[PLACES I GO] Hash Specialty Coffee

May 14, 2017May 14, 2017Leave a comment

Depending on whether you follow my Instagram (it’s @RachiePn by the way), you may or may not know that I snuck off to one of my favorite places about a month ago to Melbourne, Australia.

It was a very short but fulfilling trip. Even my flight there was amazing: 777-300ER, PEY bulkhead with only one other person on my row, four seats away, thank you very much.

Although my instinct says “meat pies and beers” when I think of Australia, the whole Melbourne brunch craze took too much effort to say no to. Since I dropped in on Melbourne while everyone had work or class (as in lessons, not the classy kind of class, I got some of that too), I managed to spend some good old me time while I was there.

My friends and cousins threw a bunch of names at me like “Hardware Societe”, but basically told me to go down to Hardware Lane and just do whatever the fuck I felt like doing. I checked Hardware Societe but there was a huge line and what’s more awkward than eating alone? Queuing alone to… eat alone.

So I went across the road and checked out White Mojo, but decided to give it a miss since they didn’t have much on their savoury menu that I fancied. Just a door or two down was Hash Specialty Coffee & Roasters. Short line, black decor, chorizo & scallops on the menu, it was definitely my scene.

Apart from having to sit on a tall stool, it was freaking awesome. The very hipster-looking staff actually made me feel comfortable, even after explaining that both still and sparkling water was free and comes from a tap straight into a beaker. I ordered the mentioned chorizo & scallops and a cold brew coffee for myself.

Continue reading →

[THE GROWN UP CHILD ACTOR] EATING DISORDER

May 10, 2017May 10, 2017Leave a comment

It’s funny how people usually think of anorexia first when they hear the words ‘eating disorder’.

For me it was binge eating (yes it’s a thing) and bulimia. I actually desperately wanted to be anorexic, but the whole reverse psychology thing kicked in and my cravings took over my mind.

I was bulimic because of my binge eating, and I did that because I was under so much pressure to be thin that food became a drug to me. The sense of deprivation came from obsessive dieting and eventually everything revolved around food.

First things first, when this all began I had a BMI of ~18.3, just underweight. I probably started gaining a bit of weight, and being in the world of entertainment which can drive the most confident person to be insecure, I hopped on the diet wagon.

Check me out: round, on the cover of a magazine, wearing a strange strange dress.

In hindsight I feel my addictive personality may have contributed to it. I like to go all in. I researched the most effective diets and learned why it was so. Sadly for me, learning why opened the door to a whole new level of obsession. I needed to track my caloric intake. I started reading the labels on everything I ate. I would get very good at guessing the calories in a portion of food (like how I became really good at guessing someone’s salary just from looking at their CV as a recruiter, ha). I would weigh myself before and after I peed or worked out, as if the difference meant anything. I would feel bad that my efforts didn’t make my body look different.

Continue reading →

[THE GROWN UP CHILD ACTOR] THE ACTING PART OF IT

April 18, 2017Leave a comment

It didn’t come easy. It took years and years of pushing and being pushed. I was too shy and I cared too much. Warning: pretentious cliche saying up ahead. As an actor you really need to let go and lose enough of yourself to become another person. It was either that, or becoming vulnerable enough to expose your true self in the shell of a character. It feels easy enough to drown in the emotions when you’re watching it on screen, but the truth is actors don’t get any soundtrack or editing while on set to help them feel different from what they are actually experiencing. It’s unnatural to have been running around all day doing random stuff (because actors really do do the weirdest of things to put food on the table), and suddenly just become another person living another life. We get good days and bad days, easy scenes and difficult scenes, but it still takes skills, practice, and can be very exhausting.

For me, doing a scene where there’s something big going on is easy. Crying, heart broken: I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but it’s okay. Scared: a little more difficult (I was once told by a director he wants to see my pupils dilate in a close-up; have yet to master that one). Drunk: kind of easy. Happy, curious, gossiping, angry, all relatively easy. Candid, by comparison, is level 999 for me. Sure, there’s something happening in every scene, but when it’s not one where your character needs to be actively doing something, that is really hard. On this front I think supporting actors’ jobs are much harder than the leads’. Standing around doing nothing while pretending to be someone else is not something that comes naturally. You don’t want to overthink it, but you also need to be in character.

So thrilled to be part of his crew.

Stole some kids’ costume, as you do.

“Lets make sure she’s bruised EVERYWHERE”. Harnesses are a bitch.

I have no idea how to hold a gun, but no one cares.

The end of a very long day is still the end of a very long day even if you’re doing a kids show.

Got sent on a mission to kill mosquitoes on an ancient imperial set in China.

KFC TVC I think?

Continue reading →

[THE GROWN UP CHILD ACTOR] INSECURITIES

April 3, 2017April 4, 20174 Comments

I was going to write about acting, but this insecurities thing is burning on my mind and last time I checked this is my bloody blog and I can write whatever I want to.

I’m quite open about insecurities because I know everyone has them. Recently I’ve had to face some insecurities I thought I was done with. It’s sobering to learn that some insecurities just don’t go away. Not completely.

So much of being an actor is about facing and living with your insecurities, but I feel that’s really because we’re all human. We all have insecurities, actor or not. Maybe this blog post could be a standalone outside of this series; or to be honest, I could probably also start a one called “Insecurity is My Middle Name”.

Before we go into the things I’m insecure about, let’s start with some ground rules. Try not to judge or bitch too much. If you’re going to tell me I have no right to feel a certain way, or that I’m just ungrateful, you might not understand what insecurities are. Insecurities can be irrational, which is why they’re a bitch to live with, but also why we stand a chance at working through them.

So. Shall we begin?

I’m insecure about:

My thighs, and calves… let’s just say my legs
My tummy, the way it sticks out after a meal… even though I know it’s supposed to do that
My eye brows
My profile, as in how my face looks from the side
My face, actually
My laugh
My nails, please don’t look at them
My singing, not that I actually need to sing for anyone
My personality
My sentimentality, it makes me feel like I care more than others do, as if that’s a crime

I think this is becoming a list of things I don’t love about myself, and could go on forever, but while it lasted – all ten points of it – it was great to get off my chest and to openly say that those are the things that would drain my confidence if you paid attention to it.

Continue reading →

[THE GROWN UP CHILD ACTOR] HOW IT ALL STARTED

March 18, 2017Leave a comment

If you know me you would not believe that I was an incredibly shy kid. So shy that I found it difficult to say hello to anyone in a room full of adults. Like any spoilt child though, I had a lot of attitude when it came to my own family. I think the weird combination of being a shy but spoilt only child must have lead to my annoyingly inconsistent bitchiness.

To make things worse, I was also the baby of the family for a long time. My relatives loved dressing me up and taking photos of me as if they had such pioneering spirits that they thought of film as memory cards.

I hated it.

The attention and company was nice for a while, but my cousins would move onto playing house, making me play not just the baby, but a small baby who “doesn’t know how to walk or talk”. That meant I would spend whole weekends or even summers with them being told to lie in a corner and do nothing. Fast forward 20 odd years and I would own that game, especially if you gave me some wine. The alternative back then was being strapped into a toy pram, raced against whatever they found available for pushing and destroying, and be abandoned until my aunt found the carnage of a toy pram crash. Now you know that’s a thing. Oh wait, memories are flooding back: option #3 was being held down and tickled by no less than two older cousins until an adult tells them I’m about to stop breathing; and option #4 was being “taught how to swim” by having my head held under water until an adult comes along. It’s a strikingly consistent theme.

Continue reading →

[Things I Watch] Please Like Me

March 11, 2017March 11, 2017Leave a comment

Can we please talk about the TV show Please Like Me?

It’s not a new show (piloted in 2013; is ‘piloted’ a real word?), and I only stumbled across this show a week or two ago on Netflix.

I have to be very honest here, I’m a bit ADD, which means when I watch anything at home I either fidget with something or I play some brainless game on my phone. You’re right, I don’t focus and I miss a lot. This could be why it took me a while to get into this show. The characters are unbelievably hilarious, but no one delivers a punch line like it’s a punch line. There are no awkward pauses or raising their voices to announce the arrival of a gif-able golden punch line. The funniest parts of the show are in fact delivered in such way that if you don’t pay attention, you will miss it completely.

Please Like Me

After breaking up with his girlfriend, Josh comes to the realization that he is homosexual.

Gay. I’m just going to call him gay, ok? He calls himself gay on the show. It’s okay to state that he’s gay, right?

So Josh realises he’s gay, and we come to learn that his parents are divorced: his father is dating a Thai girl, and his mother depressed. Sounds a little like Modern Family doesn’t it?

Continue reading →

Old Hong Kong: Tai O Fishing Village

March 7, 2017May 11, 2017Leave a comment

Catch a glimpse of the old fishing village with traditional stilt houses on the Western Side of Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

Before Hong Kong became a global financial hub, Tai O was famous fishing village which was well-loved for culture, seafood snacks and stilt-houses. Separated by a small river, Tai O is a quaint village situated North-Weste of Lantau Island, and reachable by a 50-minute bus ride from Tung Chung MTR.

Tai O is a rustic village is built on stilts over the water, decorated with salty fish and famous for its shrimp paste and all kinds of Chinese seafood products. It has plenty to keep you busy, especially if you love photography. Venture towards the river and you will find the best angle to capture this village from.

Continue reading →

[The Grown Up Child Actor] Hi

March 5, 2017March 5, 2017Leave a comment

My name is Rachel. Born in Hong Kong, raised here as an actress.

I was maybe four years old when I first started acting, 24 when I finally walked away from it all. I was younger than most of my colleagues, but had the most experience at least in terms of years. For twelve months I worked as a Flight Attendant, bringing my tally of visited countries to 24. When I realized it wasn’t something I wanted to do for life, I looked for my first ‘proper’ job at age 25. Soon I joined a global recruitment firm as a consultant, where for the first time I was immersed in the corporate world of sales.

I didn’t stay at the job for very long. It drove me crazy and I tried to look for ‘my thing’, as I had for as long as I can remember.

I’m at a job right now that’s better than being a recruiter, but it feels like I never did figure out who I really am after I stopped acting. Maybe I’ll feel like a fish out of the water for as long as I’m not on set.

This is the life of a grown up child actor. Follow this space to read about the insecurities, eating disorder, identity struggles and all the things we pretend to know nothing about.

Guide to Albany Road- Hong Kong

February 20, 2017May 11, 2017Leave a comment

If you’re visiting and considering to take a day off from the buzzing districts, stop by The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, better known as Hong Kong Zoo.

In the Central neighbourhood just around the corner from the Visuals Art Centre lies one of the oldest parks in Asia. Hidden in plain sight next to Soho, it’s one of the hidden gems located right in the heart of Hong Kong Island and unknown to many people.

Built in 1861, it may not boast a menagerie of animals compared to larger zoos, but it’s a refreshing haven in this concrete jungle. Just a 15 minutes walk from the Central MTR station, the zoo is home to a wide variety of primates and birds. Odds are that there will be families and tourists visiting during the weekends, so getting there early is the best advice.

Continue reading →

Nara, Japan

February 19, 2017Leave a comment

Nara is only about 40 minutes away from Osaka by train, and is definitely worth the trip.

Famous for their free-roaming deers, Nara Park is only about 10 minutes walk from the station. It is a straight shot and you know you’ve made it when you see the stalls selling deer crackers.

Nara Park is a very peaceful spot: grass, open air, and gentle deers; only ruined by annoying tourists just like myself. For some reason the deers bow so that you would give them the crackers, which I found a bit unsettling. While some say they were trained, I prefer to think that they’re just following the crackers in the humans’ hands as they bow. The deers are mostly very gentle, but they can get pretty aggressive, or impatient with people taking so long with the food. Two of them went for the crackers in my hand at the same time, and one even bit Jon’s coat to get him to hurry up.

Running for my DEER life when they got aggressive

On a nicer day, it would have been great to stroll through the park and maybe even have a picnic (not sure how doable that is with all the deers around, maybe it’s not even allowed), but with the rain getting heavier, we happily agreed to visit the nearby sake brewery to stay warm.

Continue reading →