opticians

Complicated

/ Loony Feminist / 6 Comments

Yes, it is. But easing slightly.

Decorator has been, and I’m awaiting the quote.

The air heat pump will need new piping. Sigh. More disruption, but the end result will be better and more efficient.

Went to Vision Express who have referred me to the hospital because the prisms I need in my glasses are too complicated. Sigh. That means a wait of I don’t know how long before the appointment, and then I’m pretty sure they’ll give me a patch to put over at least one lens. A see-through patch, but still. I had one before, and they are ribbed, and irritating to wear. Eventually they’ll sort me out with a prescription and send me back to the opticians. Humph.

Then went to Specsavers to fetch the reading glasses I accidentally left there, and was roundly ignored. It was very busy in there, a bit like Paddington Station, so I phoned this morning to see what has happened to the computer specs they were going to sort out a month ago. Apparently there’s a “manufacturing delay”. Hmm. I think they forgot.

So I’m currently quite cross with Specsavers, and the only glasses which work are my reading ones, not the distance or computer glasses. Harrumph.

Managed to offload all the stuff we didn’t want via Freegle (I think it’s Freecycle in the US). Excellent service. And people come to your house to collect it! Amazing!

Meanwhile, in the big wide world, there seem to be no shortage of narcissists who just don’t care what the truth is. Nor do they seem to accept that the rules apply to them as well. At least our very own hasn’t tried to orchestrate his own arrest – possibly because he’s not likely to be arrested. My favourite two take-aways are (and I’m paraphrasing here): “No I didn’t tell [insert name here] because he wasn’t there. Anyway, I did tell him.” Also: “I didn’t realise following the rules meant following them perfectly“. What are you, 9?

Just finished re-reading Matthew Perry’s autobiography. It’s just so sad. At least he seems to be happy now. Well, happy-ish, anyway.

The weather is typical March – sunny spells, windy and showers. Lovely.

Son-in-law has just travelled from New Zealand to see his parents for their 70th and 80th birthdays. He stayed a week, managed to find time to visit us and is now back in the antipodes. What a hero. A 36 hour journey door to door, twice, in seven days.

It was my birthday yesterday. Sixty-eight years old. Where did the time go? I had a lovely day. One of the things hubby gave me was a DNA kit for Ancestry.com. I’m very excited to do it and send it off.

And here are the flowers NZ daughter sent me for Mother’s Day. Bless.

Some improvement

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Went to the osteopath today for an extra appointment to sort out my recalcitrant back. She did. It’s much looser now and a lot less painful. Still on ice/hot packs/painkillers, but much easier. I love my osteopath. In a platonic way, of course.

Second Covid vaccination on Thursday. Hooray! but it does mean I’ve had to postpone for four weeks my ultrasound scan/x-ray/guided steroid injection. Hey ho. But although the pain is constant, I do think that being vaccinated against Covid is more important.

We had thunder again today. I didn’t notice any lightning, and the cat took no notice whatsoever, but WTF?

My new specs are in need of repair. I phoned the optician and I can just pop there – I’ll have to wait at the door while they fix them. I wonder if it’s to do with the specs lanyard I’ve been wearing. I have to change from reading glasses to distance glasses a lot, but I do think that specs are more vulnerable on a lanyard. Mm. Change of plan. We shall see how I manage without a lanyard.

Another small change of plan involves the vitamins and other supplements I’ve been taking. The orthopaedic surgeon suggested Omega 3, garlic, turmeric and ginger. Well, I feel sick with the Omega 3, don’t want to smell of garlic (although the packaging assures you that you won’t, I did), and the turmeric and ginger give me indigestion. I’ve been taking the last two , along with vitamins A, B complex, C and D, for three weeks, and feeling so much worse. I’ve tried taking them at different times of day, with/without food, and decided today “bugger it”. So I’m back to my multi-vitamin tablet once a day and we shall see. I really don’t need anything to make me feel worse. I really don’t.

New jeans from The Gap have arrived. They’re black, “bootcut” style and high-rise/waisted and I Love Them. They’re washed and ready for hemming. Everything is always too long for me (at least trousers are always too long). I need to take care though because I don’t want them to shrink any more once I’ve hemmed them. I’ll need to be careful how I wash them. Cool wash, definitely. I love jeans, even though I’m 66. They just suit me with a t-shirt or tunic top, and my other pairs (Not Your Daughter’s Jeans and Boden discontinued style) are starting to disintegrate. I might even see if I can order some more pairs, only blue. Yeah.

Hubby and I have just eaten our dinner. He had fried eggs and baked beans on toast. I had scrambled eggs on toast. Yum. Now I’m drinking my tea while he drinks his coffee and listens to his hi-fi. Life is good.

A bit of a roller coaster

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Today I got up early (ish) so that I could set up the yogurt to do its thing. Then I went back to bed as today is not a good day M.E. wise.

When I got up again, I had forgotten to press the Go button. That meant that the temperature didn’t remain constant, so this is the second failed yogurt batch. But all that is wasted is one litre of oat milk, to be honest, so not so bad. Dumped it all down the loo. The texture looked ok, though.

Went to the opticians for my new glasses yesterday. Fifth visit. Didn’t go well. Eye test was last November. My double vision is pretty bad, so I need a thick prism. That means varifocals won’t work very well with the (expensive) fancy lenses, nor will Reactolites. So they’ve made three attempts at getting them right, and I still can’t see through them properly. My current specs, which were made up in June 2018, are better. Harrumph. So they’re going to have another go, in non-fancy lenses (i.e. thick ones). Hey ho. It would be nice to think that I can have Reactolites and varifocals, but I’m waiting for a call back from the opticians, so I guess probably not.

The soup I made was lovely, by the way, and there are plans to make more, with carrots and coriander this time. I meant to get a portion out of the freezer this morning but forgot. Of course.

On the upside, I have an appointment for my Covid vaccination next week – hooray! Hubby had his a few weeks ago.

Also on the upside, two guys came yesterday and tidied up the garden, so it looks excellent, even this time of year. They turned over all the soil, trimmed the edges of the lawn, swept up leaves and debris, and left it looking great.

So all in all, everything is more or less ok. Small things.

Nearly There

/ Loony Feminist / 2 Comments

Have been meaning to blog for a while, but kept deciding that nothing I wanted to say was interesting enough to share. (self esteem ? !)

Anyway, I have a couple of photos which might appeal.

I’ve actually finished the knitting on a jumper for 6 year old grandson, but haven’t quite mustered the oomph to sew it together. I need to do that in daylight, which is in short supply here in the northern hemisphere, but it’s in the plan. It won’t arrive before Christmas anyway. It’s a much nicer green than the photo shows. It’s Bergere de France, Magic+, and the colour is Lichen. Discontinued, I think. The pattern is called Jake. I sewed up the shoulders and knitted the collar in the round before blocking.

Started a jumper for hubby. It’s called Play on Ribs by Pat Menchini, and was in one of the knitting magazines I subscribe to. Also available on Ravelry, but you have to pay for it. It’s more interesting than plain stocking stitch, which is good, because that can result in my losing the will to live, but I’m sometimes able to knit this while watching TV. The yarn is Rowan Superwash Worsted 100% wool, and the colour is called Mallard. Please excuse the flash reflection.

Got so fed up with rummaging around in my knitting bag for tiny little bits and pieces like stitch markers that I had a big old sort out. My “main” knitting bag, for supplies and accessories, is very posh and well made but black inside. Which doesn’t help. So I bought a cantilevered transparent small tool box for “artists”, put everything in there, and just the actual knitting in my “subsidiary” knitting bag, and it works really well. The main bag has gone upstairs to think about how naughty it’s been. Next to “my” chair in the living room, the detritus from knitting/crochet/magazines has significantly reduced and looks much better. And, as a bonus (!), it works, and knitting is easier too.

Went to collect my new specs from Specsavers last week. What a fiasco. I had been waiting for months and months for the hospital to discharge me and let the opticians do the eye test, which they finally did. I chose some lovely frames, and I have three pairs of reading glasses (handbag, bedside, lounge), one pair of computer glasses, a pair of sunglasses (tinted varifocals) and a pair of everyday glasses (usually varifocals with Reactolites or whatever they’re called). However. The reading and computer glasses were easy to sort out. But the other two pairs were not. My double vision is so bad I need special lenses to fit in normal frames. Those special lenses can’t be both varifocals and Reactolites. But they can be varifocals and tinted, or varifocals and untinted. Right.

So when I went to collect them, the sunglasses and everyday glasses were dreadful. Impossible to see through. I was there an hour before they worked out the problem. The lenses weren’t properly centred. Long story short, I’ve ordered different frames (slightly smaller) which should make life easier for all concerned, including the staff in the laboratory who actually put them together. They are going to let me know when those are ready. Probably after Christmas. Sigh.

But I’m so delighted that my new computer specs have two arms. One arm fell off my old ones about two weeks into Lockdown 1 and I’ve just been managing since then, in a slightly wonky way.

Have been reading lots too. Watched a film based on the true story of two East German families who built their own hot air balloon and eventually escaped to the West. Excellent. Now I’m reading Stasiland, written relatively recently, and since the Wall came down. Very good. I’m trying to understand the paranoia of the Stasi. Also some more Lee Child, and a Ruth Rendell I’ve just started.

Our Christmas tree is finally up, but just looks like a Christmas tree. Here’s a couple of festive photos though. I used a wreath former for the end photo, and knitted or crocheted all the bits and bobs. A few years ago now but I still love it. The beaded Father Christmas is from Hong Kong, I think, a long time ago. And the fox decoration is just interesting! Have the best few days you can, in whatever circumstances you find yourself in.

Built-in obsolesence

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At least I assume that’s what it is. Today I had set aside for ironing my stuff. When I switched the iron on at the plug it went PFFFSSSSTZZZ. So I switched it off, and left it a few seconds, then on again. No more spitting, but a strong smell of burning. Switched it off again, brief but productive conversation with hubby, and have ordered a new one to arrive tomorrow.

Then when I was drying my hair I realised that it’s been a couple of weeks since it’s smelt of burning when I switch on the heat, so I’ve been drying my hair with cool air. Yeah.

This morning I had toast for breakfast with marmalade. I like my toast nice and dark, so I always turn the setting up. But the toast came out very pale and only half done on one side. Then I couldn’t remember if I’d turned the setting up or not, because it’s such a habit.

So. I have in my “basket” at my favourite shop a new hairdryer, and a new toaster. Next time I do toast I will take careful note of the setting, and see if I need to order said toaster.

Sigh.

I’m going to label the power cord on each new thing when they arrive with the date so we can see how long things last.

On Friday and Saturday nights we watched two documentaries about the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris. The first one was interviews with various firefighters, at all levels, including their big boss, and with various other folk involved. I was so impressed with their honesty, their obvious care for each other and the cathedral, and the team work. The only thing that irritated me was Rector Chauvet. He talked about himself. What a wonderful parish priest he thinks he is, popping into all the local shops for “un petit verre”, and how dreadful this was for him personally. It was all about him. Oh, and he was very pleased (proud) that President Macron and he went into the cathedral together when it was safe (ish). Where’s the humility? compassion for others? Eventually he managed half a sentence about the dangerous work and risk to life, but only just. Hmph.

The second one was about the restoration. My goodness, the detail, the research, the history, the work that is going on to ensure that it is as well restored as is possible. Architects, historians, carpenters using medieval tools, specialists in stone, I could go on. Each carpenter building the original had left his personal mark on the wood! it’s like looking at a job finished yesterday. Very very interesting and moving. And what’s more, the knowledge of the properties of stone and wood even all those hundreds of years ago was pretty damn good. Lighter stuff on the roof, stronger denser stuff for the pillars – how did they know all this? and there are many, many good ideas for the finished project.

Finally have an appointment with the opticians on Wednesday. My day to day varifocals haven’t had the prescription updated since May 2018, my computer glasses since May 2017. I can tell that they really need updating. The delay is because of the double vision I have which suddenly got much worse, so I was referred to the eye clinic at the hospital to make sure nothing else is going on. They finally discharged me and eventually sent me the letter containing the information the optician needs. Hooray! I have ideas for my new frames already . . . .