John Oldham Park

One sunny Winter's morning, I went to Kings Park and on the way home we stopped at a playground called John Oldham Park. It may not look like much fun from the photo above, but just look at this.

And this.

In the photo above, the person on the left is my older brother, Blair. In the middle there's Violet, trying to walk around the inside while not falling over as the entire thing spun around. And there's me on the right, unlike Violet, I think the best way to ride this is on the outside where you go faster.

There was also a large slide which was absolutely awful, although it looks great. At first it seemed wonderful, long and tall, just perfect! But when I first went down it was not! It was too starty-stoppy. Even when we sat on a piece of cardboard it was still terrible.

The best thing about that park was that it was completely empty. It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if there were people there. So we enjoyed ourselves, by ourselves.

Going back to photograph No.2 Those things are usually enormous fun. But at the time we went there it had recently rained to we couldn't sit down and let Dad swing us REALLY high. We just had to make do with standing up and as my shoes have almost no grips and Violet's have even less. We could barely swing at all. I swung myself as high as I could without falling over whereas Violet was content with just standing there. When we had to get off Violet was off in a jiffy but I couldn't stop my swing and I went higher and higher and just as I was about to slip off and fall I decided to take a chance and jumped off the swing as it went backwards and I lay down flat on the ground. Those things aren't made of the spongy stuff they look like. It's actually very hard metal and if I had hit my head it would have HURT!

At photograph No.3 There was one of those fun spinner things that go round and round as you cling onto the edge. It was very hard to push around though, especially when you are the only one pushing and EVERYONE else is on the net enjoying them self.

In conclusion, I'd rate the playground 8 and a half/10 because of the awful slide and the babyish playground behind the sign.

Jacob's Ladder

Hello. Today I am going to introduce you to Jacob's Ladder, a tall and steep staircase close by King's Park, which goes up the cliff face of Mt. Eliza. The view from the top is pretty amazing. You get to look out across the Perth skyline and the parkland below. In the photograph you can see me and my little sister, Violet standing at the bottom of Jacob's Ladder. Violet is the one on the left with the pink and brown T-shirt on.

We went to Jacob's Ladder early one Saturday morning in winter. It was exceptionally crowded, with loads of adults going up and down, and up and down, as you can see in the photo. We started from the top at the cul-de-sac end of Cliff St, and Mum told me it would be a long walk and would probably tire us out. On the way down I didn't know what she meant. 'This is easy,' I thought and went down with a hop, skip and a jump. But on the way up I realised what she had meant, for the climb was tiring! Two hundred and forty-two steps doesn't sound like a lot, but it is.

When Jacob's Ladder was first made by Joseph Huck and his sons in 1909, the steps were constructed with cheap wood and the staircase was not very stable. Over the years it began to fall apart and eventually, in 1961, the Perth City Council closed it down. Several years later it was rebuilt but this time they used concrete, so the steps were firm and the staircase was less likely to collapse. Then it was safe to walk on.

So why did I agree to climb down and up Jacob's Ladder? I did it for experience, and to warm up as it was freezing cold early in the morning. And I know why the adults were doing it too. You can see in the photo that most of the adults are wearing their gym clothes and  jogging. It is a popular way to get fit and healthy as they race up and down.



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