Ros, one of our friends in dubai told us about Kidzania.. she says it is very fun and when i read up about it.. I found that it is that place that I saw on TV in Taiwan that I had wanted to bring Ace to...it is like a park where childlren get to be all sorts of occupation and earn money tat can be exchanged into other things....We chose to go only after the holidays started so that there will be other children there and more fun for Ace... so on tat day, I woke early.. but Ace still took his own sweet time to wake... brush teeth and eat his breakfast and lunch... finally by around 2pm, we were ready to leave the house... Since Max knocks off and canmeet us at 6 plus.. tat would give us about 4 hours.. I hope tat is enough time to try all the occupations tat Ace wants...
We took a cab downto Dubai Mall and as we were looking for Kidzania, we saw a nice sports car...
When we were queueing up, the person told us tat there were already 1500 kids inside and I asked Ace if he wanted to come back again the next day early in the morning instead but he insisted that he wanted to go today.. he said, "Must keep promise wat.. I promise I will come today, I must come.." So we got our FIRST CLASS tickets and checked in through the Kidzania airport..:)
They gave Ace a cheque for $50 and not knowing wat to expect.. we went in....
Inside was a huge mess.. there were pple everywhere and I also was a little lost and din know wat I was supposed to do.. I asked Ace wat he wanted to be and because the Firehouse was right next to the entrace, Ace said he wanted to be a fireman... so I saw pple queueing and queued up for Ace's chance to be a fireman...
Ace very excited to be fireman...
As we were queueing up, we saw some children who were "working" as santa claus walking past and singing jingle bells.. hahahaha...
Then Ace saw a ambulance going by and said he wanted to go and be ER too.. dam.. i saw a long queue there as well and told him we can do it later.. Finally, after queing for 45 minutes, Ace got to go into the fire station for FIREMAN TRAINING:)
They showed them a video about how to save fire and how to use fire extinguishers and then made them slide down for a "mission"
Then they put on their uniforms...
And went up the fire truck.. today's mission is to go around and check if there are any fires in kidzania.. their job is to shout, "Kidzania! Firefighter! Kidzania! Firefighter!"
For some of the kids at certain timings, they get to do fire fighting and hose down some sort of fire...
There.. my son with the first $10 Kidzoos (tat is the currency used there) he has ever earned in his life:)
Next, I think you dun need to guess which job he would choose to try out lah.. wat else than BE A POLICEMAN! ;) So we queued up again.. and there goes another 30 min...
So while Ace was queueing, I went to take pics of other things in that area...there is a bank.. and there is a umiversity.. children who go there get to try out and do tests using computers and get graduation certificates and there is even a relac corner for the uni kids where they can play pool.. hahaha.. then there is a theatre for children to act.... and also a shopping alley...
Ace waiting for his POLICE TRAINING to start.. According to Ace, they are told that they have to keep themselves healthy to be a policeman and that they should rest early, exercise, eat healthy and cannot drink alchohol... hahahahaha....
There are two batches of kids.. one batch are the uniform guys and the other batch are the CID who wear plainsclothes and Ace wanted to be the uniform one..u dunno your batch gets which one and each batch only 9 kids... so thanks to the three girls who jumped queue on us... Ace got to wear uniform and tat means I dun have to queue again...Sidenote: The pple of dubai are rude actually. Rather, arabic people are rude. They cut queues and think like it is the norm and they talk loud like they are quarreling. Initially I tot these children were cutting queue and all tat cos they were too excited but i realized that the older kids and the adults are the same as well..
That's Ace being asked what a policeman should do.. or should not do.. he says policeman cannot drink beer and cannot drink coffee the night before or they cannot wake up in time to go to work.. HAHAHAHAHAHA.... So cute right.. I wonder where Ace got the idea from since I am not a coffee drinker...
They went around to kidzania to the barber shop and the handphone shop to tell them that if they need police, they can call the police hotline...
Next, Ace had his eyes on the hospital. They have two types.. baby care and also surgeon.. Ace wanted to try both so we queued for baby care first.. we were told the queue is at least 30-40 min long.. sigh... while we were queueing, there were security coming to pick up money and TNT delivery boys delivering packages.. hahahaha.. so interesting right?
And so my boy has his first taste of taking care of a baby... I told him he can help me take care of meimei when I do have a baby again...
Hahaha.. in real life, this baby might have already died.. HAHAHAHA... First, let's wash the baby and give baby a bath...
Time to dry the baby...
Ace: Please give me powder puff to powder the baby...
Time to put on the diapers and put baby back into bed..
Then time to put on clothes for the baby...Parents are not allowed inside.. I took these from outside the room through glass windows lor.. I really love my camera!
Then Ace said he wanted to be Bob The Builder and so we went to the construction site. This is one of the shortest queues because it was in one corner.. anyway, there was a girl lying there and there were bricks on her and blood drawn on her....I wondered why she is there...
That is my favourite Ace the builder working hard at laying bricks...
I found out later the girl is a casualty and the ER paramedics came in the ambulance to save her.. no wonder it has such a long queue.. intiially while we were queueing, I managed to convince Ace to skip the ER.. but now he saw this.. HE WANTS TO DO ER TOO... grrr...
Ace being paid for his hard work as a construction worker...
Then he wanted to queue to be surgeon.. it was a pretty short queue and we are told we are lucky cos there are now two doctors instead of one and so it is faster.. since the queuing time takes so long, I walked around and took pics of the kids who are learning how to make pizza at the pizza shop...
Finally, it is Ace's turn.. this could be the ONLY time I see my son dressed like a real surgeon.. complete with the scrubs and all the protective gear...
Is Dr Ace HANDSOME?:P
Dr Ace cutting his patient up...
Dr Ace removing the ribcage and removing the spoilt liver and putting in a new liver.. It looks kind of yucky to me.. Ace told me the liver is very sticky.. like it is made from playdoh or something.... I think Ace is so brave!
That is the friendly nurse sitting at the reception of the hospital...
Then time to queue for the ER. This is the longest queue yet.. we queued halfway and Ace wanted to shit... so we left to shit and when we came back we were quite a few number behind.. so we queued for 90 min here lor! I reminded myself to trust the process and that it will work out okie...
The santas ran past us again...
I went to take pics of the beauty salon (which has girls learning how to make up..) I was wondering how come all the arabic kids make up and why their make up is so horrendous (bright pink eye shadow with bright pink blusher with bright pink lipstick.. now i know)And finally, Ace got his number.. which meant he was next to go into the ER... so many pple left the queue cos it was far too long a wait.. I actually admire my son for sticking to his decision despite the long long wait.. and he never once complained...
I told Ace I have been standing for 4 hrs (And Max already arrived but Ace still insisted he wanted to do some other things and so Max waited...), my legs are very tired and so he tried to massage them for me..
The santas also did a little dance at the opera theatre..
Finally, Ace got to go in for the ER lesson.. no wonder it took such a long time! Each batch only had 7 kids and they were each asked to intro themselves.. and taught how to use the different instruments and assigned a job to do before they went out...
During their ER training.. I even had time to take photos of the milk factory and the wedding saloon where children can choose to be models.. hahahaha
Ace was given role of helping stabilize and wrap the leg of the casualty... and they took their own sweet time to talk also because they needed time to bring one of the kids (a volunteer) to the scene of the accident and make up the person...
Going to save pple now...
We passed by the supermarket...
The radio station...
And finally reached the accident scene. Turned out that this batch of kids are really lucky.. there is a FIRE at the hotel and there are firemen, police and ER pple here to help.. the ER adults were very good as well.. asking them to hurry and screaming, "Where is my staff.. hurry.. hurry.." and it made it seem like a really huge event... I think it was fun to be part of this whole exercise...
One, two, three.. everyone gets to lift the injured onto the van....
They are told to check the injured person and help him somemore..
And time to collect their SALARY...
WHen the kids were in the ambulance they were cheering for some egyptian football team and Ace joined in... the ambulance driver was so amused he asked Ace to dance and sing the cheer one more time with them.. hahahahahha
While we went to SHIT, we passed the dentist and Ace said he wanted to do that too.. so here is also probably the only time I will see my son dressed like a dentist...
Dr Ace brushing the patient's teeth (cos I think too dangerous to let them use the real machine) and flossing for the patient...
We saw some firemen saving fire again when we were looking for the pilot.. alas when we reached theplace, the pilot machines are out of order and so we tried to find our way towards the exit..
The exit led out to a toy shop and Ace threw a tantrum and insisted that he wanted to buy a blinking red police light... refused to leave until we bought it for him.. and i think cos we are going home soon.. Max just bought for him lah...
We had a very hungry dinner at 10.30pm at Lan Kwai Fong... amazing how we did not eat and drink for close to 8 hours whille inside kidzania... and poor max how he had to stand outside and wait for us...
The cute tortoises at Lan Kwai Fong....