Visit to Fidgets

On the 10th day of Christmas (3rd Jan 2010), we decided to visit Fidgets. I was all excited cos it's pretty near home and would be convenient to bring Keston if he does like it.

When we first entered the main door, I was quite impressed by how big the place is and how the cafe was bustling with life. On the right hand side was a big empty space, occupied by a teeny li'l ballpit. The area was labelled "Little Fidgets", and there were 2 crawlers there. I thought to myself "K is waaay overage for this, let's move on to the left hand side."

On the left were huge structures with slides and ramps...and we stood there for a few minutes before realising the structures were too advanced for our mini toddler. Also, there were too many rowdy pre-schoolers/pri schoolers dashing in every direction.

And so we scuttled back to Little Fidgets. But...but the ballpit there is so ermm...blah? For lack of better words, it's just boring. It's shallow, narrow and dark. And it was squished in with a wee slide that does not allow adult sized objects to navigate. So we couldn't guide Keston in, and truth be told it was v claustrophobic. We stayed there for abit since Keston likes balls but I think even he got bored after awhile...the next section was a big empty area with just 1 little tikes coupe, already occupied by another toddler. We thought we'd come back again when the tod was done, and moved on to the next section. This was a round pit area where there was a ramp with many touchy feely stuff. It's quite nice, albeit small and currently occupied by 4 pre-schoolers prancing about.And thus we were done with Little Fidgets. We moved back to the little tikes area but the same toddler was still at it. And we were bemused to see an angmor girl squeezing herself into the car with the bewildered toddler.

Since there was nothing else to play, we decided to brave the big kids area. It was very difficult to persuade K to climb up the ramp. I understood why when I tried it myself. The foam in the footholds had gone all soft and they collapse when you stepped on them so they didn't really help in climbing up. In addition to that, the ramps were very steep. So it was really difficult to navigate up the ramps. Nevertheless we made our way up the ramps. Came down soon after when I realised the way forward was blocked by 2 huge rotating blocks that had space only for puppies to climb through. Ok fine, kids can squeeze their way through, but there was no way I am gonna get through. And there is NO way I will let Keston get into it himself and get stuck there.

So, up another ramp we went. At least there were 2 ways to go this time. 1 of the way was another of those 'Kids only' entrance and I panicked momentarily when Keston slipped through. I screamed at HW to find where it leads and to stop K at the other end. Thankfully Keston crawled back out to me after a short while. We found a nice shiny slide, which was vvv steep looking. It looks like you're doing a free fall and felt quite scary. BUT wah lau eh, they never wax it or what...cannot slide down! You move for like 15cm and stuck already...anti-climax!

The structures were definitely not suitable for K's age and the pre-schoolers were pretty rowdy as well. When we were getting K to climb through a tube, a bunch of kids just pushed their way into the tube with him and forced their way through. When K was in the teeny ballpit, an angmor boy came along and attempted to step on him for God knows what reason, and then went on to mutter something rude (can't remember what). Not everyone was rude of course, there was a nice Chinese boy who kept picking up balls to give Keston (??) .

In the process, we kept a lookout for the little tikes car. By now there was a pre-schooler Chinese boy occupying it. He looked to be about 3-4. Everytime he wanted to get out of the car, he'd stand by the door. Once any other kid attempts to take over, he'd push them away and squeeze in again. This went on for quite some time. As we were about to leave the place already, HW wanted K to try the car. We knew K probably wasn't really interested in it but wanted to try anyway. So HW brought K over to the boy in the car and asked him if we could borrow the car for a couple of minutes. The boy flatly said NO and sulked at him. HW was so taken aback by the boy's attitude that he made Keston stand beside the car so the boy's mummy will be pai sey and ask the boy to give way. It took her a few minutes to get the hint. And when she asked him to give way, he flatly refused again. She went back to sit but HW persisted in asking her to get her son out for a few minutes as we were gonna leave. As the boy refused to give up possession of the car, she had to drag him out. Did I say drag? I mean DRAG! She pulled with all her might and the boy held on with all his strength. When she eventually won the tug of war and got his butt out, he still refused to let go of the steering wheel. When she finally managed to pry his fingers loose, he yelled and screamed and bawled. Then he went on to knock his head on the parquet flooring with a loud THUD! The mother was embarrassed maybe, pissed most definitely (although possibly at us :P) and went on to spank the kid. Aiyoh, at that moment I wanted to denounce any links I had with HW and K....I felt so bad lor! Later I asked HW why he was so insistent, he said cos the boy was rude!! Haiz...I hope K never reaches this uncontrollable stage!In summary, I don't think I will go back to Fidgets again. At least not for the next year or so.