Raymond is one of my old friends from University. We go through a couple of period where we don't get to hang with each other, but as a friend of course I'll make it out to his birthday party.
I knew I would be clubbing a lot this weekend. Originally I was planning to take my friend's cousin out to go clubbing all weekend. Both Wendy and Kevin told me she was coming to Hong Kong and wanted to go clubbing, but for some reason she never contacted me. Friday night I went to meet up with Cherie and Germaine. Raymond introduced another friend over the phone who held her birthday party at Hei Hei on Friday. We went to meet up with her and ended up running into quite a few friends. It tends to happen a lot with the social circles in Hong Kong. My friends end up knowing other friends that I introduce them to.
After clubbing Friday night I went out again Saturday for
Raymond's birthday. I was pretty tired from the 2 hours of sleep the previous night and that made me a little late. We had dinner together then I sat down with them at Karaoke for a little bit before going down to LKF for clubbing. I met up with Diana and her friend and we went over to Pi to party it up with Tiffany, Kazue, and Gloria. We ended up at Volar before going home. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to make it to tennis.
Labels: Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong
This post is in response to
a previous comment left on my blog. Because I have had some potential
legal difficulties brought on by another company which I
blogged about, I'll need to formally make the following disclaimer.
What I write about on my blog is strictly my own opinion and should not be taken as fact. It may or may not be based on my own personal experiences.
An anonymous writer wrote the following, all in Chinese which makes it difficult for me:
"HI
我無意中入左你blog...
我有d野想問你
希望你可以幫到我
之前係街度有間model 公司話有興趣搵我做model,間model 公司叫Destionation-pro company (又名The Group)
我入到去佢地叫我俾$980話影相,話用黎俾d客睇,我影左,之後拎相果陣,佢又叫我俾$6000,要黎影laser print photo shooting,但我話冇咁多錢,佢叫我俾住$2500先,尾數係之後d job度扣.
我好驚,其實間公司係米厄人,係米間間model公司都要收錢,先有job做..
我真係好驚俾人厄
請盡快回覆
thaks!!"
I had a friend translate it and I've got the rough feel of what this person was asking about. It was a strange coincidence that someone asked me about Destination / The Group because the other day I was in Tsim Sha Tsui getting my
China VISA done when someone stopped me in the TST MTR station. I saw him standing there and he kind of chased me down to talk with me. He introduced himself as Robbie Tin and asked me if I had an interest to do modeling for news papers and magazines. The introductions are pretty similar anyways. I'm starting to get use to them since this is the 3rd local talent agency or production house to stop me in Hong Kong. Left my name and number with him, because I'm kind of stupid that way and I'm always curious about these companies so I can blog about them, and then left on my way. Afterwards I saw the comment on my blog about this company. With that in mind I went Saturday for a casting at their company near Jordan. Their office is located at Room 103, Park Tower, 15 Austin Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Now I can't give a lot of information since it is my first time meeting them. I can only relate my story on my blog.
I spoke with a women named Joanne on the phone late at night and arranged the meeting for Saturday around 4:30 pm. She was fairly nice on the phone, and sounded quite friendly. While I was in TST Saturday to pick up my Visa I actually saw "Robbie Tin" again in the MTR station. The card he handed me is their business card with his own name written using a normal ball point pen. When I arrived I was asked to fill out a form at the reception. The form is standard, of course they need your information. I've filled out similar forms at every agency and production house that I've been to. I filled out most of the information truthfully but did not leave my ID number. I have a public email address that I use which is separate from my personal email address. I went into an office where I met a "Rachel Chan". Her card, which I obtained later, labels her as a Project Manager. She told me the basics about how they do production work for several clients and told me about their work for
HSBC and
Watsons. We had some idle banter about myself and she finally broke into the picture taking part. Now I am not an expert on the modeling industry. I do not even claim to be a model. From my understanding models do pay money to produce
composite cards (comp cards/zen cards). They may pay an agency to use a standard agency template, or pay to have one designed for them. The costs vary. So I can not give you an estimate on the costs for a composite card. As for production houses asking for pictures, this shouldn't come as a surprise since that's what they need to show to clients.
The catch I think is everyone of these production houses has asked for me to take pictures with their own photographers. The typical "reasons" are that they trust their photographers, their photographers know what their clients want, and they can offer a cheaper rate than going to an outside studio to have these pictures produced. These were all points that were brought up with my discussion at my casting. I can not fault a production house for trying to sell their own services, but since I need a safety net against being taken advantaged of I won't use their in house service. I really only "trust" the big local agencies, and probably the
Dream girls the most. When I brought up the fact that I was interested in having pictures done on my own, Rachel presented reasons for me to have it done with
Destination / The Group instead and also threw in the fact that if they're not happy with the photos I submit outside, they may ask me to do them again using their own in house photographer. She did not however pressure me into using their services.
Again this is as far as I've gotten into the process. I'm seriously considering having pictures done, either finding a friend to help and locating a studio someplace. I think I would be better prepared if I had some nice shots done. I can have other people judge them first before releasing them. I trust the judgments of the people that I know in the industry. If future companies don't accept those photos then I could discern their personality based on their responses.
If anyone else has had experiences, good or bad, with this or any other agencies I encourage you to post about it.
Labels: Hong Kong, Scams
The Weekend of Taking People Around
There wasn't much to this past week. As part of my socializing I had a chance to meet up with some people whom I haven't seen for a while. Midori (みどり) I haven't seen for a while and I had dinner with her and her friend Makiko (まきこ) before their Cantonese class. They have conversational lessons each week in a small class room in Jordan. Fairly close to where Hiroko works actually. We had an enjoyable dinner last time so hopefully we can make our meetings more regular.
I've also had a chance to meet up with Hiroko a number of times. We've both been down recently and it was nice to have someone to comfort and to be comforted by. Hiroko is one of those really good friends you know you can trust and who will look out for you. I met up with her last week and had dinner again last night with her.
Saturday I hung out with Flora. I rarely see her, but since she was in Hong Kong over the weekend we decided to go out to chill. I took her out to my new badminton group and we gave her a whole basic training course. She was a little, an hour, late meeting up. At least I managed to find a new magazine shop at Diamond Hill which had Japanese magazines at a reasonable price. I've been improving again on badminton, but I don't know if this is because I've been missing out on tennis. Tennis has been too early these days so after LKF Saturday nights I never seem to wake up on time to get to tennis. It is kind of good to get away from tennis for a while though, I need a break from the people actually. They're good people but culturally I think I've run into some problems with them. A break away from them is good to reflect on the cultural differences.
Saturday, after badminton and dinner, Flora and I met up with Diana and her friend (Chamatoe? Honestly that's her name) and we went down to Volar. Flora doesn't club very often, I thought about going to Karaoke with Cherie, Germaine, and Michelle, but I thought it would be more interesting for her to try something new since she always goes karaoke. She ended up bumping into about 3 co-workers at Volar. Stewardesses apparently enjoy their clubbing. One of the girls was their news letter model. They all had the same statement when they saw her.
"I thought you told me you don't party?!"
I think I've ruined her image at work. It was an interesting night though. Ran into
Ben and his brother Dave there. Plus some how Diana and her friend managed to make some new friends who apparently bought too many drinks and were offering them out to people for free. The group was very similar to ours in terms of there was one guy and like 3 other girls with him. I think the guy wanted to introduce some of his girls to me, but Diana kept me well protected. I was pressuring Diana to give me info about her boyfriend all night and I think it was the free drinks that made her finally spill the beans.
Sunday I got a message from
Jason saying that they were probably coming down to Mong Kok later. I was having dim sum with Diana at the time and convinced her to join us. We spent the whole day shopping. Diana and I were looking at sunglasses and watches until we met up with
Jason,
Araceli, and his two German friends; Falk and his girl friend. We hit up ladies market for the girls, sneaker street for Araceli (she was looking for a hiking backpack), and the model gun shops for the boys. I had no clue Jason was so crazy about guns. Apparently Araceli was a little freaked out when she first moved in with him. "I thought he was some kind of terrorist", I believe she said. I took them over to Portland street Cafe for dinner. Jamie came for dinner and then we all headed home.
I headed out quickly to Racks afterwards in LKF to see Dave before he left for Australia. We played pool together with
Emile,
Ben, and this Dutch model
Peter whom I've met a number of times before. With a little direction from Emile (aka Coach) I managed to do quite well at pool that night.
Right now I'm planning my trip to Shanghai. I'm looking to go for the week of May 1st. I only know one person there right now so I hope I will be able to have a good time. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to check out Shanghai Volar.
Labels: Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong, Model
Seems like I always find something to keep me busy. Stuff that have happened recently but that I didn't write about. My
8Gig iPod Nano came in at work on the 11th. I finally went and did my snaps with
Dream last Thursday and had lunch with everyone. I already blogged about the Karaoke event. I got home around 3am, but couldn't really sleep. I could still feel my heart pumping from the Johnnie Walker. I ended up getting up at 6 to get ready for work. I was so tired at work, afterwards I ended up going to the gym quickly then heading out to Diamond Hill to meet up with Fanny's brother to play badminton.
Tiffany and Gloria called me out Saturday night to go to Pi. I ran into Jamie on my way there and we headed in together. Pi was okay there were a few other people I haven't seen for awhile that were there like Mook and Tina K. Kazue gave us a call and showed up afterwards a bit drunk. After everyone started leaving I took Kazue and her friend Ronald down to Volar to meet up with Sammy. When we got there he had just left, but I decided to go down anyways and ran into Ben's brother with a few other girls. Kazue and Ronald took off into Hip Hop room for awhile and I partied it up with these girls. They were awesome on the dance floor. A lot of fun to be with, I miss having friends like that. There use to be a girl who came from the US and would go clubbing in Sarnia that was really similar. I would see her all the time and dance with her just having fun and being silly. We could just relax and push each other to dance.
Angie was running around the whole night but somehow I never ended up running into her.
Sunday I couldn't wake up on time for Tennis. I ended up meeting up with Araceli and Jason down at
Harbour City. Jay was looking for a magazine at Diesel, but since it wasn't in we went for some shopping and eventually some
Triple O. They apparently had some poisonous waffles before riding the ferry over and were still kind of suffering from it. They bought some cheese and turkey breast down at City Super and when they went home I went to meet up with Janice. Playing around with her voice mail introduction I think I got her into a little trouble when her mother called her. Angie gave me a call the next day to question me.
Labels: Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong
I had a wild time at
Karaoke with the people from
Dreamodels. Too bad some of the girls were sick and/or busy. It was quite the sight though 2 Asian girls walking into Karaoke with like five models and moi. We bumped into
Ben and his brother outside of CEO in Causeway Bay right after the girls and I had a quick dinner at one of the near by Cha Chan Tan. We wasted most of the food because we were afraid we would be late.
Ben told me he remembers Karaoke when he was on a language exchange in Japan, but for the most part almost everyone there that night was a newbie. However, Christine showed off her prowess behind the microphone. I helped teach them how to play some of the Chinese style drinking dice games which ultimately lead to my undoing. I lost a number of times and was forced to drink. Basically Christine held me down while I watched Emile pour
Johnnie Walker into a glass in front of me. They watered it down a bit with
Coke and then bullied until I submitted.
The rest of the night were fun and games. Highlights include some Spanish songs, lots of lies in the dice game, ice going down people's shirts (sorry Karen), lots of photos, videos, drunken singing, and dancing.
Work the next day was killer, but it was well worth it.
Labels: Birthdays, Friends, Hong Kong, Karaoke, Model
The
end of Easter holiday was pretty relaxing. I didn't do much except see a lot of people.
Sunday I managed to go to tennis as usual. I'm usually so tired at tennis I don't know if I'm getting better or worst. Usually at the beginning while I am warming up it is as if I've started learning all over again. Since many people were away we managed to get a lot of practice though which is good. I might start playing with other people if they have free time.
I ate dinner with my tennis group(大吉) and then met up with Terence, Janice, Martin,
Jason, and
Araceli for a second dinner. I didn't intend to eat the first dinner, but the food looked too good to resist and after playing tennis I was a tad hungry. I managed to distract Terence from his studying (he's writing his CFA Level II) and four of us headed over to the arcade on the top floor of the World Trade Centre. It was quite interesting walking around since I was one of the shortest guy in the group. This is more like my toronto group where I am either the average or one of the shorter guys in the group when we go out. In Hong Kong this tends to attract attention. Though it could also be because of the two models. We got our groove on racing in Mario Cart and Araceli was satisfying her bloodlust with a shooting game.
Easter Monday I just hung out with Hiroko. I haven't seen her in the longest time. We met up with Akiちゃん in TST to go to Tommy Lee's Music. Akiちゃん ended up buying a Yamaha keyboard (on sale for $7000 HKD). They helped me do some shopping at
Lacoste, where I bought a new 'short' style polo shirt. Akiちゃん left us and Hiroko and I ended up in Causeway Bay. We sat down at a Starbucks and by coincidence another tennis memeber, whom I just met last week, was there and recognized me. I have to admit I didn't remember her, you know those cases. We ended up talking to her and her visiting friend, who works for Shell, and Kazue came to join us afterwards. I had a lot of Japanese practice. I need to start focusing more on my written if I plan to take the Japanese level exam in December.
Labels: Friends, Hong Kong, Model
Everyone was looking forward to Easter holiday in HK. Thursday, the day before
Good Friday, was the
Ching Ming Holiday here in Hong Kong. So it was an extra long weekend; five days actually including the weekend. Many of my friends took advantage of this long weekend to get away. Jamie's in Korea, a number of Japanese people went back to Japan, and other friends went to China or Macau. I wanted to go to Korea, but none of my friends in Korea seem to be free this Easter. Though one of my friends in Korea might visit me in HK near the end of this month.
The start of the Easter holiday was a little rough. I received a letter, which I talked with many of my friends about. I want to post it online but I will hold off on that until I can confirm how it will legally affect me. As you can guess this seems to be somewhat of a serious matter. I never imagined something like this would happen to me. Stay tuned for more information.
Since it was a long holiday I took the opportunity to see some old friends whom I rarely get a chance to see. These friends I've known since University and you probably haven't read about them on my blog for quite some time. They live so far away that it seems like they travel back to main land China each time they go home.
Saturday was
bike riding day with Raymond, Connie, Rick, Jackie, and Morris (Jackie's からし). Morris I found out is half Japanese, so I got to practice a little bit with him. Recently my Japanese seems to finally be at a level in which can be considered usable. Though any Japanese child would still beat me. I haven't ridden on a bike in the longest time, but it all came back to me once I got on. We went out near Sha Tin for our ride alone this long, seemingly endless, bike path. It was interesting though because Hong Kong people don't really know how to ride bikes. I suppose because the environment isn't really good for children to learn. There were a number of adults using training wheels on their bikes. I on the other hand was reckless and endangering the lives of the people around me. I was jumping all over the place, standing up on the frame of my bike, and riding it in illegal areas. Next time I might just take my roller blades out instead.
Afterwards I headed down to Lan Kwai Fong to meet up with Sandra and her Taiwanese friend Chelsy. The intention was to take her around Hong Kong, but they ended up spending hours doing their beauty stuff (like 3 hours on nails) and then the rest shopping. I guess there isn't a Zara or H&M in Taiwan yet. I took Michelle and Kazue down to Volar afterwards and were lucky enough to run into
Emile and some of the other models that were still in Hong Kong. Jackie and Morris joined us afterwards as well. The big surprise though was running into Doug and LeHoa. I haven't seen either of them in the longest time, I didn't even know Doug came back to Hong Kong. Over all it was a fun night for everyone. I had a couple of things on my mind, and was a little moody, but actually I had fun as well.
Labels: Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong, Model, Sports
