I found this interesting playground near my hotel in Shatin. A mere 3 minutes walk from the Royal Park Hotel in Shatin, lies the Snoopy's World next to the New Town Plaza. No, it's not a theme park with roller coaster rides, but a well designed and colorful playground for the children and other young-at-heart. It is a large outdoor Snoopy playground covering 40000 square foot with more than 60 Peanut figures in many sizes. The best part, it is free to all.
The weather was rather poor due to the Fengshen typhoon. The Hong Kong Observatory even raised the typhoon warning to level 8. Subsequent days after the typhoon were all gloomy, cold and wet. But this playground managed to bring out the bright side from its visitors. I'm sure Shin Hui would love this place.
According to Wiki, it was completed in September 2000 and has 6 zones, i.e. Snoopy Huse, Peanut Academy, Canoe Ride, Peanut Dugout, Peanut Boulevard and Party Pavilion. Again, due to the weather, not all zones were operational. Here's some shots I took.
The entrance
The welcome notices
Another angle of the entrance
Even the covered corridor is decorated with Snoopy and gang
Assortment of Peanut figures
The Peanut Academy - musical band
Slides, school bus, pool and many more!
With Charlie Brown
Visitors taking snap shots with high rise towers as backstage
The dark clouds and gloomy weather 
Monday, June 30, 2008
Snoopy's World
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Work work work
If you have played Warcraft before, then you can relate to the "work work work" phrase when you click on a Peon from the Orc class to do something. It's downright pathetic slavery.
I'll have my share of "work work work" in Hong Kong next week. Sounds fun? Not exactly. The last time I check, the weather is bad, my allowance sucks and there's a bird flu going on (there goes my roast pigeon)!
The only consolation is that I may get to meet up with an ex-colleague, if everything goes to plan. Wish me luck.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Corporate University
I have been working for almost 10 years now. Many lessons were learnt, some were taught by seniors and some were picked up through observations, but the bulk of it came from doing things the wrong (and sometimes hard) way. That is working experience and you can't get it by reading books or attending lectures. You have to experience it.
Forget about the technical stuff. Those are fundamentals, and chances are, you will forget most (if not everything) you have learnt in the college because you don't need them. Give me a statistics question right now and I can confirm I don't know how to calculate the mean, the bell curve or the Z-score. But there's always books or manuals to get be back on my feet. And with the advent of internet, the answer is just a google away.
The key lesson in corporate university is how to deal with people. No matter where you are, you are bound to face with bitches and jerks. And the worst part is these bitches and jerks happen to be your boss or supervisor. Then, there are the ass-kissers and i-know-more-than-you colleagues. Your survival in the corporate life depends on the manner you deals with these bunch of hypocrites and their office politics.
Compare to 10 years ago, I am a wiser person. However, the lesson never stops as this is a life long learning process. Wishfully, I hope I can continue the rat race in one piece.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sleeping positions
How you sleep tells a lot about you. Not sure whether it's true or not, but if these are to be believed, then I am either:
1) An intelligent person who has a lot of wierd ideas that only I could understand (A mad scientist) or
2) A narrow minded person who force people to follow my decision (A ruthless dictator).
Credits: Sreedhara.com
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Lunch rambling
Just came back from lunch. As usual, eat at the staff canteen. Yeah, the petrol price has increased, so it's better not to drive out and eat. We continue to hang out after our meal and talk nonsense.
It's really funny. Everytime (or maybe 9 out of 10 times), when the conversation topic touch about ghost, everyone will jump up and say "my school got ghost too". Hani's school used to be a hospital and there's a church and cemetery next to it. It even came with an underground tunnel leading to the field.
Rachel's school in Penang was featured in some Hong Kong's paranormal programme. Jared's school used to be the admin building and torture centre during the Japanese occupation.
I don't know. Is it true that school is a hot spots for spooks or is it just some urban legend passed down from one generation to another. How come every school I came about is somehow haunted or has unexplainable incidents? Do ghosts really exist or it is just a fickel of your imagination?
I have never experience any of those unexplained incident before. The closest one was when the boys and I were in Genting Highland. There were 7 of us, our apartment was on 7th floor and were given the No. 7 room/apartment. Strangely, for the entire duration we stayed in the apartment, we need not to press the lift button, as the lift door will open by itself, EVERYTIME. Well, it could be some high-tech sensors, I thought. Suspecting nothing, we left our stuff in the apartment and head towards the amusement park. Again, the lift door opened by itself as if someone has already pressed the button.
I slept early that night in one of the rooms. Apparently during the night, there were someone or something, knocking on the glass window, non-stop. It scared the shits out of the rest and all 7 ended sleeping in the same room. Too bad, I didn't hear anything.
So, do I believe in ghost? Yeah, I think they exist, but I definitely don't want to see one.
Kura Japanese Restaurant
Kura Japanese Restaurant is situated at One World Hotel, One Utama. We wanted to have dinner here, to celebrate Mrs Banana's brother birthday. We did not make any reservation, thinking that there's ought be enough tables. In the end, we paid our price - either we sit at the bar top or at the smoking section. The smoking section was horrible, and the ventilation is not strong enough to suck out the cigarette smoke.
The food was nice, save for the chicken skewer, which was not thoroughly cooked. Pricing wise, it's within the range of a "hotel restaurant" pricing. The set dinner is quite value for money though (range from RM25-RM35 per set). Ok, enough with words, here's the samples.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Esplanade Singapore
We were in Singapore recently and stayed there for a week. One thing I like about Singapore is the accessiblity. The MRT and its entry/exit points are strategically located. Here's some photos taken at the Waterfront Esplanade and the famous Singapore icon, the Merlion.
The exterior of the Theatres - which looks like a durian
The other common names - pineapples, bug's eyes
Inside the theatre
The exterior - we saw a couple taking their wedding shots here
Reflection
A short walk along the Waterfront - the iconic Merlion
Here's the front view
Eye of Singapore - the largest ferris wheel is visible from here
A miniature of the Theatre
Arts and masks
Monday, June 9, 2008
Latest arrival
Check out what the stork brought!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Leaving, on a jet plane
Seems like Malaysia is no longer viable to build a family. Latest to join the exodus is the Lim family. John and Lyna and their princesses will leave for Sydney to seek better opportunity there. Hmmm... if I do a quick roll call, I think here's the list of uni mates who has left the country.
Nelson, Bee King, John, Kin Wah, Lyna, Mr & Mrs Banana, Mei Yee
