We arrived yesterday in Barcelona around 5:30pm after driving all nite and day through from Italy and the South of France onto Spain. We dined at Moncho's Barcelona (Travessera de Gràcia, 44 (Barcelona). Really good! Do not fill up on the buffet! It's just the starter. After that the bring giant skewers of delicious roasted meat, chicken and fish to sample, then you can have more after that. Ritchie and I shared the dulce de leche ice cream dessert with extra caramel. That was amazing too. Today I jogged along the Avinguda Diagnal from the hotel to the Parc Du Pedrales, then did my circuits by the duck pond and jogged back. About 1.5 hours. It refreshing to be out of a bus and a hotel room. Tonite
we are having paella for dinner. (It looks like I'll be doing that same jog tomorrow!) We will also be performing "Abro Mi Ventana" for the Spanish audiences. Should be interesting :)

BTW-for those of you following the story about my dog Casey in my May posts. She is doing GREAT!!!! When I came home from the promo tour, I started feeding her roast chicken and P-nut butter to get weight on her. Then I found a nutritional suppliment called Newtricks. I give her two tablets a day and she is doing sooooooo well. She is into her 17 year and going strong. I did lose my dear sweet Pepper in July, She was fighting the most aggresive mast cel tumors on her body. She hung in there for as long as she could and went on her own terms. She was 15 years old. I love her and and so happy that she shared her life with me.

Just finished our show in Milan. We had to go more acoustic as this club was not big enough for our electric show. The up side was a shorter load out! I thought is was a cool show. We performed "Open Up My Window" in Spanish to prepare fpr the Spain dates. I goofed the last verse but it was cool anyway. Just had a big popcorn fight with our drummer in the front lounge. I have retreated to the back lounge for some peace and quiet and reflection :) The hotel was a bit rough today. Utiizing my best MacGiver techiniques, I managed a workout in my room using a chair, a towel, pillow and my GymBoss timer on my Iphone,(totally essential). Many thanks to the KO Knockout Gyn in Westlak California for teaching me how to workout effectively!! No hotels tomorrow. Sleeping on the bus, wake up at the venue, where its supposed to be lovely. I hope so.

Just finished our show and sitting on the bus chillin' out checking email. CC sitting accross from me on his computer in the back lounge. The bus is starting to look like an Apple store. I finally met long time fan Gigliola and her friends. Our show was really good although the stage sound was better for us in Stuttgart. Regardless, the band always seem to put on a great show. I missed the dulcet tones of our Germany opener Jon Allen though and wish him well on his next tour of duty. Missing home and all the animals about now. I guess we are spending the night on the bus and leaving at 6am for Milan because our rooms wont be ready until after 9am. Sort of bus camping.

Hotel: The Grand Hotel Magestic. Older and right in the center of town. I plan to walk a bit and explore the town. It looks like some great shopping. Christopher treated us to another lovely Italian dinner. Watching your food program becomes is extremely challenging when you are eating great meals on your days off and on the bus you are surrounded by eight guys and zillions of  snacks!!! Actually being the only girl on these long sojourns surrounded by only men is the perfect opportunity to study the male animal in their natural herd. I have been finding more links with what I learn from horses about relationships in regards to my own energy. By experimenting with my energy around these sensitive and reactive beings I find that the men in my study group are quite sensitive to the slightest movement in the female thus bestowing on me a responsiblity that I don't think I was quite aware of. I am continually amazed how little I have to do or say to get a positive result and how easy it is to procure a negative reaction by doing or saying too much. hmmmm this IS very similar to my horse work.  I'll keep up with my observations and give more updates.

It's been a few years since I visited London. Probably 2006 with Tracy Chapman. We arrived last night from Madrid. Our Spanish experience was mixed. We loved our fresh made  Paia the first night at the hotel but the show was a little odd. Vanitas, the hippest club Madrid, hosted our show. Alot of people really close up. Sound was challeging but the audience loved CC so that's good. Tonite we played an amazing show case at the Penthouse in Leicester Square for the radio winners. I thought is was our best show so far. Christopher was so funny and great with the audience. Andy played great and I felt the best so far with my performance. I think that the record company, reps, agents and managers that are representing CC really have his best interests in mind and ready to work hard to make the new record, "Dr Faith", happen. It made me positive for the first time in awhile that there are people out there that really do care about keeping the good music in the music business. They are young, hungry and energetic. So a big "thank you" to youall !! after our show we went over to Pizza Express to check out my buddy Jon Regen's show. He is terrific well worth seeing. pick up his new CD "Revolution"out now (jonregen.com). The walk back was interesting. Soho on a Saturday night. Kinda like Times Square meets City Walk and Roppongi. Lotsopeeps!  Tomorrow...Milan...    goodbye   Anye :(

PS:Casey is hanging there. I know we can't live forever but I just want to hug her when I get home.

We arrived in Paris this morning around 11:45am. The weather is really beautiful. Pretty relaxed day for me. Christopher ran off to several interviews and I got lunch with our sound mixer Ross. I met up later for an interview with long time supporter Jean-Luc Raymond at the Hotel Murano . Then dinner with Adny Suzuki, Ross and I in the Bastille area of Paris. The bad news was that my beloved 14 year old dog Casey may be transitioning to her next life. I hope she can hang on until I return home. I am sad that I cannot be with her. Tomorrow we'll try to see a few sights then at night we fly to London.

We just enjoyed freshly prepared paia in Madrid made by the hotel chef just for us. A special treat as the restaurant is usually closed on Sundays. What a nice way to spend our first day off in 8 days. The shows are going really well for unplugged shows. yes having the rest of the band would be ultimate, but doing it this way is achieving the promo result the record company is looking for. EDEL, the record company is doing a wonderful job promoting CC. Tomorrow we play a 45 minute in store show in Madrid 6:30pm at FNAC Preciados, 28
28013 Madrid, Spain
915 956 10.

If you in Madrid please join us.

xokiki

We've been touring Germany for the last eight days promoting Christopher Cross's new CD. He has been chatting up my new CD "The Beauty Inside" as well. I love singing Window as always and the new songs are really cool in this stripped down version of the band. Andy Suzuki is a killer sax player and keyboardist. What a treat. Our first show was "Wetten Dass...?" where we ran into Hugh Laurie who was performing on the same show. I sing in his TV band at home. It's so funny to run into people you know thousands of miles away from home. Tomorrow we drive five hours to Frankfurt for our last German show. then we fly to Spain. I shall miss the fantastic German fans, my bodyguard, Sebastian :( as well as the lovely folks at EAR Music, Dagmar, Anje and Max. Here's a link to some fan responses. I wish I understood German a bit better. Wunderbach. I did hear that once or twice! Must got to sleep now.

Finally catching up on emails after not having my computer AC cord since we started. The radio shows have been going great! It's alot of fun playing Christopher's songs unplugged like this. I love singing the Window duet too. Meeting some wonderful people and playing with Andy Suzuki is delightful. Our last gig is tomorrow night in Frankfurt then e are off to Spain. I will miss my special body guard, Sebastian though :(