Turf Zone – Medway
Yesterday saw me on my first session as a new start, a turf Newbie, as PlanetGaryII. Completed my usual circuit around Bonnyrigg, taking a good 40 zones, collecting 7800 points and a PPH of 76. But that’s not the good stuff. The good stuff is the ranks and medals that pop fast and furious onto the mobile phone screen. First up Rank 2 – Experienced Scout. I guess you don’t get a popup for Rank 1 – Newbie. After that, Rank 3 – Advanced Scout quickly followed with the Take-5 and Greed-5 medals.
Some further pedalling and we get Rank 4 – Master Scout. About 8 minutes later a veritable flurry of screen popups, starting with Take-10, Greed-10, Eager Squirrel and Rank 5 – Scout Elder. A couple of minutes later we have the Eager Beaver. More pedalling and a few more zones later in pops 15 Unique and eight minutes later, Rank 6 – Novice Traveller with Greed-30 not long after. A few more takes required before the Take-25 appears and a longer 14 minutes of effort is required before we get Rank 7 – Experienced Traveller. Greed-30 is hot on its heels. Final medal of the session is the Greed-40.
So, not bad for the first session, up from Rank 1 – Newbie to Rank 7 – Experienced Traveller and 11 medals to start off the collection. As a side note, I left Holy zone KirkCockpen untaken in anticipation of a possible Ghost Minute at the witching hour tonight, weather permitting. One thought I’ve just had, is that taking all the Bonnyrigg zones has scuppered any immediate local attempt at the Dawn Ninja, Dark Ninja and Darkest Ninja medals, as revisits are not permitted, though I guess I could always go elsewhere or wait until someone else takes them.
After lunch, back out again for another session, this time Eskbank and Dalkeith, returning with zones up t0 73, PPH at 154 and about 14600 points. One thing I will say is how tedious and frustrating longer take over times are. Being used to a take over time of 19 seconds as PlanetGary, I’m now having to wait for 28.2 seconds. That does not seem much but it really is.
Now, the medals and ranks. First to flash up was Rank 8 – Advanced Traveller, followed 15 minutes later with Stamina, 50 Unique, Take-50 and Greed-50, all rapid fire one after another. And only three minutes later, Neutralizer and Rounderpointer-10k join the gang. To finish off the session one more, Rank 9 – Master Traveller. This brings my medal tally to 17 in total. Not bad for the first day. One Train Station zone, Eskbank, taken for the Trainer medal and, of course, we start the Daily-5. Wonder if I’ll reach Day 365?
One thing I’ve found from today’s session is that I’ve found a sense of purpose again, something more than just taking zones for points and trying to close those immeasurably long gaps between Ranks and medals when you reach the higher levels of the game. So, looking forwards to going for the Eager Ferret again, heading out at night for the Dark Ninja medals and all the rest.
The other day, on Turf Blog 04-08-24, I mentioned about swapping tyres on my ultimate turfing bicycle, reducing the weight of each wheel by over 500g, equivalent to twelve 4-finger Kit-Kats or an exceedingly large fruit scone. You might not think this would make any different but the weight saving is noticeable. The bike actually feels lighter to handle, accelerates quicker and seems to be nimbler overall, fair flying along, almost floating. Tyre noise is slightly up but not excessively. No punctures so far, fingers crossed. Finally, and thanks to good old PPH, I’m now Rank 10 – World Traveller. Back soon.
Copyright ©2024 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.
