#activities4tots – Page 3 – Ask the Clueless Middle Age Dad

Playground Review: Pirate Ship Playground (Telok Blangah Crescent)

22 Telok Blangah Cres, Singapore 090022 (link)

Haven’t written in a while and will be a bit rusty. Recently, the little one’s childcare centre took a break so we had to think of what to do to keep her occupied. Luckily, I chanced upon a somewhat unique-looking playground while catching a World Cup match at the Radin Mas Community Club. It was shaped like a pirate ship and in the land of generic playgrounds, it really stood out. Thought the little girl would like it so made use of the opportunity of her day off from school to check it out.

Little one nowadays still expected me to act as her pseudo playmate so some of the photos below were taken from the perspective of tagging along behind her. The playground consisted of a main platform (pirate ship) which had one slide at the top with various ways to reach it.

The playground manufacturer was Playcraft Systems. This was surprisingly not a cookie cutter playground (well done for them). So many of the playgrounds they installed in Singapore come across as super bland and generic.

A clever little stepping stone obstacle course with an alligator…

A nice little panel to add to the whole pirate theme.

Little one enjoyed the playground. There were enough manageable obstacles to challenge her. The slide was suitably paced for her age and size. I thought it was nice too mainly because Playcraft Systems really surprised me with a memorable design. But some cookie cutter stuff did make it into this playground which were incongruent with the pirate theme.

What’s a rocket ship doing next to a pirate ship?

Dinosaur tic-tac-toe — a feature of many a Playcraft Systems playground…

If I were to come up with a (farfetched) story to string these disparate elements with the pirate ship: Space pirates landed on a distant planet inhabited by an alligator and some dinosaur-like creatures. An adventure like no other…

Haha. I am being too critical on Playcraft Systems maybe. Just thought that it was a wasted opportunity that a potentially uniquely designed playground was marred by some mismatched features. I still liked it but it could’ve been so much more…

That’s it for another blog post. Thanks for reading. Stay healthy and safe.

Playground Review: Viking Ship Playground

82 Strathmore Avenue, Singapore 141082

This blog post is follow up from an earlier one on the outing to Dawson estate with Missus and Lil Missy in which we visited the “Alice in Wonderland” playground.

This playground was within the vicinity of “Alice in Wonderland”. Built for younger children, it didn’t have any high obstacles to overcome and it only had one slide — though it was quite a steep one.

The playground had what I saw as a Viking ship theme. Equipment was provided by Chinese manufacturer Qitele. Previously, we’ve also brought Lil Missy to playgrounds installed by Qitele. I found them to be thoughtful in terms of creating distinctive themes so that they don’t end up being cookie cutter — a beef I have with modern playgrounds.

An overview of the Viking ship — what I thought was a Viking ship anyway…

Lil one didn’t find the playground too fun. She went up once via some steps on a pole and slid down once and that was it. Maybe it’s because it was her second playground — is there such a thing as playground fatigue? Or that it was maybe too kiddish for her liking.

Even though she didn’t like this, I thought it was still a rather fun playground if you have kids which are a bit younger, maybe 2-4 years old. There are obstacles here which I think kids of that age would still find challenging and they’ll be rewarded with a relatively fast and zippy slide.

Thanks for the read. Will end this article with a few more photos of the playground. Stay healthy and safe everyone.

Playground Review: Alice In Wonderland Playground

80 Strathmore Avenue, Singapore 141080

This was a chance discovery — always the best way to learn new things. Was walking in the Dawson estate one afternoon after a coffee at the Seven Stars Coffee Shop (七福星咖啡) located at 85 Dawson Road when I chanced upon the “Alice in Wonderland Playground”. From afar, it looked like a really elaborate playground akin to those run by commercial operators (usually indoors). So I approached it to take a closer look (see below).

I was bowled over by how elaborate the playground was. It had two sculptures and the structure had a suspension rope bridge across it — definitely unique. I checked on Google Maps and found that the location was marked as “Alice in Wonderland Playground”.

And it was open to the public, not a private playground attached to a childcare facility. I thought our Lil Missy would probably find this fun and made plans to bring her there.

So one weekend, Missus and I brought the Lil Miss to the area for lunch before visiting the playground. We had lunch at the Seven Stars Coffee Shop — the place which led to my discovery. We had Yi Sheng Teochew Porridge (益盛潮州糜饭) which was surprisingly quite good. The dishes we ordered tasted fresh and were competently executed.

After lunch, we headed for the playground. First impressions I had was what a grand playground it was. It had two tube slides, one trampoline, see-saw and several fibreglass sculptures. The little one made a beeline for the trampoline first and bounced on it a little.

While Lil Miss had fun, I was off talking pictures. The equipment manufacturer for this playground was Kompan. Their playgrounds are usually quite minimalist in designs so this one was a surprise. There were many sculptural features here with Wonderland characters such as Tweedle-Dee/Dum, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, etc.

The playground elements consisted of two platforms linked by a rope suspension bridge. Each platform had a tube slide. Confusingly, one of the tube slides (blue) had to be accessed by climbing up the obstacles which was on a separate platform which you then have to traverse the rope suspension bridge to finally get to. The end of the tube slide then gets you to the middle of the platform it was installed on.

Thought this was an odd choice because after that there wasn’t really any payoff — climbing down the platform via a short rope ladder after a tube slide isn’t that exhilarating… (but that’s my opinion). I accompanied the little one on the obstacle course and served as a sled for her to come down the tube slide.

Tube slide to the middle of the platform…

The second tube slide (orange) we tried made much more sense. It required you to climb up two levels of obstacles to reach and brings you to the bottom like most slides. A much better configuration and it was no wonder that the little one liked it better than the other tube slide.

Notwithstanding my criticism for how one of the slides was configured, I was overall quite impressed by this playground. It was definitely quite memorable and not cookie cutter. I could imagine that if our daughter had playmates her age, and not me a grown man, she would find many more fun ways to engage with it — I think it could be a good hide and seek venue.

This gave the little one a bit of fun. Maybe next time she could come with friends. We were there not that long before we moved to another playground in the area which we spotted. That’ll be for another article.

Thanks for reading. Till next time, stay healthy and safe everyone.

Impromptu Excursion: Berlayar Creek Boardwalk

Berlayer Creek (enter via Labrador Park MRT station)

Labrador Park at the junction of Berlayar Creek Boardwalk and Bukit Chermin Boardwalk.

One weekend late afternoon, our little family of three was looking for something to do after Lil Miss’ regular doodling class. I thought of Berlayar Creek Boardwalk which we tried to visit once but didn’t go through with it because Lil Miss wasn’t up to walking. The weather was ideal: sunshine but not too hot. So off we went.

Berlayar Creek is part of Labrador Nature Reserve which has a series of trails and boardwalk along the southern coast of Singapore. We entered the boardwalk via Labrador MRT station — which is most convenient if you’re visiting via public transport (see route map below).

It’s 13 minutes but we took almost twice the time… haha

From here, it’s a 1km or so walk to the Bukit Chermin area where you can get a view of Sentosa as well as the nearby Keppel Club. The walk was pleasant with foliage on both sides of the board walk and Lil Miss being as game as she’d ever been to walk rather than play koala bear — such occasions have been rather rare, so we were lucky.

It did help that the walk was punctuated by many sightings of the local community of bushy tailed plantain squirrels. During our walk, we saw them bounding on the overhanging foliage and at times using the boardwalk railings like a catwalk / racetrack. We were lucky to have snapped a picture of one blissfully munching on a snack.

We did the 1km walk in about 25 minutes and we were well rewarded with a scenic view at Bukit Chermin boardwalk (see below). There were folks picnicking with their portable chairs (a real pro move I think), fishing and couples dating (one couple sat on a fallen log — super rustic / romantic). A sight of restful tranquility.

A more artistic photo (taken by Missus) than the pano above (taken by *moi*)

At the intersection of Berlayar Creek and Bukit Chermin boardwalks there were park benches which Missus, Lil Miss and myself took a break at — Lil Miss did a mini-picnic with some snacks we brought.

Missus and Lil Miss enjoying the break….

After the rest, we set off on the way back to civilisation. Predictably, Lil Miss switched back to koala mode with the reason/excuse that her legs were “painful” (sore). We opted to take a different route which took us through Port Road and Labrador Villa Road (see route below). Missus and me did a relay passing the tired koala bear between us through the short trek.

Again, it probably wasn’t 13 minutes for us… 🐨

We luckily chanced upon more fauna on the way out. First, we spotted several red jungle fowls with the roosters a crowing to signal the imminent sundown. We also saw a rather large monitor lizard — which I reckoned to be around 60-70cm from head to tail. It was lounging in the open without a care for the presence of humans — unlike an earlier one which slowly crawled into the bushes when it realised it was exposed.

A great impromptu outing notwithstanding the fact of missus and me having sore muscles from lugging our little koala wannabe for around 1km. The walk was filled with interesting sights and the rest in between was really relaxing.

That’s it for another edition of this blog. Thanks for reading. Till next time, stay healthy and safe everyone.

Lil Miss’ First Concert: Music Under The Moonlight 2022

With all members of our little family (Missus, Lil Miss and me) having gone through Covid infections recently, we were a bit bolder about going out to crowded places. During the recent Chinese mid-autumn festival, we thought that we should visit the Jurong Lake Garden for their “Lights by the Lake” lantern displays.

Lil Miss was also given two lanterns (not by us) and Missus and I thought that we should amortise them by going on an after-dinner lantern walk. So off we went.

It was really crowded around the large lantern displays so we avoided staying too long there. As a result, we’ve only got a few photos (see below).

Desire for academic success in Chinese culture very much on display…

I like this better. Children should play while they can… 😛

While getting away from the crowd, we chanced upon a live performance going on. It was a performance by a flutist with an accompanying band (bass, keyboard and drums). They called themselves RitXu Group — Rit Xu being the flutist and bandleader (there’s an interesting interview with him by The Bandpost).

Can’t tell it from this photo but Rit Xu has impressive dimples. Wonder if he got them by playing the flute…

Happy to report that little miss had thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Sitting on Missus’ lap, she was happily bobbing her head to the music. We managed to catch the band playing two songs in full: Dancing in the Moonlight (Toploader) and 弯弯的月亮 (David Lui Fong).

Little one having the best seat in the house….

Missus and I enjoyed it thoroughly too. It’s been so long since we caught a live performance. We aren’t that big on instrumental music but enjoyed how RitXu Group had arranged the pieces.

Thought that it was really interesting that the flute played the role of “vocalist” in both songs. The two songs were of contrasting moods: the first upbeat and positive, the second slow and somber. The flutist was able to interpret both songs expertly.

That’s it for another edition of this blog. Till next time. Stay healthy and safe.