HOT HOT H.E.A.T

I just came home from Stockholm where I saw the living singing Christmas tree in Filadelfia church with friends from the Rheumatic association. I had no idea until yesterday that I was going there but one of the girls called me and asked if I could go because her daughter that would have gone couldn't. So I said yes because this is a thing I have wanted to see for so long. This year it's 20th celebration and both my boys saw it when they were in school. And it was all I expected! All the wonderful songs of Christmas both old times and modern. They had the story of the birth of Jesus, of course, but they also had a figure skater on stage, hiphop, rock and of course little children. It was wonderful and just what you needed the 1st Advent. I came home and H and E had som glogg and gingerbread to go. I didn't want to have any since I'm going to work tomorrow. This is the last day of November so what happens now when the Nablopomo month is over? Is there time in December to...

attended the Royal Opera and watched the opera La Boheme tonight. She sat in the Royal box of course, but her boyfriend Daniel Westling wasn't allowed to so he sat in the box reserved for members of the court. This was a private visit and not official. Our box is opposite the Royal Box but this was actually the first time any royal has been there while we have. My friend and I usually go once a month during season so this was rare. I'm happy to say that it looked like she enjoyed the opera and even shed a tear. I and C of course cried. Puccini was a genious in expressing strong, human emotions in his music I think. Mimi was sung for the first time by Maria Fontosh and she did a wonderful Mimi. The conductor was Pier Giorgio Morandi whom we have seen before conducting Il Trovatore. He's so gifted especially when it comes to Italian composers. This was a wonderful evening and now I'm home still filled with that wonderful music and are taking that with me when I go to bed....

I'll try again to upload this videoclip from the studio featuring Jona, Chris, Bianca, Antonio and all the other kids and Helen. I had to put it on youtube because it was too big to upload here. If it doesn't open automatically just look for "never let go" and it's the one that says Bianca and Antonio...Enjoy! http://se.youtube.com/watch?v=6806D0vhlUI I'm off to the Royal Opera soon. I'm going with my good friend C, as usual, and we are going to watch Puccinis "Boheme" so I'm pretty sure I will cry before the end of it. A very sad story and so wonderful music. I wish you all a wonderful evening. Thank you J for the good advice to take a photo of the recipes I put here. I will try to do that in the future (just have to remember :-D)

Today my sister, my niece, nephew, brother-in-law and a bunch of girls went to the studio www.standstraight.se where H.E.A.T recorded their CD. The owner Chris is a good friend to J and also to me and my family. So I went there too to see and listen. B has a wonderful voice and she is a huge fan of H.E.A.T so she wanted to record their song Never let go. She and A, her brother went into the studio and sang from the top of their lungs while having a wonderful time. I filmed with my camera and here's the link. I hope it works and that you can see and hear how much fun they had. Mind you it's filmed with an ordinary camera and not a video. Unfortunately it didn't work to upload the video but I will try another way. It was just a little bit too big. .

I know, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Sweden but my American family does so I send them extra thoughts on this day. Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Also to Lisa who is celebrating her first Thanksgivin in Washington. I hope you have a wonderful time and of course that you will find everything you wanted on the big sale. Here the snow has almost melted away already. We have had over 7C today. Isn't it a strange world we are living in? Nothing much happened today just an ordinary day with work and meetings. Do you want another recipe? OK here's dinner we had today: Smoked pork chop with bacon and tomatoes 500 g smoked pork chop 1/2 leek 70 g bacon 3 tomatoes black pepper oregano 3 dl cream 1 tablespoon tamari soy 0,5 dl creme fraiche Peel the smoked pork chop and cut in thin slices. Slice the leek and the bacon. Place the smoked pork chop in a ovenproved pan. Put the leek and sliced tomatoed on top. Season with oregano. On top of that place the sliced bacon. Stir cream, ...

It was a big day yesterday with the announcement of H.E.A.T in the pre-Eurovision in Sweden but today it's back to normal again until February 2009. Today was my Doctor appointment day. He wasn't too pleased with me. I got two new medicines, one that is a new medicine for cronic pain (which I have) and hopefully that will help me. Also a medicine for restless legs (which I also have) so perhaps I will be able to sleep all night now :-). He wanted me to stay home from work on sickleave but I told him I only have 4 weeks left before my job closes down and after that I can rest. So he was OK with that. There are some examinations he is going to send me to. I'll let you know when I have the results. Other than that a relaxed day which I really needed. Oh, my new medicine is kicking in. I can tell because I'm getting so tired to the point I'm nearly falling asleep. So good night to you every one except for you in CA whom I wish a good day.

Here's a link to a TV-interview made with H.E.A.T this afternoon regarding their participation in the Swedish Melodifestival. It's in Swedish but at least you get to hear and see them live :-) http://www.expressen.tv/noje/Melodifestivalen%2B2009/1.1381707/h.e.a.t-tror-folk-ar-trotta-pa-discopoppen Enjoy and sleep well. We have -5C outside now and lots of snow but they say it will melt away in a few days. I just have one question - why?

From left to right - Crash, Dave, Jimmy, Kenny, Eek and Jona - H.E.A.T Finally, I can tell you that H.E.A.T is going to compete in the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest in February 2009 with a song titled 1000 miles written by David Stenmarck (Martin's brother). I have known this for quite some time but haven't been allowed to say anything with the risk of disqualification if it came out earlier than the official announcement. I'm a big fan of the Melodifestival as you who know me knows. I think I have watched everyone for as long as I can remember. Even the day E was born I watched the Eurovision final the same night at the maternity ward. He was born at 11AM and the final was at 8PM. That's a true fan :-) http://www.svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=79702&lid=puff_1324650&lpos=lasMer Here's a link to Swedish television where you can see them but they are in all our papers and on TV as well. I'll try to write more later but now I have to cook dinner. Until l...

This past 24 hours has been filled with snow and more snow and on top of it very strong winds both full storm and in some cases hurricanewinds. I took some photos earlier and I post them here so you can see for yourself. They are taken on our frontyard, on our street (so you see they haven't plowed yet) and in front of our house and as you can see it's still snowing! I both love and hate the snow. Well, not the snow itself but the concequences that it can cause. Especially in traffic. When it snows this much they can't manage to keep the roads clean from it so for instance yester day and today Norrtalje was almost isolated. No buses could go to Stockholm and they warned people to go by car. But if you could stay inside or just go for a walk it's actually quite beautiful. I'm going to my Mom tomorrow morning in rush hour and I'm not happy at all about this weather then. But she has an appointment with the Rheumatologist and I have to go with her because since sh...

I'm sorry I haven't written since the party Thursday night but I have been on this course in Nynashamn and I didn't have access to a computer. I drove down to Nynashamn on Friday with two other ladies from the Rheumatic association who I picked up outside their homes. We came down in good time to get our rooms and gather before dinner which by the way is excellent at Nynasgarden. For starter we had a Gazpach o soup with grilled prawns on a toast. It was very very good. Main course was a vealentrecôte with baked potatoe and a winesauce. This was on Saturday which was a very long day with lot of lectures. Since we are many different associations represented among them blind, deaf, epileptic, heart- and lung disease, mental illnesses and more a lot of things can happen. And yesterday it did. Two of our participants had epileptic attack first one in the middle of class and the other in the evening. That was also more serious because they had to call ambulance and she was then t...

This is a photo of me and my coworker R. We are, as you can see, having a great time. OK, I'm not that sober but I missed the date with 50 minutes. I didn't have time to write yesterday with all the preparations for the party so instead I write now, not quite sober. It was really a wonderful party and it was so fun to meet everyone, former and present coworkers. Some who you haven't seen for a very long time. Lots of memories were shared but also questions like what are you going to do after this? I think we will stay connected some of us but I hope we will see each other. Anyway it's now 1.10AM and I'm tired so I really need to go to bed because tomorrow it's time for Nynashamn.

This afternoon it started snowing and it's really beautiful. It actually stays on the ground since it has been cold and icy all day. When I was out walking Hilma she went nuts. She just loves the snow especially eating it. Every winter it's the same she rather eat the snow than drink water. Isn't that strange? Does any of you have a dog that does the same? Today I started work late since we had this information all afternoon but do you think I got anything done? I slept in until 07.30 which was very nice. Then had a lovely breakfast. I was going to watch TV a favourite show I have that is called A place in the sun, but suddenly our TV didn't work :-( We have installed a satellite dish last Friday and it hasn't been working properly since so I got so frustrated. I was trying to get it to work and the clock kept ticking. Finally I had to take a shower, do my hair and makeup, eat lunch and then off to work so I actually ended up stressing. Oh, I forgot I cut H's ha...

Today has been a rather calm day which is nice. I started my day fasting since I was to take all these bloodtests on an empty stomach. So I came to work as usual at 06.40 and our nurse at work came 07.30 so I went down 5 minutes early that way I was the first in line. Afterwards I took a walk back to my room and had breakfast. Isn't it silly really that you can't, at least I can't, go without having breakfast. I always get a headache if I don't eat in the morning. Anyone else has the same problem? You should think it doesn't matter but it does. I don't know if I have told you about my work place. It's not one building where we all sit but we are spread over a large bit of land. We used to be even bigger but we left the castle itself a couple of years ago. OK now I have been trying to copy a map over the area into my blog but I haven't succeded so I will try to describe it instead. Our area is about 3km and we have 2 schoolbuildings, 2 hotelbuildings, one...

I'm back home again after the cruise. We had a wonderful time although a bit windy yesterday so the ship rocked us to sleep which is nice I think. We ate a wonderful dinner. You can see what we had to start with here on the left. I was a wonderful toast Skagen on wholemealtoast. Very delicious. ' For main course we had what you can see on the photo to the right. It's a pork fillet, very tender, with a bearnaise sauce and a kind of mushromssauce served with root vegetables and potatoecake. Also very very good. And to finish it off this wonderful plate with assorted desserts. Brie cheese with crackers, starberries, chocolatecake, toscacake and some chocolate thing and some fruitfromage. Very good. I'm afraid I can't give you the recipes for theese dishes (or I maybe could but I won't). Tomorrow morning I'm going to do my usual bloodtests so I'm not allowed to eat after midnight and until 8.30AM when the tests are drawn. I hate it because I always get a bad...

Soon I will be off to the ship and go on the 24-hour cruise. I'm looking forward to that but hope it will be nice weather. Just a while ago we had the first snow. I really don't like this season with snow and ice but it's OK for Lucia, Christmas and New Year. After that and before it should be green. The cruise is a working cruise and we will have conference the whole day tomorrow but tonight we have the evening off. Of course we will have dinner together and probably share some good times in the showbar. H is so nice and he's giving me and one other lady lift to the ship. Hopefully he will fetch us tomorrow night as well :-) I'm glad though that I'm not in LA now with the big fires going on. J had a photo on her blog on which you could see the sun clouded by the smoke. It must be awful especially since it's not that far away. We are soon off so I'd better finish this and wish you all a lovely Sunday evening. I'm really proud of S who is so close to ...

We are back again from Gavle where we had a wonderful stay, as usual. Good food, nice company and wonderful sleep. Yesterday and today H had hockeymatches and this weekend there has been an agent there to watch him and tonight they were to sign contract I think. We haven't heard yet but it was almost ready. That's so nice for him and it means that someone is marketing him in USA for instance. He is very good and I hope his dreams come true. After we got back I went shopping and then started washing. I have to wash the clothes I'm going to take tomorrow and also iron them. So tomorrow I will have to pack and then I'm off to Cinderella with the Rheumatic association for a conference. I hope it will be fruitful and benefit all members. Then start this crazy week with tests on Tuesday (bloodtests before doctor visit), Wednesday information from employment centre, Job security foundation and others at work, Thursday the big farewell party at work with, so far, 185 people acc...

OK now we are here and we have just had dinner. The rest of the gang is at Lakerol arena where H is playing icehockey match tonight. I stayed home with Hilma and because of that I can also watch Idol which I like. H.E.A.T is playing tonight in Halmstad together with Sabaton. Once again Nils Molin will sing with them since Kenny isn't fully recovered yet. Hopefully he will be back this coming week. L had made a wonderful dish for dinner and here's the recipe: Chicken with mango chutney 1 kg chicken fillet 3 dl cream (lightly whipped) 1 dl mango chutney original 1 tablespoon sambal oelek 1 tablespoon curry 2 garlic clover 1 sliced pepper (can be excluded) Wholemeal rice Fry the chicken fillet (or use a ready grilled). Boil the rice and mix the rice with the sliced chickenfillet and pepper. Stir cream, mango chutney and the spices and pour over. Cover with cheese and place in 225C oven for about 15 minutes. I promise you that this is delicious. Now it's time for Idol so I'...

We are ready to go to Gavle now so I won't have time to write as much as usual.

Well, it's supposed to be fullmoon tonight but since our weather is, like it has been forever, grey,cloudy and rainy you can't actually see it. This weather really gets you down but I try to stay positive. At least I see some daylight every day. Most people don't since they work all day. Nothing much happened today. At work we had a meeting and we talked a lot about what is going to happen next year. I and many with me has one year notice with full pay but we do have to be available for work. They want us, of course, to get a new job asap so they won't have to pay us salary. It's Goverment money you know. It's different with us working for 28 years against the ones sitting in Parliement. If they don't get elected at the next election they get to receive a pension even if they get a new job. So you see it is a big difference. I'm not bitter as our Tony Richardsson used to say :-) For dinner today I made pasta with a baconsauce and here comes the recipe: M...

I woke up at 5 AM as usual but I was so tired today. I don't know why and it continued so I decided I would take a nap after lunch and after being out with Hilma. I came home, made lunch which we ate, then out with Hilma and I made the bed. Then the phone rang. It was O wanting me to write a letter to the county administration board about rewoking his driving license. So I said yes and I will do that but I didn't today. Then I had to call Mom's ward to talk to the nurse and ask if they had taken all the tests she needed before we are going to the rheumatologist which we are November 25. Then I got a mail from one of the board members that were going on the conference trip Sunday saying she can't come. So I have to try and ask someone else. Then I had to call L because we are probably going to Gavle on Friday or Saturday for a visit and also L and I need to do this ESTA, which is new when you are travelling under Visa Waiver. Now you do this electronically and I need to ...

Today it was E's namesday. He is also named Marten which was my grandfather's name. So he had the choice of dinner today and he wanted my wafles. To go with it I served whipped cream and rasberry jam. Lovely. The wafles I make is GI-friendly and here's the recipe: GI-wafles Mia style 4 dl Spelt 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 5 dl milk 2 egg 1 dl melted butter Mix spelt, salt and baking powder. Stir with half the milk to a smooth mixture. Whip down the rest of the milk. Whip down the eggs and the melted butter. Heat the wafle iron. Before the first wafle you need to grease the iron well with butter. After that you don't need any grease. Pour in approx. 0.5 dl batter and spread it a bit. Fry goldenbrown (if you have a modern iron it will tell you when it's ready) Serve with shrimpmix as main course and with berries och whipped cream for dessert. Enjoy! Otherwise a calm day. Yesterday my sisterdaughter in Spain contacted me on Facebook. That was nice and I ...

It's easy to get hooked on Facebook. It's a fantastic forum where you can find long lost friends and relatives. Today for instance my niece in Spain suddenly wrote and wanted to be my friend. I recommended her to my sons and to her cousins in USA. It's easy to follow the lives of ones friends and you know more people than you thought. Friends of friends and so on. Today I went to my friend A in Norrtalje for treatment. It's just so nice to see her. We always start our afternoon by having lunch at my favourite restaurant. Yes that's right - Ett glas. Today I had their famous chantarelle soup and I actually ate it all! That's not a usual thing for me since I don't eat that much. You couldn't tell by the way I look but that's the truth. I eat less than most people and I eat so slow so when others takes two or three times I'm on my first. They say it's good for your digestion to eat slow but I have never noticed that. But maybe it's because I...

Today it was Father's Day here in Sweden and J and E was here to celebrate H. I had actually given him a gift this morning although he isn't my father but he is the father of my children. After a quiet morning with a looooooooong lovely breakfast I made the bed and then went shopping. We have this role in the house that whenever it's someone's birthday or other day to celebrate they get to choose what we're having to dinner. Tody H of course choose, since it is his favourite food, meatloaf Mia's way with mashed potatoe and carrots. OK I will give you the recipe: Mia's meatloaf with mashed potatoes and carrots 1 kg mince meat 1 onion (yellow ) 1 dl dried bread crumbs 1 dl cream 1 dl water 2 dl Vasterbotten cheese 1 egg salt pepper Instructions: Put 1 dl dried bread crumbs with the cream and water in a big bowl. Stir and let it swell for about 10 minutes . Add well chopped onion and grated cheese, stir. Then add an egg, salt and pepper. Finally you mix it all ...

I spent my Saturday by cleaning the house in the morning, then do some shopping, taking a shower and putting on make up. Then I was off to the city. I met up with my sis H outside of Berns and then we went to Berns bistro for a 3-course meal. We started with a shrimp cocktail which was excellent Main course we had entrecôte with Café de Paris,french fries and salat and for dessert we had a wonderful chocolate tarte with vanilla cream. We were really ready for bed by then and almost in a state of "paltkoma". But after a fresh walk around the block we were ready for the Producers. It's the title of the musical which was made to a movie by Mel Brooks. This version was hilarious I think. Lot's of laughs and great dancenumbers. I just returned home and I'm a bit in a hurry now to finish this before midnight otherwise I will not have written anything on the 8th. Tomorrow is Father's Day here in Sweden so both E and J will come for dinner. D couldn't, unfortunate...

You don't know what fredagsmys is? Ah, well how do you explain that? It's when you do something cosy to end the week like eating something extra good, maybe a glass of wine, a good TV-show, maybe play a game together and maybe having snacks. So today for dinner I'm going to do my famous minced meat sandwich. OK here comes the recipe: Mia's famous luxurios mince meat sandwich (4 portions) 500 g mince meat 1 onion (yellow) 2 tablespoons of flour 2-3 dl cream 4 tomatoes 3-4 dl grated cheese (preferably Västerbotten) 8 slices white bread or what you prefer Fry onion and mince meat in a pan with butter. Stir the flour in and add cream, still stiring. Add salt and pepper to your satisfaction. Put in some soy sauce to give it a good colour. Put the mince meat mixture on the bread, evenly devided. On top of that put the tomat oe slices and finish off covering it all with the grated cheese. In the oven 225C until the cheese gets a nice colour. Enjoy with a cold glass of beer or ...

Time for what you say? It's time to vote for H.E.A.T as your best hardrockband and newcomer of the year. This time it's the Swedish metal awards that needs nominations for this among other. I hope you all want to support H.E.A.T by nominating them. Otherwise this has been a cold day with frost still on the ground although it's miday. I don't like it because I have sprained my ankle and of course due to this I got a lumbago so now I'm afraid if I slip I can hurt myself even more and I don't want that!! If you would see me walk now you would laugh so much. I look like a 100-year old woman would walk on ice and sometimes I even feel like it :-). What's positive is that is sunshine, a clearblue sky and the air is so fresh. I love that. What's for dinner today? Well, I thought of doing a broccoli-cheese soup. Would you like the recipe? Healthy and good only 417 kcal per portion. OK here it is: BROCCOLI-CHEESE SOUP 300 g leek 1 tablespoon olive oil 1,5 liter w...

This is America's new President, Barack Obama. A historic day since the 44th President of USA is blac. I was up early this morning and listened to his speech in Chicago. What a speaker! He is so good in capturing the people and very carismatic. I can understand why he was voted. Now we have to wait and see if he's the one who can take USA out of this finance crisis they are having. Well, that was the big thing today and everyone even here in Sweden has been talking about the election the whole day. Now I'm just gonna sit down for a while before taking a shower. I was out walking Hilma for 40 minutes and it's cold! I froze and got sweaty, does that make sence? So I really need a shower before going to bed. Talk to you tomorrow :-)

I forgot to write yesterday! No excuse really but I had so much to do and the booking of our little trip to London took me almost all night but now we are ready to go. I even booked tickets for the concert! Well, it's why we're going so that's the most important thing really :-). I had to book the flight and the hotel separately to get the best price but I think I really did good. We are flying with SAS and stays at a 5-star hotel in the middle of West End close to Covent Garden and British Museum http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/loncc-renaissance-chancery-court-london/ I found Executive rooms at a bargain price so looking forward to that. I will try to improve and write again tonight so this would be like yesterday's blog and in the evening this day.

It's hard to remember to write a sentence every day. Today for instance. I should really be in bed by now but here I am writing something I almost forgot :-) We are indeed a blogging family. Now my sister's husband M has started too. Welcome in the gang! Otherwise this was an ordinary Monday with work but also a struggle. I'm trying to find a trip to London at a good price which seems to be very hard. We are going, 5 of us, to see H.E.A.T perform. It's hard to find a desent hotel in London. The rooms are very very small generally and often quite filthy. So I'm looking and also checking comments on Tripadvisor hoping to strike a find. So wish me good luck. Sweet dreams everyone :-)

I follow my sister's and my nieces blogs and yesterday they all suddenly wrote it was Nablopomo and they should try to write every day. OK I thought that sounds Spanish so what is it? Well, on S's blog I got the explanation - National Blog Posting Month - so now you know. You are supposed to write something every day of November even if it's only one line. Well, even though I'm not national in USA I can try to do it here in Sweden as well. Good idea but we'll have to see if I have the time :-) Halloween night we went to Norrtalje to have my birthday gift from our friends. We had a wonderful evening which started with champagne and ended with the most delicius dessert at my favourite place - Ett glas. Thank you all for a wonderful evening. Yesterday I went to visit my Mom, Olle and Danniel. It was very nice and we had coffe and cinnamon buns. I had bought Olle's favourite which is cashew nuts and also some candy for both of them. Today it's sunny but very col...