Happy black Friday!!!!! That’s an oxymoron isn’t it?

But nevertheless, I am having a fabulous day. I got this big clunky ring from the 2 dollar guy at the flea market. I also went to a Tommy Hilfiger outlet and got a bunch of sweaters and pants. I thought that store would be too preppy for me but I made it work for me. Lol.

And then comes the depressing part… Value Fair. They turned the depressing store into an even more depressing indoor flea market. And it was next to this shitty Korean market so the whole store wreaked of fish and some obnoxious guy wearing too much Axe. And the atmosphere is absolutely disgusting. I had a stomach ache and I had to sit down on a bench in the shoe section that could have been my deathbed.

I find it strange how I have a lot to say when I’m angry and I’m not as good at describing things when I am excited. Maybe I’m a pessimist. Some days its like the world is my playground and my emotions are falling down a slide. And sometimes you are spinning around carelessly and not giving a shit about anything. Sometimes your heart might get injured and you have to cry. I don’t think any adults are adults. We are all children because no one is mature and no one is really as smart as they think they are. We’re all children on the world’s playground.

That was random. But there you go. Pseudo-philosophical wisdom from Gianluca.

Yesterday (Thanksgiving), I went to work to check on everything and make sure everything was running smooth, which it was.  Our hotel is full and they were so behaved yesterday and had tuns of fun playing on Thanksgiving.   I spent about 6 hours with the dogs yesterday and enjoyed every minute of it, and I know that the dogs did as well.  On the holidays, we are closed for drop off and pick up, but for the dogs staying over it is just a regular day of play.  Many other boarding places in the Twin Cities have ver limited play hours on holidays, and we did not think this was fair for the dogs (or the customers, since you are paying for it).  We would much rather pay our staff a little more, and make it a regular day for the dogs.  Yesterday,  Ash, one of our managers brought out the bubbles and Jackaroo really got into the fun!  Watch the video below.

Playground 2009

Veja os melhores momentos desta festa captada pelo fotógrafo do Comércio da Franca, Cassiano Lazarini.

The lunar playground is finally complete! At last a place that is as strange and awesome and demented as humanity has been constructed. The playground encompasses the entire moon. It is filled with tunnels, mirrors, puzzles, moving parts, and optical illusions. However, most amazing of all is the lunar slide. The lunar slide is a series of tubes, sort of like the internet, that go from the moon down to thousands of different locations on earth. It is an experience like no other.

Some pics from Parteen Villa Weir, O’Briensbridge, Montpelier, Castleconnell, Annacotty and Plassey here.

Word up to the Deepak. 1.5 pounds is legit. Keep it up.
I’m sitting around getting my thanksgiving food coma out of the way, then I’m going to go for a long run later, followed by a parkour workout at the playground here in Long Island. It’s gonna be legit, I haven’t figured out exactly what exercises I’m going to incorporate yet, but I’m going to try and move as quickly as I can from one side to the other, up, over and through the playground.
PARKOUR!!!!!!!

Wasn’t going to mention it, but I find myself becoming, well not excited, but warmed by thoughts of the return of Peachy tonight…

David Gale’s Peachy Coochy Nites

The projector projects 20 images for precisely 20 seconds each. The Coocheur (or Presenter) speaks for precisely twenty seconds per image. Randomness is discouraged but narrative linearity is not automatically esteemed.

David Gale, having launched a nationwide performance must-have, continues to curate this series of Peachy Coochy events at ArtsAdmin’s stylish yet reassuring Bar. Each event features six Coocheurs, or Presenters, drawn from many walks of life. Each Coocheur will compose a verbal response to 20 images of their choice. Each presentation lasts 6 minutes and 40 seconds. There will be gaps between presentations for drinking and light conversation.

David, something of a Black Belt in these matters, will both compere and present the chippings that may not be reverse engineered towards an originating block.

Peachy Coochy Nites subscribes to the the National Belief System and is therefore committed to the provision of a wide range of contributors such as the wrangler, the wrestler, the trainer, the page, the maid, the surfer, the beachcomber, the collector, she who maintains a corral, he who mends fences, they who do windows.

The next Peachy Coochy Nite will be held, as usual, in the Bar at Toynbee Studios on Thursday November  26th at 7.30 pm. Tickets £5.00. Booking advised but walk up welcome.

More details here:www.artsadmin.co.uk/projects/project.php?id=211
A map here: www.artsadmin.co.uk/contacts/

The Guardian catches some cooch: www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2008/nov/17/theatre-peachy-coochy-performance-art

La Bottega Buffa dei CircoVacanti presenta Parada:Postal, con installazione video “Takes 2 To Tango” di iXiMe sabato 28 novembre alle ore 21 presso la libreria Rileggo nel quartiere di San Martino.

PARADA:POSTAL è un progetto(playground) che si propone di esplorare i luoghi di incontro in tutte le loro possibilità. Parada significa “fermata”: come la fermata dell’autobus, ma anche l’attimo sospeso in cui si incrociano due sguardi. Postal è la cartolina, il tentativo di rendere eterno quell’attimo, quel posto e condividerlo con qualcuno che in quel momento non è parte di esso. Questo gioco, alla “Compagnia Buffa dei Circovacanti” ha un valore nominale importante, dato che i suoi componenti sono sparsi in diversi e lontani luoghi del pianeta, che sfocia in una ricerca simbolica delle diverse manifestazioni dell’incontro e della lontananza.

Grazie a una fortuita serie di incontri  e vicissitudini si crea una tela che unisce capi del mondo fra loro geograficamente distanti in un unico campo-giochi. Ed è in questa dimensione interculturale e nomade che interagiscono sei artiste provenienti da diverse formazioni e discipline: di esportazione messicana iXiMe (Alice Mosanghini), performer e artista plastica;  di origine brasiliana Veronica Risatti, attrice e Comica dell’Arte, specializzata nei ruoli di Zanni, Servetta, Capitano e Pantalone; Joice Aglae Brondani, attrice e ricercatrice brasiliana, si specializza nello studio del clown e del buffone nell’ humus della cultura popolare e rituale brasiliana, dall’Italia la musicista Francesca Righi e la versatile danzatrice Roberta Re, infine, Ireli Vazquez, attrice-danzatrice viene dal Messico e ricerca nell’ ambito dell’arteterapia.

“TAKES TWO TO TANGO (vivo)” è una di queste ricerche, che si concentra sullo studio della relazione fra il femminile e il maschile. Si presenta sotto forma di video installazione e performance. Ci sono due personaggi proiettati su due diversi supporti, uno femminile e uno maschile. Entrambi compiono azioni molto simili e si muovono in uno stesso universo, quello del clown, ma non si incrociano mai. Parlano la stessa lingua, ma non possono dialogare, solo la musica li accomuna: il suono vero e caldo della fisarmonica.

Come in tutti i giochi, la parte più divertente è quella che comincia da quando si rompono le regole: a rompere la struttura entra uno dei due personaggi dal vivo cercando non solo di infrangere le regole del gioco, ma soprattutto di rompere le barriere che ci separano in un momento qualsiasi, in un qualsiasi sabato sera.

A contract to provide playground equipment issued by Liverpool City Council is criticised by the Local Government Ombudsman…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: capital cities. The blog is also related to: biggest city.

As of late, my mind has been buzzing on why people group up together, and we may all see the easy and obvious reasons why we all do, at some point in our life, but I mainly wonder about the reason why we band together and at some point become agressive.

Well my own story may not be of much help, as I had a great adolscense, with mostly no negativity in it. I still stand by that statement, as my foot has been embedded in the spirit of positivity with a great tattoo. But as of late I have begun noticing group-voilence between people. Both Norwegian and immigrants have these tendenzies, but I mainly refer to immigrant youth societies. This is because we all tend to generalize these types of groups right from the start, which in most cases is overrated. As seen through my young eyes I feel that I can bring another view to the table, which older men and women can’t include themselves in. 

“We are strong together, we are one together” a friend said to me once, and I never really got that one, untill now. Alone we are nothing, only a mere chicken for the pickings, and when a young boy, white or black skin colour is of no importance, we all band toward eachother. We group up in fear towards the other man, who is different, in both colour and culture. things that are strange to us, like different views of religion especially a Religion which may include more gods than the one we are carrying, may feel strange, and even wrong. This is natural as when different viewpoints in Religion defines the culture. The Indian man may be more indifferent to things that we value and the other way around. We all claim to have the right lifestyle, and claim to best everyone in every aspects of life. This is problem number one.

Media also tend to blow up stories that include the minority in our Nation, even going as far as refering to gang-voilence or the persons skincolour. This creates this basic fear of the unknown, and suddenly we all spawn a terrorist out of the harmless Imam on the bus. You have all read that in an educational book somewhere, but I am not joking, this really affect all of us. This makes an ignorant and fearfull son-of-a-bitch out of us automaticly.

This makes us group up with like-minded persons, who share the same opinions. And when we are strong we tend to be braver that we would be when alone, and in some cases we become so brave that we neglect strange ways, even start to mutually hate it. We start to not tolerate it, rather pushing it away than facing it, fearing it even more. At this point there is no going back, and it all usually ends in voilence to some degrees.

This may be the cause that we all pit the other man against eachother so often, and even makes us “hate” the other man. The other man is not like us, invades our land, taking our work from us, and lives of what would be ours. This is bullshit, as we are all actually equals, in both heritage at some point, and righ to live the life we all want. But if we really are in a big family then why do we hate eachother so much? The older generation seem to be the blame in this. Ignorance and fear grips us all, but it is actually stronger in the older generation. Thank you mom for bringing me up to be this responsible, but I fear that you are overreacting! You have told me from the beginning to stay away from the scary world, in hope of shielding me from alle the “dangers” of this world, when in fact this world is my playground. I am glad that you brought me up not fearing the odd and new, but the “other man” was not the barberian that you would have me believe. There was no need to fear him, only embrace him, and his strange ways. For one day, his ways will not be that strange anymore, and rather familiar. I will not fear him, nor hate him. I will love the other man as my brother, and treat him with respect as I would my own kind.

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Written by:
Espen Dyrland

Olá moradores,

O playground será reformado para melhorar a segurança das crianças e o bem estar nas brincadeiras.

Criaremos uma mini-quadra para brincadeiras com bola e os brinquedos infantis ficarão isolados da quadra.

The need for playtime is not limited to creatives or young children at school. As experienced coaches we know the effect of confinement and restriction on the human spirit. Extensive studies on people working in highly controlled, rule-bound, ‘enforced’ environments show that people HAVE to have space to use their creative potential to stay sane. Forced to conform, they will eventually suffer breakdown and insanity – or start breaking the rules. The more rules that are created (3500 new laws introduced in the UK in the last 10 years?!) and the more they are enforced, the higher the rates of absenteeism, physical and mental illness and unhappiness – and rule-breaking. Order is one thing. Oppression is another.

I’m intrigued that as a society we react so strongly to the confining of animals yet fail to see how utterly entrapped some people are at school, at work and at home.

• How is it that we’re shocked by young people preferring to live on the street, easing their pain with drugs, than to spend six hours a day in a tatty stress-filled classroom with peers they have grown to hate, being told what to do by someone who they no longer respect?

• How is it we are surprised when Social Workers, having spent years training to care for others in need, decide that they can no longer handle the sleepless nights, the multiple case conferences and overwhelming paperwork and finally the blame placed upon them personally when they have been unable to prevent injury to one of the vulnerable people in their personal ‘case-load’, and for their own sanity, they leave the profession for ever?

Roy and I are creatives.  I think the reason we get on so well as business colleagues may be that we understand what being ‘a creative’ entails: space for thinking and room for mistakes, approval, praise for the attempt – even if the initial result isn’t quite what you want – and a readiness to allow for an intuitive response to those inner prompts and to the

Southern foothills of the Pyrenees

world around us. Although our respective wives and children may raise an eyebrow from time to time (often!) and our colleagues in Powerchange may have need of the occasional bout of added patience, when that creativity matures, it’s life-changing. Awesome.

Roy’s ‘out of office’ passion is music – he has a huge personal library of songs, and a mass of detail about each song in his head. Mine is my motorbike (complete with my tent and clever little stove!)  – I love the freedom of the road, the sense of isolation inside a crash-helmet, the solitude of more remote destinations, and camping alone.

Completely different?  No. Music and motorbikes provide us with the ‘other-world’ thought-space we need to live and breathe. They provide psychological ‘downtime’ for our brains to rest and play. Both of us find that this downtime is often when we get our best inspiration and results in our finest work.  We may tease each other about the other’s taste, but we both know how important it is to live with a ‘playground’ close by and go there often.

Every human being needs to play.

For those of us who have forgotten how, now might just be the moment in your life when you decide to put playtime back into your life.  Just a little warning though: to do that, it is more than likely that something else will have to go – maybe several things – and you’ll need to be strong. You will need to reorder and simplify your world and stand against the huge pressure most people experience to do what they are told by some ‘expert’ or other.

Roy and I both know about that.  We’ve both reordered our lives, and continue to do so, and now maybe you want to do it too?

Come and join us in the fresh air of the playground! You’ll learn a lot of good things out here. We’re happier than ever we used to be in those stress-filled days.

And more useful too.

Mark and I took the kids to the park on Saturday morning. While our 2-year old was entertained in the sand and on the slide, our 7-year old joined a group of boys ranging in age from four to eight, playing various tag-like games all over the playground. After they ran around for a while, I heard the youngest boy crying and telling his Dad that the boys wouldn’t let him play with them. Having gone through this plenty of times over the years, I called my son over and asked him what happened.  Not surprisingly, he had no clue—one of the other boys must have not wanted him in the group. I asked him to invite the boy back to play—which he did—and off they all went as if nothing had happened. Everyone seemed perfectly happy, especially the little boy as he wiped his tears away.

The situation made me think about why things like this go on.  Whether on the playground, at school or the workplace, within political, religious and even our social circles—this type of singling out occurs with children and adults alike. What inside of us provokes feelings—jealousy, dislike, envy, fear, resentment, anger—that are strong enough to put reason aside and drive us seek to isolate, embarrass or hurt our peers?  When children behave like this, adults will typically write it off to their immature emotions and inability to reason and understand consequences. The adult approach is typically carried out with far more subtlety—whispers, exaggerated stories and sabotage—that is much harder to recognize. Tales are told that are rarely rooted in reality. Instigators inject their personal biases and perception as a fundamental part of the tale that, when taken at face value, can be horribly damaging and even debilitating. The desired result? To isolate, draw negative attention to, and create an undesirable perception of that person for personal gain. This goes on at all levels throughout society from family relationships to sports teams to interactions among global leaders.  We’re all human, after all.  But is this behavior truly the human condition or is this how we’ve conditioned ourselves to become?

While children may instinctively behave this way until they mature and learn better, we adults have a choice. We have the choice to set a positive example for the next generation by letting go of toxic, outdated and flawed beliefs. We can strive to be objective, unprejudiced, informed and approach all things seeking first to understand. New and different ways of exploring and addressing the challenges we face in our lives today should be welcomed—not dismissed and discounted. And, for the love of our children and our families, let’s recognize that the choices we make today and every day, will shape the future for better or worse. It’s up to us. Let’s play nice.

This dream started out with me on an airplane, and we were just reaching our destination.
Upon our descent, most of the people on the plane started to get airsick (and if you know me, I’m the type of person who can’t STAND to see, hear, smell, etc. ANYone vomiting.  It is extremely disturbing to me).  Once the plane landed, I rushed off of it to get away from these people.

We had landed in the middle of a wide, open plain.  I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing it was Africa, and you’ll see why in a second.
We were all of the same group, and we began to walk towards the edge of a cliff (which wasn’t too much of a cliff–it had a slope downwards that was fairly steep, but we were still able to climb down it).  We were walking, and then we came upon a giraffe.  I started yelling at everyone to go AROUND the giraffe rather than near it, because they are actually quite dangerous, but nobody listened to me.  The giraffe then proceeded to swing it’s head at people and hit them with its two bony horns (which, I recall from watching National Geographic the other night, is how giraffes fight amongst each other in real life).
In an “I told you so” manner, I began to climb down the slope with a few other people.

Once at the bottom of the slope, we were on a second plain, and then we got into a truck.  Most of us were in the bed of the truck, because there wasn’t much room in the cab, of course.  as we were driving, a cheetah started to attack us–it was jumping so high that it was above the bed of the truck, and trying to jump into it.
I, for some reason, had some sort of a club or a baseball bat, and I hit it to fend it off, which worked.

A little while later, we got out of the truck, and started walking….and then some male lions started chasing after us.
We ran as fast as we could, and eventually someone saw a beach, and yelled “head towards the water!  They’re cats, so they don’t like to swim!!”, and so we did just that…and it actually worked.
The lions didn’t follow us into the water, and after about 5 minutes, they got bored with waiting for us to come out of the water, and wandered off.

In a second part of the dream, I was taking pictures of fiddler crabs on the shore.
Then, it switched to a scene where I was still in this Africa-type place, but I was conducting an interview for the teacher of an elementary school.  The interview was being held on the playground of the school, and the person that I was interviewing for the position was messing with a piece of fabric on the sand for some reason….after a few minutes, this all changed–I was the interviewee, and the woman was the one who was interviewing me.
The interview concluded, and at about the same time, a male teacher came up to the interviewers, who were his superiors, and told them that, from now on, he would like to be addressed as Mr. 33702 (or a number similar to this–I know that the first two digits were 3s, but I can’t remember the last 3 digits), which was his zip code.  I made a joke that he was definitely not the only one in that zip code, and that there must have been hundreds of other “Mr. 33702″s, but he ignored me.

The dream then changed again, and I was still in this Africa-like area, but this time, I was a senior in high school again.  I took a few different artsy classes (which makes sense, since, in real life, I’m a photographer and all-around artist), and in one class, I won a contest where the prize was to pick one of a variety of corsets.  I chose one that was all-white, had a lacy pattern, and was very elegant and feminine.  Then that class ended, and I ran into a friend (a friend who I actually DO know in real life, but whom I haven’t seen or talked to in a few years, and she just happened to be in the dream), and she was very hysteric, going on about how she thought she might be pregnant.  I was telling her that she shouldn’t worry, because the only reason why she thought this was because she was a day late on her period, and she hadn’t even taken a pregnancy test yet, but it didn’t calm her down.

Which was when I woke up.

R: Estaba cantado que terminaríamos por hacer algo así… Teniendo en cuenta que music4girls se define a sí mismo como un blog que viene a plasmar las conversación (idas de la olla) de Raül y Estela, tarde o temprano debíamos dedicar una de esas conversaciones en torno a uno de los temas que más nos apasionan: ¡las listas ajenas! Así que, ni cortos ni perezosos, dedicamos el cuerpo central de nuestro última sección radiofónica en el No són hores (que se puede escuchar en Onda Cero) a sopesar dos de las listas patrias de lo mejor de la década que más nos han gustado: la de la Rockdelux y la de Playground. Pero eso no es todo: también tenemos la última locura de Lynch y los Beatles, la no-reunión de la Velvet y agendas de The Horrors, Imelda May y… ¡Mayer Hawthorne!

Walkway at Abernathy Park

Abernathy Park. located just west of Davison Middle School, has been growing and offering more and more things to do over the past several years. There are a couple of ball fields, a Playscape for the little ones, sand volleyball, basketball courts, tennis courts, a wooden trailway, asphalt trailway, a sledding hill and a skate park. I’m not sure if all of these are “officially” part of Abernathy Park, but they are all in the same area. It’s a big playground for the whole family–and the dog!

My favorite time to walk through the park is early Sunday mornings with my dog, Ellie. I’ve met quite a few nice folks while walking through the park. Part of the wooden walkway passes over a wetland area that seems to breed mosquitoes, which was ok as long as we remembered to bring our most potent bug spray. The city finally invested in a mosquito sprayer and started treating the area and it made a huge difference.

There’s a nice big sledding hill with steps built into it (made of old railroad ties). I haven’t personally been sledding down it yet, but have tried my hand at running up the hill. It’s a workout! It’s a good spot to watch the sunset or take in the beauty of the park and the sounds of people enjoying the outdoors. There’s a view of the skatepark from the hill–watching the kids try their luck and skill is not for the faint of heart!

Try out the park if you haven’t yet! If the snow is already flying by the time you read this, it’s not too late! The trails are great for cross-country skiing.

The Autumn sky threatened rain.  I parked my car in the school parking lot, choked down a burger, fries and iced tea. I needed sustenance before I went in to help with my second grader’s class “Math Explorations” assignment.  (The fact that I failed almost every math class I’ve ever been in, didn’t come up on the background check. Whew. )

As I sat in the car, I contemplated the wisdom of entering a room of 24 rabid second graders, smelling like french fries. (I envisioned a mob scene with back packs instead of pitchforks.)

I knew they were rabid because I’d just witnessed them filing out the door for lunch recess. They looked like they’d dumped the rest of their Halloween candy into their lunch boxes, before mom got a chance to toss it.  The term: JACKED UP could describe the behavior. Let’s just say I know Where the Wild Things Are.  They are at my son’s school. (Which means:  he fits in fine.) I turned on some classical music and to “center myself”. Whatever that means.

[Bored by the music and sad attempt at centering-] I looked up to notice a rubber wheeled, off- road style wheel chair near the door.  In it, sat a radical little helmet wearing, wild dude. He had pirate stickers all over his helmet and a “born to be wild” bumper sticker on his wheel chair. (Or I made that up, but you get the picture.) He was alternately, throwing sticks and bouncing a ball.

Alone.

My heart went out to him.  All those rabidly fun kids, running past him to go play and he’s left alone. Tears filled my eyes.  I’ve been left out and alone. Not just as a child, but as an adult.  I hate it.  It’s not fair.

Right about the time I was considering risking being “the creepy woman” who wandered onto the playground and played ball with the wheel-chair kid.  A hoodie clad, second or third grade fellow  ball bouncer, ran over to him.

The boy in the wheel chair cautiously tossed him the ball. A test of trust, I think. If the ball was tossed back, all was well, if it was chucked at him or snatched away, it was just another episode of playground trauma.

I held my breath. The boy bounced it back. after a few tentative bounces, they moved on to throwing sticks for distance and height. (They both should have been wearing helmets, they took a few sticks to the head. Come to think of it, they will probably get in trouble for that,  if they get caught.) A few more kids came over to join in the fun. They broadened the game. (Or trouble making, depending on which side of the school fence you’re on, I suppose.)

I smiled. And let out the breath I’d held in fear. I experienced inclusion. No teasing or targeting. No excluding. It was connection and compassion. There was care for the one who was left out. Compassion on the marginalized. Sounds like the gospel to me.

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”^{[e] Luke 4:18-19}

I want to be that kid hoodie wearing ball bouncing kid, when I grow up.  I want to be the one who reaches out and includes, instead of excluding the different.  I want to have compassion that moves me to action. I want to make that kind of difference, every day.

What about you?

Dear Lord- I pray you’d bless those boys I saw on the playground today. I pray that you’d give me and all who read, the courage to reach out and to take the risk of bouncing the ball. Let us catch your compassion and live it out on the playground of our lives- I love you Lord- Amen

Check out these things that go bump in the park.

When was the last time you went to a playground? The last time I went seems like such a long time ago! I can hardly even remember what features there were – spiral slides, straight long slides, flying foxes… Then there’s Quest Zone, the obstacle course for children, complete with slides, tunnels and ball pits. Not having anyone to play in it with, I mostly went on it alone, exploring the different routes and trying to find the slides. Still, I really loved it though not so much falling into the ball pit cos’ it really hurt. Most of the time, they don’t have that many balls that you can bury yourself in balls. Now that I’m older and know that children ACTUALLY pee (urinate)in the ball pits, that’s an added turn-off.

Has it been so long ago since I swooshed down a slide. I remember there were quite a number of ways of doing it.

1. The DIVE: Extend hands in front, and slide on your belly. Not advisable for short slides.
2. BACKWARDS (timid): Sit and slide backwards with your hands on the side of the slide to have control over the speed you are going at.
3. BACKWARDS (fearless): Just slide backwards without stopping
4. The FULL FLAT: Lie on your back and slide either the normal way or backwards. If you slide backwards, watch your head!
5. UPHILL: Run up the slide. Makes coming down more fun because you deserve it for making it to the top
6. No.8: Like a number 8 float, this move involves 2 people sitting, one in front of another and sliding down at the same time. This is best for when you have young siblings who want to ride with you.

(Wow, I can’t believe I came up with all that at the top of my mind. Haha.)

Well, I miss going to the playground. I suppose I could go on the slides and all, albeit risking weird stares by children and their parents but the playground equipment doesn’t fit me anymore. The widths, the lengths, are not really tailored for people past puberty. That’s why, I suggest, someone build an Adult-sized playground. (Okay, don’t think MJ) but this adult sized playground can be marketed as a place to burn calories as well as have fun. I mean, going down the slides, running through tunnels and finding one’s way through a maze like structure does require a certain amount of physical activity.

Always fancied yourself in Ninja Warrior? Why not try “Ninja Warrior, the real people version” where you can go through (easier) obstacle courses and time yourself. This could so be the newest work-out craze. Hahah!

Well, I’m going to West Coast Park with my careteam tomorrow morning so tra-laa!

Cutie Pie and I ran a bunch of errands after we dropped off Wildman at preschool yesterday morning.  As a special treat I swung by a local park on the way home.  The weather was gorgeous but slightly too warm for my taste.  The incredible heat we’ve been experiencing needs to go!

Cutie Pie ran right over to the canal that borders the park.

And began throwing leaves and mulch into the water.

This is a favorite past time for him.  It makes me nervous.  Even though he can swim I’d still be terribly freaked out if he fell into the canal.  I can only imagine how traumatized Cutie Pie would be if he fell into the water unexpectedly.

We checked out this lizard sunning himself next to me on the bench.

After several minutes of leaf/mulch throwing and lizard investigation I suggested we head over to the play ground equipment.  He happily agreed.  I just love the huge grass field at this park.  It makes me want to run too!

There were a bunch of other kids playing on the playground so Cutie Pie, being the slow-to-warm child that he is, was reluctant to play.  Eventually he did manage to climb up one structure that was far away from the other children and slide down the slide.  That was about it.

He much preferred sitting next to me on the bench and using my camera.  Silly kid!

Later that evening, we headed back out for more park fun.  This time Wildman got to go and we went to a different park.  The park we went to was on the beach and we stayed until sundown.  The boys had a blast playing with all of their friends.

Afterward, we headed over to Pizza Hut with Steph and her two boys for dinner.  We sat in a corner where the four boys got their own booth and Steph and I got our own booth.  It worked out wonderfully as long as I kept the carrot sticks and ranch coming!

Playgrounds are a place, in which children are spending the free time on the outdoor game. Such lands are localised by nursery schools, schools, often in bigger housing estates, in public couples and in light centres. These places as well as all devices being found there must provide to playing children with the full safety. Entertain squares the height very important role, because children can meet with peers, they are learning to get in touch, together to entertain. They are developing and they are improving their abilities and they are manufacturing the physical fitness. Entertain squares depending on different factors, they can be smaller or bigger, modest or equipped with interesting and diverse devices. Amongst appearing devices sets or single appliances can be. Universally swings, slides and sandpits are devices appearing on every playground. Swings can be of different kind, pendular or of type of the dragonfly. Sandpits are often made from beams and palisades, they can have different shapes, from the typical square, after with shape resembling e.g. ships, sailing boats, houses, shelters. Playgrounds are often equipped with merry-go-rounds, towers with small roofs and with the slide, which are constructing steps, ladders or the gangway to. More extended playgrounds offer different attractions and fun added variety with using different vehicles to children – of the train, horses with carts, of cars, cableways.  For the play summerhouses, sheds, small benches are available. For developing the fitness very much all sorts gymnastic sets making up are helpful and liked by children from climbing, involving agility walls, ladders, ropes, fences, gymnastic bars, the balance beam, beams for bends and jumps. Paths constitute the undoubted attraction to slaloms and the place for authorizing different sports, and especially very much popular amongst children of games of the football, the volleyball and the basketball.

Nov 17, 2009 A NATIONAL Environment support officer persistently wanted to meet the mother of an underaged smoker in private and even texted her for sex, a district court heard.

The complainant, a woman in her 40s, reported Koh Hui Chong to the authority and a trap was laid when he turned up at her flat on May 6 last year.

The 43-year-old admitted to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau officers he had contacted the woman with the intention of having sex with her. He even brought along three condoms.

He had hoped that if the complainant had sex with him, he would then not take any form of action against her teenage son for smoking and littering.

The court heard that Koh had caught the woman’s 15-year-old son and another boy smoking in a prohibited area at a playground in Serangoon Central earlier on April 28. He obtained the boy’s details from his EZ-Link card and told him he would be booked for underaged smoking and other offences.

Koh, who pleaded guilty to trying to get sexual favours from the boy’s mother, is expected to be sentenced on Dec 1. He faces a fine of up to $100,000 and/or a jail term of up to five years.