SPECIAL ATLANTIS HIGH GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS 2

SPECIAL ATLANTIS HIGH GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS

Christmas in Sunset Cove

BEANIE: “I love Christ
mas – eating hot cross buns, chocolate eggs to eat. I get very cold ears when it snows – I use ovengloves as earwarmers, otherwise my ear wax freezes and blocks my hearing. I’m making Jet a necklace made of pebbles from the beach. I’d love to know who I am for my Christmas present – ya know, my origins and where I am from. Santa says I look a bit like his elves and last year he offered me a job in his toy factory…”


SIL
VER LINING: “Yes! I LOVE Christmas! Santa is my favourite superhero and I admire him. He wears a lovely red suit and has amazing superpowers – he flies around the world in record time with his sidekick Rudolph, he battles misery and unhappiness by giving presents wherever he goes. Santa is a good role model. I’d like a new pink mask for Christmas”.

OCTAVIA: “Jingle bells is my favourite song. Christmas is superb – I celebrate it with my daddy and mummy, who hold a Christmas party each year. I may get Giles some nicer clothes to wear as a present. I’d like some purple clothes for me, some make-up and a book by eminent Harvard professor, Dr Rudolph Rainder called “History of Reindeer”.

SHANE: “Christmas is nice I suppose. It makes people smile and I like to compare how bright their teeth are with mine. But I don’t like when it snows – the sun goes out (which ruins my tan) and I must wear warm fuzzy clothes to keep warm – I miss my shorts and can’t see my legs! I am also jealous that one thing in town has a better tan than me – the Christmas turkey (after it has cooked in the oven for 8 hours) is almost as brown as I am”.


DORSEY
: “Aaah – you want my opinion on the earth custom known as Christmas? Well it reminds me of “Masmas” which we celebrate on Fenor each year. A 3 eyed goozlebeast is cooked on a fire for 3 weeks and then eaten by Fenorians, who also sing songs, dance round the fire and give each other a wrapped up present. Christmas makes me homesick… but I like it for that very reason. I wish Santa would help me find Atlantis this year”.

FROSTY: “Christmas is great! I love it when people make snowmen (and snowwomen) because then I have some company and snow-creatures I can relate to. I’m a bit sad because last year both my parents melted in the sun! This year I’ll be visited on Boxing Day by my other relatives – Uncle Frank (who lives in a freezer) and Aunt Pammy (who is a puddle and lives in a bucket). They too nearly melted in the sun but they are thankfully still alive. I hope to get a fridge-freezer from Santa and to meet a female Frosty”.

 

 

SPECIAL ATLANTIS HIGH GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS 1

SPECIAL ATLANTIS HIGH GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS

“Well hello there – it’s me, Santa Claus. Christmas is such a wonderful magic time of the year and brings joy to millions of people around the world – including Sunset Cove. In this special bumper 3 page guide, the people of Sunset Cove bring you their guide to Christmas…”

Christmas in Sunset Cove

As Santa discovered the first time
he visited it, Sunset Cove celebrates Christmas very differently. Firstly, remember that there are on average 364 days of sun per year and average temperatures in December here are 78 degrees. So it is (as the newsman says) hot hot hot – but Christmas Day is the exception because that’s the one day in the year there is no sun – but snow!

For some strange reason, Sunset Cove is situated on the Antarctic northern archipelago which means there is a strong gust of ice cool wind every 25th December – and you are guaranteed snow! About 5 feet of snow falls on
Christmas Day morning. The Sunset Cove people are not used to snow and it turns their world upside down as they adapt to snow on this fantastic day -, as we will see below…


Not many homes in Sunset Cove have chimneys so Santa must get into houses to deliver presents through letterboxes, satellite dish receivers, up drain pipes, through open windows, the back door, the front door, sometimes even through the keyhole. The most popular presents in Sunset Cove he delivers are sun tan lotion, moisturizer, toothbrushes, sunbeds, surfboards – reflecting the love of the town for the sun, shiny teeth and the beach.

The people of the town have an annual snowman competition – they must build the biggest and best-looking snowman out of all the tonnes of snow. The winner gets a gigantic hamper full of a year’s supply of sun tan lotion. The competition is presided over by Frosty the Snowman – who has a strange tendency to award the prize to whoever makes the best looking snowwoman…

12 VIEWS OF CHRISTMAS
Santa has found out what Christmas means to some of the most famous citizens of Sunset Cove – here are their accounts (described by themselves) of what Christmas means to them…

GILES: “I love Christmas. For me it is a magic and wonderful time that I celebrate with my Mum and Grampa. I love the music, giving presents to those I love. I’ll try to give Octavia something nice this year – I may make something for her. Christmas in Sunset Cove is a bit weird and celebrated differently. This year I want a book on Shakespeare and a computer”.

JET: “No way Santa – get out o
f my face! Okay… I’ll answer your question. Christmas is actually a conspiracy by global companies to make everybody buy presents. Santa himself is really the Chief Executive of SNOWBIZ TOYS Limited, a north pole based organisation that hires elves on very bad wages to make millions of toys in terrible working conditions. I say no way to Christmas. And that Frosty guy gives me the creeps…”

 

Mr Dorsey on Halloween 2

Mr Dorsey on Halloween 
Antonia! My dear I am so thankful that you are here. Could you please tell me a little bit about this horrendous night that is coming up?


“Certainly Mr. Dorsey. It’s all quite simple really.

You see, the term Halloween has been around since the times of the ancient Celts. It was originally an end of year celebration to celebrate the summers’ harvest and mark the start of the winter. The end of the year in those days was at the end of October.

People in those days were very superstitious and thought that anything that went wrong was because the spirits of their dead ancestors were not happy.

Gifts were offered to the spirits on the night that marked the end of the year in the hope that this would keep them happy for the New Year.

The appeasement of spirits was something that has lasted through time and as the years went by, though some traditions and feast days changed, the act of keeping the spirits happy carried on.
This act developed through time and took on different customs from various races and people until it became the tradition we know today – Halloween.

This night of the 31st October is a way of meeting the spirit world half way and facing up to fears. As a reflection of the earliest offerings to spirits in days gone by, children now dress up as ghosties and otherworldly characters and travel from house to house asking for treats. If they are not given sweets or candies a trick is often played out to mimic the supposed mischief of spirits. Adults dress up too sometimes so that they don’t feel left out and that is where the broomsticks come in to it Mr.Dorsey. Some people dress up as witches and witches are supposed to be able to fly on broomsticks!

Witches, werewolves, vampires, scary clowns and other such characters have also become part of the Halloween tradition through the introduction of popular stories, books and movies that feature them and have placed them firmly in the psyche of the public as creatures as ominous as ghosts (if not more so).



Pumpkins are carved and illuminated by candles in order to scare away the spirits and monsters that lurk on Halloween night.


Party games are played and horrible food and drinks served just for fun!
Spooky stories are told and scary movies watched because some people find it good to be scared!

In conclusion Mr.Dorsey, it seems that what started off as a serious celebration has become another excuse to have fun and get dressed up! Of course, other cultures still do take these spiritual things seriously and have their own keep the spirits away and happy traditions.

But you really have nothing to be scared about Mr.Dorsey, because here in Sunset Cove we will just have a fun time. And we have the Silver Lining to make sure that nothing bad ever happens to us.”

“Oh Antonia, thank you, thank you! I am so relieved that everything will be okay and that some evil bloodsucker will not attack me.

And so my family you see that I will be alright. I will try to enjoy this strange earth celebration and look forward to the day that I can tell you about my experience scale to scale.
And now I might try to find out a bit about a fat man in a red suit who flies around in the snow with some animals that have big antlers… “

  

 

Mr Dorsey on Halloween 1

Mr Dorsey on Halloween
A member of Sunset Patrol managed to intercept this report from the school science teacher, Mr.Dorsey to his family in a place called Phenorg
Mr Dorsey’s Guide to Halloween.

Well well my friends, today I will tell you about the strange celebration that these earth people call ‘Halloween’. The first I heard about this Halloween thing is when I was invited to a party that young Sophie May is having. She told me that it is all very yukky but so much fun and that I would have to dress up like a ghost or a headless man or something. I really needed to find out a little bit about what I should do and what I should wear because it all sounded very strange to me.


So, I hired some of those video things from the Sunset Cove Video Store on the High Street. They are disgusting! I could it believe what I was seeing! People cutting people up and scaring little children and walking around wearing masks. What is wrong with these earthlings to make them want to watch things like this in their living rooms? It is worse than what happens on Planet Phineirg!


And why would Sophie want to have this kind of party? I am really rather scared now because I do not want some Wampire to attack my neck. He would notice my scaly skin and as we do not have the normal kind of red blood that these earthlings seem to have, he would discover my secret and guess that I am not in fact, an earthling.

Even Josh Montana has turned bad!


Anyway, I have tried to stay calm and act as Uncle Xeron would have done. I went to the local store to see what kind of costumes there are and again I was shocked and amazed. There were these big sharp teeth and long nails, bolts that you can put in your head and blood that you can trickle down your chin. There were wigs like the ones Miss. Profusion wears and Wampire capes. I just do not know what to think anymore. Why would I want to dress like this? What will I do?


I saw Don the janitor carving up a huge orange in to a terrifying face that had eyes and a mouth that glowed in an eerie way. It reminded me of the Maltivian Swamp! Oh Phenorg!


I saw the chef from the Princess Diner making a revolting looking drink. It was bright green and it was very lumpy. As a matter of fact, it looked a little bit like Confictler Water from my beloved planet of Phenorg but there were spiders and worms in it instead of mice.


I am starting to get a little bit too homesick now and so think that I should make a list of the things that I have noticed you should do if you want to be a part of this Halloween night. This will help me to takemy mind of my home and my family that I miss so very much.

Jet Marigold is a witch!


1. Find a huge orange and attack it with a sharp knife. Scoop out all of its insides with a large spoon and then hack the most frightening face you can think of in to its skin. Set light to a candle and ram it in to the space in the middle. Put the orange in to your window so that everybody can admire your handiwork.

2. Try to get your spirit friends to hang around your house. I do not know what Sophie’s poltergeist looks like but the ghosts I have seen in the shops and in the neighbourhood windows are very plain and white looking. They float around and some of them scream if you bump in to them but most of them are very quiet and are just ‘there’.

3. Buy some blood if you do not have enough of your own and some teeth if your own are not sharp or yellow enough. Claws or sharp nails are also required. And you can buy wigs to make you look like Miss. Profusion. Maybe nobody told her that Halloween is only for one day

4. Get some clothing to dress in for the night. It needs to be red or black. Or white if you want to look like your spirit friends.

5. Buy a broom in case you want to help sweep the neighbourhood. (I think that the town will be even cleaner than it already is after all the cleaning that will go on this Halloweens night. But I do not understand why you have to wear a big black hat while you sweep.)


6. Buy lots and lots of candy to throw at children who knock on your door

7. Talk to your house spiders and ask them to make more cobwebs so that you can cover your house with them.

8. Watch all those horrifying videos so that you know what to look out for on Halloween night.

9. Buy a lot of garlic to put around your neck because I hear that there will be many Wampires out when the moon is behind the clouds. This will help to scare them away from your neck.

10. Practice staying up very very late at night so that you will be able to watch out for wampires, witches, werewolves and all the other terrifying monsters that will be prowling around.



Oh mother, I am so worried. I am told that I will have fun but I do not know how. How will I be able to tell if a witch is real or if it is Sabrina in disguise? What if somebody bleeds on me? Do I call a doctor or do I just ignore what is happening because it is meant to be fun? I cannot bring myself to attack a helpless orange and turn it in to a horrifying face!

 

 

GILES GORDON ON THE BEACH 2

GILES GORDON ON THE BEACH 
THE BEACH PARTY

Beaches in popular culture

  1. Baywatch tv series
  2. The Beach movie
  3. Beach Boys, legendary pop group
  4. On the beach – Chris Rea song
  5. Big Wednesday – 1970s surf movie
  6. Silver Surfer – 60s cartoon hero
  7. Jaws films and the beach
  8. New York beach in Planet of the Apes
  9. Ursula Andress on the beach in Dr. No
  10. Bridget Bardot, 1950s actres

“Beach parties are held in Sunset Cove
really often. It attracts practically everyone in town. There is nice music, fantastic barbecue food, great sunshine. Bronzed hunks flex their muscles and beach babes strut their stuff.

Josh Montana asked Octavia to the beach – she turned him down and instead Octavia actually said to me “I look forward to seeing you there, Giles” in Atlantis High school the other day! I can’t believe it. Do I have the courage to go to the beach? Will Octavia really be there or is this just a joke?

6 Famous Beaches

  1. Venice Beach, California
  2. Laguna Beach, California
  3. Bondei Beach, Sydney
  4. Surfers’ Paradise, Gold Coast
  5. Blackpool beach, UK
  6. Sunset Cove, Atlantis High

Dare I go to the beach party? If I go, I will stick out like a lightbulb that’s gone out on Christmas tree lights… but
 if the girl of my dreams, Octavia, is going to the beach party then this might be a party that I cannot miss…”