Taking fun by the horns

The New Paper Readers Carnival, presented by HUAWEI, got off to a bullish start yesterday and I got to try some of the cool activities.

The atmosphere was great, with a good turnout of people of all ages, especially with the school holidays. Kids munched on cotton candy and popcorn, while families enjoyed the games at every turn.

Mr Aaron Huang, 34, bonded with his son Ayden, four, as they played together.

Mr Huang told TNP: "I collected the coupons for my son to play. Then I ended up buying more tickets so I could check out the Nerf Shooting Booth. My son especially enjoyed the Frog Jump game."

For me, the most obvious activity to try first was the Rodeo Bull. Having ridden horses and elephants before, I thought I had experience on my side.

I was wrong. The rule is this: The rider can use only one hand to hold the rope attached to the mechanical bull. I was still quite confident, despite this minor inconvenience.

I wrapped my legs as tightly as I could around the bull and gripped the rope with my right hand.

The bull had other plans.

It started spinning so fast the faces in the crowd became a blur.

I tried desperately to stay on the writhing bull, using all my strength before I was thrown from my seat. After an unimpressive 18 seconds, it was Bull: 1, Me: 0.

Worse still, I was just two seconds shy of the 20-second mark, which would have yielded a 100-point bonus. I could have won a teddy bear.

I put the loss behind me and headed to the Nerf Blaster Arena's two mazes.

The zombie-apocalypse maze had a red and white barricade tape hanging from wall to wall, and a cartoon zombie face as the bull's eye on each target.

Being a Walking Dead fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the maze. Within it, I was unable to see the outside world. It truly felt like I was engaged in urban warfare and had a mission to shoot all the zombies.

One of the day's highlights was when HUAWEI Singapore's head of device Low Han Thong held up target boards. Participants were given 10 darts each to aim at the boards.

Hitting them would win the players a newly released HUAWEI G7, worth $500, and bonus points, which could be exchanged for other prizes.

STUDENT WINS PHONE

One of the sharpshooters was Leo Sun Fong, 11, who hit the target with six darts to spare.

"I'm very happy to win the phone because I don't have any phone. It was difficult because I had only 10 darts and I had to aim straight," he said.

For me, dreams of rally racing came true at the Remote Control Car Racing Tracks station. The cars rolled fast across the tracks, and even drifted around the corners.

So I thought controlling the Ollie robot at the HUAWEI Sphero booth would be similar, but again, I was wrong.

The Ollie reminded me of the futuristic robots from the movie Wall-E.

It was challenging to make the state-of-the-art robot do my bidding, but I found the task quite addictive. Using a phone as a console, you can make the robot roll, bounce, and even spin on the spot.

On my way out, I snapped photos with the candy mascots at the Candy Crush Photo Booth.

I even got myself a glitter tattoo to remember all the fun I had.

Want to enjoy yourself as much as I did?

Head on over to the carnival, which is still on today and tomorrow. As a bonus, there are four coupons in today's paper to cut out and add to your collection.

jeaniau@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Mar 21, 2015.
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