Simon's Time Adventure Part 1 (All the words!)

G'day, my name is Simon, I'm an Australian Green Tree Frog.

I'm also a Fact Finding Frog.

Thanks for coming to visit me at my new Bus-Stop.

Oh man, how excellent is this .

It's night time and it's raining, two of my favourit-ist things already.

I haven't quite worked out where we are yet.

It's  a bit tricky to see anything clearly through all that rain.

 

I can hear things clearly though, like that Primo, super catchy music.

If I know Chloe, my computer, that music is a clue, but I'll have to think about that one for a minute.

 

I reckon we're in some sort of courtyard.

Right in front of us, on the ground, is a very long, very straight line, about as wide as  your hand, and it has a metal strip on each side of it.

 

Jeepers creepers, I hope your imagination is ready to go to work, because behind us are some really old buildings, and one of them has a bright green laser beam shooting right out of the top of it. 

It goes straight over the top of our heads, and way off into the distance.

You heard that right, a bright green laser beam!

It's so bright, you could easily see it from 60 kilometres away.

When the raindrops hit that laser beam, they light up and sparkle like little crystals.

It looks like a really long string of Green Fairy lights hanging in mid-air.

 

BIG BEN CHIMES

 

Did you hear that, now that's what I call the best clue ever.

Now I know exactly where we are.

That's the sound of the most famous clock in the whole world.

We are definitely in London, in England for sure.

What you can hear is Big Ben, telling us that it's 4 o'clock in the morning.

Well that explains why there's no-one else around.

It also explains those hip and happening beats we've been listening to.

Back in the 1960's, like 60 years ago, it was called Swinging London, and that's the kind of funky music that came out of it.

I must say, Chloe is getting very tricky with her clues.

 

Now where was I, oh yeah, Big Ben.

There are movie stars who wish they were as famous as that clock.

It's been in movies, on the TV, in magazines, on postcards, on postage stamps.

The sound of Big ben has been played on the BBC radio every single day, for the past 90 years!

 

Actually they had to do some repairs on Big Ben and it took them 3 years.

That's a long time considering they were working around the clock!

I can't believe they fired me from my job at the local clock factory.

After all those extra hours I put in!

My mum said to me the other day, Simon, why did you put an alarm clock in your shoe?

And I said, I don't want my foot to fall asleep!

 

Hang on a minute.

If we're in London, that explains a lot of things, including that laser beam.

I can tell you that it only has one job, but, it has two names.

The artist who created it called it  "zero degrees",  and everyone else calls it, "The Prime Meridian Laser "

That totally sounds like something out of a Transformers movie!

 

LASER VOICE

Hello, I am the Prime Meridian Laser.

I am also known as Zero Degrees.

 

Oh yeah, you have to admit, Zero degrees is a very cool name!

It's one job, is to show us exactly where the zero line of longitude is.

Longitude lines are the ones you see on a globe or a map of the world going from the top to the bottom.

The bright green line this laser makes, is the one that divides the earth into the eastern hemisphere, and the western hemisphere.

That means anyone can measure how far east or west they are because everyone knows where to start from.

 

The equator that goes around the middle of the earth, like a big belt, that's a line of zero degrees too, but it's zero degrees latitude.

It divides the world into the northern and southern hemispheres.

If we're in London, and that's the prime meridian, then this has to be the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

This has been the home of the prime meridian for the last 200 years.

Have you noticed, that the line on the ground lines up perfectly with the laser beam over our heads?

Yep, that's the original prime meridian, for sure.

 

There's one little teeny weeny tiny problem with this laser.

Eh, I don't want to say this too loud, I don't want to hurt its feelings.

The official location of the zero degrees meridian line has been moved.

You heard that right, it isn't on this spot anymore.

I don't know why I'm whispering, it's a laser, it can't hear me.

Everything was going really well for the Prime Meridian.

Back in 1884, the whole world said oh yeah, no worries dude, you're the main meridian all right, and then, in 1984, 3 little letters came along and changed everything.

G-P-S, yep, the same GPS that you have in your phone.

Lots of people don't even realise that satellites orbiting around the earth are sending all that location information to your phone.

That information is so exact, your cell phone can tell you that the new zero degrees longitude line is 102 metres to the right of us, out there in the middle of a park. It even has a new name, it's called the International Reference Meridian.

 

GPS Voice

The International Reference Meridian previously known as the  zero degrees longitude line, is 102 metres to the east, or if you prefer, 102 metres to the right of your current location.

 

See I told you, although that is super weird because I don't even have my phone with me.

That means when your phone gives you directions, they're coming from outer space!

Sometimes real life feels like a futuristic science fiction movie.

After all, you have a tiny device in your pocket that can tell you exactly where you are on this gigantic planet.

It lets you talk to anyone else who has one of those devices, even if they're on the other side of the world, and how's this for extra weird, you might be using one right now to listen to this adventure!

 

BUS SOUNDS

 

Oh cool beans and jolly good old chap, those headlights in the distance are definitely our Big Green Mobile Museum bus, no worries.

I was going to say it'll be nice to see MV again, but we can't see MV, he's the AI who drives the bus.

It'll be nice to talk to him though.

I've always wanted my own talking bus, and now I've got one.

Oh, I better give you your bus ticket before it gets here, there you go.

Let's check out the back and see if there's any clues on it.

Oh wacko, the diddly oh.

We've got 2 clues right here and the first one is quite long!

 

Clue number 1.

This adventure is about one thing.

You can save it

You can spend it,

you can make it,

you can lose it,

You can keep it

You can master it, and you can kill it.

Ooh, that's definitely a riddle, very groovy.

 

Clue number 2.

You will visit an ancient art gallery, the only one on the planet that was discovered by a Robot.

 

Well, I'm glad you're here, I'm going to need some help working out these clues, they're getting curiouser and curiouser every time.

Oh excellent, the headlights from our bus are lighting up the whole place.

Can you see how they're reflecting off the wet cobblestones on the ground.

He's pulled up outside an open iron gate over on the right hand side.

Let's head over and get on board.

I hope you don't mind getting a little bit wet.

Personally, I love walking in the rain, or  should I say hopping.

 

MV

Hello Simon, welcome back to the Mobile Museum.

Please come aboard again with your friend, and make yourselves comfortable in the front seats facing the instrument panels.

I apologise for the inclement weather, but I am only able to control the conditions inside the bus.

 

No problemo MV

But sometimes I wish it would rain coins instead of water, that might knock some sense into the world.

If it did rain coins, I guess that could be called climate change!

My favourite is when it rains cats and dogs, then I get to play in the poodles!

I hope it doesn't rain ducks and chickens though, that would be seriously fowl weather!

Apparently it's the law, that you have to turn on your headlights when it's raining in Sweden.

How am I supposed to know when it's raining in Sweden!

 

MV

I would be happy to inform you when it rains in Sweden, I have instant access to all of the current global meteorological data.

 

No worries, MV, just a joke.

Righto, we're back in these very comfy seats, we are good to go.

 

MV

Simon, we have already reached our destination, and are now floating comfortably in a suitable parallel universe.

 

Holy speeding ticket batman!

That's exactly what happened last time!

This ride is so smooth, I didn't even realise we were moving.

MV, on the next adventure, can we just stand up?

This trip is so fast, I don't even have time to scratch myself.

 

MV

That is a very valuable observation Simon.

I do not have any accurate data on how long you require to scratch, but I do know that the journey between dimensions is an average of 45 seconds with zero turbulence.

Standing up is the obvious solution to improve the efficiency and comfort rating of your journey.

Would you mind leaving your seats now and standing in front of the back wall, or force field?

This will allow you to have your tickets scanned for security and identification.

 

Can do Mr Magoo!

We're on our way.

Righto, let's think about holding our tickets out towards this force field - wall - thingy, at least we know what's going to happen this time.

 

RV:

Thank you, identification complete.

Force field temporarily powering down.

Please enter the Mobile Museum and have a nice day

 

And there it goes, I do love watching that wall dissolving into thin air.

Ciao MV, we'll see you at the finishing line, we're going in.

 

MV

Arrivederci Simon, I will see you both at closing time.

 

Come on, let's head in before the wall closes up again.