On my knees

 I still haven't finished going through my Greek holiday photos - lovely as they are. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend but for now I've got stories of not running and of knees and of trying to figure it all out.

On the last day of our holiday we had a lot of time to kill. Our flight was scheduled for 11.35pm and the first of our tour group needed to be at the airport by 1pm-ish I think. We'd been thinking about this for a while and discovered we could leave our big bags at the airport (which is exorbitant, but the alternative was to hump 20+ kgs of luggage all day in 30 degree heat.) Our first thoughts were to go back into Athens on the metro and just kill time there - but it didn't appeal. We're not city people or tourist people. We asked Sotiris our guide if he had any better ideas for how we could spend our day. He graciously took us to a sea-side town about 20k from the airport. I can't for the life of me remember what it was called but this is it on the map.

My right knee was a bit swollen, but nothing too alarming. We had hoped that we might find a few more butterflies at this location - perhaps even some that we had not yet seen - but when we got there the heat was withering and we saw little more than the ghost of a Painted Lady.

It was beautiful, but so hot that people were hiding in the shade. If I'd known how it was going to be then maybe I'd have brought my swimsuit and a towel - but - I didn't. It's always a thought leaving expensive cameras on dry land anyway.

Even Jesus was staying in the shade

The point of telling you all this is that maybe it's relevant to my knee. We wandered around for a long time in the heat because there wasn't much else to do. Later we got an Uber back to the airport. Our flight was delayed and we finally took off well after midnight and got back in the middle of the night - 3 or 4am our time. We were greeted by a massive electric storm and a downpour. It being so late there were no trams, and the cost of taxis from the airport just made us dig our heels in. We got the airport bus back into town and then walked the final mile down the road with whatever - maybe 25kg of luggage each. By this time, with the unwanted exercise and also the flight, my right knee had swollen up to football size - but I hoped a good night's sleep or two and some rest would settle it down.

It didn't though. It stayed swollen. At this point my knees weren't that sore - but my right knee was so big that I couldn't walk properly.

After two weeks or so my left knee was starting to swell up too. I went to the GP who was a bit dismissive "are you the kind of person that does a lot?". I told him I'd been doing pretty much hee-haw for 2 weeks because I had big swollen knees, but I could tell he thought I was just some demented biddy who rushes around all the time. He referred me to the practice physio though, which impressed me. Last time I was at the docs with a knee thing I got a referral which was a 5 month wait for a physio assessment. When I went to that assessment - well I'm not a mind-reader - but I'm 97% sure the young dude who saw me wondered why I didn't just spend more time with my grandchildren and stop bothering him. He was kind of weird with me and then after the appointment sent me some exercises I couldn't do because I had a sore knee.

So I got to see a physio there 2 weeks later. I had already been to see a physio anyway because I care about my life. He and I had agreed it was probably a meniscus thing again because at the time it was still just my right knee and it looked like that right knee looked back in 2023 when I probably had a meniscus injury and it took 8 months to heal. By the time I saw the practice physio, my left knee had joined the party. She organised x-rays for me and so 2 weeks later I got some x-rays, and then 2 weeks later I saw her again to get the results. So that was on Thursday - pretty much 8 weeks after getting back from Greece. Two fat knees. Zero running. Cycling problematic. Walking not that  great. What a shit show!!

But before I get to my physio appt I've got another related story to tell. While I was going to a million appointments a week anyway, I thought I'd chance my luck and see if I could get an appointment for a podiatrist, because the nail on my right big toe is all warped and it keeps getting sore - I think its in-growing. My big sister who's a nurse "fixed" it for me with some home surgery - but she said I should just get myself to a podiatrist and maybe even get the nail off because I'll keep having problems. I spoke to a GP at the practice on the phone and asked if I could possibly get a referral to podiatry - and she said to come in and see her and we'd talk. She is a very nice doctor - sympathetic to my toe - and she agreed I could get a referral to podiatry, but while I was there something odd happened. She asked me about the medication I was on and I told her I'm not on any - but she looked puzzled - "but don't you get medication from the hospital?" "No" I said, "not on anything" - and she said it must be a mistake then because it showed on the system that I was prescribed for something beginning with V. I can't remember what it was now but I kind of memorised the sound of the medication so I could have a snoop when I got home. She said she'd try to get to the bottom of why it was there - but I wasn't sure if she would because they're pretty busy.

actual footage of my toe - lol - this is the picture I sent in to the GP

When I got home I asked AI to tell me what medications sounded like the word I'd memorised - and the closest one was an antiretroviral for HIV!!! Crikey. I didn't want to jump to any conclusions but had already created a scenario where someone had stolen my identity and been getting themselves AIDs tested using my name - for whatever reason. It caused a bit of an inner argument - half of me was saying to let it drop because it probably wasn't that - but the other halves of me were annoyed and wanted to get to the bottom of it. I thought I'd maybe ask the next doc I saw more about it - or maybe I could write to medical records and tell them I knew there was a problem there and I'd like them to get to the bottom of it. 

I didn't decide anything  and I'm trying to be less of a control freak these days than I had to be when I worked in the health service, so I just sat on it. But when, 2 weeks later, I got a surprise phone call from the nice doctor, I knew exactly what it was going to be. Well nearly exactly.

I was so impressed that she'd got to the bottom of it that  I couldn't be annoyed - and certainly not with her. It turned out someone else's patient letter had been uploaded to my medical records and then I'd been flagged on the system as being HIV+. I asked her how long it had been there but she'd already had the letter taken out of my file so she was sorry but she didn't know. I think I do know because a few years back I started being plagued with letters offering me extra Covid and flu vaxes - the letter said that this was either because I was a health worker or I had a condition which left me at higher risk. That just annoyed me and I cancelled all the extra appointments but I put it down to administrative head-up-arse-ness (which actually it probably was).

The nice doc said all the red flags had been taken down on the medical system and there was a note about it too - so hopefully all is now well. It's a funny old thing though, knowing that that happened. How much has that factored into conversations that I've had with medical people in the last few years? When I had to have an op in 2022, I was taken in last despite having been there since 7am. Was that why? When I went in to see the physio on Thursday, she brought it up and said that after she'd seen me she worried she might have missed something because she thought I had "that condition" and had gone looking for papers on HIV and joint problems.

So knees.

In the meantime I had had enough of waiting for appointments and wanted to take my fate back into my own hands. Guessing that probably I have a bit of arthritis I had a look to see what injections you can get. There's a physio in Falkirk who has done some advanced training and also does ultrasound guided injections. It was him that fixed my frozen shoulder and then in 2023 when I went back with a big knee he gave me the choice of cortisone, which would certainly reduce the pain and swelling but might cause longer term damage - especially if I used it as a way to ignore my injury - or a  softer option which was hyaluronic acid which is supposed to help lubricate and soothe the joint. Trying to be sensible, I went for that one. I didn't notice much difference from it, although it may have helped - who knows. It certainly didn't have the dramatic effect of cortisone. Now they have a new offering which is a formulation called Cingal which is a mix of a thicker form of hyaluronic acid which is supposed to provide more shock absorption, and a less aggressive form of cortisone which is supposed to be longer acting....so I think you'll agree that sounds nice. I emailed the guy to see if he thought it wasn't a stupid idea - and he didn't, so I'm going to go and get that done next Thursday. Back to the physio appointment - the pronouncement on my knees was "minimal signs of osteoarthritic changes" - minimal is like stage 1, followed by mild which is like stage 2. I'm going to get some blood tests too with the idea of probably ruling out some inflammatory thing like Rheumatoid arthritis. I can't get the blood test until the end of September anyway - good old NHS. Having spent quite a lot of time on the internet reading things about knees, I know that it could be all kinds of things. There was some guy in Japan who had knee trouble and when they looked inside his knee they found a thorn had presumably entered his body somewhere else and made its way into his knee. There are insects - ticks and other insects - that can cause inflammation to settle in your joints. There are autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. Probably being an older lady now who never paid much attention to staying flexible is a major factor. There's a fairly recent bit of research from the University of Edinburgh showing that elite athletes have a higher risk than the average population of developing osteoarthritis. I was never an elite athlete, but I like to be in good company, so I'm just saying.

So who knows. I've still been doing strength training and I was delighted to find recently that I can do push-ups again - for a long time I couldn't. I think it's the core work that's made the difference, oddly - because I haven't been doing anything with my arms. I've still been cycling my bike - mostly indoors because the long carry down three flights of stairs and then back up again when I'm done is not appealing (cos it hurts my knees)- and I can't give it full gas, and if I have to stop and start - which I do with traffic and weaving through people, that's irritating for my knees. When I'm cycling indoors I have to just watch all the time that I'm not hurting my left knee. It's a hard balancing act - going as hard as I can but always listening out for something that is pain that isn't effort related.

I hope to God that a little modern medicine can help me climb out of this boring hole I am in. If I had a little more range of motion I would happily get down on my knees.

Greek Holiday - first butterflying day

 It was clear to me at dinner the night before, and it was no surprise, that I was on holiday with a band of truly dedicated butterfly people (I don't know another way of describing them). The conversation got detailed, species were spoken about. I probably have more than the butterfly basics through chumming Buchanan on some of his adventures and by sheer osmosis, but I still have a resistance to this business of naming and then thinking you know something. I've taken this so far as to rename several birds and one insect and then regretted it because I can no longer remember the consensus name - the one that would allow me to communicate successfully with my fellow human-beings.

But my thinking is you that you don't want to lose the freshness of experience of encountering a thing by  merely naming it. Also, it's just not how my brain works. I have trouble remembering peoples' names unless I've had some kind of meaningful encounter with them, and even then, I might know who they are but forget their names.

So anyway, none of that was going to fly in this company! I thought I'd keep my mouth mostly shut and just enjoy the hunt, which I generally do.

With a bit of work I could tell you where we went on the first day but I'm not going to - for one thing Sotiris was taking us to all his secret butterfly hot-spots which he's spent years finding, so it wouldn't be fair, and for another thing I don't want to do the work. All you need to know is that we were in places within an hour or so of Delphi. Let's get into some pictures and I'll endeavour to give you some names to go with them.

This dog was a stray, and there were many stray dogs to be seen - some in the towns like this one - which was very old and peaceable. There seems to be a kind of live and let live attitude to the stray dogs. I googled why there are so many and Google attributes it to " a different attitude to animals" but also to the massive economic crisis Greece went through when the banks crashed c. 2008, at which point people simply couldn't keep their animals any more. There were some very large dogs out on the roads in the country-side too though. Some were maybe farm dogs but some were also likely strays. Sotiris's wife Rachael told us that occasionally they form packs and then they can be a danger to people. This kind of put me off some of my thoughts that it would be lovely to cycle through Greece.

So I think this is an Adonis Blue because of the black lines going into the white fringe at the edge of its wings - but I'm not 100% sure.

This is a common blue. Yes I know it's brown, but the female blues are brown. Although the Brown Argus looks pretty much the same. In one kind of Blue - the Anomalous Blue - both sexes are brown. So don't tell me that's not just a little perverse.

And as an aside - with the whites - Large Whites and Small Whites cannot be differentiated by their size! So it's this kind of thing that has me saying I've just seen a Great White. And rolling my eyes.

an orchid

So this is a Brown Argus or a Southern Brown Argus or a Mountain Argus because of the black dots, but it could be a blue. It's handsome though isn't it?

This blue is the colour of a child's eye make-up

So Obsidentify (app for identifying things) says this is a Brown Argus but why it's that and not a female blue, I don't know. It's so smart through isn't it? With those little orange hearts on its wings?

Heath Fritillary and it's friend little skip in the background.

Actually I was thinking this was a Small Skipper but Obsidentify says Essex Skipper. Let's just call it a skipper.

Pretty sure this is a Forester Moth. Top notch.

This Lattice Brown came and sat on the van for me. Sotiris had said to shout if we saw anything exciting so I shouted "there's a thing that's a cross between a Meadow Brown and a Ringlet on the van!" 

Out of focus I know, but the thing about the flipping yellows, they never sit still - until they did - later in the week. I'm pretty sure this is a Clouded Yellow and they're always hammering about.

Shield-bug

The Painted Ladies were so abundant that they got ignored from day 1, but I have to include one.

What could be better than a Heath Fritillary in a field of yellow flowers?

Who's this?

Pearl-bordered Fritillary, that's who!

Butterfly people in the field.

Spotted or Lesser-spotted Fritillary, take your pick.

Black veined White! In my view put all the other whites to shame - except the Balkan Marbled White, which we will get to.

Clouded yellow checking me out.

Queen of Spain Fritillary. At this point we were at the top of a windy hill and the sun was very bright.

Rose Chafer. Why's it green? You tell me.

This silver-studded blue sat on each of us in turn. This is Paul's finger.

This is Sotiris's binoculars. We could only tell for sure it was a silver-studded blue by seeing if it had a tiny spine half way down its front legs - which was confirmed by Peter with his macro lens.

These young people and their phones. Fried doughnuts for pudding! Yum yum!

Greek Holiday - the next day

 The next day was to be the official start of our butterfly holiday with Greenwings Wildlife Holidays. We were all to meet back at Athens Airport at 2.30pm - so me and PB had the morning to kill. We knew the way back to the airport now, and the Economy Hotel let us leave our bags there until later, so we set off to explore Athens in the daylight.

Now that Peter knew that we were in spitting distance of the Acropolis and what-not, he thought it would be rude not to go and climb the hill as far as we could before we had to pay. We set out in the burning 30 degree heat, squinting into the bright light. Taking the possibility of it being hotter and brighter than we could handle into account, Peter had brought along Factor 30 suntan lotion. I had been sceptical back at home if we'd really need that. We never push the factor above 15 usually - and even then stop using it within a couple of days of arriving somewhere sunny - but this day I slathered it on, and continued to do so for the whole holiday.

I was also a bit sceptical about the need for a forced march through the city before joining up with the tour - but Buchanan was determined - so off we went.

Monastiraki Square, just down from our Metro stop, was hoaching with tourists. As we climbed the hill we got a bit more space. We went as far as we could before the official Acropolis entry, and then went for a wander round and about.

We got to the end of a street and saw there were some green areas over a large road so we crossed and found a little park and some flowers and before we knew it we were butterfly hunting rather than sight-seeing!

Well actually, Peter did some butterfly hunting but pretty soon I retreated onto a bench under the shade of a tree and messaged with my sister. We were stationed at the entry to a rather over-grown park and young single men seemed to keep arriving, holding onto their phones. I thought that maybe we were in a Grindr hot-spot; a thought that was further supported by the message that was inscribed on my bench.

Peter was oblivious to the stream of young men entering the park.

This cat was very friendly to me and too lazy to start anything with the pigeons.

Eventually we got moving again and went a bit wrong marching back through central Athens, only to be rescued by my phone again which steered us to the right and got us back to places that we knew. Picking up our bags from the Economy Hotel and marching with them on our backs back down to the Metro in the hot sun was a bit grim and we hadn't left ourselves enough time to grab something for lunch. Luckily I still had one of my big cheese sandwiches left over from the flight. It had survived 24 hours and was now more like a grilled cheese sandwich. We ate it on the Metro on the way back to the airport.

We met up with our Greenwings guide - Sotiris - and our three fellow butterfly hunters in the Arrival Hall and then set off for Delphi.

View from the van on the way to Delphi.

I was delighted to bag the seat furthest back in the van. I couldn't hear all the chat over the sounds of the air-conditioning and the engine noises, so I let my mind drift free watching the Greek landscape swish by.

After 3 or so hours we arrived in Delphi and settled into our first hotel. The view from our room was astonishing; the land falling away from where we were to olive forests and eventually down to the sea. House Martins or swallows darted about in the sky nearby.

We went out for our first evening meal together - Sotiris taking the initiative and ordering several salads to share before our main course. It set the pattern for the rest of the trip. I ordered too much food for my main course and then was full after I'd filled up on the delicious salads and bread - but forced myself to eat everything anyway. The main dishes tended to come with 'potatoes' and what "potatoes" was was a big, lavish serving of chips. However I was brought up to eat all my food. And so was Peter. To our credit, we went easy on the wine; setting a pattern for most of the trip of sharing a half litre of wine with fellow traveller Liz. 

There was a tiny balcony outside the window with a thin metal railing which I did not trust, and a long drop. I stood out on it anyway to try to get pictures of the lovely gathering dusk.