Friday 21 December 2007

Jacob Ballas Children's Garden


After reading my friend's blog and finding out that there's such a place, I went to Jacob Ballas Children's Garden with Coco. The weather was great - exceptionally sunny after days of raining.
The Garden's not as impressive as what the website makes it out to be. Perhaps the 'highlight' of that place is the water area. It's the only area alive with children. Coco enjoyed herself very much there, so much so that when I asked her to leave, she shook her head at me and turned away to continue to play. She had to ask a stranger to give me a call when she realised I was missing. That'll teach her not to ignore me when I say it's time to go.


Loads of kids at the water squirts:

I thought it's quite thoughtful that the design of the Garden is very kiddish yet refreshing. Even the Kidz Cafe consists of little children's furniture and sells club sandwiches and kids' finger foods (which are ridiculously priced ie. 'Golden' Fries - $3, Cheese Fries - $3.90, Club sandwich - $5.90). Clearly, the architect or the designer tried to think in the line of children's thoughts when he designed this Garden. The appearance is certainly there, but the quality of the Garden is still not up to mark yet. Perhaps it's because it's still under construction - the Tree House wasn't ready yet, the lotus for plant study are dying, supposedly due to a serious lack of care, there's a 'stream' that only consists of stones, an under-equipped sandpit and devices for the station 'Photosynthesis' that don't work. But other than these, there're quite a few items that are ready - the hanging bridge, the waterfall, floating (more like 'wobbly' :P) platform. Well, I guess you can't really ask for too much. I don't think it's officially opened yet.

More pics on the place:

The sculpture I like - a treeful of kids

The stained acrylic butterfly at the entrance:
The cute but expensive Kidz Cafe:
The display on (literally) the Cafe:

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