Travelling with the Guitar

I've been called a groupie, a roadie, a coolie... but all I really am is wife to my guitar-playing husband who travels some. I get to tag along, to take me away from the monotony of obsessive house cleaning. Here, I log our adventures with food, airlines, hotels, food, organisers, fans, food, people, books I read. Did I say 'food' already? Well, someone's got to tell people what life's like on the road, right?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Missed Double Take's Final 2009 concert
(excerpt from email to my friends) Just got back from KL. It was a horrific trip.

Rog had a concert at the Petronas Philharmonic Centre with Mia (Palencia). It was a sold-out concert, Rog was excited. I was excited. We flew to KL Sat night, Sara was feverish at the airport. So we gave her med. When we got to my brother's place that night, her fever shot up high! 39.1 degrees Celsius. Gave her more liquid med, sponged her down because she felt soooo feverish. Poor child was whimpering and was breathing very heavily. Then she started shaking.

I went nuts because I thought she was having a fit. But it turned out she was just shivering. Getting night chills. Her arms and legs, hands and feet were so cold but her forehead, her chest and her back were burning hot. /Sara and I didn't sleep the whole night...went to see the doctor the next morning. Doc said her tonsil infection.

...Come Monday, concert day. Rog got us a day-use room in a hotel nearby. We left the house at in the morning, headed straight to the centre where Rog and Mia had rehearsals, sound checks while Sara and I hung out at the dressing room. Sara was alright then, we continued the liquid med for her fever.... But when we went to the hotel at about 2pm, her fever shot up again. Very high.... Fever went down after the suppository...

In the evening, we went back to the centre. At 8pm, Rog stayed backstage while Sara and I went out for dinner. After that, we went up to the hall. We were walking into the concert hall to watch the show at about 9pm, warden tore our tickets when Sara started shivering again. Felt feverish. Tried to give her liquid med, she puked it all out. So I decided not go into hall, and to go backstage instead, to that dressing room we were in earlier that day.

But the security guards wouldn't let us in, even though I had the pass. They said once the show starts, noone can go in and out of the place. So I carried Sara around, finally found a place to sit at Burger King. Poor child crawled onto the couch and promptly fell asleep. At 10, she started burning up! Concert wouldn't end till 10:30pm but I realised I had to give Sara her supp immediately. So I rushed up back to the hall and asked the guards to let me in because "my daughter is very sick, please let me in to get the medicine".

You would think they'd do it without much bother but noooo. I had to BEG ... about ten people, repeat the whole, "my daughter is sick, i need to go in the room backstage where the bag with her medicine is in right now. Touch her forehead if you don't believe me, she was very sick. I HAVE to go in NOW. If you are worried about security, just send someone in with me, let me get her med and we'll come out right away" all ten times!

It's crazy. I was on the verge of tears because Sara was shivering and feverish all the same time and I was panicking.

Gawd.

In the end, after what seemed like a long, long time of negotiation, they finally agreed to let me in just to go get the med with a guard accompanying me. Made me promise to come out straight away.

We went in, I found the supp and I was trembling by then: partly because I was so upset that I had to beg for something like getting med for my sick kid, partly from being so worried about Sara and partly because I had to insert the supp into Sara for the first time in my life!

Sara got up just as I was going to put the supp in. Covered her butt and started to whine, "No, mommy, it's painful. Noooo."

I can't even describe how I felt right then, except that I was real close to tears. Then the guard came up to me and apologised, said he was just doing his job just now, told me not to worry, that I can stay there, take my time, but just make sure we are quiet because the management is strict about noise level, blah, blah, blah. He shut the door and left us alone. Managed to insert the supp into Sara, held her and rocked her while she whined some more.

Just then, Mia and R came bursting into the dressing room, all happy and exuberant because it was a great show. They saw sick Sara and froze. Ten minutes later, the kid is up and walking around, a little tired but looking so much better!

The supps are wonderful!...

(Update: Sara's fever is gone, she's tired a lot now but at least she's energetic. We missed a great concert.)