Dance Show

Please, click on the arrow to watch the dance show.

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New Married

Our friends Anne and Mauricio were married in Chile a few weeks ago.
Now they are back on Tenerife and we were invited to their wedding reception last Saturday and went there after we finished the work at La Karina.

Congratulations, wishing you guys the best life can give you.


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30.000 Visitors

Thank you for visiting my blog.

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Christmas Glögg

It's unbelievable that the Christmas is drawing close when we have sunny weather in the days and a temperature of about +25 degrees.
The autumn has been very warm this year and for me it feels like we are still in September or October.
However I had my first Christmas Glögg tonight, when we got home from work, and when you start drinking glögg the Christmas feelings will soon start circulating.

Glögg is a popular hot drink, in the Nordic countries, during the Christmas season.
It's, among other things, made of sugar or syrup, spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves etc. and some people top it with vodka or red wine.
I had a little of red wine in mine tonight but the most times I drink it as a non-alcohol drink.
The drink is served with raisins and blanched almonds.
Some people like to have gingerbread, with a slice of blue cheese on, with it. That's very delicious and I had it that way tonight.
Here on Tenerife you can buy glögg from Ikea in La Laguna, Sta Cruz.

We are off again tomorrow and I will be busy cleaning the apartment.

Annas pepparkaka.
A Swedish ginger bread.
Also from Ikea.

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An Unexpected Guest

The Swedish coffee Gevalia has a slogan that says

you'll start getting unexpected visitors if you just buy it.

He,he! Somebody knocked on our door a while ago and when Clas opened there was a Swedish man on the other side wanting to come in and have a chat!
It was about 11.30 in the morning and I am still dressed in the 'Baby doll' sitting here in the studio blogging.
Normally I don't wake up before twelve when we have late nights and don't get to bed before three or five in the morning, but fortunately I was awake earlier today.
It wouldn't have been fun if I still would have been in the bed.

I am lucky Clas was clever enough to not bring the guest into the studio (because of my outfit) and I have now been hiding here for about half an hour while Clas has spent time with him in the kitchen and out on the balcony. He left a couple of minutes ago.
I'll soon have a shower and then dress up with some normal clothes.

We normally never let uninvited people in when that soon could cause us having people here every day. We know so many tourists here and some of them would like to spend time with us during the days, chatting and having a couple of beers.
I can understand it when we don't have much time to talk with people in the nights.
We have only two short breaks and then we are busy selling CDs and being DJs for the dancers etc. It's seldom we get time to sit down and chat with our guests.

Every now and then we also have guests at the restaurant who invite themselves to come and visit us in our home. They can for an example be interesting in to see how it looks in our studio where we do the recordings or they just like to meet us and to get to know us better etc.
We have tried to keep our home address a secret but it happens every now and then that tourists who are out strolling end up beneath our balcony and like to see us.

The tourists have all the time in the world but we work much and have to save some of the energy for the nights. We prefer to keep our home as a free zone from the tourism that surrounds us when our work is in the middle of the tourism.
To move the tourism into our home would in my opinion be too much and it's normally only our nearest friends who visit us in our home.

I wish however that I would have time and energy to spend time with everybody who wants it.
It's interesting to get to know new friends... but I think you have to put up some limits and allow yourself to also think about yourself.
There is just not time enough to socialize with everybody!

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The Present

Last night when we played at La Karina a woman from a jewelery shop suddenly walked into the restaurant and handed over a present to me.
I got the beautiful watch on the photo above.

He,he! Maybe somebody thought I have a secret admirer somewhere, who is sending me gifts?

The gift was from a Swedish couple who have been here on Tenerife the last two weeks.
They had bought the watch to me before they left the island and asked the lady to bring it to me.
This is for sure not something that happens every night!

The watch is really in my style and it will fit so well to some of the new outfits I have bought lately.
Thank you so much!


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Questions

I have only got two questions so far.
Both of them from the same person.

Somebody asked if I would be interesting in earning money on my blog.
And how much I could charge for an ad.

Answer:
No I am not interesting in that.
To do so I have to make like a business company out of my blog and I don't think it would generate so much money even, that it could pay the fee it costs to legally start up the company.
I prefer to keep my blog like a hobby.

If you like to make business out of your blog you also have to update it every single day.
No companies like to advertise on blogs that every now and then lie fallow.
I like to blog but if I know that I must do it every day it would soon start feeling like a work.

There is also a possibility to sign a contract with the blogger company who host my blog.
They have already made advertising deals with different companies and when you join the system you earn money per number of visitors who click in from your blog.
I don't think it would be worth doing it in my case. It would probably not generate any money to talk about.
I don't know anyhow how much they pay per visit or click.

To get a better income from the blog I must myself do deals directly with let's say fashion chains here on the island, travel companies, restaurants etc.
There could be some kind of interest in that but I'll still have to make a real company out of it.
You can't send an invoice to an other company without having a legal company yourself.

The blogs that have as many readers as some of the magazines and daily papers can earn a lot of money by giving advertising space to different companies.
They can charge the same prices as the real media.
For a small banner on my blog I maybe could charge about 50Euros a month or something and it would not make any sense to my income, but likely cause me a lot of extra work.

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Question time

Girly Comments & Graphics

Do you have questions?


I don't know if there is an interest for this on my blog....

However, if you have questions about anything in my life, Tenerife, the work , whatever... you can send me your questions anonymously by writing them into the comment field down in this post, or send them into my mailbox on susanne@clasholm.com
If I get any questions I'll publish them in a post later + give an answer.

This is how many bloggers do up in Sweden... but I don't know if my blog readers have any questions...
This is more like an experiment...We'll see...!


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Our night out

Clas' pants sat perfect on him! He will go to Sara tomorrow and by the other ones in the same size.

We decided to go by taxi to Las Americas tonight and have the dinner at Greek Corner, one of our favorite restaurants.
We always eat the same course there. It's the one called Mesa Greek.

During the dinner we were discussing a lot about our future and we also made some important decisions about how to proceed.
It will not be easy, but life is not always easy!
That's all I can say right now.

However we later went over to Los Fogones to listen to Dalton for a while, and after that we walked over to La Karina to listen to Cecil.
After that we jumped into a taxi and went over to Scandibar and found out they were already closed.
We decided to continue the drive and went home and here I am now blogging about the night.
I brought the camera with me tonight but forgot to use it.
That's why I can't show you any photos. I'm so sorry!

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Shopping

Girly Comments & Graphics

It's our night off again and I have been out shopping in the afternoon.
Today I found a lot of clothes from Sara and Stradivarius. Maybe the most I have bought in the same day since last spring when I one day found so much that I barely could bring all the bags home.
I try to keep the policy that says 'buy everything you like', because I have learned that I start regretting if I don't.

It's nice when we have so many tourists shopping here on Tenerife.
Some of the most popular shops change a big part of their range every second week and there are always new pieces that you haven't seen before.

Some of the pieces I bought today are in leather, which is on fashion now, and I will soon have to have an 'outfit planning day' again to figure out which pieces to wear together.

Believe it or not but I even bought riding pants today!
They feel so comfortable to wear and I will use them in the spare time.
A cowgirl has to have riding pants, don't you think so?

Oh dear, it feels like my purse is shrinking! But when you work on stage as many nights a week like we do there is a need of a big wardrobe.
If I had a normal work I would not buy as much clothes as I buy now.

I also bought a pair of brown leather looking pants for Clas today, but he is still having his afternoon nap and haven't tried them on yet.
I bought them at Sara and, if they fit, there are dark blue and black leather looking pants for him too, in the same size. Guess if I am keeping my thumbs up now!
I will be more lucky than him if they fit because I am the one who have to figure out his outfits every night when we otherwise probably will end up having different colors.

I will very soon start doing a new make up for the night and go out on town having a dinner and then go to Scandibar.

Have a nice evening!

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La Karina last night

We were very busy last night again.
The terrace was packed already a quarter to eight and the whole night through we had a lot of people standing out on the street watching when they could not get in.

Many of our guests are leaving tomorrow when it's a big change over day for the Scandinavians. Of course, new tourists will also arrive tomorrow but it felt a little bit sad after we finished playing tonight when so many came up to us and said goodbye.
I'll miss you all and hope seeing you soon again.

Please click on the arrow to watch the video clip.

Only Small Sizes

Me in the elevator on the way out for dinner and the Scandibar.

Yesterday we went to Alcampo and Ikea for shopping and I bought among other things a few pieces of clothes, jeweleries and curling tongues etc.

It was a terrible shopping day when it comes to Clas' outfits!
There was not a single piece that fitted him.
All nice shirts and pants were too small in size and the ones that were the right size didn't look nice.

This is Tenerife! The sizes are sometimes very small here and a L- size can be the same as a normal S- or M-size.
However, here are still many shops to check out.

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Vacation

We are going to have our winter vacation 8-19th of December.
It's a period of 12 days.
We will also be off Christmas eve, Christmas day and New Years eve and New Years day.

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Shopping Next

Inside Alcampo.

I'll go to bed soon because today we'll have to get up early when we have plans to go to Alcampo and Ikea for shopping.
It's Friday and our day off again.

Clas is going to look for some more technology stuff, like always, and I will look for hair curling tongues.

The day before yesterday I bought a new pair of white boots again and now I have decided to just turn a blind eye to all shoes and boots during the shopping tour tomorrow.
I have too many now and I don't know where to store them all.

Instead I'll look for some nice clothes and Clas needs a lot of clothes too if I just can get him into the dressing rooms.
He,he! I will for sure, if it's needed, be womanly cunning to get him in there!
He don't really like to try on many clothes and thinks there is not space enough in these small rooms. You know, he is a big and tall guy and when he gets in there he can't hardly move.
But I always find a lot of pieces for him so I'll tell you the end later...
Please, wish us a good luck.

When we get back home in the night we'll have a dinner somewhere in Los Cristianos and later we'll probably end up at the Scandibar which has turned out to be like our second home.

Have a nice Friday!

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29.000 Visitors

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Dance Nights and Line Dance Nights

We are still crowded in the nights.
We played only country dance music last night and people were dancing the whole night through. It was a really lovely night.

Wednesdays and Saturdays have turned out to be more like Scandinavian nights and then we only play the music they can dance to and almost no line dances at all.
We call these nights; Dance Nights and the music also fits well to the couple line dancers if they know how to dance to a different song with the same beat.

For Clas and me it's almost like playing two different repertoires.
Some songs are the same but the line dancers also dance to some of the latest pop songs today and because of that we also play some pop music on the line dance nights.

Many of the Scandinavians like to dance and when we have the line dance nights there is not space enough for both dance styles even when the music many times fits all.
Because of that we have had to alternate the nights between Dance nights and Line dance nights.

Tomorrow (Thursday) it's only going to be line dance instead.
We are expecting a lot of dancers and it will be such a lovely night again.
We have a lot of line dancers on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then we only play the dances that they know.
Sundays we play a mix of line dance and normal dance depending on the audience.

If you are on Tenerife now and like to visit us please get in early to be sure you get a table.
Many nights there are guests who don't get in and we feel so sorry for that but can't help it.
La Karina has only room for about 200 guests and because of that it's impossible to get everybody in.
However, it can be good waiting in the queue when some of the guests sometimes leave earlier.

Please, click on the arrow to watch the video clip below that was made some nights ago when we had a dance night at La Karina.

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My Favorite Outfit

I got a minor shock when we got home tonight.
We ordered a pizza, at La Karina, that we would share on the balcony as a night snack when we got home.
While we went home by taxi I kept it in the lap.
Later when we finally were at home and I had a look in the mirror I saw that I had got a lot of oil and tomato sauce from it all the way from the waist down to the skirt hem.
It was an orange colored sauce on all the three pieces; the skirt, the top and the glittery sweater.

I almost got panic because the glittery white outfit that I had on tonight is one of my favorite outfits and I know it will be difficult to find a new similar if it would be destroyed.
Every time I wear it people come up to the stage and tell me how beautiful it is and I can't do anything else than agree when I like it so much.

I took it of immediately and sprayed 'Vanish' on it and praise God it helped and it's now hanging white and clean out on the line and I can breathe out.

The miracle detergent.

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Sushi

We had a little sushi party on the balcony when we came home from work tonight.
I love sushi! It's both healthy and delicious.
I dip the pieces in Teriyaki sauce instead of in the Soya sauce when I think that tastes better.
Now I'll go to bed...Good Night!

The Sushi comes from restaurant Fujiyama in Los Cristianos.
Our neighbor who works there made it for us.

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Mingle photo

Here's a mingle photo from a party we visited recently.

Me, Javier (the owner of La Karina) and Clas.

Late Night

It almost feels like we are off all the time now when we only play 5 nights a week.
We play two nights - have one night off - play three nights - have one night off.

Last night off (it was Monday) we spend being together with the Scandinavians + some English people at the Scandibar.
I got home about 5 o' clock in the morning and fell to sleep about 6.30.
Oh, what a night!!!

We often visit this bar when we have a night off and I would like to invite, everybody who wants, to pay a visit here while you are on Tenerife.
Just don't forget to try the Scandinavian open sandwiches if you go there.
They are really lovely to have for breakfast or lunch.

I took this picture a couple of minutes before we went out.

More Jam

I have made one more video clip from our fondue and
jam night that we had on our balcony last Friday.
The old good country songs and hits brought a cozy atmosphere and we all enjoyed it and sang together even
when we had not heard some of the songs for many years.
Please, keep in mind that everything on
the video clip is just improvisation.


Presentation of the contributors:

Jan Egil and Tove from Norway.
They visit Tenerife 4-5 times every year.
Jan Egil sings and plays guitar in a country band in Norway.

Carina and Lasse from Sweden.
They live here on Tenerife in the winter time and
perform at the Scandinavian church in Puerto Colon and lead
"Allsången" at the Scandibar on Saturday afternoons.

Christer and Anneli from Sweden.
They visit Tenerife 1-2 times a year.
Christer was guitarist in the famous Swedish dance band called
Sven Eriks in the seventies.

Clas and me.
Have a country venue at restaurant La Karina in Las Americas
every night except Mondays and Fridays.

Please, click on the arrow to watch it.

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The Swedish Bloggers

I will very soon go to bed.
I have, since we came home from work, been reading the Swedish blogs that I read daily.
It was a lot to read when I haven't been visiting them for a couple of days.

I read 4 of the Swedish blogs almost every day.
It's Blondinbella, Storstadspojken, Mogi and Fogi.
3 girls and one boy.
If you are from Sweden you probably know about these blogs.
Blondinbella and Storstadspojken are a couple and they live together in Stockholm.

I have followed Blondinbella for about 2 years, Storstadspojken since he started about 1,5 years ago, Mogi for about 1/2 a year and Fogi since she won the three blog awards in Sweden a couple of months ago.

Blogging is a real big thing in Sweden and some of the biggest blogs are owned by young girls under the age of 20.
The big blog owners have got a lot of power.
Some of them blog about fashion and when they show what they have bought on the blog the shops will soon run out of these items.
They become like Style and fashion tellers and many companies send them products for free and hope they will like them and blog about them.

You find a lot of advertising on some of the big blogs and the owners earn a lot of money by selling advertising space to different companies.
They also get a lot of invitations to parties where the rich and famous are and they are often exposed in the media. Some of the bloggers have become quite famous.

Sweden is like a forerunner when it comes to the blogging and to make a living out of it.
Some of the real big blogs have 600.000-700.000 visitors per week.
These bloggers work fulltime with their blogs and they often make 4-7 posts per day.
They have in some cases more power to make influence than the normal media in the country.

My little blog is as little as a drop in a sea and I have never earned a cent on it so far.
I just blog for fun and it has almost become a lifestyle.
I like to write and make posts but last spring I started feeling a little bit fed up when I read my own blog and discovered it was mostly about what we eat and what I shop.
He, he! It looked for sure like we are not doing anything else than eat and shop and I can pretty well understand why some people got problem with it and started feeling ill when they saw all the plates.


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The Secret Party

Okay! I will now reveal what the secret party was all about.
This video clip will for sure be the "worse" that ever have been published on my blog.
Warning!!!! Don't watch it if you are religious or a sensitive person!

A lady we know had birthday yesterday.
After the work we were invited to a private birthday party on the second floor of restaurant Liquid. We were about 25-30 people.

One of the presents she got was a stripper and you'll see some of his show in the video clip below.
He took everything off!
Some of the guests almost turned hysterical.

Later when we were ready to go home his strings were still laying on one of the steps leading down from the second floor.
Maybe he left them there as a business card or something?
I was joking and told one of the restaurant owners to take them and hang them up as a trophy on the wall at the restaurant, but then a young lady just showed up and swiped them away.

Oh my dear, I think some of our friends maybe will become quite shocked if they watch this.
They will think we are living in Sodom or Gomorrah....but it's only Spain!
The culture here is a little bit different from the culture we have up in Scandinavia.
Here the most of everything has to be like a show and without a real shocking show everything is like nothing.

I heard about a lady in Sweden who got a Chippendale stripper on her birthday last year. She felt so put on shame that she left the party and went home.
Here they just think it's a fun thing, like it seams, and everybody just look at it as a show.
It's a big difference between the cultures.

But to be honest with you... Now I get a thought in my mind!
The Finnish men also show off everything! They sometimes run naked out from the sauna and roll in the snow or jump into the sea, and some even do it while it's daylight!

Which one do you think is worse?
A well trained tanned body exposed in twilight or a pale Finnish behind in daylight?

Please, click on the arrow if you have decided to watch the video clip.

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Fondue Party and Jam

It was our night off yesterday and we invited some of our musical friends to a fondue and jam party on our balcony.

Please, click on the arrow if you like to watch the video clip.

The Guests

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My New Boots

Here is a photo of the boots I bought.

Please, don't think that I buy too many boots!
I just have a good luck now when I find many...
Later it can be months when I don't buy any at all.
You just have to buy when you have got the luck to find some...
That's how it is!
It's also time to renew my boot fleet when many pairs have
been used many times.

I have an other pair of the same boots but they are beige.
These boots are very comfortable when you do line dancing.
That's why I bought an other pair in this white color.


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Linedance night at La Karina

We are still crowded in the nights.
Over 200 people visited us during the last night and
it was a lot of people out on the street.
The dance floor turned out to be too small again and
some guests complained about it.
We are sorry and hope to find a bigger
floor somewhere in the future.
Many of the songs we play fit both the line dancers and the normal dancers and we wish there would be space enough for everybody in the same time.

The problem with Tenerife is that the most of the restaurants
have very small dance floors and it's not easy to find a
restaurant that is big enough.

Shopping

I was out shopping again yesterday.
I bought, among other things, a nice pair of white boots + some glitter for my nails, underwear and a lot of silk stockings etc.

Tomorrow will be a busy day.
I have to clean our home and plan for the fondue party we are going to have here with some of our friends on Friday night when we are off.
We'll be 8 people and that means we'll need two fondue pots.
Some of the guests are musicians and they will bring their instruments so that we can jam together after the dinner.

I'll show you the boots later. It's too late to start photographing now when I must go to bed to be fit for fight tomorrow.

We are also invited to an other party Saturday night.
We'll first play like normal at La Karina when this party starts some time after 00.30 in the night.
What it's all about is a secret right now but I will tell you later.
It feels a little bit frightful when I think about it and I hope it will not end up being too much.
I can't tell you anything more right now but I can tell you it will be a little bit chocking what it's all about.

Good Night!
Have a nice Thursday!

28.000 Visitors

La Karina Last Night

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

Sweet Dreams

He,he! He looks like he is sleeping!
Don't you think so?

New Template

Photo Slide Show

I also tried to learn how to make an album with a collection of photos where you can click to get next photo and next photo...
But, like you see, it turned out to be like a photo video.

Hmmm..I'll figure it out later...

Photo Collage

Today I have learned how to make photo collages.

I decided to make a collage of some of my boots.

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La Karina 06.10.2009

We are sorry so many people couldn't get in last night.
It was about a hundred of guests during the night, who
had to leave when they couldn't get in.

To be sure you get in we recommend you to
arrive at least before 8 o'clock.
To be sure you'll get a good table out on the terrace come 7.30.

We made a bigger dance floor yesterday but
it was sometimes over packed.
It's lovely to play when it's so many guests and we hope we will continue to be crowded til the beginning of December when we are going for a short vacation.

Leon Reingard, a line dance teacher from Denmark, taught us a linedance last night.
Please, click on the arrow to watch it.

To watch an other video clip from the same night, please, click here.

La Karina last night

Many line dancers visited us last night at La Karina.
A group of 30 people from Denmark is here on Tenerife now.
They have line dance classes in the daytime at the hotel and some times they visit us in the nights to practice what they have learned.
We also had many line dancers from Germany and Britain last night and the dance floor was crowded.

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

I have also made an other video clip on our Tenerife Country blog.
Please, click here to watch it.

Halloween at La Karina

It was Halloween last night and a line dance group called 'De Rockers' from Belgium visited us at La Karina. They are very good dancers and their input gave a good "spice" to our show.
We were crowded again last night and it was so fun to play.

I have published one more video clip on our Tenerife Country blog.
Please, click here to watch it.

Thanx to
Benny, Chris, Guy and Marleen.