HOT HOT H.E.A.T

Only a few hours left of 2010. What happened this year? Time to look back and ponder. January: I was really out of work for the first time in my life and had to report to the employment office. Not fun.I did have some fun though. Dinners with good friends and family and a wonderful brunch at Långbro Inn with friends as well as a performance by H.E.A.T at Honda Center here in Väsby. February: Meeting with my workcoach, applying for several jobs, visiting my friend in Norrtälje, again dinners with family and friends. Danniel, Bianca and Klaras birthdays celebrated of course. Annual meeting with Rheumatic association. March: I went on an education at Bommersvik in Sormland to become leader for circles. I continued to apply for jobs. I celebrated a friend that turned 80. We had wafles on wafleday at our friends house. April: Mom turned 86 and we, my sis Helen and I,  treated her to lunch at a wonderful restaurant by the lake Malaren. Lots of birthdays in April including my hubb...

 My Mom, Hasse and Emil . We had a really good Christmas Eve with my family. Very traditional in a Swedish way. Everyone came at 1PM and then we ate Christmas lunch/dinner. Everything that is good we had on our table. Ham of course, different kind of herring, egghalves with shrimp"röra", omelett with mushromstew, löjrom, Christmas-sausage, potatoes, beetsallat, meatballs, chipolata sausage, ham-temptation, bread and different kind of cheeses. After that you are totally full I can tell you. So shortly after it's the longest tradition in Swedish Televison - Donald Duck says Merry Christmas. This program is 1 hour long and during that there are candys - homemade fudge, chocolate, fruit and more. While everyone is watching TV I prepare coffee with homemade safronbuns, homemade cookies of different kind and a soft gingerbreadcake that Danniel makes every year. So after Donald Duck is finished Santa comes (in the shape of me) and we get our gifts. Around 5 or 6 PM we ...

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas We have been in Gävle where we had "little" Christmas with our children and grandchildren there. Very nice, very good food (not Christmas-food) and a lot of chatting and laughing. I give you some photos from yesterday and above all I hope you will have a wonderful holiday :-))

What have I done since I last wrote? Well, the last thing I wrote was actually just a recipe. On Saturday the 4th we had Christmas party with the Rheumatic association which was very nice. Good food and good entertainment. But this year there were fewer that came than last year. This has been a fact all year long. Not so many attendants at our meetings. I have tried to figure out why. I think the fact that many sick people get outinsured which means they don't get any money anymore but must try working. In some cases this has been totally devestating!! People with serious cancer forced out to apply for work, people that can't walk nor manage on their own also forced to get a job. This is a new rule. You can be sick for 1 year and in special cases this can get prolonged for another year (I think it is. I don't have the exact dates). Then you have to try to get into the workinglife for 3 months and after that you can get you a doctor's certificate for another year. One...

Pepparkaksbakelser i långpanna   4 ägg 5 dl socker 5 dl mjöl 1 tsk bikarbonat 2 msk kanel 2 tsk ingefära (mald torkad) 2 tsk malda nejlikor 1-2 tsk mald kardemumma 3 dl gräddfil 100 g smält smör Rårörda lingon (glömde det sist men har nu korrigerat in det) Jag hade i kanske 1/2 dl drygt vilket gör att den blir väldigt saftig och god. Garnering: 100 g smör 2 msk pressad apelsinsaft (färsk) Cest från apelsinen (kan uteslutas) 4 dl florsocker Vispa ägg och socker poröst. Tillsätt allt det torra och rör om. Tillsätt gräddfil och smält smör. Blanda väl. Häll smeten i långpanna klädd med smort bakplåtspapper. Grädda i nedre delen av ugnen, 175 grader i 30-45 minuter. Känn efter eftersom ugnarna är olika. Stickan ska vara torr. Under tiden blandar du samman ingredienserna till garneringen och blandar länge med elvisp eller sked. Smöret ska alltså inte smältas utan vara rumsvarmt. Låt kakan kallna innan du brer på garneringen. Skär sedan ...

I know! You're mad because I haven't written since November 18 and you are right to be. My only excuse is that time flies and my days are filled up but that is really not an excuse :-) What have I been up to you ask yourself. Well, here are some of the things I've done.  Some of the participants at the conference The weekend after my last post I went to a chairmen (women) conference that started on Friday and ended Sunday afternoon. It was a great conference and we discussed a lot and we did come to some decisions. Did I mention it was with the Rheumatic association. As always it's the talks that give you the most. The hotel wasn't the best and the food was not at all good but they did have free icecream and popcorn :-) On Tuesday last week I baked safronbuns, a lot of them. because I had invited the members of H.E.A.T, their girlfriends, their parents and some other for 1st Advent celebration and also to welcome Erik G and his family into our wonderful H.E.A...

 Jonas, Jimmy, Tommy D, Jimi Jamison, Magnus Ulfstedt and Dave after the gig in Nottingham What has happened since I wrote last? Lasst Thursday I went to Norrtälje to see my friend Anne for lunch and treatment. As usual we had a great time with good food but listen to this, we didn't have the chantarellesoup!? Why you might ask? Well, they had this new dish which was delicious but of course there were chantarelles in the sauce ;-)  Before we went to lunch she gave me treatment and afterwards as I returned home I was completely relaxed and exhausted. Yes, exhausted. The treatment does that to you which is good. I really needed to reduce stress. Friday we were supposed to have winetasting with the Rheumatic association but already in the beginning of the week there were cancels so by Thursday we were down to 5 or 6. We then decided to put off until spring and try again. This isn't the best of times for us since the cold and grey weather often makes us rheumatics worse. So...

My sister wrote on her blog that : We all have or should have a few minutes to spare for keeping in touch, even to just say...nothing much was going on today...  That is so wise. Time is free and we can give it without spending a lot. Giving time is love nowadays I think. I have heard horrible stories here in Sweden.When a loved one passes away people don't have time even to bury them with dignity. They look in their big thick calenders and tries to squeeze in 15 minutes.  Undertakers have reported about families sitting with their calenders and finally being able to take not a day, not half a day but maybe 1 hour and after the funeral back to work. Is this the society we want to have? Is this how you want it to be when it's time for you to go? I can honestly say that this is NOT what I want. At least out of respect for loved ones you can at least devote 1 day for funeral, remembering with friends and family and dinner with the closest ones. When I go I want everyone to ...

I haven't had time to write before. I had to digest everything that happened in Nottingham at Firefest. First of all - I had a blast! And I hope if you have looked at my blog you have been able to listen to some of the songs I recorded. The soundquality isn't the best but I think you got the hang of it. On Friday with H.E.A.T's show it was a crowd ready to rock when  they entered the stage. So much singalong and so much performance from everyone on stage. I really had goosebumps all over when they performed some of the songs. After the show we went to the guys hotel for afterparty. We had been there earlier having dinner with them.  I loved every second but what I didn't love was the taxidrivers of Nottingham!!! Since it was our first time and we had no idea where the hotel was we asked for a taxi. There were 3 Premier Inn hotels in Nottingham (WHY?) and we wanted the one by the university. We ended up at some bridge out in nowhere and I said this is not the hotel. The...

Burning heart with Jimi Jamison, former singer in Survivor. Great show and gifted musicians. We had a blast!!! Enjoy

Another great performance from H.E.A.T in Nottingham. Talk about singalong!!

Everybody wants to be someone with my favourites H.E.A.T and their new leadsinger Erik G who won Idol in Sweden last year. I just love them and so did the audience in Nottingham.

Jimi Jamison at Firefest,Nottingham with band consisting 0f: Jona Tee (my son) from H.E.A.T, Jimmy Jay also H.E.A.T, Tommy Denander the best guitarist right now and Magnus Ulfstedt on drums. What a band, what a gig, what a man!!! It was truly magic.

I have just checked in on my flight bound for Heathrow tomorrow morning. We need to be at Arlanda airport at 6.15AM at the latest!! Early evening tonight then if we are to be able to party tomorrow night. Helen will come and stay the night since we are closer to Arlanda and also to be sure she's up on time ;-) But she won't be here until 9.30 PM! I'm a bit worried about the flight though. I haven't flown since last January and that is 1 1/2 almost 2 years ago. Can't believe it's been that long. Then I flow to New York and London with a couple of weeks between. But since then I have gained a bit of weight and I surely hope the safetybelt will stretch. One thing though is when you go economy class it's so tiny pitch that the table almost always ends up in or on my stomach! That's not funny so don't laugh. The best airline I've ever flown on regarding pitch is the Belgian airline that no longer is. They went bankrupt. Do you remember the name? ...

 Today it's only 3 days left to Firefest in Nottingham and me seeing H.E.A.T with their new leadsinger Erik for the first time. I'm very excited since I have seen some videos from the gig in Germany and it promises to be very good!! But first things first. On Friday evening me and my good friend Carina went to the grand opening of Andrea Chénier at the Royal Opera. Many celebrities enjoyed together with us this wonderful opera. I had never heard of it before and I wasn't pleasantly surprised. It's set during the French revolution and in the first scene there is a big party with the nobility when suddenly lots of poor people come and they take the servant Gérard with them and he becomes one of the leaders of the revolution. Andrea Chénier who is a poet falls in love with the daughter of the house and of course Gérard also are in love with her. You get the picture. Beautiful music, a great tenor and soprano and a devine conductor. All in all a wonderful premier.   Fro...

Yes, it's almost 3 weeks since I wrote here. I don't know what's happening with time but it seems that you get less and less time. I have noticed on more blogs than mine that people are writing more seldom and when they do write more (which is a good thing). So what has stopped me from writing then? Well first we went to Gavle which I wrote about last time (that we should). We had a wonderful time, good food, good drinks, many many laughters and a lot of chat. I stayed the night because I was too tired to drive back the same night. Hasse and Emil though drove back late at night because they was to be on a train Tuesday morning heading for Malmö (in Scania) where they went to see a hockeygame. They had a couple of hours in Malmö before the game began and after the game, which was very good according to them, they took the night-train home in a sleepingcar. I drove back the next day and cared for Hilma and the house :-) On Saturday (9) I went to a lecture for relatives ...

I just realized I haven't written since September 19!! Where have all that time gone? I thought I would go in and write something since I hadn't written in a week (I thought) and then it was 2?! Since last autumn has really arrived. What has happened then that stopped me from writing. Well nothing much really. Work of course. Then last Wednesday we had to pack the autumn program for the Rheumatic assocation which I had, of course, earlier produced and written :-) We also had a boardmeeting in connection to the packing. Then I went to the Opera on Saturday with my good friend, former boss from work, whom I always go to the Opera with. This time we saw 3 ballets - Bolero by Ravel, Les Noces by Stravinsky and Springsacrifice also by Stravinsky. We loved the first and last but not so much Les Noces mainly because of the prerecorded music or rather song. This week hasn't been any major things but just the ordinary. I worked Monday-Tuesday was off Wednesday-Thursday and w...

This morning Hasse and I went down to the polling place to do our civic duty and vote for those who's going to run Sweden the next 4 years. So it's done! I think it's in every persons interest that live in a society to perform their right to vote. After that we went home and had coffe and some cake, leftovers from yesterday, and chatting about it all. We had a lovely time yesterday when family and friends came over for coffee and cake. I got some lovely presents. The bling on the photo I got from my dear friend Inger and her family and Claes. From Helen and her family I got a box. Yes a box with gift certificates for beauty treatments. That is so nice and I love it. I just have to find the time to do it :-) From Emil I had received a cosy little bear with a card and the most wonderful text where he expressed his love. Hasse gave me half the ticket to LA where I'm going next year (can't wait). That's really lovely. Then I got flowers from several friends a...

Yesterday was my birthday, yes finally :-) and it was really really nice. The first one congratulating me was Hasse with a great hug and Happy Birthday. From him I got half my ticket to LA, which is great. The next one was Jo calling from LA. For them it was still the evening of September 14 but here 5.30 AM. I'm up early so that was great. It was so nice talking to her and so nice of her to call and remembering my day. Then it was off to work where Jonas, Danniel and Emil called me to congratulate. I had made a cake which I brought to work (I made it double). They seemed to like it because it wasn't much left when I had to go home. I took with me the last piece because I knew there would be people coming over. And so it was. Kitte came over with the most gorgeus flower, orchid which we love. Then Emil came with the biggest hug and I love you. I also got a wonderful boquet of flowers from Gunilla  (who also called me) and Staffan (also calling). Apart from all this I had I t...

Well, let's see what has happened since last week. Nothing much really ;-) Just the ordinary. I went to the lab Monday morning to do blood tests because I saw my doctor on Thursday. As usual my CRP ( that measures inflammation and infection) was high but this time higher than normal. I always have ongoing inflammation due to my Sjogren's disease but there is no way to tell exactly where it is. Since I always have this I am of course extremely tired and that's why I only work half-time. Sometimes I also get these fevertops which can go as high as 40C to be gone the next day. I worked as usual Monday until Wednesday and then off Thursday-Sunday. That is quite good I think :-) On Friday I went to the hairdresser to dye my hair which was long overdue. I was very satisfied with both the colour and the cut. It was a new hairdresser and I think I will continue with her. Since my hairdresser I had the last 10 years moved I have been trying several but haven't been completel...