Indoor play space: object of love/hate relationships with parents all over the world. My kids loved them. I loved seeing them gleefully burning off energy. But the noise! The germs! The smell! The atrocious snacks! After a few hours, I always felt as if I’d endured a round with Muhammad Ali. But I have to admit, those places do serve a purpose.
Why is it that now that my children have learned to keep their germs to themselves, use their indoor voices, and run around with minimal parental supervision, there are no indoor play spaces appropriate for their age? Why are they relegated to the mall (not really a play space)? Community leisure center? Good luck finding that.
Will someone please open up a teen play center (mall-ternative) near my house? We’d like one with a climbing wall, ping-pong tables, a basketball court that can maybe double as tennis or badminton court as well as a dance floor, foosball tables, billiard tables, good tunes, a nice cafe serving delicious and nutritious snacks, and what else…. We’ll pay. We promise to keep it neat and tidy. And we promise to keep the shouting down. Please, please, please. Thank you.
This is what I need.
When my son asks, “Can I get the new Call of Duty?”
When my daughter asks, “Can I get this skanky micro-mini for the party?”
I can just type in the question, and voila….
Ever parked on a yellow line for a few minutes and gotten a ticket? Ever gone on holiday and come back to a couple of penalty charge notices? Ever feel a rush of gratitude and relief when someone tells you to get back to your car because the warden is around the corner? Ever feel a pang of sympathy when you see a traffic warden slap a yellow notice on someone else’s car?
When I see a traffic warden eye up a car on a yellow line, taking note of the time, maybe taking pictures, I get sympathy panic. Shortness of breath. Hyper alertness. Quick, where’s the owner? They need to be warned! Wouldn’t you want to be warned? Is it just me or is it human to want to help? But how? Sure, when it’s obvious that the owner must be in a certain shop, you can pop in and declare a general warning. But when it’s not obvious, there’s not much you can do.
But what if there were a watch-program, much like a neighbourhood watch, where people keep an eye out for each other’s homes? Warden Watch. Shouldn’t there be an app for this? Maybe it could work like this. We could register our car license number plates along with our mobile numbers. Anyone walking along and seeing a potential ticket could enter the number plate on the app, which then sends a text to the corresponding mobile number. To make it commercial, perhaps car owners would pay to register their cars and for any text alerts they receive, while it would be free for anyone to send an alert.
Pubs serving delicious, authentic Thai food abound in London. Love ‘em. The complex and spicy flavours of pad thai and kaeng kiew waan call for a nice pint of ale. Need something to soak up the lager? Prawn crackers and spring rolls should do the trick. No wonder these pubs multiplied like rabbits in the last decade.
Why is it, though, that we still don’t have pubs that serve a decent curry along with a well-pulled pint? We have wonderful Indian and Pakistani restaurants, all serving Cobra or Kingfisher. Maybe a few other bottled beers. Often, though, after a pint at your local, don’t you crave a good lamb vindaloo? Should you have to settle for the generic chicken curry from the back if you’d like just one more pint? Really, it’s either that or drink up and head down the street.
I know the formula works. The Chapel in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, excels with this combination. Are there any in London I don’t know about? Why aren’t there more?
Publicans, take note: if you’re refitting, think about a tandoori oven.
