TurfZone – HarbourBeach
503 Service Temporarily Unavailable. That was what greeting me when I logged onto the computer the other day with the intention of planning my turfing for the day. But Turf is down! I am undone! What am I going to do now? Thankfully, occurrences like this are few and far between and normal service is usually resumed before too long. However, what if Turf is down forever? Something unthinkable, I know, something akin to Nestlé stopping production of Kit-Kats or fruit scones being banned by Donald Trump!
It’s interesting, when Turf is not available you find yourself kind of lost, wondering what to do with your day, how to fill that gap usually filled by your turfing activities. Okay, turfing is really just a walk, run or cycle with a few stops here and there while carrying a mobile phone. And you could do just that, go for a walk, run or cycle, but it would feel strange passing zones you know are there (or rather not there at the moment) and not stopping to take them.
But what if that is the end of Turf as we know it. Perhaps the Turf Lords have had enough and pulled the plug? I’ve actually come across this before with a non-commercial fat bike forum. It suddenly just disappeared one day, no advance notice, no forthcoming communications from the providers. Not seen it since. Hopefully, that will not be the case here. Fingers crossed, it’s only a server issue and a reboot with do the trick. Or additional resources are required. Should be back soon, I hope.
Anyway, might as well get some exercise in and go for a cycle. No point doing the usual turfing route around the local patch, so headed for the surrounding countryside instead. And I must say, very strange not stopping to take zones, though I did find myself on automatic pilot a few times when I stopped at zones to take them. Could almost hear the faint ghostly echoes in the air, taking zone, zone taken, zone lost. A sign of turf addiction, perhaps.
Thankfully, by around 1:30 pm, I noticed turf was back online and no doubt a great many sighs of relief as turfers across the globe are able to resume their Sunday turf sessions. So, a couple of hours of non-turfing, not taking some 35 zones and not collecting around 5000 points. However, strangely quite enjoyable but rather odd at the same time, no doubt due to not actually turfing. But good that turf has returned and all is well with the world, well, turf world at least.
And finally, the next day I was taking a zone in Rosewell and noticed a scrap of paper moving a few meters from me. Nothing odd about that you might think but there was no wind and the vegetation wasn’t moving either. Noticed a bumble bee emerging from under the scrap and thought, okay, that’s the reason. However, said paper started moving again, so moved closer only to see an enormous rat, large as a small Jack Russel terrier burst into view and run for cover. Fair gave me a fright; I can tell you. Back soon.
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