THE EYES HAVE IT!

Although the weather was truly awful this morning, we decided to go into Old Town to have a coffee, but on our way, went into Leightons.  We didn’t have an appointment, but fortunately, Kate, the lovely Manager, was able to see us - so after having a little chat with Wendy, who was on reception, Mr. HCB told her that he would like to see some “half glasses” for reading as he was fed up with having heavy glasses halfway down his nose!  

As usual, Kate was very obliging and said although half glasses weren’t that popular and not fashionable, she had a few she could show him.  We - and I mean we, because Mr. HCB wanted my opinion, decided on rather a good pair, which had an added feature of a little clip, so that they could be clipped to the pocket.  

We then had a discussion about shirts that had pockets and those that didn’t - and you are probably thinking “how random” but Kate advised us that those shirts without pockets were for those such as the aristocracy who had no need to have their own pen, but had servants to bring them one when needed.  Therefore, those who wore shirts WITH pockets, were classed as poorer or lower in rank.  An interesting concept!  I might add that Mr. HCB was wearing a shirt today WITH a pocket, so he was obviously classed as “lower in rank”! :-) 

It was still raining heavily outside, so I then said that I would like to look at some frames because I was a bit fed up with mine, so we then had a good time finding frames for me.  I had wanted some that were rimless, but again, Kate said they were not in fashion at the moment, so heaven forbid that I should be “out of fashion”, but she managed to find some that were to my liking and were slightly purple into the bargain.

My collage shows the lovely Kate using a “visuReal” optical measuring machine and according to the website it “automatically and quickly determines all the important parameters required to manufacture your pair of spectacles”, which was basically what Kate told me.  Apparently, this was brought out during Covid so the staff didn’t have to get too near to customers and it works!  I just had to look at the red dot and hey presto the machine does the work - but of course, Kate needed to know how to use it.  You can see me at the bottom right with the thingummy screwed onto my glasses so that Kate could do her thing!  This was a selfie, but Mr. HCB was adamant that he did NOT want to be in the shot and after his little tantrum yesterday when I put him in without his permission, thought I should respect his wishes - what a misery!  

When asked what he thought of my choice of new glasses, Mr. HCB’s comment was “They’re quite nice”!  Not quite what I wanted to hear, but as we said, after 55½ years of marriage, we have no need to be gushing and as he so eloquently put it “Whatever I say, if you want them, you will have them anyway!”

We do love going into Leightons and we are always made most welcome and today was no exception.  We went to Jack’s afterwards and met some friends who had just got there, so had a lovely time with them.  We also saw Gill, another friend and had a quick chat with her, so a rotten day weather-wise, but it turned into a good day in other ways! 

Thank you again for your kind comments, stars and hearts - please bare whoops bear with me for a while longer.  M xx