Mari the performer

Last night Mari gave her second-ever performance during a night that ended in the hospital. She did "Almost Like Being in Love", and really nailed it. Of the nine performers to take to the stage Mari was one of the top two if the applause was any indication.

We had had a bit of drama getting to the show because little Kenny's temperature was careening up and down, sometimes touching 39C. But we'd taken him to the clinic twice on Friday and the doctor assured us that it wasn't the flu. His situation seemed stable, so we left him with Mari's parents.

And had our first dinner out together since Kenny was born. Mari's cousin Yoko (another musician in the family) and our friend Joon (who wants to learn the bass) were there to take in the show. Joon and I are both avid photographers, and when we saw the warnings asking us not to take photos decided to do the only thing we could: pretend that as foreigners we couldn't read and didn't know. I limited myself to only two flash photos. And of course in my case I really couldn't read, but that wouldn't cover Joon who is fluent in five languages.

After the final performance of the first set, Mari got word from her parents that Kenny's situation was worsening. His temperature had hit 40C, he was hyperventilating, he wasn't eating, and he wasn't moving. It was time to go to the hospital.

We paid up and bolted, apologizing to Joon and Yoko and to the event's organizer, Mari's teacher. The teacher herself was just about to take the stage but told us she understood.

We got home, found Kenny to be immobile and nearly too hot to hold, and got him to the hospital (it was quite a night for the taxi companies). There we joined quite a queue of other bleary parents with wiped-out kids, all apparently waiting on the same diagnosis: was it the flu.

While we waited, I asked Mari if she thought we were crazy. We're juggling so much, the two of us on our own in this city. She's becoming a singer, I'm trying to launch a business. I'm also pursuing hobbies that take a lot of effort (I've spent the past two weekends working on a photo book) and of course we've got the ever-escalating situation with a growing son. She told me "no, we're just people who want to do something with our lives." I told her how proud I was of all the work she's put into the singing (on top of being a gold-star mum and holding a day job) and how well she'd done that night.

One by one, the other families were sent on their way. Then it was our turn, and happily Kenny didn't test for the flu. So at long last we returned home and got him (and ourselves) to bed.