Further ramblings of a self-made pauper

I have just returned from SpecSavers having had my eyes tested for the first time since November 1999.

I have 20/20 vision over distance apparently, but need reading glasses and even then not all of the time. I’ve just spent near on £140 which gets me two pairs that almost, but not quite, make me look like Heinrich Himmler. Maybe I should now bring my plans for world domination forward.

It is interesting how the frames are priced, and how they (the staff) appeal to your vanity. It’s also interesting how the nicer frames are also the more expensive. Still, I always did have expensive tastes, and it’s probably worth it for glasses that won’t fall apart after 5 weeks’ occasional use.

As I’m off next week, I shan’t be able to pick them up until Monday 6^th February, which by chance is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, and two days after my birthday. In days gone by we used to celebrate that after work, the English calendar having no holidays of note between New Year and Easter, and 6^th February being about half-way between the two.

If I resurrect that aulde custom, I shall be able to see where I am going on my way home, or rather read the small print on the back of my tube ticket.

Good morning, everybody.

I half expected a slight echo when I typed that. London is very quiet this morning, the tube ride in was very pleasant; hardly anyone on it, and my morning trip into Sainsbury’s for milk and other morning victuals was hampered not by the existence of queues, but by the small selection of sandwiches.

Is there a holiday and someone forgot to inform me? I know it’s Lex Luthor King Day (or something) in the US, but as far as I am aware, the sixteenth of January is just another working day to be endured by the lumpen proletariat here in the UK. I shall be most miffed if I find that there is a good reason for not having to go to work today and am here anyway.

I am toying with the thought of going to get my eyes checked today. I am always on about it, but never stir up the courage. If I need reading glasses that will a couple of hundred quid less spending money for yours truly. At the moment my arms a re still long enough for me to be able to focus on the small print at a comfortable distance. That said, it mustn’t be quite as small as say, ten years ago. Back then I could see a tattoo on a gnat’s arse.

It would have to be a pretty fat gnat now.