Spectacles

[Serial_Apologist]

From what I've read on this thread, clearly the future's in sight...

So far I've managed at 66 yrs to make do with £9.99 pairs of reading glasses from my local Saint Sprees. Shame the frames are always so weak these days...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i had new specs from Boots two years ago with the sunglasses thrown in ... the discounting was pretty amazing ...about £200 and i am not going back to the opticians where i had been paying nearly twice that for years

lost the sunglases and finding the bifocals need replacing but will hold out till next year i think ...

[ahinton]

£10 reading glasses from Waitrose.

Never knowingly underfocussed?...

[ahinton]

Same here. Indeed, photographs of me in my earlier years bear an uncanny resemblance to the young Shostakovich. The likeness has diminished slightly as I've got older but not by all that much.

Are your symphonies or quartets any better than his?

By the way, I once explained to a friend in Crete that Spectacles was the Greek god of vision but it took a while to get through oh never mind...

[Ferretfancy]

I've got my annual appointment next Friday, and in some trepidation as I think my cataracts are beginning to trouble me. Still, it's necessary, at least I get the test for free!

[ahinton]

I've got my annual appointment next Friday, and in some trepidation as I think my cataracts are beginning to trouble me. Still, it's necessary, at least I get the test for free!

Good luck with it all! I get my test for "free" as well (in other words, some other poor b*g**r who probably can't afford it has to fund it) which, although I have very little money, seems quite immoral to me, as no doubt it does to someone I know who told me a while ago that he gets not only this benefit but also a "free" TV licence, "free" NHS prescriptions, winter fuel allowances and the like and, most bizarrely, a "free" bus pass which, for a multi-millionaire whose assets include ownership of a private bus company, does seem abit much, really, as he's the first to admit...

[amateur51]

Good luck with it all! I get my test for "free" as well (in other words, some other poor b*g**r who probably can't afford it has to fund it) which, although I have very little money, seems quite immoral to me, as no doubt it does to someone I know who told me a while ago that he gets not only this benefit but also a "free" TV licence, "free" NHS prescriptions, winter fuel allowances and the like and, most bizarrely, a "free" bus pass which, for a multi-millionaire whose assets include ownership of a private bus company, does seem abit much, really, as he's the first to admit...

He could always choose not to claim these benefits, of course

[salymap]

Hi salymap ...I think you'll find you're a forumite - as am I - as are Caliban, Anna, Ammy, mercia and all other contributors.

Strikes brow with hand. Doh, I was thinking an eye condition, of course

[ahinton]

He could always choose not to claim these benefits, of course

Easier said than done, actually; he'd have to insist on being billed for some and sending the money back for others, all of which arrangements would cost the state to administer!

[Richard Tarleton]

I know the feeling Petrushka,I too need complex glasses and paid £440.00 about a year ago.They did throw in 'free' prescription sunglasses though.

Same here, more or less. I have 3 pairs in regular use - I need reading and distance glasses and so have varifocals for everyday wear, a pair of "distance" glasses for walking/birdwatching (which I do a lot of), and free prescription (distance sunglasses. It's all the extras that bump up the cost - I go for thin lenses on my main pair, as short sight prescriptions are thicker round the edges and I prefer very thin frames (rather than the Shostakovich look ), polarised sunglasses etc. Serious walking in varifocals over rough terrain makes me dizzy as my feet are out of focus.

Since it's such an important part of life I resign myself to it.

[greenilex]

I admit to buying expensive frames for my presbyopia. One may as well look like oneself - harmless vanity. The opticians are local and very well-equipped and friendly.

But i have not yet had the hearing test I am beginning to need...

[Flay]

Hi salymap ...I think you'll find you're a forumite - as am I - as are Caliban, Anna, Ammy, mercia and all other contributors.

Strikes brow with hand. Doh, I was thinking an eye condition, of course

I read it a fomite, which glasses could be

Remember that the most important thing is the actual eye examination. This uses extremely expensive equipment. The government's contribution goes nowhere near funding this, the money has to come from their sales. Orthoptists are skilled, and do detect many medical problems, not just pertaining to the eye.

[ahinton]

I admit to buying expensive frames for my presbyopia

...about which I'm very sorry to hear; I hope that you won't mind my mentioning that I doubt very much that scotty suffers from this condition...

[Paul Sherratt]

Flay is spot on, well almost. He meant to say 'optometrist'

[DracoM]

£500 seems about ball park for decent complex lenses etc from Boots. And yes, it's an exploitative outrage.