The Monkey Park

It was our day off yesterday and in the morning we went with Carina, Hugo and Johnny to The Monkey Park. Johnny is the youngest brother of Clas, and they are now visiting us on Tenerife.

Later in the night we had a fondue party on our balcony.

Hugo, Johnny and Carina.


Clas.


Me.


This monkey stole the "monkey-candy-bag" from Hugo.


An iguana.


We went inside the cages to be with the monkeys and I have made a video clip to show you how cute they are.
The Pippi Longstocking monkeys are my favorite
animals next after cats.
I like them so much and I would probably get one if it was allowed.
But, it's maybe not possible to get them house-trained and then it would cause us a lot of problem.

Please, click on the arrow to watch the video clip.

27.000 Visitors

Thank you so much for visiting my blog.
It's amazing the visitors counter has passed 27.000.

Our schedule at La Karina has changed:

Every Night 8.00 - 11.00.

I recommend you to come early to be sure you'll get a table.

No control !

We have never kept our guests under control telling them they are not allowed to visit any other restaurants while they are on Tenerife.
Our policy has always been that everybody is free to go wherever they want.
Many visit us every night while they are on the island, but we have never told anybody that they have to do so. The tourists decide themselves where they are going to spend the nights.

We have many times been surprised when people who have stayed here for two or three weeks have visited us every single night.
If I myself was a tourist I would probably visit many different venues to get some variation, but we have been told that they like Country and Western music and because of that they like to visit us every night.

An other thing is also that many people in a restaurant bring more people in.
Who like to sit a whole night alone in an empty restaurant?
It's more fun to be where people are because there is a lot of things going on.
La Karina also have good food and many come there for dinner.
Not everybody comes there because of us or our music!

We are happy to be so crowded every night but it's not our fault.
I wish everybody a good business and it's not fun when people start blaming us.
Hopefully it soon will be better times for everybody.

A little "fox" visited us at La Karina last night.
It went around in the restaurant trying to swipe some of our guests to an other venue.
The impudence has no limit on Tenerife!
We were warned about it and because of that we were more on the alert than normal and could watch it from the stage.
We decided to not do anything about it this time. People are desperate and do whatever to get their businesses running.

I hardly couldn't sleep last night.
I was just laying in bed thinking about everything.
It's so much going on now and I am not used to live in this kind of turbulence.

I don't really know who to trust anymore.
People who you think are nice friends can suddenly show an other face behind your back.
I met a manager from an other restaurant on the street some days ago. This man has always been so happy talking to us and when I said hello to him he was almost hissing like a cat.
He also thinks we are a treat now and thinks we take all the tourists from him.

We moved down to Tenerife only to sing and play Country music, that we like, and now all this happens to us.
Enviousness is an evil illness. It obliterates the human sense.

La Karina 15.10.2009

I made a video clip last night while many of our guests were
dancing like in a train all around the restaurant.
I promised to publish it as soon as I got home but
something went wrong and there was only about
3 seconds recorded of the whole dance in my camera.
I'm so sorry!
Instead I found this video clip in the camera and decided to publish it.
I'm so sad now.
It would have been so fun to also have the video clip from
the last night on the blog.

El Molino Blanco

Oh, what a nice night we had yesterday!
Tove and Jan Egil from Norway invited us to have dinner at
El Molino Blanco.
It was the first time we visited this restaurant and
the meal was just excellent.
I recommend you all to pay a visit while you are on Tenerife.
The atmosphere is very relaxing and cozy and people like
Madonna and Celin Dion have, among other celebrities,
been eating here before.
This was absolutely the best night we have had for a long time.
I'm still exited!

Jan Egil, Tove, Me and Clas.

Nice fillet steak filled with cheese, potato and
sauce made of Karl-Johan fungus. Lovely!

Jan Egil showed his artistic talent and
took a photo of me through his wineglass.

Me and Tove waiting for the desert out in the garden.

Snide Comments

Glitter Graphics & Comments


My blog has got some malicious comments the last months but I decided to not publish them.
You know, it's my blog and I don't have to give space to comments from people who accomplish harassment.

Today I decided to show you a couple of them anyhow, when I have absolutely no problem with it. My self-esteem is not founded on comments from people who behave like lost teenagers.
When you get older you start appreciating the inside of a person more than the outside and I know that many men think ladies with curves are more sexy.

When you work on a stage you are like an official person and then people sometimes expect you to be perfect. They forget that we all only are human beings with both pluses and minuses.
The truth is nobody is perfect! But we are all created by God and in his point of view we all are beautiful and very special, deeply loved.
This is a truth indeed for me and because of that I have no problem if people express bad opinions about me trying to get me down.

The comments I have got have been written under different pseudonyms;
Anonymous, Bobby, Barry, countryman etc.

I have been told by people that they think it's "The xxxxxxxxx Cowboy" who has written it.
Who is that? They all know him, but he is a stranger for me.
Why would he like to tell me that I am too fat?

In my point of view it must be a person who is envious when we are like "sailing before the wind"... Envious people often act this way! Don't they? Or could it be a psychopath who has got a desire to harass me?

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A couple of the comments that I have got:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The swine influenza":
yes very cute,, is it a relative of yours..
Posted by Anonymous to Susanne Holm at August 28, 2009 11:01 PM
(I had published a photo of a pig in this post)

countryman has left a new comment on your post "Lewinski":
can you tell where the XXXXXX has moved to,,
she has such a great voice and variety of songs from country to 60''
70's music,,she did have a far better singing voice and body too,
regards western lover
Posted by countryman to Susanne Holm at August 9, 2009 11:49 AM

countryman has left a new comment on your post "A New Place":
i hope you are waiting for a salad,, you look a bit overfed to me
Posted by countryman to Susanne Holm at August 9, 2009 11:40 AM
(I had published a photo of me waiting for the dinner in this post)

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(Add: Now I got a comment from a man who told me to take away the cowboy nick name in the text above. Now I know who "The xxxxxxxxx cowboy" is! What a surprise!
I am a kind person and of course I'll take it away, but I also expect the terror to stop from now).

Make Up

I mostly do two make ups per day.
One when I wake up and an other one for the night.
The days when I only stay at home I don't use any make up at all.

I would never go out on town without having a make up.
I would feel so naked.
I know it sounds stupid, but that's the truth!

The dish brush

Hi Carina,
This is the dish brush I like to have from Citymarket.
Please, buy two if you go there.
Have a nice trip to Tenerife,
Seeing you soon
Susanne

Nice Tenerife photos

Las Americas by night.

Vista Sur two nights ago.
The quality is not the best when I took it with my phone camera.

The concert house in Sta Cruz.

Papas Arrugadas and Canarian mojo sauces.
A must while you are on Tenerife!

Tenerife Bananas.

Our day was running on rails

I am so surprised about this day. We left the bed about 9 o'clock in the morning to be sure we will get everything done. It's now 2 o'clock in the afternoon and we are already done! We have got both our residence permits and the winter influenza injections.
(not the swine vaccine)

First we went to Brothers to be photographed.
They served us directly and the whole thing took us about 10 minutes. We got a small folder each with 6 small passport photos inside.

Then we went over to Caja Canarias bank to pay 2 x 19,18 Euros.
I had filled all the papers at home before we left and there it took us about 5 minutes!
You have to be there before 11 am to get it payed. If you get there later they ask you to come back next day!

Then we went to Scandibar for a breakfast.
We sat there chatting for about an hour and then we went by taxi to the police station in Las Americas. You have to be there before 2 o clock in the afternoon to get the residence certificate.

A policeman met us inside the building and when I showed him our papers he invited us to sit down at a desk. He looked through all the papers, took a photo from each of us, put them and the papers together with a tack, put a couple of stamps and we got the new residence permits that are valid for the rest of our lives. It took us about 5 minutes!
Before you had to get a new residence certificate from Sta Cruz every fifth year but not anymore. It's very easy now.

Then we went to Dr Ibarra, showed our insurance cards at the information desk and 3 minutes later we got a prescription each which allowed us to buy the normal winter influenza vaccine at the pharmacy.
The doctor were ready to go home but he said he will give us the injections himself before he leave if we directly go and buy them.
We walked over to the pharmacy and it was no queue and when we came back to the doctor he gave us the injections directly and we were done!

This day must be a miracle! So much done in such a short time!
Normally when you have things like this to do you have to run back and forth and they give you a little information at time and the matters we have settled today could normally take 2-3 days before everything is solved out.
I really feel like we have been in some kind of a grace bubble.
Everything went like on rails.

Our vaccine.

Corrections

People have started asking about my health when it looks like I have
lost a lot of hair on the video clips.
It's only because of the highlights, and I'm also pale at the hair parting when I haven't been out sunbathing lately.
When the hair dresser colored my hair some of the highlights on the top of the head became more white and it looks even worse on the video than in real.
I have got a new appointment and I hope they will get a more even color next time.
If not I will take them away.
Don't worry! Trust me! I haven't got any serious illness or anything.

Some of my new boots were left outside the video picture so here they all come again.

Low black boots.

Blue boots.

Black over knee velvet boots.

Black over knee leather boots.

More shopping

I have been to Sta Cruz shopping today.
Please, click on the video clip to watch it.

Two photos

I like these photos and decided to publish them one more time even when they are included in the photo album below.
The photos are taken at restaurant American Dream in Las Americas.

Clas is looking under the skirt of Marilyn Monroe.

Elvis and me.

Our night off

Clas and I both like to take photos and we took quite a lot last night when we went out for a meal.
I made this photo album when we got home.
Please, click on the arrow to watch it.

We went for dinner to restaurant Valenciana in Puerto Colon.
That's a restaurant that is popular among the English tourists here on Tenerife.
After the meal we had a walk along the beach front down to La Karina where we got a taxi and went home.
During the walk we stopped at a restaurant where we sat for hours down at the sea drinking champagne, talking and just relaxing. It was so lovely to just be like the tourists for a while and I decided I will start spending more time being like a tourist on our nights off.

La Karina 06.10.2009

Our first night at La Karina was a crowded night.
The terrace was full of people and many line dancers showed up
and it was so fun to play.

Please, click on the arrow to watch the video clip.

I have also published an other video clip on our
Tenerife country blog. Please click here to watch it.

The Scandibar

It was many people at the Scandibar last night.
More and more showed up and the owner didn't get home
before 4.30 in the morning.
The Scandinavian season have not started yet and to be so
crowded it was a real good night.

Clas and Seppo, one of the owners.

There are even a couple of tables inside.

The last night off

It's our last night off and we start playing at La Karina tomorrow night.
I have an appointment with the hair dresser tomorrow in the afternoon and then we will have to go there earlier in the night to do the sound check.

We are soon going out for a meal.
I would like to have sushi but it depends on what Clas like to have.
We haven't decided yet.

After the meal we will go to the Scandibar (Scandishop before) to be with the Scandinavians.
Scandibar has the opening tonight and it looks very different there now.
It's two toilets instead of one, a long bar, a beer tap and the walls inside has got a new color.
I will bring the camera with me and try to remember to take some photos during the night to show you.
Have a nice evening.

More video clips

I have published two video clips from the last week on our fan club.
Please click on the fan club icon down in the side bar to the right and you will find them.

25.000 visitors

Oh it has passed 25.000 visitors and I'm sitting here without knowing anything!
Thank you so much for visiting my blog.
Love XXoo
Susanne

Crazy People

What is the matter with some of the people here on the island?
Tonight when we went out eating to a restaurant that is quite popular here in Los Cristianos somebody throw a bucket of water, from a balcony above the restaurant, over one of the waiters.
There were four tourists sitting at the table and everything became so wet that they had to move to an other table.

Many times when somebody is doing a good business here they have to start facing people who are flipping out because of jealousy.
It's for sure something sick about it!
Many are fighting to get a share of the tourism, but there is a lack of education and some people don't know much about the customer service etc, and because of that they will continue to be losers in the game, whatever they do.
They are like craftsmen without any tools and the only tool they have is to be evil and cause trouble for the competitors who are doing a good business.

We have met a few odd people the last weeks and I start thinking,
-Why is so many flipping out? -Is it inbreeding during the last centuries that have caused so many people here to get a weak mental health? Or is it only because of the temperament?
-Why are people acting out of fear? Are they standing at the steep hill of becoming bankruptcy?

I am glad Jack from England has taught me some powerful karate tricks.
Without that knowledge I would feel insecure and like to have a security guy every now and then to be sure I can walk safe through the town. It doesn't help to be a friendly person when you are surrounded by evil people.
Some people seams to think we are a treat even when we like to maintain peace.

When you are here as a tourist you don't see much of this, but start working here and make a good business and you will for sure get to know your enemies.
You'll meet Dallas JR:s doing tricks to fool you or to make it more difficult for you, "maffiosos", and people who are screaming to you on the top of the voice.
You'll meet "gold diggers" and "brilliance seekers"and you will soon learn that money talks here.
We know a couple who moved here from abroad, made a success with their business, and got their restaurant closed down time after time without any acceptable reason, probably only because of jealousy.

There are also people running around gossiping about things they don't know much about just to try to create an image that they are near friends to you, having the insider information that nobody else have got. Oh, I'm so tired of all this!
I feel that I get difficult to start trusting people and, to be honest with you, I long for becoming more isolated from all and everything to just get to rest for a while.
Clas said a day it's like being in the real Wild Western and that's how it is.

We are not so used to these kind of cultures when everything is in a quite good order up in Finland, where we come from. But we get more and more skin on our noses, like we say in Swedish.

We prefer to work for Canarians or Spanish talking people with good contacts in the society to avoid unnecessary problems.
We have got many invitations to start playing for restaurant owners from abroad but we always say no. We know it will cause us even more problems and have decided to only work for restaurant owners who are well rooted on the island.

Oh, I'm just longing for peace now. It would be nice to be able to just sit down and relax in the shadow under a palm tree on a desert island.

Over Knee Boots

Oh, they are really "delicious"!!!!
I like them so much! Sexy and elegant in the same time!
I will probably buy a couple of pairs at least to use on the stage.
They deserve short skirts and that's my style!
These kind of boots are for sure going to be included to
some of my outfits this winter.

Shopping in Sta Cruz 02.10.2009

This video clip shows you what I bought in Sta Cruz yesterday.
Please, click on the arrow to watch it.

We'll have a couple of nights off

This is where you'll find me tomorrow.

It was our last night in Los Cristianos tonight (Thursday)and we are back on stage at La Karina Tuesday next week.
We had a full terrace and many line dancers and it was very fun to play.

Like you see here on the blog I have been taking away all the video clips from Lewinski when they could miss lead people to believe that we still are in Los Cristianos.
If you like to book a hotel close to where we play this season I recommend Elite Sol Tenerife , Las Palmeras or Troya hotel in Las Americas.

We came home a while ago. The back is aching and I feel very tired.
We took down all our equipments after the gig and the sound system is going to be moved to La Karina tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning I will go shopping to Sta Cruz. I really look forward to it.
We are going to have a small vacation for a couple of days.
Probably the only "vacation" we will get until next April, and I have decided to just spend the days doing what I want.
No appointments! No must dos!
Now it's NO to everybody and everything!!!

We will play 5 nights a week at La Karina, Monday and Friday off, but I think it will be the same as when we work 6 nights a week.
We get to know more and more people who come to the island every year and we are for sure going to spend many of our nights off being with some of them.

Last winter we spend many weeks by being seven nights out in restaurants.
We were working six nights and the night we were off we had appointments with people who visited the island or people who stayed here during the wintertime.
It was seldom we just could spend a night being home, thinking of ourselves.

This is the life when you work as an artist on Tenerife.
I don't like to complain but you don't get much life in private.
You have to learn to say no! If you don't you'll end up crazy!
It seams to be our part to take part in others vacations on Tenerife.
We have to have a good excuse to be allowed to say no and every year in the springtime we feel so tired and whacked after all, that we start thinking that we for sure will get a black out.
Then we pack the suitcases and leave for El Hierro.

El Hierro is the small island south of La Gomera. (our neighbor island)
There is almost no tourists and we stay in a little village, popular among the divers, called La Restinga.
There are always a few divers but they stay under the water in the daytime and we can be alone on the beach if we want.

To be honest with you it's quite tough some times to have to socialise. Specially when you feel tired. Then you start longing for being able to just curl up in the bed and read a book or something.
So many people like to spend time with us and for sure we don't get time to be with everybody we know who come to the island. It's impossible when we work as much as we do.
Many of you only get to see us at the work.

Many also like us to meet them in the daytime at some bar and talk over a beer.
We can't do that. Specially not the days when we work!
If we start doing that we will for sure not have any power to entertain in the nights + we have to save our voices too.
It takes a lot of energy to socialise and I have figured out that it's us talking the most of the time. Everybody like to hear how it is to live, work and be here on Tenerife and we answer the same questions sometimes many times a week.

But now it's enough talking or complaining. I am too tired now!
I have to go to bed to be fit for the shopping tour tomorrow.
Oh, it will feel so good to just be able to leave Los Cristianos and head for Sta Cruz! I tell you!
Good Night!

Me in one of the parks in Sta Cruz, May 2009.