Song writing with Karl Gunér

Yesterday around noon Karl Gunér came down from Gothenburg to have a song writing session with us. After lunch at Di Penco we went to Malin's apartment and stayed there the whole rest of the day, trying to be productive. It took a while, and the inspiration seemed to be far away, but little by little a song started to emerge. We actually started with one chorus, but when we tried to write a verse for it, we noticed that the two parts didn't fit very well together. The verse though, felt more inspiring, so we stuck to it and made a new chorus instead. Sometimes you can't control your creativity and mood. We simply felt more like writing a cool, half-tempo song, than a soft ballad, this time.

Beauty weekend

This weekend we treated ourselves at our friend Susan's place "ABC hudvård" where we relaxed and hade our faces taken care of. It's so nice to be spoiled for two hours and just think about nothing. A pity you can't do it once a week, but there is always regular back massage and pedicure. (There is no use doing manicure when you are a musician. Play one gig and your nails are totally destroyed, so we stick to the other treatments.)

Mix Megapol

Today we went up early and paid a visit to the radio station Mix Megapol in Malmoe. By now we know Henrik, Patrick and Susanna quite well, and it's always a good laugh to be guests in their morning show.

Rehearsing

Yesterday we spent the whole day in Stockholm preparing for the Melodifestival, starting with the choreographer, Tine. We worked with our performance for an hour or so, and then we took a cab to Micke, the photographer and had a chat wit him. After that we went to Marie, the woman who will help us with our clothes. She measured us up and we had a good look in their huge wardrobe for inspiration.
The day ended with a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant we love. We are becoming regulars there, even though we live in Malmö.


Today rehearsals at Malins place.

End of China trip

Our trip to China ended in the best way possible. We went to Hong Kong, the fantastically beautiful, 7-million-city.
On our first, and only night there, we played at a very small club called "Vibe" and after the gig we hung out with some girls from the Hong Kong Universal office, who we had invited for the show. They took us to a great restaurant and we had a really nice meal. It's nice, as a visitor, to eat with people living in the city. They always know the best places, and our friends understood that we weren't out for cow belly and such.
Before we went back to the hotel, the Universal people took us to the Peak, so that the last picture of Hong Kong, in our minds, would be the one from above.
We have been in big cities before, but it's few of them that you get to watch from an altitude of 552 m... and what a view!

Jinan University

Monday afternoon, after some more bag shopping (everyone but Sebbe off course), we went to Jinan University to do a concert. We were greeted royally with a huge banner above the main entrance saying "Welcome Calaisa", and dinner with the mayor and the principle of the school. Another traditional dinner off course, but very good actually. Some of the dishes were even recognizable to us.
After the big show we thought we'd reward ourselves with some nice traditional Chinese massage. It was very nice until they started to put strange glass bulbs all over our backs. Glass bulbs with a vacuum inside, which made huge hickeys when they were removed. We looked awful, and could not wear tank tops for several weeks after that treatment. But they say it takes out the toxics in your body, so we weren't too sad.

Weekend

Saturday was all about the big Sister Cities Gala Evening Performance. We started in the morning with rehearsals in the beautiful Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, where the big Gala Evening would take place. Between the first and second rehearsal we had a few hours to kill, and went straight to our favourite shopping market, named "the Gucci hole" by Sebbe, our guitarist who didn't enjoy shopping bags as much as the rest of us did.

After the second rehearsal we dodged from the Memorial Hall and went to find some food on our own, without our lovely guide. We ended up in a small local restaurant, trying to get the lady who worked there to understand that we wanted plain rice with vegetables and chicken, without strange things as chicken feet, and that we wanted it "to go". This went so-so, until an English-speaking guy entered the restaurant and helped us out. The food tasted fantastic!

At 8 pm the Sister Cities Gala Evening started, broadcasted on TV in two Chinese provinces, which means at least 50 million viewers. We performed two songs. In the middle of the last song, “Sisters in arms”, about five kids came running up on stage, everyone with a bouquet of flowers that they gave us. We were extremely surprised and had to stop playing for a second to receive the flowers. Someone told us afterwards that this is how kids do in China to show you that they like what you are playing.
After the successful Concert we went back to the hotel to enjoy the banquette served to all the Artists and Representatives from each country.

Sunday was a busy day.
Morning: Press Conference with some Chinese magazines.
Noon: Radio interview.
At 3 pm: A gig at Tianhe Stadium, which was unfortunately cancelled in the last minute (which means the second before we were to get on stage all dressed up and ready to go) because of the bad weather.
Early evening: A short gig at Volvo.
Night: A gig at the nightclub, Rasputin.

We were kind of exhausted when we went to bed that night.