Seeing things as they really are

Well the good news is that I have new lenses in my specs, and I can now go and see all the films that I was planning to - Memoirs of a Geisha; the new Harry P; Howl’s Moving Castle and Narnia too. .Some of them had even reached the few cinemas in Dorset, but I realised that they would have to wait.

I had decided, after three years, to update my specs - just the lenses, not the "components" as they are called. They can’t be called frames cos there aren’t any! Even so, they had to go away to be refitted. Nothing so simple as jamming new lenses in frames apparently So off they go - wait for it - by POST. What a really good method of delivery for things that are costing nearly as much as my Egyptian holiday! Flippin Royal Mail!

Anyway they were away from Monday afternoon till Friday afternoon - hardly the "couple of days" forecast. So I have the new ones. However, although things look lovely and clear now, all week my poor eyes have been squinting through things as murky as the English Channel. Not only was the prescription in my old glasses about five years old, but the coating on the lenses had deteriorated. However hard I cleaned them, they had what looked like a greasy film over them. Hence driving at night, every headlight had a halo. Everything appeared rather like the dreamy wedding photos, with romantic blur at the edges - only all over.



I drove very carefully this week, partly due to the fact that I couldn’t even see a number plate at twenty yards, let alone read it!

Right now I am having to touch type this as things closer than arms length I am still seeing double. I am trying to resist the temptation to use my short-sighted astigmatic eyes, and hold books up close to my eyes and not use the lenses!

I hope it gets better tomorrow morning after the peepers have been shut all night. Honestly, if I had been alive in the Stone Age, I would not have survived until my twenties. I would fallen over a cliff or been gored to death by a wild animal I never even saw approaching. So, thanks those who invented spectacles ( I always thought it was the Chinese) and the wonders of modern technology. I don’t think I will have the laser surgery though, not at my time of life.

I've been having trouble getting the font size correct in this blog, and in the light of recent events, I am erring on the side of larger is best!