HOT HOT H.E.A.T

London baby

2012-02-02T23:19:00.000+01:00

This week so far has been good. I'm feeling so much better this week and hopefully the thing I had is gone :-)

I have planned and booked quite a few things for when I go to London in March with my work. I do the planning and booking of this konference/study trip. We will do a lot of interesting stuff and of course, since you know our favorite thing to do, we are also going to eat at some amazing restaurants. I can't reveal it all here because some of them read this and everything isn't in the open yet.

We are going to see "Olympic London" that is we will walk and get exclusive viewing of all they are building for the Olympic this summer. We will be guided by a practicing architect so very interesting for "my" architects but also for the constructing engineers.

We will be eating one evening at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant which is rather close to our hotel. I had the confirmation just now tonight. It is very booked so you have to be out in time.

You will hear more about it as we get closer.

Tomorrow I'm off to a conference, at my former work Rosersberg, with the Rheumatic association. It's our first meeting there with the District of Stockholm so it will be nice to hear what they think. I'm sure Anna and Lasse will take good care of us :-)

That's it for now folks. I will try to take some photos to place here. Have a great weekend and take care, especially you living in Sweden.

Sick :-(

2012-01-27T18:19:00.000+01:00

Well, I told you last that I was feeling so tired. Well, I got the explanation when I on Tuesday had 39,5 C fever. I wasn't feel well at all. Could hardly walk because my lymph glands was so swollen. Infection of course but as usual I have no idea where. Next morning, no fever!

So I went to work. Came to work at 6.30 AM as usual. Worked for 2 hours and then I was off to my annual occupatioanl health care control! My BP was excellent, my heart was a bit too slow but the EKG perfect. I do hear bad on one ear and of course my usual. But of course the blood tests I don't know what they said. Maybe the Sed rate was high. I'm going to see the doctor Febr 14 so I will know then.

Anyway after that back to work and then a budget meeting at the Rheumatic association which went very well.
I also had time to visit my friend Christina who has a chocolate and coffee shop nearby. She has the most tasty coffee ever!

Doesn't this looks sinfully good?

I can tell you it is!

Yesterday I had a meeting with the jubilee committe and as always we had a lot of fun but also did a lot of planning.

At work our kitchen was almost completed on Wednesday when I went home. I don't work Thursdays and Fridays so I'm really excited to see how it looks Monday. I took a photo of the wall which is painted orange (one of the logo colors) The pattern is from a spot in the ceiling. Sorry about the bad quality but it's taken with my new phone and I haven't learn the camera yet :-)

Today it's my mother's cousin's birthday. She turns 84 and still going strong.
Happy Birthday Kerstin <3

Tomorrow I'm going to see Mom. She hasn't been well the last days but today she had been sitting up and she even drank some juice which is a good sign.

After being at her place I will go to Danniel for some lunch. I have a treat for him :-)

Hope you all have a great weekend and take care!

Soon the wait is over.....

2012-01-21T19:47:00.000+01:00

For all of us H.E.A.T fans the wait will soon be over. In a short time, I can't tell you exactly when, they will release the first single from the new album and that is really something special.
I will of course tell you as soon as it's out there to buy.

This is how they celebrated that the album was ready :-)
(Photo from H.E.A.T's Facebook-page)

We have started the walking competition this week at work and my goal is to walk 7000 steps a day which I have achieved almost every day. Two days I have like 50-100 steps away so I think that is good.
The thing is that every 7000 steps we take our firm gives a certain sum to Save the Children which is a really good cause I think. It's also a fun way to get you out walking. I have a goal to walk from Upplands Väsby to Gävle in this perid which lasts until February 12. Last night I had reached a bit further north of Knivsta and are heading for Uppsala. It's kind of fun because we have a website where we register our steps and then we can follow our walk on the map.

Also our new kitchen at work will soon be ready and we can continue our Monday lunches. They have been on hold now while the work is going on. I'm so looking forward to having a real oven, a real cooker hood fan and stove plates. We can create magic now ;-)

Yesterday I went to see my friend for a long good chat and see her new flat. She has just been divorced and we haven't had a chance to talk properly so it was so nice to see that she's feeling better. The flat was supernice and I especially loved the kitchen.

I feel so, so tired now. So it doesn't matter if you are out walking getting fresh air. It's hard when all you want to do is sleep. Every afternoon when I come home I have this time between 4-5 PM when I watch a TV-show and I always fall asleep. I don't have any problems going to bed at 10PM. Maybe it's because I'm up at 5AM.

Have a great weekend everyone and take care!

Opera, surgery and walking

2012-01-15T17:51:00.000+01:00

This Friday my brother-in-law was operated and we really need all good thoughts and prayers because it didn't go as planned. He's now i ICU and they couldn't complete the surgery as they wanted to. He and my sister lives in California so it's very far away and I'm here in Sweden frustrated cause I can't do anything.
I would probably not be able to do anything if I'm in place either but at least I could be to some comfort and also helping out with the things you don't really want to do in times like this - like cooking, cleaning and shopping.
I am happy though because their girls came and has been there the weekend so at least they have each other.

Otherwise here in Stockholm things are really back to normal. We have had some snow (not much) and below 0 degrees so it's "nice" and icy outside which means I don't go out. I'm scared to fall again and hit my head or even worse ;-) break something. I hate it when it is like this. Last weekend Hasse and I were out walking several days in a row but then it wasn't this icy. Let's hope things get better either with a lot of snow or no snow.

Friday me and my friend C went to the Opera and saw "The girl from the West" by my favorite compuser Puccini. It was a fantastic opera and I loved it!! When sitting there listening I suddenly recognize a melody in the opera and that was from Phantom of the Opera so now I know where that came from.
Also some of the notes are wellknown from Western movies. If you get a chance go and see it - you won't regret it.

Listen here: The girl from the West

This week starting tomorrow we have a walking competition at work. That means we wear a step counter all day and see how many steps we take. Then you register the steps each day on the competition site. This is also for a good cause. Every 7000 steps our employer gives 5 SEK to the organisation Save the Children. So we better walk a lot :-) The competition is on for a month. I can also see on my page how far I have walked. That should be interesting :-)

Hope you have a good week and especially to my family in California and SLC a warm thought and hug for you. Love you!

Back to normal again

2012-01-11T07:19:00.000+01:00

After all the holidays I'm back to normal again which is kind of nice in a way. Nice to go to work and meet everyone but sad because I miss the days home. Hasse and I made a habit of going out walking the last week I was home. We walked at different places redescovering Väsby again. I like to walk where there is water, even if it's frozen :-) Hasse likes the wood, which I don't. So we have tried to combine them and that actually works here.
We do miss Hilma because when we had her we were out walking every day 3-4 times a day whether we wanted it or not :-)

Sunday when we were out walking by lake Norrviken we saw the lake completely frozen which is kind of strange because it hasn't been that cold this winter. But there were a lot of skaters out there. I didn't dare go out because of the singing noice the ice made. The skaters we talked to said the ice was around 5 cm thick. That is way to little for me!

So now I'm working and tomorrow I'm going to get a needed haircut. On Friday budget-meeting with the Rheumatic association and after that the Royal Opera house for our first Opera this season.

Love your story about the milk Sandy :-)

Have a great day everyone :-)

COOK-BOOK OF THE YEAR!!

2012-01-05T12:12:00.000+01:00

The cook-book's cover

I think you know about our cooking competition at work? We cook for each other every Monday and after each cirkle is completed (approx 10 weeks) we vote the best dish that cirkle. At the end of the year we count all the points and one winner is selected. Last year 2011 I won for the second year in a row :-) I was extatic because one of the things I love to do and I think I'm quite good at is cooking and baking :-)

My work which once was a stable. Isnt' it gorgeus?

My prize was a gourmet dinner for 2 at a White Guide restaurant in Sweden. They are in places like Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and a lot of other cities in Sweden. Great prize and I know Hasse is happy too because he's the one I will take with me, of course.

An example of a recipe, by me :-)

Two other recipes by me and it's in the dessert section

I'm sorry it's in Swedish but if you are interested in any of these I can give you an English translation.

I wish you all a good Epiphany feast. Take care!

2012 a brand new year is here

2012-01-02T18:17:00.000+01:00

Well, it really was yesterday but we had a lazy day then and just watched TV like the New Year's concert from Vienna that we watch every year. A very nice tradition.

Otherwise nothing much happened. We had leftovers from New Year's Eve.
I made a cold Avocad soup with shrimps as a starter and to that I made rolls with Västerbottencheese.
Main course was fillet of beef with potatoe gratin made of almond potatoe (I don't know if you have it in USA but it's a delicacy here) and of course Västerbotten ;-) and garlic and to that a green sallat.
For dessert I made tosca pears with whipped cream.
We ate slowly and enjoyed each dish and it took us around 2 1/2 hours to eat.

At midnight we watched all the fireworks from our balcony. We have this amazing view and can see 360 and all the way into Stockholm. It was a clear night which made it extra special.

But that was then and now is now and the new year began today with work :-)
January is a month with lots of work since it's the time to do the books for 2011. So I will be busy I think until mid February.

Did I say I visited my Mom on New Year's Eve? I brought her a bottle of champagne. She has always enjoyed it earlier so why not now. She was actually quite present although she can't talk that well.

Well I hope your year has started good and will continue doing so.

NEW YEAR'S EVE!!

2011-12-31T13:35:00.001+01:00

So once again it's time to close a year and start a new and fresh one.

What has 2011 meant for you?

For me one of my highlights was to visit my sister in California which happens far too seldom. Not only that I got to meet almost all the family during my stay even so my brother-in-law's family. I love being with her since it's not that long we have known each other. I feel I really want to spend as much time as I can but it's a bit far ;-) and also kind of expensive apart from the fact a big chunk of my holiday goes. If I could I would go there for Christmas/New Year/Summer as well. All the times I've been there has been in spring around Easter which is a wonderful time of year in California, just like our high summer :-)

I won the cooking competition at work the second year in a row :-)

Hasse and I spent a wonderful holiday in Helsinki and Stockholm and also took the time to stay in our favorite hotel in Stockholm several times during this autumn.

What am I looking forward to next year then? Well of course H.E.A.T's new album!!

A secret surprise I've arranged for me and Hasse

and much more some that I don't know yet :-)

Hoping we will have a healthier year than 20011 has been.

I wish for all my family and friends that their dreams and wishes will come true

and above all

I wish you a healthy 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!!

Teaser of HEAT 2012

2011-12-30T22:44:00.000+01:00

HEAT 2012

Teaser of what is to come from H.E.A.T in 2012. Great stuff and I can't wait to here the whole album.

I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!!

Boxing Day and tacobuffet

2011-12-27T18:57:00.000+01:00

Tulips that I got from Staffan and Lena

Yesterday was Boxing Day and we had a very dear visit from children and grandchildren from Gävle and also Jonas. We had a lovely Taco buffet and it was so nice to sit down and chat with them. It's not often nowadays we all get together since they are all over the place.

Alass Linnea wasn't here but it's a long trip from Thailand to us ;-)

Henrik is normally in Haparanda playing icehockey, Lisa and Micke attend the University in Uppsala and Malin the University in Sundsvall and Jonas is all over the place :-)

Henrik, Malin and Klara

Me and Malin in the kitchen

We have had the most strange weather here in Sweden lately. It's been stormy and winds in hurricane strength which led to a lot of fallen trees, the railway hasn't worked for 2 days and many people (around 180.000) were out of electricity and some still are.

This photo shows our flower we have outside our front door and it's blooming and even got buds on it if you look carefully.

This morning as I arrived to work the temperature showed +13C!!! On December 27 in Sweden!! That is not normal.

What's the matter with the climate?

Well tomorrow I work as well but then I'm off until next year. Yes, 2012 isn't far away now. My wish for you is that you will have a great year with health, happiness and love.

Take care out there wherever you are.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2011-12-25T09:57:00.001+01:00

To you who celebrate Christmas today I wish you a very merry Day filled with good food, gifts, laughter, family and love.

My 3 beautiful sons and some of the food

As you know we in Sweden celebrate on the Eve so we had ours yesterday. I had the family here, me, all three boys, Hasse of course, my sis Helen and her 2 children Bianca and Antonio and we had Mom here. This wasn't obvious and we weren't sure she would make it until the last hours. Helen's husband who drives disabled worked yesterday and we had managed it so that he would fetch her and also Danniel went with her in the car.
I think she liked it. She ate with good appetite and she even laughed a couple of times which makes me happy.

Mom and Helen helping her out

We sang some corals and Jonas played the piano and Mom liked it so much that she clapped her hands :-)

Watching Donald Duck after Christmas lunch

She is very tired so she can't stay up very long so after giving her the Christmas gifts she was driven home by Helen's husband a couple of hours later.

Some of the Christmas gifts and Pinglan watching over them (my sis dog)

We of course watched the most longlived Christmas tradition in Sweden that is Donald Duck's Christmas. Every year at 3PM on Christmas Eve we look at this along with most of Sweden's population. After that it's time for the gifts and we were all very happy for them. Even our "adopted" grandchildren came over and wished Merry Christmas and left gifts <3

My sister's beautiful children, Bianca and Antonio

The day before Christmas Eve

2011-12-23T08:32:00.000+01:00

Today is the last day before the Christmas celebrations tomorrow (here in Sweden that is). I still have cooking and baking to do but I just wanted to write some before I do that.

On Wednesday we had our annual Christmas celebration at work and we started in the afternoon with glögg, coffee, gingerbreadcookies and lottery.
I actually won one price - a open fire place for table (indoor). Very nice and hopefully we will use it a lot to create a nice atmosphere.

After that we took taxis to Cajsa Warg where we were divided into 3 teams - the one who cooked starter - me in the main course team and of course we had a dessert team. And off we went cooking and drinking some very nice wine.

We had a lot of great fun and since one of our common big interest at work is food and good wine we had a great time. For starters we had scallops with roasted pancetta, cauliflowermousse and applesyrup. Delicious!!!

OK as usual the photo is the wrong way and I can't turn it here!! It's the right way as original :-(

So for main course we had ovenbaked sirloin steak that was so tender and tasty. To that we served potatoe soufflé, mojo rojo and spincachsalat.

Dessert was Key lime pie with berries.

You can imagine we were completely full after that :-)

Well, just wanted to tell you and also of course wish you a

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I can now reveal...

2011-12-19T18:48:00.001+01:00

the lunch I served at work today :-)
For starter I served a cold avocado soup with shrimps
Main course was my favorite Lasagne served with salat
and for the grand desert I had made a "julgodisbord" kind of Christmas candy table which consisted of toscacookies coated with chocolate, peppermintpastilles, Christmas toffée, fudge, candy cane and much more.
Almost everything made by me (expect for the fudge and candy cane)
We are normally 6-10 people but today we were 13!! and I wasn't prepared for that but luckily I always do too much so I had for everyone. It was harder with plates and chairs but as we say in Sweden if there is place for hearts there are also place for bottoms. Sounds better in Swedish actually :-)
I also saw my doctor today about my head and he said it was a nasty big bump I had but not much to do but rest and it will hopefully go away soon. If I get worse I have to go to the ER he said so I hope not.
I hope you all had a good Monday. I know I did and now it's only a few days until Christmas and guess what? I haven't anything ready yet :-) Wish me luck.

Snow and hard fall

2011-12-18T19:47:00.000+01:00

Yes, finally it's snowing but it's not all good :-(

I went to see my Mom yesterday and one enormous thing was that she recognize me and even said my name. That hasn't happened for ages. So I was happy. I Christmas decorated her room at the home and we had a good time listening to Christmas carols and Mom ate some chocolate I had brought.

But then I went to see Danniel and that's when things started go wrong. Suddenly it had frozen, earlier it was kind of rain-snow but I wasn't prepared and as I went down I suddenly slipped on some ice, probably, and fell hard. I hit the back of my head on a stone pavement and it hurt like h..l. I think I even saw some stars. I didn't lose concious and I haven't been feeling sick but I have a huge bump on my head which is very very hurtful and I have a headache, I'm dizzy and the muscles on my neck are hurting so much it's hard to lie down (whiplash).
But stubborn as I am I don't go to the ER. I hate it. And I would probably be sitting there for hours and hours. So I take painkillers and hopefully I feel better tomorrow. I have slept a lot though, I seemed to be tired and every time I sit in front of the TV I fall asleep :-)

I had Jonas and Mandy here for dinner which was very nice since I haven't seen Jonas in 5 weeks because he's been in Gothenburg recording the album.
Before that I cooked for work so I have been busy today. I will tell you later what I made for them. Can't tell now if they read this ;-)

Well, I hope you all have a good Monday. Take care out there!

They are home in time for Christmas - H.E.A.T

2011-12-16T10:10:00.000+01:00

The guys when in Gothenburg recording but here they are in a store :-)

On Wednesday the guys came home again after 5 weeks recording in the studio. The result is amazing says Jona but I haven't heard it yet, maybe on Christmas. Well, the recording is finished but now the mixing and mastering takes place and the release won't be until sometimes next year, maybe March.
I'm so curious as I suppose all of you are too. I think we are in for a real treat with this one!

Jona laying keys, you can see his fingers ;-) The one by the computer is Crash

Apart from that we had Christmas party at the Rheumatic association Stockholm district on Wednesday. Very nice. We served glögg, of course, with gingerbread cookies, Santa-porridge, ham, Christmas-cheese, bread, coffee with safronbuns and of course a "gottisbord" (candytable-it's not really a table but a big bowl of candies which you associate with Christmas like fudge, chocolate and much much more)
We also had a man coming who entertained us - a trobadour you could say. He was great. He told stories, he sang and he got us involved in singing and laughing. I think he was a bit specialized in our great National poet/composer Evert Taube who wrote so many songs about Sweden, summer and more. But of course we also sang Christmas songs. Singing really lifts your spirit and you feel so happy when you sing. I love it although I'm not the best singer ;-)

Yesterday I went to the hospital to do a CT of my stomach that has been troubling me more and more the last months. I had to do some nasty preparations - well not that nasty :-) but drink some stuff so my bowls would be spotted on the photos, not very good! Then at the table I had something in my blood that made me feel heated (!). But all went well. Now I have to wait for the results.

Today I was supposed to go out to dinner to celebrate we graduated college 20 years ago but my friend couldn't so we have to take a rain check on that :-(
But on Sunday Jonas and Mandy will come here for dinner and that's nice. As I said I haven't seen Jonas for 5 weeks but Mandy has been here and we have been out and about.

The rödvinsbrässerade högrev (Rib cooked in redwine)

Lasagne

The same day Sunday I'm cooking for work and it's hard. I haven't yet decided what to do? I wage between - a special Lasagne that I do and serve that with sallat or högrev (like rib but not) cooked in redwine in the oven for 6 hours together with chantarelles, bacon, onions and served with almond potatoe puré and sallat??
I have no idea! Then I have to think of a desert. Should be Christmas inspired I think but I don't know.
This time it's hard. Which one do you think looks most delicious? And have you an idea for desert?
All ideas will be happily noted :-)

3:rd Advent party with losses and Christmas concert in Gävle

2011-12-12T18:37:00.001+01:00

Christmas candy

Chocolate and truffles

Christmas feels closer now

Yesterday we had an Advent party here for family, friends, workingcollegues and H.E.A.T family.
From the beginning it was meant to be a party to gather the H.E.A.T family who hasn't seen each other much this year because the guys haven't been touring but writing songs for the new album.
We had calculated they would be finished in the studio last week but no. They weren't. So no H.E.AT members although several H.E.A.T parents came, at least 3/6th of them :-)
I had also invited working collegues, friends and family members, all in all around 40 people. The very morning I had calls from 10 people who couldn't come and the days before had also been some cancellations so in total we were half the amount - 20! But we had a great time filled with glögg (of course) coffee, canapés with Christmas ham and mustard and also some with Skagenmixture, safronbuns, gingerbreads with blue-cheese/creme fraiche, safroncookies, soft gingerbread cookie and much more like candy, chocolate....
You get the picture :-)

This is how happy I was :-)

I was especially happy to see my co-workers here and also Anna who used to be like a child in the house when she and Jonas went to the same school. We don't see her that often nowadays. Last time she was here was 2 years ago I think. She's doing so well and is musician like Jonas. She has been on tour with Veronica Maggio this summer (a very well-known popular singer here in Sweden) and she has also released her own album this year. One of the songs was in an episode of Private practice actually.

Anna aka Birgit Bidder

I also want to thank Christina for the delicious chocolate that came from her shop:Kungsholmen's chocolate and café

Before all this took place me and Hasse went up to Gavle Wednesday. I and the girls, Lena and Gunilla, went to a Christmas concert with Peter Johansson and Matilda Hansson. And what a concert that was!! It was so so good. Their version of Barcelona took my breath away. I got chills, I had tears - it was so powerful and great. We also stood up and danced during the concert which really was a mix of traditional Christmas songs and rocksongs and jazz. Great, great. Afterwards I went to see them and got a big hug from Peter. We have met before and he's very nice and also a fan of H.E.A.T :-)

Lena who is engaged to Hasse's oldest son Staffan

The stage before the show. I forgot to take photos during the show - that is how good it was!

And we got to see snow. When we left it was -5C, sunshine and snow.

Peter Johansson and Matilda Hansson

I drove up and when I drove over Dalaälven the snow really started. Snowing heavily making it very hard to see anything but white.

December and soon 2 Advent

2011-12-02T19:20:00.000+01:00

Some of the safronbuns. I make them like cinammon buns but with safron and almond icing. Delicious if I may say so myself :-)

I know, I admit I have been a very bad blogger lately ;-) I don't know why I don't have or rather take the time to write down things even though they aren't that special. I know I love to read others who think their blogs aren't any exciting but I love to follow the day to day life even the boring days. We all have them don't we?

Today for instance. I started out baking safronbuns for the second time in two weeks! We now have almost 200!
No, we are not going to eat them ourselves. I think we would gain too much if we did ;-) No, we are having a 3rd Advent glogg mingle with H.E.A.T families, my co-workers, family from all over and if the guys get ready in the studio they will come too. I do hope they will but they now say it will take yet another week so not sure.
I have also baked a lot of other things, of course :-) And we will treat them with glogg, coffee, buns, other stuff I can't write here because some of them may read this :-) and I want some things to be a surprise. I can tell you afterwards.

Jonas baking safron buns. He's almost 3 years here and he's such a good baker.

What has happened since last then? Except for baking. We had service on our car and on Monday we are changing the cam-belt. We were not supposed to drive at all because the whole engine could collapse or something. Scary!

We have also done some Christmas decorations and it's starting to feel like Christmas although we have no snow at all. It hasn't even been cold up til now.

This is our back garden November 27 last year. And now, no snow at all!

Well, we have to wait and see there will be any snow this Christmas.

I have also been to my doctor and my blood tests were all well but I have this pain in my stomach now and then and it's so painful it's starting to effect my daily life. For instance I had to go during the interval when we were at the Opera last. It was Carmen, one of my favourites, but I couldn't stay because of the pain. So now I will have a CT done and see if they can figure out what is wrong.

I also had a lunch meeting with some friends on Wednesday. Very nice with good food, chatting and even singing :-)

Sunday I'm off to fix my hair, yes Sunday. My hairdresser is great and have time even on Sundays.

Then next week I will go to Gavle and me, Gunilla and Lena are going on a Christmas concert with Peter Johansson and his cousin Matilda. He is the singer who played Galileo in We will rock you in London for 7 years. Great singer! And so is his cousin. She has performed in Vienna in musicals. So we are in for a treat I think. It's my birthday gift for Gunilla and Lena (Lena is December 30th and Gunilla January 15).

A link to last Christmas concert HERE.

Take care now and have a wonderful 2nd Advent everyone :-)

Incredible TV-show abot Americans in Sweden

2011-11-21T21:52:00.000+01:00

I have the last days found a TV-show on Swedish Television where Americans come to Sweden to find their heritage. It's a competition and they get to see many parts of Sweden and each week they compete and one by one is out until one is left. That person will meet with his or hers Swedish relatives.
It's incredibly emotional, gives you a sence of Sweden and Swedes.
It's called Allt för Sverige which means All for Sweden and here's a link. If you're interested you can click and watch (I hope) otherwise it's on www.svt.se/play - Allt för Sverige .

In this episode they are in a beautiful summer Stockholm. It's mostly in English so you will have no trouble understanding.

Conference and IKEA-day

2011-11-20T15:27:00.000+01:00

Once again a week has flown by and we are getting closer to Advent-time which is nice.
This week I went to a TV-recording of the Swedish version of The Voice with 4 very well-known and loved singers.
My "entourage" was my sister Helen, her daugther Bianca , her friend and Danniel. It was great fun but since it was very close to where my Mom lives it was a long way to drive and it's almost out on the country so when we went to fetch the car it was completely black! You couldn't see anything expect for a very shy moon. I did get to my car and drove home.


On the top of this photo you can see Helen and Danniel with the spot on them.

Then Thursday night a friend of mine won the HMMA for classical song. This took place in Los Angeles and a big congratulation to Victoria Tocca for this achievement. The song is Dark Waltz.
Click on the link and you can see and hear the song.

Victoria Tocca from the HMMA awards (Photos from Victoria's homepage)

On Friday I went to a conference for all chairmen/women of the Rheumatic association. Very nice to meet everyone and to really have time to discuss problems, solutions and everything else.

Before dinner, chatting with friends

View from the window at the hotel. You can see the Globe.

Today I went with my gorgeous daughter-in-law (no they're not married but she's like a daughter to me) We went to IKEA, we had lunch together, looked at a lot of things there along with 10000 others (at least it felt like it) and generally having a good time. She's so nice and we have fun when we meet. I really love her and I'm so glad that Jonas found such a nice girl. They are still recording and they will, hopefully, be done by mid-December.

Another big thing this week, actually yesterday, was the my niece in San Diego turned 40. Happy birthday Lizzie. I'm a bit sad because it's hard when you live so far away. You can't give her (or any of them) a big hug on their birthday so I have to send a virtual one :-)

My gorgeous niece <3

I hope you all have a great Sunday and coming week. By the way, once again, I love reading your blogs (USA-relatives) :-)

HEAT 2011 In the studio

2011-11-14T20:31:00.001+01:00

H.E.A.T has hit the studio and are recording. This is part one of their studio diary :-)
Enjoy!

11.11.11

2011-11-11T22:22:00.001+01:00

Magic numbers 111111. Think about it - it's 100 years til next time and then none of us will be here.

Other than that nothing much happened today. Had a meeting and then I went to the opticians and my sight was not what it used to be so I will get new glasses next week.

I have also cooked prime rib in red wine the whole afternoon and it's so tender and smells delicious. Danniel and Emil is coming over for dinner tomorrow since Sunday is Father's Day here in Sweden.

Jonas is in the studio in Kungälv with H.E.A.T recording their first album with Erik Grönwall as singer :-) We are so excited to see and hear the outcome of this. I'm totally sure it will supergood!!

Erik G in the studio

The night before they went the guys and their girlfriends had goodbye-party in their rehearsalstudio
(The photo taken by Mandy)

Tomorrow I'm going to visit my Mom and then Danniel will follow me home for dinner.

A special big congratulation to my niece Monica in Barcelona who are getting married tomorrow. I wish you all the best and a long and happy marriage.

I hope you all are having a great weekend.

My friend - Victoria Tocca's new video I know

2011-11-09T18:33:00.002+01:00

Carola show and charity event

2011-11-06T13:43:00.000+01:00

Friday I went to the Rheumatic association to get a view of the new homepage and it's looking very promising.
After the meeting I went to my favourite chocolate store here in Stockholm:
Kungsholmens choklad & Café on Fleminggatan 45 (which is opposite S:t Erik's hospital). For you who knows Stockholm :-) She has the most delicious chocolate and so good coffee. If you ever are in the neighbourhood, don't miss out on a visit.
(She's also a H.E.A.T mom)

Then yesterday me and Helen was at Tyrol which is a restaurant at the amusement park Gröna Lund (which is closed but the restaurant is open all year round). We had a great lunch and then a supershow with Carola who is probably the biggest star we have in Sweden. She has a show where she sings Barbara Streisand and Elvis music. It was absolutely great!

I have no idea why the photos are the wrong way and I don't know how to fix it. Advice please!

After the show we went to a charity event hosted by Victoria Tocca who is a good friend. She now lives in Romania and has there started this project to save homeless dogs. She takes them in, get them healthy, they get their shots and learn how to be socially. Then they are adopted to Swedish families. A very good cause and the organisation is called Dinas ark.

Victoria is also nominated to HMM awards, in 3 different categories, in Hollywood November 17. I wish her all the best. She's a great singer.
Here's an example of her singing

Have a great Sunday everyone. Take care!

JONA TEE ON SWEDISH TV 4 WITH SINGER FROM HARDCORE SUPERSTAR

2011-11-02T18:39:00.001+01:00

Rehearsing before the TV-show

You just have to watch this. This is such a lovely ballad performed by Jocke Berg singer of Hardcore Superstar (a big hardrockgroup from Sweden) and Jonas from H.E.A.T.

It was on this morning on Swedish TV4 and here's the CLIP.

Enjoy it!

Weekend in Stockholm, True Talent

2011-10-30T17:48:00.000+01:00

Beautiful view of Stockholm early Saturday morning

Back home after a weekend in Stockholm and you can never guess which hotel?
Yes, right it's as always Elite Marina Tower although this time we weren't as pleased as before. The location is still great and this time we took walks along the seaside which was great. The weather really was on the right side, that is sunny and beautiful. Temp. around 12-13C which is very warm this time of the year.
You could even see people on surfboards. I don't know what this sport is called but I bet it would be cold if they fell into the water.

We had a suite this time, very pricy which I didn't know when I said yes to it. I show you some photos from it so you get the idea.

The big room with 180 view of the sea

The door into the bedroom

And the bedroom

We went for walks along the sea which was great. I just love the sea air! I wish I had the money to buy a flat here but I don't. They cost from 3.500 million SwCrowns up to 12.500 millions Sw. Crowns. On top of that you have to pay a monthly rent! So this is only for very wealthy people sadly enough. I think if I lived like that I would never get bored. So much happening all the time on the water. I just love it!

This one I wouldn't mind living in at all - flat by the sea. What do you think? Isn't it lovely?

Oh, I almost forgot. We have a TV-show here in Sweden called True Talent and if you remember in August I was jury voting for the best voices to be in it. Since then there have been a lot of shows and today there are 6 singers left and they are all great I think. I have a hard time knowing what to vote for. Now it's the TV-audience that votes and choose the best True Talent. These 6 singers are staying at "our" hotel and has been for almost 2 months. Last night I sat down and talked to 5 of them and also took some photos. It was so funny because after we've been talking for a while it turned out we had a lot in common. For instance one of the girls was friend with Anna or Birgit Bidder who is a friend of Jonas and has often been with us both at home and in Gotland. She, Anna or Birgit Bidder as she's called when she plays is a singer/songwriter who is so talented.

Dimitri and Paula singers from True Talent

Ida, Emilie and Sara also from True Talent

They were all so very nice and I wish them all luck. I think I have to vote for each of them. They sing in very different genres and they are so good in what they do.

I'm really glad we had this weekend because last week we had a lot of work done here at home. We did some changes in the bathroom. Installed new pipes, new shower, new furnitures etc. I'm very pleased with the result. Thank you G so much for all your help.

Tomorrow we will have our windows changed. So we will have craftsmen here for a couple of days. I have meetings in the evening. On Monday with the Rheumatic assocation and on Tuesday I will learn more about my pension which is very good.

On Saturday I and Helen will go and watch Carola's show at Tyrol. I'm very much looking forward to that.

I hope you're all safe and sound and I wish you all a very Happy Halloween!