Turf Blog 06-09-21

Turf zone – WalkPlant

A momentous event has occurred. The Wizards of Turf have excelled themselves this time, going above and beyond the call of duty. They have created a work of unparalleled genius of the kind not seen since early man discovered fire then burnt the toast, yet at the same time also despicably sadistic and worthy of the super-villain, Felonious Gru, or perhaps the mean and nasty Mrs Tweedy from Chicken Run.

The amazing marvel/devilishly evil creation I am talking about here is a new medal series, the Five-a-Day, also referred to a the Daily Five, granted to turfers who have taken over, assisted, or revisited, at least 5 zones every day for various set numbers of days in a row, with medals awarded for 10, 30, 60, 90, 180 and even an astonishing 365 days!

On the face of it this is simply marvellous and excitingly exciting, and I cannot wait to get started. It encourages you to get out there and take/assist/revisit at least five zones every day. Easy enough for the first medal in the series, the Daily-10. Once you’ve competed that you will likely be tempted with the next medal the Daily-30. Okay, you then think about the next medal, the Daily-60. If I don’t continue from this point on you will need to start from stretch again. So, you continue, always reluctant to stop because you’ll need to start again at Day Zero. That’s the devilishly evil part, the Five-a-Day will become an all-consuming addiction. For a year anyway.

But there’s more. Once you get up into the higher numbers, say the Daily-180, imagine you miss your Five-a-Day at day 179. Go Back to Start, as the dreaded Monopoly card proclaims. That would be unbearable having to start all over again. And there is worse, far, far worse, worse even than worse could possibly be, even worse than having missed out on that Round Gold Medal by one measly point! Just think, and this really doesn’t bare thinking about. You’ve managed to complete your Five-a-Day for 364 days, a cat’s whisker away from an entire year. STOP. No, enough, I cannot put those words down in front of me. It would be too much to have to live with. Best not to think that way. Let’s just say Five-a-Day is a jolly good thing and everyone should have a go.

The Turf Ultimate Region Fight 2021 started yesterday but other Sunday tasks meant I was unable to get turfing until this morning, so have some catching up to do. A good start was made by taking zones in Rosewell, Bonnyrigg, Eskbank and Dalkeith, accumulating a good 15,000 points and 81 zones/takes/uniques. During my two turfing sessions, I couldn’t help but think about the Daily medals, at least when I wasn’t avoiding Death in the busy, crazy-mental traffic in Dalkeith. First question was, should I go for it? And the obvious answer was, a big resounding YES, and I’m going for the Daily-365, fool that I am, perhaps. Was also out again taking zones around midnight. I just couldn’t sleep for all the excitement of a new medal series.

It should be easy enough to take five zones a day, especially when assist and revisits also count. No need to worry about not being able to take any local zones and having to travel further afield to take just five zones. Even in poor weather, such a blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes or even Earth being invaded by little green bug-eyed aliens, five zones should still be possible. I think the biggest issue is remembering to actually take five zones each and every day. Not only that but all manner of things can get in the way such as family commitments, going away on holiday to zone-free areas, having to go to W.O.R.K and so on and so forth. By the powers of Castle Grayskull, this will be fun!

Unlike the Trainer medal where you can use Warded to keep tally of your takes, keeping track of your Five-a-Day is also important but there does not seem to be anything available on Warded. or anywhere else I can think of looking. Perhaps it’s early days yet. How do you know that your actual five takes have been recorded and counted towards your goal? Perhaps, the Coding Wizards of Turf will come up with something to assist us poor retired code-blind ex-IT support engineers? I guess it’s back to the old analogue ways of record keeping, a notebook and pen! Okay then. Let’s get started, shall we?

Stardate: 75158.4 I have already missed a day, the dizzy space haddock that I appear to be. So, have purchased, for the princely sum of £1.14 including delivery, an A6 homework diary from Amazon. That should do the trick, hopefully. At least only a couple of days lost.

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