July 2010

July 2010 was a crazy busy month for Roger. He was working every single weekend. OK, not so unusual but all were out-of-town work.



First weekend - Tip of Borneo
Roger and his friends had a gig, opening for the Jesselton Philharmonic Orchestra, at the concert on the tip of Borneo. It's three to four hours drive from where we live and a year or two ago, we agreed that I will be the driver for Roger's out-of-town, in-the-state concerts. That's because (1) Roger likes to sleep in the car, (2) I can't sleep in the car, (3) I get terrible motion sickness so I can't look at maps while the car is moving, (5) I enjoy driving and (5) Roger gets very tired from driving long distance.

We went up to the pioneer town of Kudat in a convoy of two cars: the other belonging to Roger's old friends: drummer Peter Lau and his brother, Simon, the bassist. Set off from Kota Kinabalu at 1pm and we arrived at the tip around 5:30pm, with a brief stop for lunch at Tuaran.

By the time we got to Tanjung Simpang Mengayau, the orchestra had already started their soundcheck so we just hung around and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. That was a lotta waiting. We got back to the hotel after 9pm that night and had dinner just before 10pm. And yes, even Sara. She was eating a lot of biscuits, cheese slices, raisins during the soundcheck... She's a good traveller, that one.

The next day, Roger and his friends went to the site early for soundcheck. But when it's by the sea and it's afternoon, the heat can get pretty unbearable! (Good thing Sara and I stayed back and enjoyed the pool instead :) .... )

By the time Sara and I got there at 5pm, the setting sun was still nasty hot, staring right at us. Squint, squint, squint. Out came my portable, foldable umbrella (my handbag's got a lot of stuff in there). But the wind proved too strong for my foldable umbrella which - well, folded in the wind. So we had our sunnies on, we had our hats on, we had a cooler full of beer (and a can of Milo for Sara), we had chips, we were set!

And it was a truly wonderful experience. If you are in Sabah this time next year, do think about driving up to Kudat for the festival. Driving in pitch dark, miraculously finding our way back to the hotel from the tip of Borneo, the three-hour car ride, the heat - it was worth it. The view is magnificient and the experience, unique.

Second weekend - Beijing

Roger's exciting debut in China almost never happened. It started good. His flight from Kota Kinabalu to Hong Kong was uneventful. Read, good.

But that Hong Kong - Beijing flight! Wowzer. That was interesting. He sent me several "I think they are calling for my flight now" text messages but the 4pm flight kept getting delayed because weather in Beijing was bad, heavy rain. At 10pm, they made an announcement for all passengers to board the plane and this time, they did!

But two hours later, they were still on the runway. Finally, the plane made its way back to the airport and the passengers were told they would not be flying afterall. Way too tired to complain, they stumbled out of the plane, walked to the airport hotel, waited in line to check into their rooms. When he finally got into the room, poor Rog was so tired. And as if that's not enough, they had to wake up early the next morning to catch the 9am flight the next morning. THAT, thankfully, flew and landed safely in Beijing.

He got there just in time to judge a competition, to perform and later, to enjoy other master guitarists play. You know what? In true Roger Wang fashion, he never lost his cool throughout this "adventure". He got there, performed flawlessly, smiled, took pictures with fans, signed autographs... Brave, Roger, bravo!

Third weekend - Johor and Kuala Lumpur

What can I say about 2V1G... really, what? I've never seen them perform before and I'm writing this in November 2010! Craziest thing! But I think it might have to do with how late the gigs are, too late to bring a 3-year-old along, I suppose. Next gig in November, Roger said Sara and I can go to the rehearsals so at least, I can finally say I've seen 2V1G perform live.

This weekend, Rog brought me and Sara to Kuala Lumpur because this was going to be a week-long trip that included two performances by 2V1G at Johor and Bandar Utama.

Fourth weekend - Bangkok

Roger's never been to Bangkok either so this was another first for him. We've heard about the protests and street demonstrations so we were rather anxious about this trip but this turned out to be a lot less eventful than the Beijing trip because everything went smoothly. No delayed flights.

Roger was going to perform with Gina Panizales (from their album "Love's Tapestry") at the Audiophile Fair in Bangkok that weekend so Roger, being the techie that he is, was excited about going to Bangkok.

When he got back home, I asked him, "Was Bangkok nice? Were there protestors? Was it dangerous? Was the food nice?"

"Yes, no, no, and yes" was his reply.

I think a family holiday in the near future is in order here.