Hallelujah! Mah sight has bin reee-staw’d!

After two months of trudging about looking for glasses frames to replace the glasses I lost on New Year’s Eve, I have finally found a pair that don’t make my face look unnecessarily skinny, square or like a blue-rinse matron off to play Canasta (cue the “Seinfeld” episode). My old frames were kinda oval and a light metallic red, so I’ve decided on a daring change.

My new frames are slightly square – but kinda oval and a light metallic red.

And they come with clip-on polarized lenses.

Alright, so I find something I like and stick to it. Quit shouting.

A jovial optometrist has declared me no blinder than I was 2.5 years ago. (I had the optometrists at the ANU fax through my last prescription this morning.) However, I only just – with squinting – meet local driver’s license requirements for a license without glasses. But I still only really need glasses for movies and night driving – which is safe enough without them, in terms of avoiding other people and cars, and seeing traffic lights and road signs, but navigation where I have to read street signs was getting almost impossible.

Mainly, I was getting sick of avoiding movies because I’d hafta sit right up front.

Upside: I made use of my last set of long-distance glasses responsibly and did not encourage any more “learned” deterioration. Downside: if I’d not lost my old glasses, I could still be wearing them for a perfect correction.

May I just say “yay” for Australian Medicare and my private health insurance. Bulk-billed optometrist’s check up cost me nothing; and the generous Teacher’s Health Fund gave me $160 back towards my lenses and frames. (I strongly recommend having a teacher as a parent and buying your own plan when they kick you off the family plan at 25. It took me two years to have the money to do it, but I’m glad I did. Mostly for peace of mind, rather than the few claims I've so far made.) I’m still out of pocket for most of the cost of the frames, though, so losing the glasses remains dumb – though a marker of a damn good night out.

Still, with a swipey reader-thing my health insurance claim was made instantly (I like technology!) – and my new glasses will be ready by tomorrow. I could have collected them this afternoon, but tomorrow lunch will do nicely.

The whole process was much simpler than I expected, and one of my life admin issues has now been conquered. Hurrah, I say.