Part 4 Although she enjoyed wearing her mum’s old glasses for reading, and they certainly helped, Suzy was counting down the days until she collected her own glasses. Finally Friday came, and at the end of the school day Suzy walked into town to the High Street and in through the door of the opticians. She went to the counter and was told to take a seat. After a few minutes the same assistant as had helped her choose the frames came over and Suzy followed her to a desk towards the back of the shop. “Hi Susan, you’ll be pleased to know that both pairs of glasses are back so let’s pop them on and check they’re OK” Suzy felt a pang of excitement as the assistant took the first pair out of a plastic envelope. The first pair were the Silhouette pair in the stronger prescription. The assistant reiterated that although this pair were in Suzy’s full prescription for all distances, she was only to wear them for close work for now. She carefully put them on Suzy’s face and Suzy could immediately feel how strong the lenses were – much stronger than her mum’s that she’d been wearing for reading that week. The assistant first checked the vision by giving Suzy a reading card which had progressively smaller print down the page. Suzy could read the very smallest print with ease and without straining at all, which was amazing. The assistant then checked the fit behind the ears, they were a bit loose so she took them away to adjust them. When she brought them back and checked again the fit was deemed perfect so she removed them and set them to one side. She then took the other pair from their plastic envelope and popped them on Suzy’s face. Suzy could tell they were nowhere near as strong as the other pair. The assistant asked her to look out the shop window into the street to check the vision, Suzy could see the shop sign opposite very clearly through the glasses – not that she had a problem with distance before anyway, but it confirmed that the glasses were OK for distance. The fit was check and this time they needed no adjustment. Suzy was advised about caring for the lenses and then the assistant got a couple of hard glasses cases. One was branded Silhouette and the reading glasses were put in there and then she gave Suzy the other case. Suzy went to take the glasses off to put them in the case but the assistant said: “the case is only for when you put them away at night or when wearing the reading glasses. You need to leave them on now in order to get used to them. These are your every day glasses for full-time wear!” Suzy had almost forgotten that she was now a full-time glasses wearer and blushed a little. She put both cases in her bag, thanked the assistant and left the shop wearing the new burgundy glasses that were to become part of her regular look from now on. It felt strange to be wearing glasses walking around and Suzy felt at first like everyone was looking at her, however that obviously wasn’t true. She made her way to the bus stop and experimented looking all around her through her new lenses and then slipping the glasses down her nose and looking over the top. There wasn’t a lot of difference between the two although when looking at street signs and number plates in the far distance they were slightly clearer through the glasses. She continued her vision experiments until the bus came, jumped on it and went upstairs to the front seat – her usual favourite spot. It was about a 20-minute journey home on the bus so Suzy had time to take out the other, stronger, pair of glasses to look at them in more detail. She opened the Silhouette case and looked at these frames in more detail. They were quite large and transluscent in the main part but navy blue on the edges. Suzy knew now that the design was called a drop temple which meant that the arms were joined closer to the bottom of the frame, rather than in the middle. They were squarish in shape but with edges knocked off the square to soften them – she liked the shape. The arms were navy blue and on the inside there was some tiny writing which she could read well with her all day glasses on, she lifted the frames to test vision without them and the text immediately blurred. Replacing them on her nose she saw that on one arm it just said “Frame Austria Silhouette” whilst on the other was a lot more information “SPX M1708 /20 C1358 54 14” with a little square between the 54 and 14 – she assumed this must relate to the model number of the glasses. She lifted her glasses again to check it was still out of focus – it was – she replaced them and realised how she must have been struggling to read for so long. Suzy then swapped the glasses over, putting the Silhouette frames on her nose and resting the other ones temporarily in her lap. As she lifted them up she could immediately see that the lenses were stronger and thicker, the magnifying effect of them distorting things as she lifted them up to her face. She looked out of the bus window and everything was a bit of a blur – presumably that’s why she was told they were to be used for reading only. However the optician had mentioned that this was her full prescription – surely there was some mistake there, there was no way she could walk around looking through lenses like this, they were way too strong for distance use. She then looked at things close up and could see everything very clearly, the pores on her hand, the weave of her school blazer and the knit of her school jumper. There was no doubt that these would be brilliant for close up work and she looked forward to trying them out properly when doing some reading later. It wasn’t long until her stop now, so she replaced the Silhouette frames in their box and put her every day glasses back on ready to get off the bus. When she got home the house was empty as both her parents were still at work. Suzy had left her mum’s old reading glasses in their case on the kitchen table that morning and whilst she waited for the kettle to boil she took them out of their case again to compare them with her own new glasses. She took off her everyday glasses and compared the two side by side. She could see that her mum’s lenses magnified things a little more than her everyday ones, but not by much. She put her mum’s ones back on again to test distance vision – she could see everything OK through them but her own everyday glasses were much clearer – her mum’s lenses looked a little scratched so that must have helped a bit too but it confirmed to her that the prescription was correct. When she took her reading glasses out though, she was surprised that the lenses looked stronger than her mum’s, which was a surprise. She gave them another test to look at the distance and really couldn’t see as clearly as through either her mum’s or the everyday glasses. They were however great for close up work. Just then there was the sound of the key in the door and her mum called to say she was home. Suzy quickly switched back to her everyday glasses. “Hi darling, how was school? Oh, I see you picked your glasses up – is everything OK?” “Hi mum, school was fine. Yes, the glasses are great. The lady in the opticians made sure they fitted correctly and I’ve been wearing the everyday glasses all the way home – they seem to work fine. The reading ones are fine too, but they’re definitely too strong to look through in the distance – I was just comparing them to your old reading glasses and I think they’re even stronger than they are.” “Well those ones really suit you, I think you made a good choice. Let’s have a look at you wearing the other ones too. Suzy switched back to the reading glasses “Wow, they look amazing on you – very sophisticated and grown up. Let’s have a look at them” Suzy took them off and handed them to her mum and replaced the everyday glasses on her nose. “They do look quite strong, do you mind if I try them on?” “Of course not”, said Suzy “after all, you’ve let me wear your reading glasses for the last week!” Her mum took her varifocals off and put Suzy’s glasses on her nose. “Wow” she exclaimed “I see what you mean, they’re quite powerful lenses, aren’t they”. She picked up the newspaper from the table and brought the print quite close to her face. These would be great for close work for me too – how do I look?” Suzy giggled and said “Oi, they’re my glasses – but if you ask nicely I might let you borrow them occasionally, as long as you’ll share yours with me sometimes!” To be continued….