Writer's Workshop - My Experience with a Celebrity!

For my 4th Writer's Workshop, I'm choosing this prompt:

"#1. Write about an experience you have had with a celebrity."

When I was about 19 years old, I worked as a part-time sales girl at this souvenir shop inside a hotel while waiting for my college exam results. The shop owner gave me a set of keys to the shop since I had to open it before 9am and close it when I go for lunch or toilet breaks.

So one time, I was mopping around in the shop, as in just sitting there, doing nothing (what were you thinking?! That I really would be MOPPING the shop floor??! Sheeeesshh... :P) then I saw right outside the souvenir shop there is this group of people standing around, looks like they were having some sort of photo shoot session.

Then I went up closer (still inside the shop) and checked out who might the celebrity be.

Well, turns out he's one of the Hong Kong actor (quite popular then). His name is Lau Sik Ming. He even sang and had some albums back then.

OK, he might not even reached 5% of Jackie Chan's popularity but hey, I take what I can get... and to think that he's right at my shop doorstep! How often do you get to bump into a celebrity right?!

My minds were rushing... thoughts all coming in...

"Should I shriek and call out his name?"
"What if I lost my voice doing those shrieking?" (And what if I fainted and he had to send me to the hospital?!)
"Can I approach him and perhaps get his autograph?" which follows by thoughts of "I wonder if I can sell his autograph hehehe..."
"What if I get shooed away? That would be so so embarrassing!"
"Oh crap, I didn't have a nice book for him to autograph on! How about my song book? (back then I had this small note book which contains my compilation of songs I loved)"

In the end, while I was procrastinating and talking to myself whether I should approach the actor, should I, should I not, I saw the actor walking away, leaving the hotel.. Yikes!

As he was going down the stairs, I quickly took the shop keys, grabbed my song book and a pen, and closed the shop doors, ran down as fast as I could, and called out his name (no, I didn't shriek... no energy after that super quick run to stop the actor from leaving)

He stopped, turned around, and smiled at me. I handed him my song book, gesturing that I'm asking for his autograph, he then took my pen and signed. Then he showed it to me and asked:

"Do you know what I wrote?"

I took back my book, turned it around so I can read what he wrote..
I looked...
and looked...
and stared blankly...
in my mind, this is what went on:

"SH*T! SH*T! CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!"

You know why???
It's because he wrote in Chinese...

I DO NOT FREAKING KNOW HOW TO READ CHINESE!

Arghhhhhhhh!!!

So I did my best to pretend as if I can't read his 'messy' handwriting...
I pulled up my right eyebrow, looking confused and told him 'no'.

Then he laughed and said 'It's the word for cute' and then he passed the pen back to me and walked on.

Sigh... that is my closest encounter with a celebrity... and to think that I, as a Chinese do not know how to read Chinese... so embarrassing... :P

Well in my own defense, I went to national schools since kindergarten until high school and FYI, national schools are conducted in Malay language, so of course I wouldn't know how to read Chinese characters!

So there you go... embarrassing as it is, it's still an unforgettable experience! :D

(*Images are all taken from Google image search)