Turf Zone – AlbertsTipsy
Regular visitors to Planet Gary may have noticed a change in the content of the blogs posted recently, with a number of blogs solely about bikes appearing amongst the more usual turf blogs. And not a single mention about turf in them. Well, I want to dispel any fears that I’m giving up turfing. I am not giving up turfing or posting turf blogs. Though I should say it was actually a close thing, as I was thinking about giving up turf all together and doing something else instead.
That something else was fat biking and making short videos about fat biking. In fact, I was ready to place an order for a Trek Farley 9.6 but was thwarted by my credit card playing silly buggers with authorisation. So, what did I do after being thwarted on a bike purchase, I went turfing in Edinburgh instead, on my other latest bike purchase, the Brompton C Line Explore folding bicycle aka Mr Orange. You can read about that here. Go and do that now. Finished? Okay, then I don’t need to repeat how much fun I had riding Mr Orange.
This turfing session on Mr Orange gave me a new lease of life, or rather, a new lease of turf life, something that had me thinking up loads of ideas for turfing adventures on a Brompton, which is something of an inappropriate bike, a niche sort of bike and very much part of my own ethos for things different from the norm. So I bought another one, a 2-speed C Line Urban, in splendid bumblebee yellow, which I will be converting to single speed, yes, that’s one gear only. It will hence forth be known as Mr Bumble*.
I always find it amazing how ideas pop into your head when out turfing on a bicycle. One was for a turf blog – Mr Bumble does the Seven Hills. Another, Mr Bumble tries the Loanhead Ferret Run. And Mr Bumble goes Forth and turfs in Fife. You get the idea? Ideas that allow me to keep the enjoyment of turfing, enjoy riding a very quirky bike and also have something different to blog about. Mr Bumble should arrive next month in early January, so watch out for some more turf blogs. And bike blogs, if you are interested.
And that brings me to next year, 2025, a new year and those dreaded, and usually quickly forgotten new year’s (turf) resolutions. However, I must take a short break from writing as I need to go and collect the weekly shopping from the Tesco Click & Collect.
“…a short break…”
Well, that was fun! Not. Weather is atrocious, winds gusting to 50 mph and horizontal heavy rain. However, I didn’t let that stop me taking the zone at Eskbank station, a turfer unique held by turfer Corbielinn. This turfer also seems to hold zones in Selkirk, where my mother lives and where I grew up. The turf name most likely originates from a small valley near Selkirk where I used to get up to mischief as a lad.
Now, new year turf resolutions. What can I say? Is there any point to actually making them? Well, at least they might serve as an aide memoire of turf-things to do. And always include one that is easy to achieve. Here goes:
- take some turf zones each and every day.
- better my 7:45 time for the Loanhead ferret Run.
- go for the El Staminatore medal, 200 zones in 24-hours.
- take more FTT’s before turfer Hodge gets them.
- go for the Diversiest medal, 1000 Round unique zones.
- go for Monumental medal, 32 zones required.
That should be enough foe getting on with. Now, onto the Planet Gary Turf Advent 2024. One thing about creating this type of thing is that you never really know how it is received. Does anyone actually think it’s okay? Or how many turfers actually take part? Yes, some do post comments that they’ve enjoyed themselves and had some fun, which is exactly why I created the advent. Anyway, just to say I will not be doing one next year, so if anyone else wants to take on the challenge, please crack on.
Merry Turfing and Happy New Year.
*My other Brompton is called Mr Orange, after a character in the movie Reservoir Dogs but there was no Mr Yellow in the movie, so I went for Mr Bumble instead.
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