We visited the seal playground at Blk 16 Dakota Crescent last Saturday. While the dragon playground in Toa Payoh was still in pretty good condition, this playground was quite rundown. Some bits of mosaic looked stained and the bridge was quite rusty. There were also plants growing here and there in the sand so Adrian decided that Anya was not allowed to play there and packed her off to the senior citizens’ fitness corner nearby. The tyre swings which were missing from the dragon playground could still be found at this one though. I really like the design of the playground! Too bad it’s not in better condition.

I think that Singapore’s old playgrounds are much more interesting than the standard plastic playgrounds that we see in every single HDB estate and condominium these days. There are so few of them left so I’m trying to bring Anya to visit as many of them as I can before they are all demolished!

Yesterday, we went to the dragon playground. There’s one at AMK but the sand has been replaced by hard rubber padding. The one we went to is at Blk 28 Toa Payoh Lorong 6. We took bus 238 from the Toa Payoh Interchange. While we were playing there, I realised that these old playgrounds can really be quite dangerous. While we were walking along the dragon’s ‘spine’, I was a bit nervous because the bars barely came up to my waist and I felt like I could fall over any time! And while Anya was happily digging in the sand, I was busy worrying about whether there was any broken glass, or cat poop, or pee, etc.

When I was a kid, I didn’t think about such things and had a lot of fun playing in playgrounds like this dragon one! I guess the boring plastic playgrounds that we have now are better for a paranoid mother’s sanity. ;)