SERA - 2015 Mini Cooper S

Blazing the way through traffic, and generally making the daily commute fun!

Delivery Day at the Dealership

Sera, short for Seraphina, is our little blazing angel for lane carving through the grind of traffic in Doha.  She joined our family on Feb 8th.   Sera is the first car I have purchased current model year and to my exact specifications.  I have always owned used or previous year model cars.

Sera is a 2015 Mini Cooper S (F56), she is the second year of the 3rd generation MINIs since BMW took over the brand.  2.0 litre, 6 speed automatic (w/paddle shifters), variable dampened suspension, 18" wheels, panoramic sunroof, and many more techie gizmos.  I think that is part I love the most about this car, all technology to explore and utilise.

I have discovered a great community of F56 owners, now because it is forum there are many posts about "niggles" people are having with their cars, but weaved in there are great tips and information about features, how to maintain, how clean, and to enjoy the most out of your car.  If you are interested check it out http://www.minif56.com.

Stay tuned I will be posting more of my exploits in tweaking the look of my car, and making some simple upgrades for maintainability and better performance.

Father, husband, petro-head, web developer

These are the things that make up my universe.

I am the father of 2 wonderful children.  Tyanna my eldest is a beautiful, and talented, drama queen.  Seriously, she is a great actor.  Calvin my youngest, is a smart, athletic giant! He bigger than me - not that is terribly hard considering I am only 5' 10".   Watching the 2 of them make their way in world on their terms gives me great pride and joy.  For their privacy, this is all I will say.

I am married to my soulmate, my true partner, Mariee.  She is my ray of sunshine, no matter the weather.  12.13.14 is the day that I will never forget.  We declared our love in front of our families, and friends.  This is just the beginning of our journey, and I plan to share some of our travels here.

RYAN AND MARIEE 12.13.14 from Ryan Chittenden on Vimeo.

Back in my university days, I got lost, and my dad put me back on track by hiring me to work with him in his wrecking yard.  This is where I developed my love of cars, well, pretty much anything a motor.  I learned to tear down motors, transmissions, suspensions, brake systems, steering systems.  I really enjoyed my time with my dad.  Ever since I like to tinker my vehicles.  My latest project is my 2015 Mini Cooper S Hatchback.  Stay tuned for my trials and tribulations with my projects for any of my project cars.

I have been building websites since September 28th, 1997.  I don't know why I can seem to remember the exact date, when I am not sure what I had for dinner last night, but the brain just works that way.  I started off humbly - just fixing bugs, updating sites in HTML/CSS and JS.  I used tables for layout because I didn't know any better, and well CSS support was sporadic at best.  

Fast forward until today and I lead a team of fantastic web design/developers.  Each with their own strengths and know how.  We build responsive, accessible, well designed, well built websites and mobile/hybrid apps for a variety of enterprise clients around the world.

All in all I am a very fortunate, and my life's roads and potholes has given me a pretty fabulous universe to live and grow in.