Too close

Maybe Glebe was onto something when she claimed that her eyesight was going down the tubes in Japan because “everything was too close” (don’t even bother trying to work out the reasoning behind that, just let it go) but I’ve also found that my eyesight has gotten significantly worse since I’ve arrived. Recently I’ve found myself sitting and squinting at things that I blatantly should be able to read. Case in point, sitting in Maccas a few weekends ago and Jen goes “I hate the last entry on the board there, man, what bullshit”, everyone turns and makes sounds of approval (bar Lorna, I think she’s even more blind than I am) and I make faces at the board and try and make out the fuzzy letters. Yes, time for some glasses.

I bought some cheapie glasses in Malaysia a year or so ago but made the stupid mistake of going for frameless ones. Frameless glasses suck. Well, maybe not all of them, but the ones I bought definitely have the suck. They’re not solid enough to sit on my nose properly so I’m forever trying to balance them and bend the arms back into position. Then the little screws on the lenses kept coming undone, so I had wonky, wobbly glasses that would fall off my face. This problem had to be addressed, so while I was on holiday I decided to get a new pair.

The guy who administered the test (AD. MIN. IS. TER. THE. TEST!) could not believe that I had been walking around without glasses most of the time. He expressed this disbelief by making tut-tutting noises and then trying to charge me an extra 70 bucks. Did I say 418 yesterday? I totally meant 480. What do you mean that’s not right? Tut tut. Etc. Anyway my eyes were 150/175 which, for those who don’t know about this fancy dancy power bullshit, means I have trouble making out enormous letters from anything more than about three feet.

It’s all good though, and I now have glasses that enable me to read subtitles, train timetables and walk around without bumping into people. They’re also thick and plastic. Fear me, for I am the king of the nerds!

Posted in Mwah on Friday March 25, 2005.