I’ve been wearing glasses for years – ever since I was a teenager. At first I just needed them for reading but mostly I could get by without them. Then one day I realised I couldn’t read the newspaper without my glasses and I found I myself wearing them all the time. Finally, the onslaught of diminishing eyesight resulted in being prescribed multifocals. The problem with multifocals is that they’re expensive. I generally spend way over $1,000 on a pair of frames and lenses. And then I need to have the same lenses in my sunglasses. Needless to say I can’t afford to change frames very often. I tried contact lenses many years ago but they only gave me middle and long distance so I still needed glasses to read, albeit just those cheap chemist glasses generally did the trick. Problem was, it seemed to defeat the purpose of wearing contacts if I still needed to carry around a pair of glasses to read things (eg, labels on food, price tags on clothes, menus). So I gave up and resolved myself to always wearing glasses.
But recently I saw a new optometrist who recommend new contact lenses that would work much better. So I gave them a try. Brilliant. I could see everything. Problem was, I could see all the wrinkles and bags under my eyes. It was a shock. Glasses tend to hide the bags and wrinkles – now they were bare for all to see – including me. It’s taken me a while to get used to this new look. And really, I still don’t like what I see – where did those bags come from? Is this just another facet of my ageing? Something – bar surgery – I can do nothing about? Sigh. I’m trying really hard to come to terms with all these changes and to take it in my stride and hopefully age gracefully, but somehow I still don’t think of myself as old. And I don’t want to be old. I suspect I have to come to terms with this before I can come to terms with the way I (really) look.
But the good news is that now I can buy gorgeous new sunglasses and not need to pay extra mega dollars to have special lenses made (particularly problematic if the lenses are a lovely colour). I also love that in yoga or in the gym I can see without my glasses falling off when I’m either stretching upside down, or doing my push-ups or when I’m in downward facing dog. Oh, and I can also do my makeup much more expertly (shame about the wrinkly eyelids though).
And I can highly recommend George Scoufis Optometrist in Paddington who not only has the best range of frames and sunglasses that I’ve come across (yes, I’ve got my eye on a new pair of frames already) but also has a fantastic super friendly and helpful team.