I Met My Hollywood Idol In Hong Kong (WE118)

September 11, 2022

Here comes Sunday, my favorite weekend as it is my rest day. This year's Mid-Autumn Festival falls on this week too, the 10th of the month. That means there were different celebrations and a lot of places to visit to spend this special day here in Hong Kong. Tourists and wanderers would swarm around different cities again to catch Moon Festival displays as if there were no pandemic restrictions.

As a traveler myself, I opted to step out of my abode to wander around a beautiful place on my bucket list. To Mid-level Central, off I went to visit the Centre for Heritage and Arts. This is one of the most visited museums in HK and tourists love to take pictures of the great architecture inside it.

While taking a selfie at one of the spots inside the heritage, a beautiful woman seemed to be wandering alone and struggling to take photos of herself and her bag even fell. I could feel it as I am a solo traveler too, and taking souvenir photos of myself is the hardest part. Thankfully, I have my tripod with me that I could use to take better shots.

As a concerned one, I approached her, picked up her bag, and handed it to her.

"Do you want me to help you?" I asked.

She smiled and was grateful for my offer. She gladly gave her phone to me, and I told her to take off her mask, but she refused, which I understood. Then she explained that she's a tourist and she doesn't want to be penalized for taking off a face mask in a public place. I then told her about my stubborn self and how I often take off my mask while taking photos, and she laughed at me.

While taking her photo, I was looking intently at her face on her phone screen as she seemed familiar. I felt like I saw her somewhere else and I could only prove it if she took off her glasses and mask. However, I respected her decision and we just continued visiting other spots. We opted to stay together so we could have photographers, lol.

We visited different spots, and I saw the woman enjoying herself so much. In one of the moments, I asked something personal—her place, for instance—to which she replied casually. Later, I found out that she's from LA. I considered myself fortunate to have met a beautiful woman who resembled a goddess and was eager to converse with me. She's a busy woman, she said, and she just sneaked out from her team as she wanted to wander alone without anyone tailing her.

The heritage of the arts was so huge, and there were a lot of restaurants inside too. I could say that it's one of the favorite hubs of foreign residents and tourists. There were a lot of foreigners in the place, especially in different restaurants.

After roaming around, we opted to visit a restaurant as we both felt hungry. To pay for my kindness, she wanted to treat me to a fancy meal. I was too happy upon hearing that. Who doesn't want fancy treats anyway? Besides, it's too expensive to dine in restaurants in the area.

She talked to staff privately and handed something to her. Then the staff brought us to a private part of the restaurant on the upper floor facing the balcony. I felt odd when I noticed that there were only two of us in the room.

After giving orders, she removed her mask and revealed beautifully balanced pouting lips, which reminded me of someone. She looked down and slowly removed her glasses, then placed them in her bag. She was facing the side when doing it, so I couldn't see her face fully.

As she faced me back, my face turned red, my eyes widened, and I was awed in disbelief upon recognizing the woman in front of me. I covered my wide-opened mouth and slapped my face to check if I was dreaming. She just chuckled upon seeing my idiotic act. And when I felt the pain, I suddenly screamed out loud.

"Wait..what?? Lara Croft? Tomb Raider? Maleficent? eehhhh!!!"

I was screaming like a pig being stuck in between logs as I couldn't believe I was seeing my idol right before my eyes. But she hushed me down as people might hear it. The staff was just laughing at me, who seemed to know the situation. As Lara explained, I mean Angelina, it was her second time dining at the place, so the staff knew her already. The first time was after the event she attended around the area, but she was being tailed by the media, which she didn't like.

I understand her situation and I don't want to be in her shoes either. I'd rather have a simple life than have the attention of the world that couldn't give her a private life. And that explains why she didn't want to remove her glasses and face mask when taking photos outside.

Our conversation continued while eating, and I seemed to be like a paparazzi, throwing a lot of questions at her. That's how she described me. Who doesn't know the controversial life of the highest-paid Hollywood actress anyway?

She's so nice to entertain me, so I asked her permission if I could ask more questions, to which she agreed.

"Your real life is so controversial and I guess the whole world knows it. But how was your life after your divorce with Pitt? Who won the custody battle for your children? I know this is quite personal, I hope you don't mind?"

"There are things that I want to keep private. But all I can say is that a mother only wants to be with her children and no law or no one could hinder her from doing it. As for now, all I want is to protect the welfare of my children."

I apologized for asking too personal questions, but she forgave me. As our conversations continued, I learned a lot of her stories, including the ones in her younger life wherein she was bullied by other students in her school because of her odd physical attributes, a so thin body with glasses and braces.

I was even more shocked when I found out that she aspired to become a funeral director and studied embalming. Unbelievable, I was like, "seriously? A pretty lady wanted to touch dead bodies?" She was laughing at my expression, and she even called herself a punk kid with tattoos when she was young.
Source

Speaking of tattoos, I noticed the inked patterns on her body and asked about their meaning. I grimaced bitterly upon knowing that she has 21 tattoos on her body, as I felt it was too painful when they were inked. She has different tattoos in different patterns; a tiger, Japanese, Persian, Buddhist, Tribal, Roman, Arabic, and even geographical coordinates.

What caught my attention was the one on her left shoulder, which is a Khmer Script prayer. She said it would protect her son from bad luck. But the interesting one was her tattoo, which states, "A PRAYER FOR THE WILD AT HEART KEPT IN CAGES" on her left arm. She explained that it's a prayer for everybody to find happiness. Source

We continued talking about random stuff while savoring the fancy food she ordered for me.

Image from Unsplash by Casey Lee

It was amazing to know the meaning of her tattoos and her past life, and I just admired her more. Apart from being a good actress, she's really so commendable, especially in her humanitarian work, helping willingly the less fortunate ones, and she even adopted three unfortunate kids of different races. Those kids are truly lucky in her hands. She may not be lucky in her love life, but she is blessed in other aspects.

It was almost five when we left the place, and it seemed that we had a long chat. Before parting ways, I asked for a favor for the first time, and that was to take a photo of her without her mask and glasses. She gladly agreed to it, and the restaurant staff helped us do it.

"1,2,3, smile 😁."

Background photo mine, Angelina's photo from free download wallpaper, oil painting photo edited in PicsArt.

It was such a wonderful weekend experience with my idol, Lara Croft, from Tomb Raider. And the piece of art souvenir shot with her was the best. The greatest weekend experience ever!

This is just a fiction story for my entry to Weekend Experience Concept 118, wherein I chose Lara Croft as my date for the weekend and added another concept about the artwork of what Sunday looks like to me.

If you haven't read this concept yet, check @galenkp post about it, click here.

Happy weekend everyone!

(All photos are mine, except for those with references)