Bride's Nightie.

Last week I climbed up a mountain easily. I was gassing non-stop too, drinking in great lungfuls of refreshing mountain air. From the top you could see all Belfast and beyond, the harbour, Lough Neagh and Strangford Lough. Even those boringly over-subscribed cranes that adorn tea-towels and the pork pink calves of the short-wearing mean of the town, looked nice. As yellow and fresh as the gorse that speckled the hillside. I was with Joe Nawaz, who was as sun-kissed as a sea captain, and seriously needs to get an earring. We walked for several miles, many of them on a steep incline, and we talked absolute rot. It was a laugh. I felt fit. Invigorated. I'd been working out with weights and felt strong, as if my narrow Librarian's shoulders were opening out like a flower in the sun. 

That was last week.  

This week, well, It's QUITE a different story. Today, my left knee is in searing agony and that's my good knee, my friendly, reliable knee. It's not the one that's made of biscuits and held together with thumb tacks and twine. My good knee, the one I was depending on. Apparently I was depending on it rather too much. 

This happened last year too. The same pain, a lava scratch across the scapula (its bone - how do I have nerve endings in bone? Is that normal? I'm hardly a medical man) It's a hot streak of pain, nagging that I did something bad to my body, but being quite vague about what it actually was. The warning is as vague as the pain is precise and insistent. 

It went away last time. I forget how long it took to depart but it did. It will probably go again. I suspect its arthritis. I can't think what else it would be. Am I going to need a fucking replacement knee? I'm not ready for a bungalow with a walk in bath. I can't afford one anyway. 

I'll see how this goes. I'm not that bothered about going to the doctor - unless it gets quite bad - so I'll see what happens. If you meet me and I'm stinking of aloe pura glucosamine joint complex gel from the waist down its for that reason and that reason only.