Turf Zone – Medway
There’s a strange feeling I encounter at the start of a new Round, after all my hard-won points and zones from the previous Round turn to dust. I’ve found that unless I get out turfing straight away and get some good points under my belt, say Bonnyrigg and Dalkeith, I feel very unsettled and simply out of sorts. It’s like there something missing. Or I’m incomplete. Difficult to describe but I think some of you will get the drift.
And another thing I want to share. Most of my turfing these past few months has been by bicycle, leaving my Swifty kick scooters sadly neglected and forlorn in the shed. So, being somewhat short of bikes at the moment, the Surly Pugley has been dismantled and now in storage, the Harley Quinn is getting a change of identity and the Surly Ogre is making strange noises despite, or perhaps because of, a new chain*. So, I elected to take the Swift Air kick scooter out for a spin.
Well, I must say, that was hard going, turfing Eskbank and Dalkeith on a kick scooter, especially after such a long lay-off. Kick scooting uses a totally different set of muscles than cycling. Though you might assume they are much of the same. Tough work on the hills and into headwinds but you feel good afterwards. Must use the kick scooter more.
Now, bikes, and here’s an odd thing. Ordered a new handlebar from Alpkit, a Sonder Horizon Flat for the Harley Quinn (which will no longer me called Harley Quinn, by the way, probably just the Genesis Day One) and for some unknown reason I’m getting a Sonder Spitfire 460mm set of drop handlebars for free. I thought it was a coding error from a previous page I’d been looking at where I configured a new bike with those same bars. Seems odd and they have not arrived yet, so we shall see.
Have you ever tried not turfing? Sounds simple, right, but may not be so easy. First there’s that niggle inside your head that you should actually be out there turfing. Then there’s trying to avoid that learned behaviour of picking up the mobile phone every five minutes to run the turf app and see who is out and about. Or switching on the computer for the same. And even if you avoid all that you get the text messages, emails, phone calls, video calls, WhatsApp posts, knocks on the front door and even real post from a postie, all from others turfers telling you there’s a new zone, a new turfer, an event or whatever. No, it’s never easy not to turf!
Now, and this is probably a long shot, as you may be aware I’m now a turfer hunter, collecting zones held by other turfers with a total of 294, not far off that 300 figure. Which sounds easy enough but I’ve reached a stage where new turfer uniques are few and far between, with only a small number popping up locally here and there. Yes, I could travel to foreign lands, such a the Kingdom of Fife, or Glasgow, or even the Borders, but I’m trying hard not to use anything other than my bike or kick scooter, though have succumbed to public transport into Edinburgh. So, I’m putting a call out for any turfer not on this list to visit Midlothian or Edinburgh, using any turf legal form of transport, but preferably bicycle, kick scooter or on foot, and I can then take one of your zones. The page search above will find the page if you are listed. Cheers.
* It was the chain. I’d fitted a wide one and the chainring wasn’t happy, making a terrible noise. Fitted a narrow chain and now quiet and smooth.
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