Snow

When it's snowing you can heat up with some glögg. Anya and Jenny.

Clearing little paths for the dog so he can patrol his habitat. All he could see were white walls.

My friend Paul and Anette's house and Paul's babe-magnet (Volvo V70) last night. A lot more white matter came down since then. It's been snowing cats and dogs.

The road is un-drivable more or less. A militairy vehicle just passed to try to clear a path.

My neighbour Fabio from Milano came out: "-This is the most I've seen. I tried to drive before. I have summer tires on still. Driving is fine but I couldn't stop!"

Clearing snow from the green house so the windows will not crack. The picture almost look black and white since there is so much snow.

Assorted pics from the past week.

This is something you see more often in Hammerfall these days. A more relaxed feeling. A few beers before the gig. I personally never drink anything before the gig. I have a hard time playing being affected by alcohol both coordination and overplaying-wise. Also when you play drums your pulse goes up and it makes you more drunk and you get tired faster. This new era started when rock n' roll-road dog monster Pontus and laydback and overall relaxed Fredrik joined the band. Oscar doesn't drink before the gig. But during he does sometimes. I'm the only total non-gig-alcoholic in the band. Joacim might have one a few hours before even though it looks like he is hammering away in the pic.

They drive too fast in Germany. If something happens you are likey to injure yourself worse than in lesser speeds. I always end up telling the driver to go 120 km/h maximum. Or else:-) Last time our driver Rafael did a good job and was understanding towards our more careful aproach to driving.

This is a bit typical for Germans. Everyone that has dealt with them know what I mean.

Kübler hotel. Fredrik Larsson's and Pontus' room.

Udo Dirkschneider. He played with his band a few bands before we did last Saturday at Knock out-festival. He is a metal god. Joacim, the shortest guy in Hammerfall, is seen passing in the foreground. I always wondered what a "Dirkschneider" is.

Hotel Kübler in Karlruhe. Strange layout wouldn't you say?

At a burger place at Frankfurt. They had 1000 sparrows waiting for scraps. I threw a french fry and 1000 birds attacked it. Another fry...and 1000 more birds came flying down from the sealing. Yes, the place was outdoors. Fredrik was annoyed since they were really close to his hair. Maybe they could have got tangled up? Check what Pontus ordered.

Mark from "Brave words, bloody knuckles" drinking in stereo.

A lot of the people I meet while touring say: -I met your brother. He is a really nice guy and a hell of a musician. I wonder if they tell him the same thing?

Typical people-behaviour:

-I want of the plane! I want of the plane! So I stand up as soon as possible, just to stand here like an idiot waiting for 10 minutes standing instead of relaxing and sitting in my seat.

Some people often (not showing in the pic due to the fact the people in the pic are nearly dwarfs) stand with bent backs for ever under the overhead compartments looking like jackasses...

This is a bit typical in Scandinavia: Just before they let the people of the plane they ordered the ones about to embark to stand just outside the gate to form a line. Making the disembarking passengers confused. They also went into the line thinking it was an extra passport control. It also blocked the whole gate area. One might think they would have learned by now...

Hammerfall's rehearsal space. Today some weirdo that handles it called Fredrik and complained about the racket. What did they think when they rented it to a heavy metal-band.

In the pic: Pontus doubles up as usually as a sound tech while Oscar is whatching.

On the way to Gothenburg I always stop at the same place halfway there. Rasta in Snapparp.

The latest time I asked for a hamburger plate and wanted to exchange something for something else. -No problem, was the response. I wish more people in Sweden said: -No problem! regarding everything instead of: -Sorry, I'm not authorised to do that for you...

The phone camera

Going to rehearse in a few days with Hammerfall and have to get the physical playing up to date (even though I was just starting my daily practice here). Not much fusion playing usually before meeting them, just metal.

This was recorded with a Nokia N 82. Pretty OK camera both for stills and moving pictures (here compressed a lot).

R.I.P. Peter Rudolw

A great guy decided to leave this world. He was the driving force behind the Anderslöv rehearsal place where all the bands hang out and rehearse. His decision came out of nowhere and shocked us all. Peter was a very talented musician and everyone feels it was a great loss.
Above is a Peter-shrine the musicians from his place made. He ment a lot to them. One of the bands made a song to his honour:

Niklas' room

Jenny is an accomplished IT-technician. Dealing with the broadband here.

Niklas used to have a typical kids-room. He is 14 next year and we thought it was a good idea to upgrade his room. Had a bunch of furniture laying about he inherited and got a few new lights. But first we painted the whole thing and took out all the toy cars and the like.

Karate

Karatekas in action at Trelleborg's Shotokan karate club. I have been there for one term now. It's very similar to ITF/UTF-Taekwondo. Actually Taekwondo's patterns and techniques comes from Shotokan karate. Some patterns are almos identical. I feel I'm improving and it shows while doing TKD as well. Soon I'm a red belt in both ITF and Shotokan.

Swine flu shot went strange.

Took my swine flu shot today. Everything was fine at first as always.I have taken shos many many times before. It didn't really hurt at all as usually. I sat down for a while afterwards like the tell you to. Then it started creeping up on me when I red the paper they give you with what kind of reactions that might occur to some unlucky people. A very bad feeling came over me. It got worse and worse. I started to feel totally avful. Really terrible. Sweating buckets. Then my vision got blured and dark. I fainted. I was put on a stretcher and nurses and doctors were called in. I thought I was having an alergic reaction and was dying for sure. I have thought I was dying before in life. It was on a flight in Serbia that had to emergency land in a scary way. Today felt worse. I started coming around. And they took my blood preassure. The thing went of the scale for some reason (maybe me tensing up). They tried again. "-I can't get a reading on him!" the nurce said. I started freaking out again. Almost fainted once more. I remember once Jonas Hellborg and I were taking yellow fever shots. I was first up. I pretended it hurt like hell to scare him and he fainted when he took his. Now I know how it feels.

Geüsir of kack

Got this fancy built in water container for the toilette. It cracked of course. Making a bunch of problems everywhere.

De-mounted it and ordered a new one. A few hundred euros. Note the wet floorboards.

An accident never comes alone. The sewer drain clogged for some reason. I tried everything. Wires and hoses. Days of work. Twice I got an avalance of sewage on me.

Tree days later I gave up and called in the pros. What a strange job that is. Going to peoples houses and dealing with their disgusting wastewater. You must like it to do it. Really nice guys, though. Only strange thing was that they had raging hard-ons all the time while working with the pipes.

Afterwards I had to take a shower to get the feces out of my skin. And soothing myself with some pure protein. This tastes really bad. I usually get the dry and wet heaves from trying to drink it.

Today at 19:30. Swedish television channel one.

The news. Rapport.

Today at Swedish television channel 1 19:00 hours.

Kulturnyheterna kl 19:00 tonight on Swedish television channel 1.
Unfortunately I'm not playing like the picture might mislead, but there is something about my father. We got these recordings from a music scientist called Olle Lind that mainly specialises in Lars Gullin but also in other jazz musicians. He gave us 200+ recordings with my father.