You will no doubt have heard of the Tooth Fairy, an anthropomorphic personification who visits good children in the dead of night, takes away their old teeth from under the pillow and leaves a coin or two in their place. You may also have heard of the Sandman, a creature who sneaks into your room at night and puts sand in your eyes to get you to sleep. But I bet you’ve never heard of the Turf Goblin. Well, I had a visit from one last week.
The Turf Goblin, a close relative of the Gremlin, has a sole purpose in life to thwart turfers from going out turfing, and he did his evil work on me about a week ago. I was ready to head out and attempt the Darkest Ninja medal – my local zones kindly cleared for me by Féarglas and others who I’m unable to recall – when the Turf Goblin started his work. First he did something to my left hip, rendering cycling out of the question. Then, once that had started to settle down, he did something to my right hip. I was simply lifting my leg while in the shower when a shooting pain came from my right hip. That took days to subside. Bloody Turf Goblins!
Anyway, suffice to say little in the way of turfing since my trip to Penicuik on the 29th May. Other events have also conspired to keep me from turfing. To coincide with the start of my retirement, my partner decides to take two weeks’ holiday which also reduces the opportunities for turfing. What with that and problems with both hips, it seemed wise to leave turfing for a week or so and start again when able. Also missed the start of the new round on Sunday, which was a bugger, I can tell you.
The last round, Round #131, saw me finish with a personal best of 307,800 points and 18th place in Scotland. I also achieved the Greed-200 medal after many failed attempts and my rank is now sitting at Rank 39 – Advanced Turfer. Hopefully, I’ll be able to improve on that in the current round. More Turf Blogs coming soon.
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