Sega Toys has produced a home planetarium, particularly in a place like Hong Kong where stargazing is simply impossible. For my 2 year old Son it’s excellent because he loves looking at stars, and he also gets to learn about the Stars as I can add new constellations. The quality is surprisingly good, you need to place the Star “Egg” as I call it (as it’s shaped like one) high up if you have a high ceiling as it will get out of focus very quickly. I bought it for about 9,000 yen which is approx. 80 USD and it’s been great value for money, it comes in cool black or white.

• Size: 110 (Width) ×160 (height) ×110 (depth) mm
• Weight: about 660g (battery is excluded)
• Power Input: 4AA batteries not included
• Projection Distance: 2m to about 2.3m
• Projected Area: about diameter 270cm
• High brightness white 1W LED
• 2 disks included 

I’m at Heathrow airport checking for books and in the top 20 section, there were 4 books all about child abuse and child betrayal with jarring subject titles such as “please daddy no” and “the ultimate betrayal”, “don’t tell mummy”, I didn’t realize it was such a hot topic here…it’s sort of depressing.

This led me to some other thinking which is, why is bad news so popular? It’s popular everywhere, in the news (bombs, explosion, death and destruction), in gossip magazines (divorces, fits of anger, temper, outbursts), and now even in the bookstores it’s filled with a variety of disturbing topics.

As a parent this is very bothersome for me, because all the books up until a certain age are all about a wonderful wonderful world, colorful and happy and then it all seems bad news after that. I cannot imagine telling my 2 year old about what is in the news but it’s all over the place, on the web, on tv, radio etc., it’s impossible to shelter him and it would probably be wrong to do so anyway.

If an Alien landed on planet earth, and read our news he’d think this was a horrible place….but that’s simpy not true! If you count how many good things happen to you in life, I would wager they out do your “bad” things unless you live in Iraq or one of those war torn places.

We take what we have for granted, what would someone in Somalia give for how someone in a safe place (I don’t even mean rich, just safe) where there was no War and you had food on your table. This is happiness to them, but many take that for granted. A good meal is happiness too but how many people rejoice about the good food they had, or that they even had food? How many people truly cherish their relationships, their families or their friends? Newspapers don’t sell if the headline is “a happy family”, we crave for this bizarre sensationalism of “big news”. Is it because we are not able to enjoy the happiness of others and can only be made to pay attention on the eve of disaster? That would be sad indeed, but the world cannot truly be that pessimistic, because if it was, we would not know how to laugh, smile or enjoy anything. Being sad cannot exist without being happy and we must have many moments in the day that make us happy, we just don’t realize it. It could be a small victory, a success, an achievement, some good news, no matter how small or unimportant, if it pleases you it’s positive, it’s some form of happiness.

We take happiness for granted, we really shouldn’t. If we can learn to appreciate what makes us happy and enjoy it more I’m sure the world will be a better place.

The entrance to this playground is in Kennedy Road, Mid Levels which is part of Hong Kong Park that also hosts the Aviary and connects at the other end with Pacific Place.

There is a decent playground in there which is enjoyed by many kids and has multi-level playgrounds set for different age groups.

The surrounding environment is green yet in the heart of Hong Kong.

Quarry Bay Park is a nice location in Hong Kong to take your kids too. A seawalk viewing Kowloon side with a park and small play areas that eventually lead to tennis courts, soccer field and a playground that adjoins the Taikoo Shing Mall.

For Kids, this is one of the better public playgrounds that I have seen. Quite large, safe and usually quite crowded, but not unreasonably so.

Bringing your kids for an outdoor walk in Hong Kong and then leading up to a playground is a blessing, usually I find it quite challenging to find reasonable public play areas for Kids in Hong Kong (outside of the private facilities), this one I can recommend for parents of young children, most of the kids there appeared to be between the ages of 3-7