And apparently they’re having a lot of trouble finding a tennant - the agent, who was a really nice guy to boot, said that he reckons just being on Pennant Hills Rd scares people off.

After being scared about not hearing back from the other place for 3 weeks, we asked how long he thought it’d take to hear back about it. And he was quick to say, “oh, if you get your application in on Monday, I think we’ll have an answer on Tuesday for sure.” Praise God again. Don’t know if we’ll get the place or not, but it would be cool… and the timing seems to be all smooth and everything’s just dropping into place really. But who knows what God’s up to :)

I’m now hanging out at the Wisdom For Women event at church. Have played guitar, and am playing again shortly. Then it will be off for a drive over to Thornleigh to collect the tables and stash them in Debbie’s incredibly generous parent’s garage. Hopefully only for a week and a half…

Still waiting.

After exactly two weeks since we started looking online at rental properties, the first property we saw is still our favourite, and the application we put in a week and a half ago is still waiting to be (hopefully) approved. It’s hard to be patient, but we will just keep waiting and praying. In time, hopefully it will happen.

We were offered a unit on Monday by another real estate agent… but it was one we weren’t overly keen on. We applied for it when we thought our favoured place wasn’t going to come through. Being made an offer though forced me to call the agent looking after our favoured place. They said the application was still with the owners and that they’re just waiting to hear back. She spoke quite positively about it all, and we’re still the only applicants. So, tough decision though it was, I declined the offer of the unit, deciding instead to take a risk and wait on the Bellamy place.

While we were still waiting today, I thought I would call the real estate agent and ask to actually see the house… seeing as Debbie was the only one who’d seen it today. The agent was very nice about it, and agreed to meet me at the house almost immediately. So I was quite excited about seeing it. And like it even more having seen inside now. It’s an awesome place… so cute and homely. The agent and I chatted a bit more about the application, and she apologised that it was taking so long. She seemed very frustrated that the owners weren’t getting back to her.

So we’ll just keep praying that God will let us know soon and not keep us waiting much longer.

Tonight was the first real sit down chat pre-marriage counselling stuff. Debbie and I had done some preparation stuff, where we’d done a little survey and answered about 100 questions to see how we agreed or disagreed on certain things. And so tonight was kinda evaluating that, but a lot of it was just sitting chatting about God, marriage and just stuff in general. It was cool. I’m enjoying getting to know Neil, the senior pastor at Thornleigh Bapts.

I don’t think I’ve blogged about it… but now that it’s set in our minds, and it’s been discussed with relevant people for a while, I think it’s safe to write it here; Debbie and I have chosen to make Thornleigh Bapts our church home once we’re married. It’s something we’d been thinking about for quite a few months, and definitely something that took many months to decide, with a lot of chatting to God, and chatting with each other. It’s been a cool journey to get to that decision; a bit scary, but cool. Sorry to my close friends if you weren’t aware of that and this is how you’re finding out! I didn’t want that.

I will miss Toongabbie Bapts. I wrote a big email to the pastors last week, and just kinda sat back and realised how much I’ve grown in the 9 or so years I’ve been there - and it’s incredible. Before I started going there, I played the piano pretty simplistically - I knew the notes and could do some very basic sight reading. Now I am much more confident in my musicianship all round and play guitar, bass and sing too. None of those I did before Toonie. And I really think it’s all down to the encouragement of the people there. And God of course :)

Anyway, this post didn’t start out with the intention of being a trip down amnesia lane, so I won’t continue it.

But I do know that I’m looking forward to the journey ahead. I’m going to be moving soon, out of Toongabbie - the suburb and community that’s been my home since the late 1980s. I’m changing churches. I will be getting married. What a huge journey I’m up for in 2009! How awesome it will be… I’m so excited about it all!

I do know that there are those moments of being scared, and I do know that I will miss the House of Bach, and Toonie Bapts, a lot. But I do know that God has got a new stage of my life journey all laid out, and it’s gonna be a cool ride to be on and see what He has for me to do.

Bathurst, of course! ;)

Ahh the whole weekend is just great. But I’m particularly looking forward to just hanging out with the boys tomorrow watching the race all day on Steve’s brand new high def tv! Right now is all the support races, and soon is the top ten shootout. Then tonight will probably be just relaxing and doing nothing before getting up nice and early for the start of the coverage at 7am :)

Thankfully, my wonderful fiancee understands the importance of this weekend. Don’t know how I’ll go watching every other round of the V8s (I haven’t watched too many this year actually), but just being able to watch the whole race is going to be awesome.

Can’t believe the times that are being done around the track in practice this year though - it’s gonna be a seriously quick year.

Debbie and I dropped off a rental application form for this place in Pennant Hills this morning. Exciting times!

It’s only week one of even beginning to look, so no worries if it doesn’t come through. But we’ll see how it goes. And then we headed off to Myer to finish our wedding registry list. That was fun - they gave us a PDA/barcode scanner to walk around and pick things for our list. Lots of fun! But glad that we can tick that off our list now too. Next big thing is to sit down and make all our invitations…

Today marks 7 months that Debbie and I have been together. Yay! It has been an amazing roller-coaster and I wouldn’t change one second of the last 7 months. I have learnt so much about myself, about God, and about my place serving Him and loving others. It’s been awesome.

Looking forward to tomorrow, and a little nervous at the same time - we’re having a family engagement party. Nothing huge, just immediate family - my parents, Debbie’s parents, my sister and Ryan, and the Howies too. It’s the first time our families have met :) but I’m not too worried at all - we both have such amazing, wonderful and supportive parents and sisters, so I’m sure it will be a tops arvo!

We are at least 2 months away from finding somewhere for us to live after we get married (where I’ll live first, and then Debbie move in after), and we already have a fridge, a microwave and a dining table set - all for free, and all from people willing to hold onto them for at least 2 months until we get our place.

So cool :)

I miss Twitter SMS updates.

Have had a busy weekend - yesterday was haircut, then engagement party for another James and Deby, and then family dinner with my parents and my sister and Ryan. Then today has been part 1 of pre-marital counselling and now lunch with the Gowers for Howie’s birthday.

Pre-marital counselling part 1 was fun. It was just a huge questionnaire that we had to fill out. There was 165 statements, and we had to decide if we agreed or disagreed with them. We did our own answers and had to do it independently. Then Neil, the senior pastor, will collate all the answers and we’ll have a look at them in future weeks. I guess it just gives us ideas on areas we may need to think about and focus on before and during the early parts of our marriage. And yeah, I am scared about a few of the responses and how they’ll differ… but overall, I don’t think there’ll be many surprises. We’ll see.

Looking forward to heading down to church shortly… I’m leading and guitaring again. I played electric guitar two weeks ago, and it actually sounded pretty cool having two electrics - I just have to remember to try and play different bits to the other electric guitarist. Eventually, I’d like to buy a Boss AC-3 pedal for my electric I think and make it sound like an acoustic when I want it to. But they’re expensive, so it might be a while. And then eventually eventually, I’d like to get a new acoustic - I’m a bit over my acoustic at the moment… the strings just sit too high off the fret board and it gets hard to play. So electric it is at the moment.

As previously reported, wedding is on the 3rd January in 2009! Slight change, but now we can lock it in!

Church booked: tick.
Parents a-ok: tick.
Sister and brother-in-law on board: important tick!
Guido born: [hopefully] tick.
Speaker dude booked: recent, but exciting tick.
Reception booked: not yet… but next on the list.

Very exciting times ahead, me thinks. :)

It was quite funny to hear that my Aunty and Uncle up in Hervey Bay were so excited about our wedding that straight away on Monday morning they booked their flights down to Sydney for the 27th December! Oh dear. That’s what you get for being too organised.

Wow, that was an intense weekend! So intense that I’m home from work today cos I’m utterly exhausted (but have a sore throat too). It will probably only be topped by a weekend about 6 months away :)

Saturday was just amazing, as you’ve already read. But then Sunday was more stressful in some ways! It was wonderful to be able to see both our families and have them be so excited for us. But lots of thinking, and telling the story a lot meant that by Sunday evening, I was very drained :)

I headed to Debbie’s place, and Jen & Howie came for a visit. Howie made sure we knew he thought it was yuck :) We chatted about wedding dates briefly, and Debbie’s mum kinda wanted to then go into reception plans too… but there was no way we were ready to start talking about that yet. We watched a movie before heading back to Toonie to hang out with the Three Tops Toonie Chicks for coffee at GJs. It was a great time seeing them and celebrating with them too. Then it was off to visit my parents and enjoy the excitement one more time. We chatted about dates too, and it was good to be able to leave there with the 27th December pretty much locked in.

Then it was time to head back to Thornleigh for church… and psyching ourselves up for being excited still, even though our energy levels were starting to drop. :) Debbie’s pastor was very lovely and, as slightly embarrassing as it was, got us up on the stage and prayed for us during the service. And then we got to share with all her/our friends after the service was over… many fun reactions, and it really was a very good evening.

Finally, a patient Sammy dragged us away and we headed off to Pennant Hills to have some very yummy pizza, and have some really good quality time hanging out with a guy who’s pretty special to both Debbie and I. It’s been awesome to get to know Sam - he and Debbie have been friends for ages, and so for he and I to get on so well and become such great mates so quickly has been really awesome.

And then the day was done. It was time to head home and sleep. Sleep a deep, deep sleep.

On the 1st January 2008, I met an amazing woman. And I felt amazingly blessed when I realised that she loved me, and that there was something pretty special between us from very early on.

On June 21st, I asked Debbie to marry me. And she said yes :)

The last 5 months and 21 days have been some of the most amazing in my life. Through my relationship with Debbie, I have grown so much closer to God, and started to really learn what it is to rely on God, His strength, and His timing.

And friends, having God at the centre of your relationship is so awesome. It’s one of those things that you realise is just so good that you never want to be so stupid as to do without it.

But about today; here’s the story:

Today was an adventure that was part of Debbie’s birthday present. She didn’t know where we were going, or what we were doing.

We headed up to the Blue Mountains. I took Debbie up to Mt York, just near Mt Victoria. There’s an amazing lookout there that we’d visited before. We had some morning tea there, including cheese and biscuits, and even prawns, and some Maison too. But after sitting outside in the 7 degree temperatures for a little while, we got back in the car to finish our Maison.

We headed down to Blackheath, and out to Perry’s Lookdown, which has some quite amazing views. And Micky did well on the very rough and pothole-filled dirt road out to the lookdown. Then it was lunchtime, and so back into the centre of Blackheath for lunch at an amazing Italian restaurant. We were lucky enough to be the only people in the place for most of the time, and had a table right in front of the open fire. Really awesome food. Definitely on the list of places to go back to.

Then it was afternoon tea time. So off to Leura! We went to Everglades historic gardens. I hadn’t been there before, but it’s quite an amazing place. There was a wedding happening just off to the side in one of the gardens (ironic?), but we headed into the house that is there and had a nice hot chocolate and coffee before going for a wander in the gardens.

After a short walk, we found this small natural pool with a waterfall coming down into it. It was quite amazing and very tranquil. And everything just fell into place, and before I knew it, I had proposed to Debbie, and she’d excitedly said yes :)

It was quite funny… cos we were pretty quick to get out of there, and all excited about calling parents and family, and then messaging all our friends. So our trip back down the mountains felt very quick, because we were on the phone almost the whole way down, and then reading lots of messages too. 

It’s all been quite a blur, but an exciting blur :)