The Grasshopper

My hydrotherapy did not get off to the best of starts.  After I had toiled up the steps and down the steps and found myself in the hot pool - which is lovely - I asked the young physio which part of Oz he came from.

"The best part.  New Zealand."  he said.

Ooops. Anyway, we talked about our travels in NZ - how we (the Captain and me) considered retiring there at one time (to South Island) - and did some exercises.  I was longing to swim, and while Young Master NZ had his back turned doing some notes, I attempted a quick swim, but I forgot that he had attached a float to my foot, and the subsequent floundering attracted his attention and he set me some more exercises.

I feel in a lot of pain, but at least I have had some exercise.

As I toiled along the road to the Kingdom Hall this morning, I had to think of that beautiful poetic evocation of old age in Ecclesiastes.

"Remember, now, your Grand Creator in the days of your young manhood, before the calamitous days proceed to come, or the years have arrived when you will say: “I have no delight in them”;  before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds have returned, afterward the downpour;  in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the men of vital energy have bent themselves, and the grinding women have quit working because they have become few, and the ladies seeing at the windows have found it dark;  and the doors onto the street have been closed, when the sound of the grinding mill becomes low, and one gets up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song sound low.  Also, they have become afraid merely at what is high, and there are terrors in the way. And the almond tree carries blossoms, and the grasshopper drags itself along, and the caper berry bursts, because man is walking to his long-lasting house and the wailers have marched around in the street;  before the silver cord is removed, and the golden bowl gets crushed, and the jar at the spring is broken, and the waterwheel for the cistern has been crushed.  Then the dust returns to the earth just as it happened to be and the spirit itself returns to the [true] God who gave it."

The grasshopper dragged itself along to the Kingdom Hall this morning.  And I was reminded of my Creator, and the hope that we can live forever, in the restored earthly Paradise.

Jackie is back!  Although only for a couple of weeks and she is off on her travels again.  We had a home-cooked (by Cooks) green chicken curry, followed by salted caramel ice-cream - which, if I am to go by the cookery programmes on the telly, is the trendy ice-cream. It was also from Cooks - and very good too.  We also had a lovely egg custard dessert from Lidls.  The only thing I cooked were some cheese straws for nibbles to start us off.