Turf Blog 24-03-23

It’s remarkable how life throws things at you that do their best to prevent you from turfing. You can spend hours on a bicycle turfing and not come to any harm. You can spend hours battling the sand-blasting winds of Aberlady Bay hunting down zones. You can even go turfing in the wee small hours, all alone, fighting imaginary zombies and the evil dead, and survive to turf another day. Yet, you can go to bed perfectly healthy and rise the next morning in agony. This is what happened to me the other day.

Yes, I was the target of the Trapped-nerve-in-the-back Goblin. Go to sleep, get up, collapse on the floor in pain. Bugger, feck and sugar is all I can say. Actually, I suspect this is same nerve that did a wobbly once when I was washing my hair in the shower. Probably, the same Trapped-nerve-in-the-back Goblin that’s bought the franchise for Bonnyrigg. Well, you’ve heard of the Sand Man, the Sock Eater and the Tooth Fairy. Why not the Trapped-nerve-in-the-back Goblin?

Suffice to say that initial plans to head across to Broxburn today to grab the turf zones on Greendykes shale bing have been shelved, kiboshed, and put on hold for another day. The Trapped-nerve-in-the-back Goblin is certainly a master at its/his/her art. Not only do I struggle with simple tasks like tying my shoes laces, pulling on a pair of socks and even filling the kettle for a welcome mug of coffee, but I cannot ride my bicycle or kick my kick scooter either. Walking I can do, if only very carefully and slowly. It’s a right bugger I can tell you!

So, what can we talk about today? Well, I’m well pleased with my turfing session down to Gullane and Aberlady Bay on Wednesday. Did not actually take a lot of zones, just a measly five zones but that wasn’t the main reason for the trip. That was to make another turfing video blog. The weather wasn’t perfect. While dry and sunny it was very windy but that added considerable ambience of the video. I also missed out on one of the midget sub zones having spent too much time recording video clips. By the time I’d reached the zones, one zone was under water and the other only just able to be taken. I even had to run to get that one! A few minutes later and it would be wet feet. Also dipped out on zone SandySocks which was surrounded by standing water.

I’m actually keen to get out into the man cave and complete the rebuild of the Surly Pugsley fat bike. Got the frame, forks and rear carrier back from the powder coaters and while initially disappointed that the colour was not exactly as requested, I actually like the colour better that the orange on the Surly Ogre. It’s a deeper, darker orange, more a burnt orange, and very similar to the colour of the now discontinued Surly Pugsley 2.0 frameset.

The reason I want the Pugsley back on the road is to make another couple of turfing videos. One cycling on the sand at low tide from Aberlady to North Berwick along the coast and another from Seacliff beach to Tyninghame. Thankfully, my back is on the mend and should be back to normal next week. Just need to get my dibs on the car before ChoccyMuffin! Back soon.

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