First time I saw them was at På Besök in Malmö, and even my sister, who’s not really in to music, liked them! I think that’s a good thing. They’ve been described as “Casio-Moldy Peaches with facial hair”, and that sums it all up quite well. They are more awesome than Bruce Willis. How can you not love a band that looks like this? You’ll hear more about them from me soon, I promise.

One of the support bands was Owl + Mouse, a really really sweet uke duo with brilliant songs and harmonies. Hope to see them again soon (I suggested them as a Fika band, but we have SO many great bands coming up this spring, it might be hard to squeeze them in…).

Also, Camilla from the wonderful diy record label WeePOP! played wonderful songs between the gigs. I totally adore WeePOPs records, they’re hand crafted and really really cute. Yes, and she played “It’s my party” as well, I love that song. Check out WeePOP! here.

This is my last week at Mudchute, but I would like to stay longer. It feels like I’m on to something here, with my riding, and it feels really good. Today I had a lunge lesson (which is the same as the swedish word sitsträning), or actually, two! The first one was on the slightly naughty pony Peggy, who likes to buck off kids. She didn’t even try to get rid of me though, so no worries mum! And then I had a proper lunge lesson on Frani. She’s such a nice horse, and completely on voice command, which is convenient if your working on your position. Lunge lesson is my favourite at the moment, I don’t have to think about anything but my riding, I could do that every day. Relaxed knees, low heels, steady hands… There’s so much to keep in mind and to practice on! But I’m getting there. Slowly…

It’s supposed to snow here this weekend. I think snow chaos in England is something like 5 cm… Not really looking forward to it, I thought England was supposed to be at least a bit warmer than Sweden? I can take rain, but snow is just useless. It can come for Christmas and then go away, thank you!

I prefer autumn!

I think me and Tom are going to Norfolk this weekend. I hope it will involve to tractor driving and walks on the beach. Now I’m gonna bake a kladdkaka and pretend it’s Christmas. I just wish UK had some sort of glögg tradition. I want to drink glögg! Especially my mom’s home made glögg, but any glögg (Blossa 2010? Saffranssmak!) will do.

Allo Darlin‘ played. If I’m going to make a list of best bands 2010, Allo Darlin’ will be on top of it. I must have seen them fifteen times or so (in my defence, we usually end up playing at the same festivals), and they’re just getting better and better. Absolutely wonderful pop songs, a great show (they actually look like they’re having FUN when they play, how many other bands do that??) and they’re just as good on record as they are live. And the best thing of all is that they don’t seem to realize how bloody good they are, they’re probably the nicest band I’ve ever met. This Indietracks I got to play on Bill’s bass, it was actually quite exciting!

Yesterday didn’t disappoint me, they were awesome! And I was in the best of moods, because the brilliant Scared To Dance DJ played my favourite Jens Lekman song AND my favourite Those Dancing Days song before the show. Because I danced and sang along, I got a new friend on the dancefloor. Indie pop unites!

I didn’t take any pictures (as usual) so here’s one from when they played at På Besök in July. Tom took the picture, of course.

Now I’m gonna watch Never mind the Buzzcocks (today’s Noel Fielding fix) and celebrate that I might have sorted out my future the next 6 months.

So I now decided what recipe I should use for my first Fika release and what tea it should be. Ooooh, we’re getting there! Just need a logo. I just recieved an excellent drawing from världens bästa Håkan aka Joueur Noir and I think it’s going to be great. I can just hope he will send some of his drum machine songs to me as well so we can put them on cassette. He’s the most talented guy I’ve ever met!

Anyway, now I need to shut down and study. Hoofs and feed in Swedish and some BHS teaching in english. Eating flapjacks, drinking tea.

So yesterday, me, Tom and Ste went to Lexington and a Singing Adams gig. I can’t really help it, but every time I go to a gig and people start talking about ex-member of the blablabla and cover of dead guy blablabla, I always get in a really bad mood and wish they could get out of their nerdy indietweebloodyworld play some 80s metal instead. Luckily for me, the DJ did just before Singing Adams got on, and I actually enjoyed them quite a lot. Finally some half-distorted guitars, some mad drum-skills (top three pop drummer in my book!), some shouting brilliant pop songs and some nice stage behaviour. A good contrast to most gig I usually go to.Really nice Lisa-pop. Hope their record is as good!

I wish I had time to get my camera fixed so I could start taking pictures again, but until then, here’s a pic I didn’t take. I just borrowed it from here. Thank you!

Today is my day off, since I worked Sunday last weekend. At 8.15 a guy decided to warm up his motorcycle just outside my window for about one hour (at least, that’s what it felt like). After that, some builders thought it was a good idea to start banging on various metal objects. Then, the fire alarm at the school next to our house went off, and one billion screaming children ran out on the schoolyard. Now, when I’m wide awake and unable to go back to sleep, it’s all quiet and nice again. Wonderful.

Fika can be done at hipster cafés in east London or in your very home, but the absolute best place to fika is a traditional swedish kondis (aka konditori). A kondis is packed with old people, old-fashioned homemade cookies (napoleonbakelser, tjillevipp, a lot of different wienerbröd and so on), ugly furnitures and horrible “art” and design attempts and – this is the most important thing – it’s almost always quiet.

I’m afraid I can’t tip you about my favourite Malmö kondis (since I got SO many readers, it’ll be so in and cool in just a few days and I won’t be able to have a whole room all to myself anymore), but here’s a picture.

Yes, and the thing I actually wanted to say with this post is that you should check out our new record label Fika Recordings. First four releases in February, on cassette! Whiiiiiiiiiiii!

Now I’m gonna cook. Me cooking often involves cursing, burning, swearing and sometimes the fire alarm goes off and I usually end up on the floor crying or looking for something. I’m such a great chef! Today I’m gonna try and make rårakor. I couldn’t find any lingonsylt, but hey, any jam would do!

And then I remember our first two years together, all the tears and all the fall offs and all the failed competitions, and realize that you can only get somewhere if you’re really really stubborn and ready to work hard. At least I got the first thing. I guess I’ll be fine (even if today it feels far from it). But I still miss Conrad.