Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - The Importance of being Samuel George

As many people on BE already know Elina and I are proud to announce the birth of our second son Samuel George, who decided he could not wait until next year to enter this world. He arrived safely at 12 noon on Sunday December 4th 2005.

 The previous evening had been spent drinking wine and then a Boddingtons just before retiring to bed, I thought I could run the alcohol off the next morning during my football game and thus feel none the worse.

 I woke up early on Sunday morning and was suprised Elina wasn't in bed, upon getting up I discovered a rather emotional and nervous Elina in the living room, who informed me that her water had broken or she thought it may have? We gathered  our 2 year old James Alexander and called a Finnish freind of Elina's, who was more than happy happy to look after him. I then drove to the hospital so that Elina could get checked out. Elina agreed that I should go and play football since I was a little hung over and the baby would probably take hours anyway, and my game only lasts 2 hours.

After the game I checked my messages and was suprised to hear that Elina was allready dilated. I raced home, showered and made my way to the hospital with seconds to spare.

Samuel George had been an easy delivery, Elina said he came out on the "3rd push". Elina looked very releived, as the previous labor with James took 8 hours or so, which is why I decided to play football.

 After months of deliberation we decided on Samuel for the first name.  As I chose James for our first's name it was Elina's turn, and she liked Samuel since it's pronounciation is almost identical in the Finnish language ( Sam-oo-el), whereas James would be Ya-mes and there is no real direct translation for his name in Finnish.

The second name was obvious now, having watched the funeral of my boyhood hero George Best the day before, it was decided that George would be appropriate.

I believe names are an important foundation and should have a connection, plus I hate all the trendy names that everyone is currently calling their kids, everyone is trying to be different but just copying each other with the Makenzies, Coopers, Hunters, Joshes, Zacks etc.

 Samuel is Elina's younger brothers middle name and is interchangable in Finnish and English. George is a reminder of where part our sons roots and heritage originate from, a Belfast council estate. George is also the patron saint of England................. 'perfick' as Pa Larkin might say.