"Now get to work!" she added as she passed me a black trash bag. "Let's clean up this beach!"
"Right on!" I said, with an enthusiasm that my parents had seldom seen when they ordered me (when I was a lot younger) and later suggested with a tinge of desperation (when I was older) to clean my room.
And hence began my participation in this year's fan outing organized by Paige Chua, Mediacorp artiste and lead actress in the recent Channel 8 Drama Series, The Score ("Wu Hua Guo" in Chinese) - with a jaunt up and down the beach picking up litter.
Now, I have never believed in hero worship nor been an advocate of the doting in idolatory that is bestowed on many a media celebrity, sports star or pop singer. I have never waited at a gantry or fan-barrier for hours, holding a placard hoping for a chance to come within range of an idol who barely knew I existed, if at all.
And while I have done none of that for Paige (well, not yet anyway), she is about the one and only actress whose career I follow with more than a passing interest and whose public events I try to attend so as to lend some support if I am in the vicinity. I do that because I find she is an exceedingly pleasant and earnest person whose outlook towards life I greatly admire.
I only knew of Paige last year when, after having been infected with latent tuberculosis, I was put on Isoniazid, a sapping anti-TB drug which induces depression in some, including me. In trying to cheer myself up, I happened to watch late re-runs of Chinese drama serials and found myself drawn to this pretty, tall and statuesque actress playing a police forensic specialist in Crime Busters.
When I looked for more information about her on the Net, I found her blog and was surprised to find that not only was it very well-written in English, it contained some very introspective ponderances which, apart from providing an unusual contrast to the usual pictures and updates on her public life, showed herself willing and unafraid to discuss some of the fears and vulnerabilities of her private one.
I also then found out about her avid involvement in charity and how, during each of the occasions set aside to meet and mingle with her fans, she tries to fit in some meaningful activity.
And so it was that while this year's endeavour was to do some beach-cleaning, when I met her in person for the first time last year, the aim was to wrap presents for under-privileged children. As luck would have it, almost all the others who turned up that day at the rendezvous point were young teens, leaving me alone to talk to Paige as we walked to our destination.
I was struck then by her easy-going nature and her willingness to talk about anything under the sun. But it was only in discussing a diverse range of topics, about her foray into the entertainment industry, her passion for travelling, her early days working in a bank, her involvement in sports and her slight partiality towards certain tenets of Marxism(?!), that one realised that there was an added dimension to her, a zeal and zip about the real-life Paige that the TV cameras would never adequately capture.
But for all her intelligence, the ability to shift effortlessly from articulate English to fluent Chinese, it is the little things that endear her to others - like remembering my attempts to dabble in some part-time acting this year and inquiring (while I was yanking a stubborn cigarette butt out of the sand) if I had any call ups for auditions. It is things like this that makes one feel not just a fan but a friend.
And while I hear that she has recently come in for some criticism because of her acting in The Score, I am in no doubt that her acting performances are the last thing that would alter my impression of her. For I have always thought that while a fan is an admirer of one's performances on the stage, field, arena, screen etc, a friend is a fan of one as a person, or, put another way, one's performances in life. To me, someone who, despite being good-looking, intelligent, poised and reasonably well-known, retains a humility and down-to-earth attitude, tries her best in all she does, appreciates her fans and gives back to the community whenever possible, is quite a fine Pa(i)ge in my book.
These, incidentally, are some of the pictures we took at the recent gathering at East Coast.
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