On a lovely summers day in 1995 a sullen octopus discovered a Thomas Cook travel brochure, and having browsed its pages became euphoric about the prospect of getting away from all the darkened gloom at the bottom of the ocean. The idea there was another unexplored land above the waters surface had been unthinkable just moments before. So the octopus packed its bag and set off for the waters surface, travelling across in the direction of this spectacular looking thing known, according to the brochure, as a beach.

As the octopus arrived at the surface the intensity of the light made its eyes sore, it was amazed that such an incredible world existed above. The dark world was all it had ever known. The octopus bobbed about on the surface taking in the sights, when all of a sudden it heard a noise. The noise grew louder and louder, then whack, and darkness. Pain shot up the length of one of the octopuses tentacles. Dazed and confused it tried to understand what just happened, and then it noticed one of its tentacles was half the length it should be, and was bleeding. The octopus was unable to fathom the event, but it had just been hit by a passing speedboat, and was fortunate to have had only one of its tentacles severed by the passing propeller. It could have been far worse; the octopus might've been killed instantly.

The incident made a lasting impression on the poor octopus, it said to itself 'this other exciting world, a world of light and vibrant colour, is perhaps not for the likes of octopuses', and swiftly retreaded to the darkened depths from which it came. The severed tentacle on the other hand was carried away by the harsh undercurrents, and sank slowly downwards. It eventually found itself on the seabed surrounded by big round metal towers, coated in yellow paint and thick brown rust. It became aware of itself, something it had never done before. What were these round metal towers that surrounded it? They had some kind of shape at their centre, with three other segmented shapes surrounding it. The tentacle gradually became more aware of itself; it discovered that it could swim. By wriggling about at first it discovered it was able to propel itself along in all directions at speed. It could crawl along the seafloor in much the same way a caterpillar might get around.

As time went by the more the tentacle learnt to manoeuvre, but like the octopus it too was dissatisfied with its surroundings. It became aware that there were no other tentacles nearby, only fish and other sea life passed overhead, and they paid it little attention. In fact more often than not, the other sea life would steer clear of the tentacle. It decided it must explore its surroundings, travelling further into the unknown and seek out others that it recognised as being similar to itself. Shortly after making this decision it propelled itself off in a direction that it chose at random, it gathered pace and quickly shot along, keeping itself several feet from the ocean floor. It travelled many miles until it sensed that it was slightly warmer, and slightly lighter. It continued on the same course, until it found it was unable to swim any further. It had hit a beach, and was now lying in the open air. 'This looks interesting' it thought, 'nice and warm too.' But there was nothing going on, no other sea life passing overhead, the only movement was in the distance, a strange swaying movement. So the tentacle continued to travel in the same direction, towards the swaying.

The further the tentacle got to the swaying the less swaying there seemed to be, in fact there was less movement generally, the surroundings became increasingly static. The tentacle kept on its course, travelling further into the forests of Bruny Island, just off the south coast of Tasmania until it reached the highest point at the centre of the landscape. There was a strong breeze that blew against its purple skin. It knew if it could climb higher there would be more to see, and then it could perhaps find some movement of life and know which direction to travel in next. All around were tall narrow columns that rose up from the ground, they then expanded off into smaller and smaller columns, and on each of the smallest were thin disk like shapes. The purple tentacle had entered a forest full of Eucalyptus trees. It decided to climb one to get a better view.

Having never climbed a tree before it struggled at first, but after several failed attempted it developed the ability to wrap itself around the tree's trunk, and snake its way around and up, gaining access to the smaller branches which were easier to cling on to. It continued to climb to the highest point and could see for miles all around. Whilst clinging to the branch it became aware that something was happening to it, as though hunger was being fulfilled. The purple tentacle discovered that it was able to absorb nutrients through its skin, straight from the branch of the Eucalyptus tree. After a few hours it was feeling very satisfied, its exhaustion from travelling such a great distance had dissipated and was eager for some action.

It looked around from the height of the tree branch for something interesting, and noticed that something was approaching. 'Some movement, coming my way!' it thought as it spiralled around the branch in excitement. It snaked around the tree's trunk down to the forest floor, where it could see a round shape approaching. The round shape made a kind of tinkling chattering sound as it approached, then stopped in front of the purple tentacle as if to greet it.

The purple tentacle crawled around the round shape, observing it curiously, then suddenly struck the round shape's side with its purple tip. The round shape jumped up and shook violently, making quite a noise. The purple tentacle shot away in shock, before returning after the round shape had ceased shaking. The purple tentacle grew closer once again, and then unexpectedly tapped the round shape, known as a tambourine to you or I, a second time. The tambourine jumped into the air, shook a little emitting a burst of sound, then landed in the same spot. The purple tentacle found the tambourine to be most entertaining; it was the first thing it had ever really interacted with. It continued to tap on the tambourine, and each time it would make a burst of sound and jump about.

After a few moments the tambourine turned to face the purple tentacle, paused, and then rolled off in the direction from which it came. The purple tentacle was alone again, and tired from all the excitement; so it decided to retreat back to its branch at the top of the eucalyptus tree in the hope that another tambourine might pop by. Night soon fell, and all was dark. The purple tentacle wrapped itself tightly around the branch and slept soundly, and dreamt of the tambourine's return.