GOLD FOR CANADA!!!

Well that was fun!

Yesterday was a blast! The day started with pampering as Shaena had booked appointments at the spa across the street for the both of us. I got a wonderful full back massage and Shaena had a pedicure. Her toenails are now turquoise. Afterwards, when I was all relaxed, Ethan and I went out on the town to stock up on party snacks for the evening. Ethan wasn’t much help though; he slept through the whole walk. Typical.

In the afternoon we went on to prepare for the party and to our surprise, Piers and Lesley stopped by and dropped off a case of wine! 15 bottles for everyone to enjoy later in the evening! They are just too good to us!

The party was great fun; about 10 people graced us with their presence and Shaena had sneakily asked our friends to bring a birthday cake with them and I got to blow out the one candle on the cake and make a wish as my birthday is coming up. My wife is just too lovely for words! When we all had built up the courage to do so, we played a few rounds of twister and then danced the night away. I on my part put up a magnificent dance performance for everyone’s enjoyment and concocted a new rendition of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ music video and also attempted the lift from ‘Dirty Dancing’! Apparently this whole performance was caught on video as well, but hopefully the clip will never see daylight.

Today we are spending the day recharging our batteries and tomorrow and Tuesday I have taken days off from work so we can just chill and have a nice extended weekend.

Ye olde photographer darkroom trunk

Since my dear wife is out dancing the night away, my lovely son is sleeping like a little snoring log, and my brother ran into Ryan-issues, I suddenly have a bit of time to kill this evening. I am chatting to my brother online just now and we are both cursing and planning a boycott of that awful cheap-o airline. Earlier tonight we were exchanging funny photos over MSN and just for laughs I wanted to change my profile picture. When I tried to figure out how, I stumbled upon my old photos from years back. First of all, I don't even remember some of these, but it also got me thinking; I wonder how many old photos from trips, parties, etc that are floating around the internet? Scary thought!

Anywho, I thought I'd share some of my old photo albums with you. Didn't actually know that I could include nifty photo albums like this, but this should keep you busy for a while! ;)

2 for 2!

Fingers crossed, but Ethan has slept through the night for two nights in a row now! It is amazing and a bit strange at the same time. It is great that both Ethan and Shaena and I can get a full nights sleep, but also a bit odd that he is not waking up for food in his normal intervals. It almost gets you worrying and you start thinking: ”What is wrong? What happened? Is he ok?” and then when we walk into his room at 7am, he is still sleeping like a baby, no pun intended. Hopefully this will stick, but as someone said on Facebook yesterday: “Beware of the pysch out...sleep 3 nights in a row and the 4th night is utter hell :)”

Tonight Uncle John is coming to visit and the boys will have a relaxed night at home, catching up. Maybe we’ll venture out to the kebab shop across the street for some grub, but no further than that. -Scratch that! John's Ryanair-flight got cancelled! What a total bummer! This time it was due to weather, but Ryanair had the option to put him on another flight to London but chose not to. Are we surprised? Not really. Still got me a kebab though, but instead of being a festive kebab it turned into a sob kebab. Sob kebabs are, as we all know, not nearly as yummy as festive kebabs!

Anyway, the girls are heading out for a few drinks and some dancing tonight. The dancing is also across the street if I am not mistaken. Our new location has everything across the street as it seems: Cuban dancing, Middle Eastern foods; including but not limited to kebab and halal meats, Turkish barber, Indian take-away shop, a Scottish pub and a Scottish steakhouse, and finally a newsagent with a friendly Eastern European shopkeeper in it!

Tomorrow is our housewarming partay! So far I think we have 15 confirmed guests so should be a really good time! We are very much looking forward to putting on our glad rags and to catch up with everyone tomorrow! For a guaranteed successful party, however, I think we will have to go hit up the ‘Pound Stretcher’ for some nibs and party paraphernalia. Good times!

Ethan the casanova

Today we decided to go to the baby cinema with Jennifer and Phoebe. Phoebe is 1 month younger than Ethan and has eyes to kill! Anyway, Ethan and Phoebe were watching "Invictus" and all of a sudden, Ethan grabbed Phoebe's hand! He was a smooooth operator! Phoebe was delighted and batted her eyelashes at him!

Last week he kissed Orlaith, twice!

He is a charmer and a romantic man at heart and wants to make sure that the ladies around him are appreciated!

For the rest of this week he has dates lined up with Alice, Isabel, and Piper.

Don't worry Danika, you are still number 1!

Who is in Glasgow?

I'm checking our analytics and see that Glasgow has come in as 6th place in our top cities so I wonder, who is in Glasgow? Ps - if you have or know of someone that has Lady Gaga tickets for Monday, I'd be most interested in purchasing some!!

Another fab weekend

It’s Monday again and once again I am typing away on the bus to work. Good old #25! We have had a really good weekend again and I think the fact that it is getting closer to spring helps. It is easier to gather the energy to step outside and go for a walk. We also think that our new location helps; there are more shops and cafés and restaurants around here.

On Friday after work I made a split second decision to go out for a few pints with a colleague of mine, so we hit up a bar at the Haymarket train station and just had a really good chat. After this I headed home and as soon as I walked through the door I heard a cry for food: “I’m huuungry!”. It was my lovely wife who had a growling tummy. I thought “Maybe I am a bit hungry too…” (even though I had had 5 slices of Domino’s pizza and chocolate cake at work earlier that afternoon) and offered to nip out to the kebab shop across the street. Did you notice how I just proved the point above? …Easier to gather the energy… …More restaurants… :)

On Saturday we did a bit more unpacking, almost there now, and then we ventured out for a nice long walk around Edinburgh town. Later in the evening, Jen & Mike came by for, I am sad to say this, more pizza, a glass of wine and a good chat.

On Sunday we continued with our unpacking and cleaning project and got quite a lot done before we decided to nip out for another walk and go see Orlaith in her flat. She has lived there for the longest time but I have never been. Shaena has, but I haven’t. Better late than never I guess!

Next weekend will without a doubt be a good one as well as my brother John is visiting, he will be our first guest from abroad in the new casa. Next Saturday we are also having a housewarming party! Should be a swell time! Yes, swell!

Out and about

adventures in el crib-o

If we would be a company...

...this could be our cheesy Company Overview:

‘Harrison-Helin’ was founded through a successful merge of ‘Harrison’ and ‘Helin’ in 2006. Before the merger, both parties had separate flourishing businesses in Canada and Sweden before their operations intersected in Dublin, Ireland one fateful summer and the two joined forces under the trading name ‘Harrison-Helin’.

Harrison-Helin soon discovered that their operation could expand further by relocation to Scotland where prosperous opportunities awaited them. After setting up shop in Edinburgh, the duo identified a need for a third partner and decided to expand their business and took on a junior partner less than a year ago. Recently, the trio also moved into new, modern premises in Edinburgh city centre.

Even though their base camp is Edinburgh, Harrison-Helin has always been considered a flexible and mobile operation that would offer on-site visits around the world, if the opportunity and timing is right for the business to do so.

What was the point of this? Nothing really, just letting you know that we now have our own page on Facebook!

Back to my roots designing websites

Recently I have taken on a few website / blog design projects just to help a few friends out with their band’s website or company website or whatever it may be. I have to say, I really enjoy it and it takes me back to when I took my first stumbling steps in the world of web design back when I was 16-17 years old. This was also around the time when people were chatting on mIRC, had not yet fully understood what hotmail was for and Altavista was the search engine of choice. Oh, and also back when everyone took a stab at creating their own free website on web portals like Fortunecity and the design philosophy was: colourful website + blinking-animations-all-over-the-page-just-because-I-can = nice!

At first when I started writing html code again it felt a bit rusty and there was a lot of trial and error, but I think I am getting the hang of it again! My latest project is to help our friend Les with a new website for her company ‘Moyes & Co’ and just this evening I sent off a draft to them to get their aye or nay on it. Partial as I am, I think it turned out pretty decent.

Coincidentally; we happen to be a bit short staffed at work at the moment, so this week I have helped out in our Swedish customer care team where I've spent a fair few hours working with various clients on developing Facebook pages (one of the products we sell) and that has also given me an opportunity to fiddle with my beloved html code. Is this a sign? Am I meant to revive my old company ‘WD Design’ that I started when I was still living in my mom and step dad’s attic?

Nah… just keep it simple. No need for those internet millions that are out there, just waiting to be found and collected!

”I kissed a girl and I liked it”

Today has been a better day than yesterday. Work was good; busy and productive, just the way I like it. Ethan and Shaena had a full day today as well. Orlaith spent the night last night so that they could get going early on their hang-out day, however from what I gathered when I came home after work this evening, most of their plans for the day had never materialized as they never made it out of the flat and all looked a bit sleepy. Ethan and Orlaith had even gone for an afternoon nap together, then they woke up together and Ethan proceeded to kiss Orlaith on the mouth. Twice! What a charmer!

Other than that, they had done a bit of cleaning and had made chocolate chip pancakes and virgin cocktails for lunch. I think I am going to become a stay-at-home dad instead, sounds excellent to just putz around the house in your pajamas and eat pancakes all day long! Just kidding really; I know it’s not always easy and is quite a lot of hard work to take care of a baby full time, so a lazy day is more than well deserved!

Tonight ’Shaena’s Movie Club’ is doing another viewing (think it is ‘Invictus’), so we’ll probably cozy up in the Supaluxe and watch a flick. I am sure you are all thinking: “Shaena’s Movie Club? What in god’s name is that!?” – Well, let me enlighten you:

Shaena has figured out how we can stream high quality movies on our computers, some movies haven’t even premiered in the cinema. So (almost) every night at 9pm, we drop everything and kick back with a movie. We have plowed our way through quite the list of movies already, including: ‘Inglorious bastards’, ‘Up in the air’, ‘The hangover’, ‘Law abiding citizen’ ‘Zombieland’, ‘The Ugly Truth’, ‘Valentine’s Day’, and many more. Sometimes we choose to watch a documentary or a few sitcoms instead, but always for free! Pretty sweet!

Frantic week – Fantastic weekend

The past week felt like yet another long one at work; we are currently super-busy trying to get anything and everything sorted out at breakneck speed and I think we are making good progress. Here at home, Shaena and Ethan have both ridden out the tail end of the flu and therefore they have been a bit tired and sickly, but they are doing much better now. Ethan also had his swine flu shot this week and he did really well! He didn’t even flinch and afterwards he was fine, not a single hint of fever or crabbiness.

On Friday evening Nicky and Orlaith came by our house to baby sit for a few hours whilst Shaena and I went out for a date night, or a ‘pre-Valentine’s dinner’ if you will. We had heard good things about La Stazione, an Italian restaurant above the pub at Haymarket station so Shaena reserved a table and took me out for a fabulous 3 course meal. The restaurant was a genuine Italian restaurant run by Italians and you could really tell that their focus was on making and serving great food, not necessarily the customer service or the appearance of the restaurant itself, as it should be in a real Italian restaurant.

Oh, I almost forgot; Shaena got picked up outside the restaurant! After dinner I stayed behind to pay the bill and Shaena stepped out for some fresh air. While I was waiting inside, a guy named Gary, pronounced [Gaaa-arry], who clearly was souped up on Scottish courage, walked up to Shaena and said "Do you want to go get a wine?" and just as I walked up, Shaena said: "I am waiting for my husband". Gary then said: "Oh, you have a husband!" and quickly stumbled off in the other direction. Sorry Gary, she is taken.

On Saturday we did quite a bit of organizing at home and got most of our clothes sorted out after the move and Piers and Lesley came by to check out the new place. Ethan got to play with Drake and it is nice to see that he is so comfortable around dogs, even big ones like Drake who is a mix between a Doberman and a German shepherd. I actually think Drake was more intimidated by Ethan than the other way round, as he quickly walked off when Ethan crawled up to him for a cuddle.

Today, as Shaena mentioned below, we hit up Glasgow for a bit of shopping and treated ourselves to a nice day out. I found a whole bunch of nice t-shirts and Shaena got herself both tops, sweaters and pants (trousers for you Brits). Ethan didn’t get anything this time, as we are just about to dust off his wardrobe for the next size up. He has so, so many nice outfits still to be used, thanks to our lovely family and friends!

Happy Valentine's everyone!

Valentine's in Glasgow

As I type on a shaky scotsrail train back to the burgh from our day out in Glasgow I think about how friendly people are in our respected countries. You'd think people would offer their seat to a family with an armful of kids and shopping but it doesn't seem to be the case here. It sorta makes me a bit sad being that this Is a day meant to be full of love...though maybe it's all the gilded lovers riding today and I shouldn't take it personally.

Our family day in Glasgow was a success! Ethan charmed himself a few girlfriends and Peter and I treated ourselves to a new outfit or two.

This weekend has been a lovely one especially that the days are getting longer, the air becoming warmer, oh and did I mention we have a back yard that we didn't know about?! Needs a bit of TLC but will be a nice patch of grass for E-man to stretch his legs on!

Canadian, eh!

This morning our friendly neighbourhood postman knocked on the door and asked for Mr. Ethan Harrison-Helin. It was a bit unexpected so I said: "Well I am his dad so I'll sign for the letter." The postman then proceeded to say: "Well as long as someone trustworthy signs, I am fine."... So I said to him that "Ethan is only 7 months old, so I hopefully I am more trustworthy than him at this point."

Anyway, this was just a roundabout way of saying that our little buddy got his official Canadian citizenship today! We are of course very excited that this is finally done, just in time for the Olympics and everything! As Ethan is now officially both Swedish and Canadian, the question is: Who ever will he root for!?

Busy day for mommy and son

Usually Shaena and I are sending each other instant messages throughout the day but today there was no sign of her online all day. In the afternoon I gave her a call, just to check in on them. They had had the busiest day running errands, visiting Maeghan at work, touring the Edinburgh City Chambers and doing coffee with another mommy. No wonder the guys were exhausted when I came home this evening!

Ethan still had a little bit of play left in him, so I flipped him upside down a few times, had some good tickles and giggles, gave his grandma in Sweden a quick call, fed him some vegetable baby food and then he had a bath. Out like a little light. What a tough life.

Oh, and they also had a pressie for me when I got home that they had bought when were out and about! Somewhere in town, there is a Swedish cafe where they sell 'kladdkaka', Swedish chocolate cake! It was divine! I knew there were Swedish bars and restaurants around town but a Swedish cafe with sweet, sweet cakes and cookies!? Deadly!

Speaking of Sweden; it is almost time to start planning our summer holidays, believe it or not. Time is very flighty and before you know it, it's summer and this year we are looking into going up north in Sweden hopefully in time for the traditional midsummer celebrations in the end of June, with a stopover in Stockholm, so I researched flights and prices this evening. It was actually not that expensive.

I thought the domestic flights in Sweden would cost an arm and a leg but you just gotta love those low fares airlines! The other option to save a bit of money (and get the scenic route at the same time) is to fly from here to Stockholm and then drive up the coast all the way to county Norrbotten, all the way up to the land of the midnight sun. We'll give that some thought and will of course keep everyone in the loop.

Here is a couple of photos of Ethan and Maeghan, working away, helping the world:

"Pose for the camera. Hold. Hold. Hold... Hold."
"Oh come on! Take the photo already!"

"Crikey, the phone! It's ringing! #1 rule of customer service: Never leave a ringing phone unanswered! Oh, it's your mom."

Ethan 7 months

Ethan's Sunday breakfast

"Hey, what's this?"

"Looks a bit weird but don't knock it till you try it, right?"

"Sweet, it's carrot sticks!"

"Yummy!"

"Two carrot sticks in the hand is worth ten in the bush."

"Need to wash it down with some dairy. Boom!"

"Life is good!"

Risön, Kalix, Sweden

My brother John is a great resource for photos from up north in Sweden, especially since I have not been back home in a million years. We were instant messaging this morning and I mentioned that I had tried to check out our old house in Risön, Kalix on Google maps but it is just too rural/too far north to be visible in any detail. Not to worry, he said. He had a recent photo he had taken while driving past it and funny enough, the house looks exactly the same as it did over 20 years ago!

The little house in background of the picture below was the house me, my brother and my mom moved to when my parents separated. It was nothing special at all, certainly not the nicest house you have ever seen but given the circumstances the saying ”beggars can’t be choosers” was not far from the truth.

My brother and I shared the only bedroom of the house, we slept on two of those temporary folding cot beds next to each other with a little night stand in the middle, and our mom slept on a bed in the living room. Oh, and our bedroom also doubled as a scrap yard for normally very nice and shiny model cars. Being boys and all, we had a keen interest in taking apart all of our toy cars for the sole purpose of trying to put them back together again. It rarely worked.

As our house was a bit on the older side, it also had a food cellar under the house that you could access with a hatch in the floor in the main room. Most of the pubs here in Edinburgh have a similar built-in contraption for accessing the keg storage under the floor. Sometimes when I see the bar maids go down in the basement to change the kegs around I remember that old house.

The red house in the front of the photo was our landlord-couple, Tage and Sonja’s, house. They were the nicest and most helpful couple you could ever imagine and Tage had a workshop right next to our green garage doors, which you can see in the photo, where he used to make really nice carved wooden butter knives.

We lived in that house for less than a year and after that, my mom met my step dad and we moved to Piteå where I lived until I eventually left the nest.

Thanks for the picture John!

From RDA to GNR

On my way to work this morning I was standing outside the Chinese restaurant by the bus stop next to a seemingly shady couple who seemed to be on their way home from a night of debauchery. I was listening to my iPod and came to think of this recent near-obsession with Richard Dean Anderson that has been going on here on our page. That somehow made my mind drift away to another blast from the past, not sure how this came to mind but could be because it happened around 1987-88 and my brother recently posted a photo on Facebook of this object he purchased back then.

I was remembering a day when my mom, my brother and I went to ‘Tore Henrikssons Radio & TV’ in Kalix, Sweden, where we lived at the time. My brother had gotten some money to shop for, most likely a birthday present, and our cousin worked in this radio-shack-type store. So, we went in to buy an LP record and my brother is only just over 2 years older than me, so 2 young kids and their mom who probably did not know what was about to hit her.

Our cousin, who obviously was older than us and also much, much cooler than us (he could make the best mixtapes, complete with a cassette song index where the song titles were highlighted with various neon colors), greeted us in the shop and he already knew that we were there to buy a record for my brother. He walked us over to the chart topping records at the time and recommended this horrible looking album sleeve with a dead hooker in an alley who was surrounded by robots; it was ‘Appetite for Destruction’ by Guns N’ Roses. Our mom shrugged a little, but as our ‘more mature’ cousin said it was ok, my brother was allowed to buy the record. The fact that it was a very loud and screechy rock album is a whole other story.

Funny how all of the sudden I would recall exactly where in the store we were standing, how the surroundings looked like and the manner of how our cousin took us straight over to that infamous album cover. That boggles my mind a little bit. Must have been those sketchy looking people that subconsciously reminded me of the dead hooker and the robot dressed in a flasher-coat. My subconscious mind could of course also have been influenced by my iPod playlist.

An interesting piece of pop culture trivia is that this album sleeve, the one with the dead girl, was banned shortly after we purchased the record and was replaced with a more subtle album cover and the nasty picture was put on the inside of the sleeve instead. I mentioned this to my brother when I visited him in Stockholm a few months ago, as memorabilia collectors pay good money for rare items like that. The sleeve is now hanging nicely on the wall in his apartment.

Where did this week go!?

We have had a really busy week so far without actually having too many activities planned and at the same time we have been sniveling and coughing, think we’ve caught the winter bug that seems to be going around here in Edinburgh. Our new apartment is taking shape, we are getting more and more stuff unpacked and it already feels warm and homey. Love it!

Work is back to its normal super-busy self, which I really enjoy. I am involved in a few really interesting projects right now and it feels like we have made some really good progress in many areas in our office, so all positive things. I really enjoy my job, as most of you know; even though most of you don’t know what it is that I actually do. Peter ‘Chandler Bing’ Helin, that’s me!

Shaena and Ethan have been networking it up by attending several baby groups around the city with Shaena’s new mommy-friends. These groups are great for sharing hints and tips and ‘baby-best-practices’ and it also seems like some of these moms are quite savvy bargain hunters, just like us.

This weekend will be dedicated to relaxing, a bit of unpacking, and charging of our batteries. Speaking of which; I still have not found my phone charger after the move and we are still missing our box of hooks and nails as well as a ream of printer paper. Wonder where they are? Has anyone seen our stuff?

Thank you Urbandictionary.com!

Ethan = The coolest, sexiest man ever. He has all the bitches and hoes and money.

Guy #1: Who is that?...
Guy #2: That's Ethan with his bitches and hoes and money.

Happy February

Well the excitement is still running through my veins! How I love moving and unpacking and making a home out of our place! Though all I have really done today is play with Ethan (best job ever!) and do the dishes! Peter and I have decided that we won't put pictures up until we're both home cause that is tons of fun (are we nerds or what!)

Ethan is also 7 months now (well as of yesterday) and is motoring like a Tasmanian devil! I'm sure he'll be walking soon, though I do hope he takes his sweet time learning to do that so I can get prepared to jump and chase him at every beck and call! Part of me is hoping that this will be like a free gym membership that actually works so I can shed some baby weight so the sooner the better.

While we're unpacking here, Mom is still working through her box project. She's found the "Hollywood Goes Hockey" book and started scanning it. Here are a few snippets from it: