Turf zone – BlowLoun
Today sees the finish of yet another Turf round, Round #130, when zone counts are all reset to zero and we start the mad frantic dash to grab all those fresh unique zones with their 50 bonus points before someone else takes them. So, as good a time as any to take wee look back at what I’ve been up over the past 28 days, and also what plans might be in the pipeline for the next round.
Round #130 sees me finish with Rank 36 – Light Turfer, having brought my overall total points beyond an amazing 750,000 points required for that rank, in fact, all the way up to 850,000 and beyond. Not all that high a score when compared to some other turfers who can take way more than that in a single round, but from a personal point of view, an achievement I’m more than happy with. And that, I think, is what is important. Not what others have managed to achieve but what you yourself manage to achieve. Points for this round are again an improvement on my last round, reaching and then passing a personal target of 250,000. Up from 214,600 points in the last round. Always good to keep on improving. Placing was 29th out of 1013 turfers in the UK and 21st out of 644 turfers in Scotland. World placing was 143 out of 10,000 plus.
On the medal front, things are getting more little more difficult with more effort, planning and time required. Having been awarded many of the lower value medals, the medal values are now much greater and more challenging to achieve. Only two medals added to the collection this round. First is the Trainer medal, awarded for taking a train station zone every day for 30 days and the second, the Take-2500 medal, for performing 2500 takeovers in total.
Now, what are my plans for the next 35 days of Round #131? First and foremost is to keep on enjoying myself and having fun. This is very important. I don’t want to fall into the trap where points are everything and must be collected at all costs. I don’t want to become a turf addict. I’ll will be trying for a few medals and I’ll be looking at those shortly but my main aim is to enjoy turfing. Simply put, if I can continue to enjoy turfing, take a few photographs and have something interesting to post here on the blog, I’ll be content. I can also see myself looking at some smaller personal turf challenges, for example, the Seven Hills of Edinburgh and the Water of Leith. I have more in mind but have yet to refine and post them online.
The main medal focus this round will be the Darkest Ninja medal, taking 30 zones between the hours of 2.00 am and 3.00 am. I’ve got my list of 30 zones ready, order of taking all worked out and refined to the N-th degree, and all zones are local here in Bonnyrigg and Eskbank. I’ll probably try a test run first, then when all the zones are free for the taking – revisits do not count – will pick a suitable night and go for it. I may enlist the help of some fellow turfers to clear the zones for me beforehand, being local zones I tend to hold them quite a lot of the time.
Other medals I have in mind include the Greed-200, which I’ve mentioned before, but is proving difficult, mainly due to held zones being taken by other turfers. Two other medals, Restless and Insomnia, taking at least one zone an hour for 12 and 24 hours respectfully, look suitable for undertaking at the same time. I think that’s enough to keep me going for now. I will, of course, be keeping the blog updated on plans, and any progress, in due course.
On the turf transport front, Ogre’s gear problems have finally been resolved by replacing the inner mechanism of the Shimano Alfine 8-speed hub gear with one from a donor bicycle. Everything is now running smooth and quiet, just the way I like. This does mean I’m down to two bicycles, the Surly Ogre and the Surly Pugsley fat bike. I actually stripped down both the Pugsley and the donor bike and used the best parts on one bike. Both Ogre and Pugsley now have matching white frames and matching rear racks. No more jealousy in the bike shed any more. For interest, the colour is BMW Alpine White, the colour I choose when they were both powder-coated a few years ago.
All that remains now is to wait for the big round rest at 11.00 am this morning. Unfortunate, I have other commitments – Cathryn and I are going for a walk and picnic lunch in the Moorfoot Hills today but may get out turfing later today. All the best.
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