The Bubbles Old Jack's Boat

Go on, Salty.

# Come with me, we're off to the sea To where I used to play

# Looking back when I was a boy and the fun we had each day

# Over the cobbles and through the streets, playing in the sun

# Friends to meet with games and treats, adventure's just begun

# Stories from a magical world

# Washed in by the sea

# Meet the rock pool creatures there

# It's amazing what you see

# Looking back

# When I was a boy

# Shrimps and starfish Crabs and snails

# In twinkly Rockpool Tales... #

HE LAUGHS

# Those lovely Rockpool Tales. #

Oh, hello!

I've just been doing the washing-up.

I got covered in bubbles, I did.

HE LAUGHS Look at you, Salty!

You've got bubbles all over you as well. Come here. There's a girl.

Yes, look prettier there. Smell a bit nicer as well.

You know what?

Looking at all these bubbles reminds me of the day

Ernie brought some bubble mixture down to the beach.

This is a very bubbly story, this.

And it all happened when I was a boy.

In a twinkly time long, long ago.

I used to run down to play on the beach as often as I could,

meeting up with my best friends Little Ernie and Little Sailor Sue.

On this particular day, Ernie and I were playing together in the sand

and Sue was on a blanket nearby, having a little nap.

"Oh," said Ernie.

"I want to show her my bubbles."

He had home-made bubble mixture and a home-made bubble stick with him.

"Can I have a go?" I said.

So, Ernie gave me his bubble stick and I made a few bubbles,

which floated off towards the rock pools.

"Come on, let's wake up Sue and we can all chase bubbles," cried Ernie.

"No," I said. "She's fast asleep."

And then... HE CHUCKLES

..I blew a really enormous bubble which floated off into the sky.

We chased the big bubble across the sand

and then we watched it as it floated away over the rocks,

before landing with a "bop" on a rock pool.

We gazed deep down into the glittery waters, and there...

A magical world appeared before our eyes.

One bright morning,

Bertrum the Butterfish looked out of the home

in the rocky ridge where he lived.

And, to his surprise, he saw bubbles.

Great, fat, round bubbles were bobbing past in the sunlit water.

Now, you would think that Bertrum

would be happy to see bubbles go past.

But oh, no. No, no, he was not.

"Bubbles," he sighed. "They just cause mess and confusion."

And he snuck back inside his house.

Meanwhile, quiet little Belinda the Blenny

was singing to herself in an upturned shell

when she spotted bubbles

coming out of a wibbley crack in the rocks nearby.

She thought they were the most magical things ever.

She loved their fragile shape and the rainbow she could see inside them.

She flitted in and out of them, careful not to touch them,

as she didn't want to burst them.

She was soon joined by Sally the Starfish

and Andrew the Anemone, who both loved bubbles, too.

HE CHUCKLES

They chased each other in and out

of the bubbles coming out of the wibbley crack.

"Wheeeee!"

But just as the fun was really starting, there was a...

tuh!

And one of the bubbles burst.

Tuh! Bop. Another bubble burst.

Bop! Another one. And bop, bop, bop, bop... Another one and another one.

Bop, bop... And soon, all the bubbles had burst.

"What's happened?" said Andrew.

And then...they saw Bertrum.

He had a piece of straw resting on a rock

and he was blowing teeny-tiny pebbles through it to burst the bubbles.

"Good, that's the last of them," he said.

He then stuffed some seaweed in the wibbley crack

to stop any more bubbles from coming out.

"Now, perhaps, we can get back to normal.

"Look at all the sand you've managed to whirl around chasing bubbles.

"What a mess."

Sally was very surprised. "Don't you like bubbles?" she asked.

"No," said Bertrum firmly.

"Every so often, out there in the big, wide sea,

"a whale called Bluey blows bubbles.

"And sometimes, those bubbles whoosh and wiggle

"through cracks and tunnels in the rocks.

"They bubble up into our rock pool through that wibbley crack.

"And they discombobulate everything."

"Discombob...?

"What?" said Andrew.

"They make a big mess," said Bertrum.

"But bubbles are beautiful," cried Sally.

"Not to me," said Bertrum,

and he hurried off to do some more of his chores.

HE SIGHS

Sally was really, really sad.

"I feel sorry for Bertrum," she said.

"I wish he could love bubbles the way we do."

Andrew thought about this.

And then he had a really good idea.

SALTY BARKS

Yes, almost as good as one of your ideas, Salty, yes.

"Let's make the biggest, bestest, bubbliest bubble ever.

"Then we could show Bertrum how wonderful bubbles are."

Well, Belinda wasn't sure, but Sally could not contain her excitement.

"What do we do?" she asked.

"I'll go up to the edge of the rock pool

"and ask Reginald how we can get a message to Bluey the Whale.

"You take that seaweed out of the wibbley crack."

So, Belinda and Sally set to work

and Andrew floated to the top of the rock pool.

He popped his head above the surface,

right next to Reginald the Great Wise Limpet.

"O Great Wise Limpet," said Andrew.

"How can I speak to Bluey the Whale?"

Reginald rolled one of his big eyes and said slowly...

"There are two ways.

"You could make an enormous speaking tube out of hollow branches

"held together with pieces of rope, string, old fishing nets

"and pieces of driftwood."

Andrew thought that this sounded a little complicated.

"What's the other way?" he asked politely.

"You shout," said Reginald.

So, that's what Andrew did. He shouted.

"Bluey! Bluey!

"Blow us the biggest bubble you possibly can."

HE PUFFS

And far, far out in the big, wide sea,

Bluey heard Andrew.

"Coming right up," he laughed.

And with a great, enormous puff, he blew.

And Bluey's puff whizzed through the twisting tunnels

and the crannies in the rocks, all the way into the rock pool.

And right next to Sally and Belinda,

a bubble emerged through the wibbley crack.

It got bigger and bigger and bigger.

It was the most beautiful bubble ever.

"It's wonderful," smiled Sally.

The enormous bubble bobbed and floated away towards Bertrum's home.

Mm. Outside, Bertrum was sweeping up. Again.

"That's a good job well done," he said.

Mm, and just as he was saying it, the enormous bubble appeared.

Bertrum stared at the bubble with wider and wider eyes.

He stopped sweeping.

He stopped everything.

Bertrum then did an unexpected thing.

He smiled.

He looked up at the smooth rainbow surface of the bubble and...

he smiled.

"I have to say...

"that is really a very beautiful bubble.

"I can see myself in it."

And sure enough, there was Bertrum's face

stretched on the surface of the bubble like a strange mirror.

But...as Bertrum happily admired his reflection,

the bubble did an unexpected thing.

It scooped up his hat.

"My hat," squawked Bertrum.

"The bubble's got my hat!"

Andrew knew that Bertrum really loved that hat, so he said, reluctantly,

"Um...

"You'd better use your straw to pop it."

But Bertrum didn't want to. He thought the bubble was beautiful.

He put his straw down.

"No, let's chase it," he said.

"It'll pop eventually and then I'll get my hat back."

And with a "wheeeeee",

the little rock poolers chased after the enormous bubble

round and round and over and over and up and down.

Everything was discombobulated.

But Bertrum didn't mind.

He was having too much fun.

HE CHUCKLES

And, eventually, the bubble strayed too close to a sharp rock.

And with an enormous pop,

it burst.

Bertrum's hat floated safely down onto his head.

"Well," said Bertrum, "I suppose that's the end of that."

SALTY WHINES

He looked a little disappointed.

Andrew looked at Sally. Sally looked at Belinda.

And Belinda looked at Bertrum.

"We could ask Bluey to blow us another one," said Belinda quietly.

Bertrum looked at them and thought hard.

Then a big smile spread across his face.

"Let's do that.

"I like chasing bubbles!"

So, that's what they did.

Bluey puffed,

bubbles shot out of the wibbley crack,

and the rock poolers chased bubbles for the rest of the day,

until it was time to go to bed.

When Ernie and I looked up from the rock pool,

Ernie said, "I'm going to make an enormous bubble right now."

So he did.

Ernie's enormous bubble drifted high, high into the sky

and then it swooped down across the beach.

Down, down it went, until it landed right on Little Sue

and popped.

She sat up, blinking, looking around.

Ernie and I both burst out laughing.

And together, we raced over to join Sue.

And then we played and played until it was time for us to go home.

And the tide came in

and covered the rock pool like a great seaweedy blanket.

HE CHUCKLES

I told you it was a very bubbly tale, didn't I, Salty?

-Do you want to come and blow some bubbles with me, Salty?

-Go on, then.

That's only one, Ern!

That's much better! I'll tell you what. Go on.

I'll watch you from here. Go on, girl. You go with him.

So, why don't you join us for some more Rockpool Tales next time?

Goodbye.

Oh, lovely, Ernie.

I think you're getting better.

Super!