One of the things that I dislike about wearing glasses is picking a new pair every two years or so. After getting a number of reminder letters I toddled off to the opticians and got my eyes tested. The guy testing my eyes was hilarious, after every test he kept say ‘go maith, go maith’ so much so that I was disappointed at the end when I didn’t get an ‘ana mhaith ar fad’! When he was giving me the results of the eye test he said that they were marginally better than my least test and quipped that I was ‘like a fine wine, getting better with age’. Then he launched into a detailed description about my eye problem and the prescription necessary to fix it, complete with several diagrams. I think he was probably the funniest optician I’ve ever met. After the test I had the awful task of picking new glasses. Normally I’d bring a pair of contact lenses with me so that I could see what the frames look like when I try them on but I was a bit ill prepared this time. I spent ages wandering around picking up different frames and peering into the nearest mirror trying to get some idea if I’d like these frames in six months time let alone two years. It isn’t easy when each pair of frames comes with several stickers stuck to the lenses so it’s hard to gauge what they will really look like on. I also had about seven assistants offer to help me choose frames; I must have looked totally incapable of completing the task on my own. Eventually I just wandered over to one of the assistants, did a cursory trying on of the different frames and agreed to take them. Well at least it’s another job over for two years!