New glasses Greek style
Jack, the Alarm Cat, enjoyed his birthday yesterday. He spent the day shouting at doors, sleeping in inconvenient places, staring us into submission each time he wanted to visit his bowl, filling his dirt tray before throwing all the litter out of it and, finally, curling up on us and shedding hair. So, just like every other day.
He was actually 13 yesterday, being born in 2003, but I was doing that thing where you count the number of birthdays including his actual birth day, so he’s now in his 14th year, though has only had 13 birthday anniversaries, plus one actual birth day. So, that’s that cleared that up.
And talking of clearing things up, I will soon be able to see clearly now the rain has gone… Well, there was some rain yesterday, but not much. But hopefully next week, I shall be wearing my new glasses. While we were in Rhodes, last Monday actually and before lunch at Indigo, I had a moment of spontaneity that’s been brewing for about three years. It’s been six years since I had new glasses and so I decided to call into Optical House and get an eye test. €20.00 for the eye test and please come back in one hour. Which I did.
I saw the ophthalmologist took me up to his surgery which was fitted out with all kinds of machines and charts, and we had a good chat about my eyes. He’d taken my old prescription from my glasses somehow and, after some tests, declared that my sight has not changed much in the last six years, so that’s good news. We then discussed vertigo and I asked if eyesight can have a bearing on losing your bearings, and indeed it can. He then ran some more tests that I have never had before to see what could be done to stabilise my eye-to-brain coordination, one of the things that could cause the loss of balance when I turn around. Something to do with the messages from each eye not reaching the brain at the same time. One hour later, and still for only €20.00, we went back to the shop to see about frames and lenses.
This is where the fun starts and you are not to fall off your seat. I checked out various frames: Harry Potter style? No ta. Sporty-style, Lord no! Thick rimmed and currently ‘fashionable’? (Whoever thought thick rimmed glasses look good on anyone’s face clearly needed to see my ophthalmologist.) How about some that look more or less the same as what you are wearing? Oh yes, that’s more like it. Except they are bigger as they are vary focal and I need more glass, fair enough. So, designer frames (from Mr Ray Ban, whoever he is) and fairy vocal lenses which I know are not cheap to produce. But also we should incorporate a prism type thing to help keep me stable, yes, quite agree with that. I was just about to ask how much a second pair would be, as I wanted prescription sunglasses, when he suggested I have phototronic lenses. No, sorry, it’s photochromic, and Transitions Optical ones at that, and with a two year scratch free guarantee. So, let’s tot all that up…
Bear in mind all these additions, frames, fairy vocals, near, mid and far distant, react to sunlight, UV protection, crystalline prism to keep me afloat when the ballast shifts, and frames made specially for me by Mr Ban. I won’t tell you the price here, but it’s somewhere between €880 and €885. However, what I am buying are four pars in one (near, mid, far and sunglasses when in the sun) and also I’ve not bought a pair for six years, and the current old ones are fine for spares. I was expecting to pay about double what I am paying, so that’s fine. And after all that, the eye test was free, so it didn’t even cost me €20.00.
I hope to pick these up next week or else the week after and then, as long as it’s stopped raining, I should see clearly now.
