Richard's Ramblings

I’m not a very healthy eater, Leisa’s best efforts to reform me notwithstanding. Let me give you an example. You probably like apples as those crunchy, juicy round things you buy at Lamberts. While I like them as cider or, better still, Calvados. I am fond of  bananas, mind you.  As is Wendy Cope . But to get back to apples. My favourite form of apple is Apple, our house is teeming with them, a couple of iMacs, couple of iPads, couple of iPhones, an Apple TV, and assorted accessories. Bible compilers, in the Old Testament specifically, speak of “The apple of” (God’s usually) “eye.” Nowadays, in English, the phrase refers to someone or something which one cherishes above all others. We have Shakespeare to thank for this evolution of meaning. In Midsummer Night’s Dream, a fairy drops juice distilled from a flower which has been hit by Cupid’s arrow, into a sleeping young man’s eye, saying “Flower of this purple dye, / Hit with Cupid's archery, / Sink in apple of his eye”. Shake...

If you frequent a well-known social media site, you might have read that Leisa and I have bought only our second mattress since we moved to Australia, 25 years ago. That first one, from Forty Winks Nunawading who, along with IKEA, furnished (and still furnish) much of our home, was supposed to last 8, and certainly no more than 10, years. 25 years was pretty good going. The new one (Forty Winks Townsville Domain, we’re nothing if not loyal   😊   ) is 15cm or so deeper than our old friend.  Which introduces a problem for stooping-down-averse old geezers when I want to tie shoelaces from my usual edge-of-the- bed shoelace-tying station. So Leisa has moved a little folding step to my side of the bed, upon which I place (1) the sock and/or shoe which I want to wear, and (2) the foot which is to go into it. In Isaiah 61, God says that heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool. Much hymnody portrays Jesus, God the Son, stooping down to this footstool earth to raise u...