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Thursday, February 16, 2006
Magsaysay: A whooping good fun
By Jo Magsaysay
Whatever
Whee! What fun! All kid stuff, Taylor-Made of the United Kingdom for Adventure Zone is the newest facility for children in Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort & Spa.
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Batang Opon, all 50 of them, the homeless streetchildren of Lapu-Lapu City who have been adopted, blessed by the munificent charity of the resort hotel, were the special guests at the formal opening of Adventure Zone. In their neat and yellow long-sleeved T-shirts with the Zone logo and their flip-flop thong slippers, they lined up to witness the blessing of the facility; listened to the welcome address of GM Tim Wright; and gawked at Polly Parrot, the mascot guarding the “entry” of a mural of the forecastle of the schooner painted with Pirates of the Caribbean cartoon characters. The ceremonial ribbon was cut by Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza and his smiling First Lady Paz, assisted by Carissa Garcia, who stood as proxy for her mother, Governor Gwen Garcia who was out of town for a conference. A mushroom cloud of multi-colored balloons rose to the ceiling while the children looked up from their intent business of putting on brand new white socks following the example of Giles Leonard, the Sports and Recreation director of the facility, who had plucked a little boy from the group, put him on his lap and slipped on the socks. Shangri-La, of course, gifted the kids with the T-shirts and socks to protect them from bruises.
Oh yes, the media also had T-shirts to wear for the fun and games, but woe! I looked like a pregnant elephant from the zoo!
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The interior playground equipment is designed especially to challenge agility, balance and nerves. The British company, Taylor-Made, ensures the safety of the children with the padding and netting all around the enclosure and assures the “excitement of an adventure play and with the safety of the nursery.” There are 20 separate modules spread over three levels, letting children swing on ropes, climb up and down nets and ladders, and crawl through shapes and heights of safely padded vinyl. There are Bash Bags, soft, brightly colored pendulums that can be punched, kicked or pushed aside. Swinging Discs are padded drums covered with vinyl, which allows kids to sit or stand while spinning around. Swing Over Nets have ropes suspended from the ceiling for hanging on while swinging over a large cargo net.
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Scariest and most exciting of all is the Drop Slide. “I was terrified!” confessed Carissa who had the guts to drop 25 feet down, an almost vertical drop to ground level—sliding momentum, slowing down to a safety stop, sweeping into a huge pond of colored balls at the bottom. Tim Wright thought it was a breeze dropping down and whooshing through the slide and he looked like he was having such fun. I was tempted to drop down and bring down the whole facility along with me. More Chinggay U’s liking was the Rainbow Slide: sliding down a couple of bumps, first fast, then slow, sitting on a woven hemp sled and hanging on to a couple of rope handles for dear life. With two tall good-looking escorts in Tim Wright and Giles Leonard whooshing down the slides and bumps, who wouldn’t love it?
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And I thought only the Batang Opon had a whooping good time screeching and screaming and whooshing down the slides! They would have played all night but all good things do have to end so they were bundled off after hot dogs, burgers and spaghetti, washed down with bottomless Milo and lemonade courtesy of Nestle Food Services, which packed them off with loot boxes filled with goodies.
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High tea out on the grassy lawn at twilight. Humid air made cool by a giant fan and refreshments. The scones, very English, with a daub of marmalade, were especially good with green tea. Mactan’s charming Grand Dames, Paz Radaza, Celia Catipay of the Provincial Board and best known for Lilang’s guitars and Naty Amores, widow of the late General Eleno Amores, first police general of the Visayas, were in a happy huddle while the media, as usual, talked shop.
With her mental calculus, Cookie Newman figured Tim Wright to be somewhere 10 or 11 years old on his birthday, the 29th of February. A leap year baby! We all look forward to Friday the 17th for the Demolition Party at Paparazzi and mostly for the honor and pleasure of meeting Wright’s parents who are coming down from England for their leap year “baby’s” birthday!
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Meanwhile, Sharon Samarista, always an excellent person in a pinch, quietly went off to have the inner sanctum of Tides, prepared for dinner. But that is a different story altogether...
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 16, 2006 issue)
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