Turf zone – SeeSpikeIsle
The Daily-5 medals, also known as the Five-A-Day, the latest Turf medal series from the famed Turf Wizards of Scandinavia. To many, a joyous welcome challenge to be grasped head-on along with cries of delight and excitement, to others, something more stressful than school exams, job interviews or missing an episode of Shawn the Sheep. And to the few turfers that fall outside these two categories, not bloody likely!
The Daily-5 looks quite innocuous at first glance. All you are required to do is take five zones each day for either 10, 30, 60, 120, 180 or a whopping 365 days, an entire year. (I wonder what will happen in a leap year?). The zones can be normal takes, revisits or assists, which is good. In the beginning all is well, mainly as there is little to lose other than a few days turfing effort. The problem arises when you miss a day. Everything you have done to that point is lost, forever. For the first two medals, 10 days and 30 days, it’s not so bad. Annoying but manageable and you will probably not be too pissed off. Higher denominations, from 60 days upwards, are another matter entirely.
I started off fine and well on the very first day the Daily-5 started, the 4th September 2021, grabbing 51 zones. However, next day I failed to take a single zone, the dizzy ex-Quantity Surveyor that I am. I was back to square one. Yes, only two days lost but most annoying and made me think deeply about the same occurring at a later stage in the medal series. What if that should occur at day 119 or 179? Perhaps you miss count, or are not paying attention to your takes, or your mobile phone goes on the blink, or you cannot logon to the Turf app, or some other unknown calamity. Even missing a single zone from the five required each day sets you back to the beginning. No wonder some turfers I’ve been in touch with are avoiding the Daily-5. The stress of missing a single zone, or single day, would be too much to bare.
Anyway, despite the missed day and a fresh restart, ten days later I had the Daily-10 in the bag and yet another medal added to the Turf medal collection, now stranding at 52 medals. To help keep track of my Daily’s I bought a diary for an astonishing £1.14 and tick off each day as I complete my minimum of five takes. I find it helps me remember to actually get out and take five zones each day. I write a number in a circle on each day to remind me just how many days I’ve completed and also mark the dates when the medal will, hopefully, be awarded. A few days ago I was awarded the Daily-30 medal, so all is going well, fingers crossed, dib-dib Scout’s honour, and all that nonsense. Only another 30 days of takes for the next medal in the series, the Daily-60. Now things are getting more serious!
On my way to the Daily-30 I did have a small potential hiccup. After installing the Turf app on the mobile phone, I was unable to login to the app. The part that sends the authentication code to my email failed to work, it then locked me out and I had to wait for 24 hours until it would reset. The Turf Wizards were unable to do anything to help. I’ve already mentioned this on a previous blog but again want to make fellow turfers aware. Luckily, I was able to still get for Five-A-Day once the I got logged back into the Turf app, otherwise it would have been Return to Start!
Still on the topic of the Daily-5, I noticed there could be a tendency just to take the minimum five zones required each day. While it’s good that it encourages people to get out each and every day turfing, at the same time it might also encourage less zone taking. Just a thought and I might be wrong. From conversations with other turfers the topic of going away on holiday also cropped up. It seems serious turfers are only planning holidays to locations where there are turf zones. Most interesting. I can foresee a need, in the near future, for marriage counsellors who specialise in couples where one partner turfs and the other does not.
Anyway, the ongoing Daily-5 continues and I’m now on my way towards the Daily-60 medal. Wish me luck!
Copyright ©2021 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.
