Blind as an old blind bat

I couldn't get in to my blog! It was awful. Anyway, I'm back now. I'll have a biscuit to celebrate.

I've finally booked an eye test. I've only been promising myself one for the last seven years, so it's been pretty efficient for me. I seem to be okay reading and with distances, but even half an hour on the computer leaves my eyes dry and stinging, and they're often sore when I wake up. Is it possible to just need glasses for looking at a screen? Quite possibly, but I wouldn't know.

My mum says her eyesight got a lot worse after she got glasses. Maybe your eyes get used to the magnification so everything without them looks tiny. My dad drove me a job interview a couple of weeks ago (I didn't get it - imbeciles) and handed me a street-by-street. I couldn't read it - it was too small. He gave me a pair of glasses he'd bought in a pound shop. My dad has all sorts of interesting and varied problems with his sight and equally interesting and varied ways of avoiding the eye hospital. He's worried they'll find out he hasn't been wearing his contact lens (he's blind in one eye) and berate him, so despite his complex prescription he just buys glasses for a pound. Marvellous. But I could SEE the tiny wee print. And that's when I knew.

But really I've known I've needed glasses for ages. In fact, I've probably needed them since I was about seven years old, since I've always had to squint to see things properly. I've heard it called the "California squint" because they have such strong sunlight a lot of people have to close up one eye to see anything. I live in Scotland, though, so I've got little excuse in that department. Squinting to see in the dark at 3.30pm, aye. But sunlight's not the issue.

And, more seriously, I think I'm going night blind. Most people's eyes adjust to the dark after a few minutes, but mine don't anymore. If it's black it stays black. I'll discuss that with the optician. Then I'll have to find glasses that suit me. I have shaky hands and long nails, so contact lenses are out, and the thought of laser surgery scares me half to death. But it's a new experience, and I'm always happy to have those.