HOT HOT H.E.A.T

Today was a sad day for me. It was my last day at work because as from January 1 my work no longer excists. It's hard to grasp although I've known it for a long time but it's so final when you have emptied your room and lock it for the last time. Nothing left that reminds of me just a computer a desk and a chair and some empty shelves. To think that I have been working here for 28 years! That's almost a lifetime. I have enjoyed it immensly and I have always been able to grow and to develop in my work. That's probably why I've stayed so long. I liked working at SRSA College Rosersberg and being a part of educating firefighters and sweepers. Now they are supposed to go to Revinge in Scania or Sando in Northland. Neither of them really suits the vast majority of firefighters to be since they live in this region. Well, we must be honest - In the region of Stockholm, Malardalen, Ostergotland and Vastergotland lives 3 million people and here we will now have no colleg...

Yeste rday we returned home af ter being in Gavle for 3 days celebrating both Christmas and birthdays. We had a lovely time. When we c ame on Christmas Day we had to split our family into two different slee ping arrangement. We are quite a big lot. So me, J and M slept at G's place an d E and H slept with St and Le. But we all had our meals at St's and Le's place. First day G had made food and we had a wonderful Chili con carne followed by a chocolate cake with whipped cream. Yummie! The younger ones of the family played card and had a lot of fun because we heard lots of laughs. After that we had glogg and gave gifts which was popular of course. Everyone seemed happy except for O who I had bought a sweate r for and it was way too large. Wrong size! I don't know how that happened because I know his size. I blame it on the Christmas stress, lol. Time flies when you're having fun so at midnight we went to G's flat to sleep. Next day Boxing Day it wa s sale all o...

Hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. We have just waved goodbye to my sister and her kids, my Mom and O and 2 of my sons. As always you eat too much, you talk and sing a lot. And of course the presents are wonderful. I think everyone appreciated my food and my baking. I took a lot of photos but most of them was very bad. Doublephotos and I don't know what went wrong. My camera usually taked good photos but today I don't know. Tomorrow we are off to Gavle to celebrate yet another Christmas but also 2 birthdays. Wherever you are and whatever you do I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Today we decorated our Christmas tree. Isn't it lovely? I'm pretty pleased anyway. I thought I was done shopping but no. I had to go out and find Mom a purse. She has been wanting that for a while so I found her one. I hope she likes it. I have also done Stifado, a greek casserole, that we are going to have for dinner tomorrow. I also did chicken meatballs with bacon inside. I have never done that before and I made them up. They were actually pretty good. Tomorrow my friends I and K is coming together with our "grandchildren" so you can call it "little Christmas". They are coming for coffee in the afternoon and in the evening J will come and make his famous "kola". I don't know if D is coming tomorrow night or if he's only going to be here on Christmas Eve. He's welcome whatever he wishes to do. I also emptied my safety at work today. Went to the bank and put all the money in so now that's gone too. I have to go to work tomorrow tho...

It's getting closer to Xmas by the day and today I wrapped all the Xmasgifts. That's hard work but fun and I put on Xmas CD's to get in the mood. It worked. My sister J wrote yesterday and wanted me to have photos of the dishes I make but we ate it too fast I didn't have time but I did manage to take a photo of some of the things I have baked. It's safronbuns, chocalatecookies, oatmealcookies and gingerbread biscuits. This is also the shortest day of the year and the longest night but we actually had sunshine today for the first time in a very long time. I went out with Hilma for a walk which was nice. It was high fresh brisk air. Wonderfully easy to breathe. Tomorrow work again then home to put up the Christmas tree and decorate it. Because on Tuesday our adopted "grandchildren" T and T is coming over with I and K. We are having coffe and my homemade cookies and buns and then of course Christmas gifts for the children. In the evening the big boys will co...

Today has been all about Christmas preparations. I started out this morning by waking up (good move) and having a wonderful breakfast. After that I took a shower and looked at the computer. Then it was time for "Melodikrysset" which is a crossword with music questions in the radio. H and I always do that every Saturday morning. I had a bowl of porridge and then I went out in the shopping jungle. Yes, you really could say it is these days. Do you know when I came to our mall I had to circle around the parkinglog for 15-20 minutes before I got a parking place. And then I had to PAY! Can you believe that? We never used to do that but there are new owners. What's more upsetting was that there were 2 parking guards going up and down and writing tickets. Every other car had one. That is not OK when it's Christmas. I made almost all my shopping, yeah! and I'm very happy about that but it took me a couple of hours. When I returned home I started baking cookies. First I ma...

So now I've worked all week and h ave only 4 working days left at my job. Sad but true. This week has been bittersweet in many ways. There have been a lot of goodbyes probably for the last time but also promises of future gatherings. Today the last class of our college graduated and that was also the end of an era that has lasted for so long. The first school at Rosersberg was the Defence fireschool from 1879 then it turned into Civil defence school from 1961 and 1986 it became SRSA College. So closing down something that has been functioning since 1879 for me seems idiotic but I'm not the one making the decisions. Today I started (and this is early, I normally shop the day before) Christmas shopping. Both gifts and food! How about that? I managed to shop for our "grandchildren", my sister's son, O and some of my son's gifts. That's an achievement don't you think? I also bought most of the food and especially the most important item, the HAM. I choose ...

I wish my sis J a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Although I can't be there to celebrate her I am there in my thoughts and of course I have sent her something :-) We live so far apart, she in La Mirada LA,CA and me in Sweden. It's not that often we meet and since we just found each other a couple of years ago every time feels so special. That's why this blogging is so good. We can actually share each other's lives although we are far apart. I also share my nieces lives which is wonderful. You get to know them quite well when reading their blogs. Even M, J's husband has started blogging and it's so interesting to read them all. My other sister who lives in Spain I've never met, yet I should say, which is kind of strange since she lives closer but she doesn't speak any English and my Spanish isn't that good so I could speak fluently with her. She also speak Catalan which I don't understand a word of. What's interesting is that my son J will be seeing them...

I'm just home from Lillejul, the last one, or is it? I have tried to put on a video here for you to see a little bit of the spectacular fireworks we had tonight. They have been competing in the World Championship for fireworks and they have had this tradition that every year they come and do this on our Christmas party in thanks of them lending our training field. We had a wonderful time starting with "Xmas-gifts" which delivers to those who has stood out during the year. Always funny and lots of laughs. After that it was the fireworks and then we all headed up to the restaurant for more amusement and dinner. We had a lovely fillet with roasted garlic potatoes and wine sauce. Excellent! Then coffee. During dinner of course a lot of singing as always which is nice and also a short speach from our head of school. We also had this HUGE Christmas tree. I think it was over 4 meters high and wonderfully decorated. It was both happy and sad to be here today. Happy because it...

Once again you can vote for H.E.A.T at the Swedish metal awards. They are nominated in the catagory hardrock (of course) www.swedishmetalawards.com It has been a quiet Friday and weekend which was nice. Well, quiet and quiet. I did most of the Christmas baking on Saturday so from 9.30AM until 6PM I made saffronbuns, lussekatter, different kind of cookies as well as making dinner. Friday I went to the Opera for our final opera this season which wasn't an opera but a ballet. The Nutcracker by Tjajkovskij. A wonderful saga set in the Swedish Christmas and with Petter and Lotta and the aunts Green, Brown and Lilac as well as Uncle Blue (from a Swedish saga by Elsa Beskow). It was wonderful and funny and there were a lot of kids in the audience. Before the ballet me and C went to the Opera restaurant for dinner which was excellent. We had beef for main course and for desert Oscar II cake and we had a glass of wine. Today I was down visiting my Mom and O at the elderly home. I did some ...

H.E.A.T are to perform in Skelleftea in the second part competition of the Melodifestival. It's very high up north in Sweden. In fact I have never been that high. When I called to book hotel today they said it was very mild "only" - 10C and lots of snow. Here on the side is a map of Sweden and Skelleftea is marked out. It's very close to the arctic circle. Speaking of booking hotels. Today was crazy, totally wild. We all expected the information on the where about of H.E.A.T but not until 9 AM we got it. Skelleftea! I was immediately on the internet to check out flight connections and hotels. Unfortunately this collided with our last administrative meeting so I had to abandon the search and run down. At the meeting we listened and watched Celine Dion singing Adam's Christmas song. Very beautiful. After that coffee, glogg, gingerbread, sandwiches and lussekatter. Up to my office afterwards trying to search again. Then what happened. All the students came and wanted...

Today we were supposed to get information on where H.E.A.T is participating in the Swedish pre Eurovision song contest but still nothing has come. Now it's said we are to know at midnight so their manager is on nightwatch tonight. Hopefully we will know by morning and also if we got the number of tickets we wanted. Today H and I went to my friend in Norrtalje, Anne, for treatment. She did some tests on H which was very interesting. Then we all went to have lunch at my favourite place - and you know what that is - yes you guessed right - it's "Ett glas". And do you know what I had to eat? Also a big surprise - chantarelle soup with chicken and peppers. It's very yummie. Even H had it and he really liked it although he isn't a big fan of chantarelles. After lunch I had my treatment which was so good. I almost fell asleep, it was that relaxing. Then we headed home in time to see the Nobel prize ceremony during which we had dinner. I have been watching the banquet...

I'm really too tired to write anything today. Just wanted to let you know. It's been a long hard day so I deserve a good nights sleep.

I went to a Christmas fair today at Steninge castle together with 9 other from the Rheumatic association. It was very nice and we started by having an excellent lunch. Then we went off to the fair. There were so many things, wonderful, handcrafted both food, candy, toys, handmade jewelry each one unique, knitwear and much much more. I ended up shopping too much of course but I did manage to buy some Christmas gifts. Of course when I came home I realized that one bag was missing so I called the fair and can you believe it, someone had turned it in so it was there. I'm so happy and it restored my faith in man. So now I have to get the bag before the boardmeeting tomorrow. I just heard a plane had crashed in San Diego in a residential area and I was so worried and I had to write L at once to make sure she is OK. They didn't say exactly where the plane had crashed that's why I wanted to make sure it wasn't where L lives. I hope not. Now it's long overdue my bedtime so I...

I did manage to bake cakes for the Christmas party. I went up early and did that before taking a shower do the "Melodikrysset" which H and I do every Saturday. After that H took me to the S:t Larsgarden where the party was held. I was there early to decorate and set the tables together with some others. It all went well and fast and soon all the people were coming. We were 70 in all and that's very good. The food was excellent and just enough not too much and not too little. We had a singer entertaining through it all. He turned out to be a rocker and knew of H.E.A.T and he himselp played in a band and had been playing in different bands in Vasby. He was very good. We also had a lottery and I won, yeah! A wonderful pewter candlestick with a candle and a crochet cloth to put it on. This on the left is the candlestick I won. We also had Lucia come and sing with her attendants. That was lovely. They came from a music class at a school in Sollentuna. After all that we sang a ...

It's late and I forgot that I had promised to bake cakes for tomorrows Christmas party with the Rheumatic association. Oh well I guess I have to go up very early tomorrow morning and do that. As I said we are going to have Christmas party and that will be fun. Good food hopefully, entertainment, Lucia and lottery. H is coming too so that will be nice. It's 11.30 PM now and I have been up since 5 AM so I'm kind of tired. Today I packed a little bit more at my office and the parting day is coming closer and closer. It will be strange when it's all over and I don't have my work there to go to. I have been going the same way to work for 28 years so I will probably go there if I get a new job because the car is so used to go that way :-) E discovered today that he needs glasses. We went to the optician and he turned out to be short-sighted and quite a bit on one eye. So now he has ordered glasses. He got 2 at the price of 1 so that was a good deal. He isn't too happy...

I'm so happy that my friend J's operation today went well. Her daughter wrote me twice during the day telling me about the progress and the last time she wrote she said that J had been awake and responsive which is a very good sign. Her operation lasted from 9AM until late afternoon but the brain is a tricky place to operate in I think, and I'm no doctor. I will have more news tomorrow hopefully. Today nothing much happened really. It was a quiet day after work. H and I just visited the bank in Sollentuna and then went into the new built mall or should I say the mall in building process. Not much is ready there but it will probably be quite nice when finished. Then we headed back home and had as I said a nice afternoon. It has been snowing and raining today and it never went light just a grey sky and no sun. I'm not going to Linkoping next week because H.E.A.T's concert has been cancelled due to K not feeling well yet. Now he will have time to recover completely til...

As I said many times before, but I do mean it, time really flies. Tomorrow my good friend J in England is scheduled to have her operation. She has a tumour in her head which needs to be removed. I do hope everything goes well and I will certainly think of her and pray for her tomorrow. It's kind of funny really with hers and mine friendship. We have been writing mails to each other for about 7 or 8 years now but we have never met. We met through a mailinggroup since we have the same disease and belonged to the same group. She started writing me privately since one of her grandchildrens name was Mia, and I answered. We have been sharing each others lives since then by sending photos of our families, talking to each other about everything both in happy and hard times. I have even spoke to her on the phone (when I had Skype) but never met. I would love to meet with her some day and I hope that day will come sooner than later. I went to see my new friend from the Rheumatic association ...

It's so grey and foggy outside and it never was light today. This is the darkest time of the year but if we are lucky we can have snow but all the snow that came last week is gone. It feels like you're never quite awake. It's like I always say in November we should gon intor hibernation and not come out until March or whenever spring comes. You are constantly tired, have headache and feel miserable. Three or four weeks with warmth and sunshine wouldn't be completely wrong :-) I have begun the process of emptying my room at work. It takes time because among my private things I found calenders dated back to 1990 so it's a trip down memory lane looking at those. I have the habit of making small notes every other day which has brought back so many things. My room is to be emptied by December 30 and I hope I will have finished by then but it's hard. Every class that has ever graduated at our school have made some art with all the pupils portraits on and they are tru...