Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Fixing Broken Spectacles When Travelling

Problem
On holiday in Madeira, I was sitting down for lunch on a maountin trail, hiking, when a fly zoomed across my vision. I yanked at the right of my spectacle frmae to pull off my glasses. The tinted lens fell. I found it. But the screw was missing.

Answer
The screw was in my lap. I carefull saved it inside a zip up plast see-through bag. I placed that with a note warning about the contents of the bag, so as to find the screw and be sure neighter I nor any other tidy minded person throw away or filed and stored the bag. I stored the bag in a zip up pocket, not just a flap pocket, to be sure it did not fall out and blow away.

Back at the hotel, we used a lens repair kit which we always carry to repair the spectacles.

Back in London, England, I went into the shop where I had bought the glasses. I had worried slightly that:
a) They would say the glasses were broken and buy another pair
b) They would have to send the glasses away for repair so I would be without for a week

I remembered that my late father who was an optiician would always do minor repairs such as adjusting glasses or tightening a screw for free.

I wished I had gone in straight away rather than postponing it and worrying for two and a half days.

The man in the Eyecare was so charming.

When he disappeared behind a screen I decided to follow and find out what he was doing. Always a useful exercise.

First he tightened the screw with pliers. But his pliers had a plastic cover over the end so that they did not damage the frame or lens.

Then he placed the scapectacles, open, on the desk top 'to check balance'. Were the two sides level.

Before leaving, I asked if he had a cheap pair of spectacles I could buy as a spare.

The cheapest he had were £100. That is frames only. I would have to add on an extra hundred or two for triple focus lenses, trifocals, for distance, computer in mid-distance, and close up for reading a book or menu, plus Reactolite (reacting to light, making them dark) so they go dark automatcially when you step out of a restaurant into the sun. (I think Boots sell them cheaper - but on a rack for children and the free or subsidised glasses for the impecunious.)

I had noticed in Madeira that glasses curently seem to have gone back to large and round, instead of small and oblong. I had an opportunity to update my glasses with a new frame, albeit a cheaper one.

I can drive safely becuase I can see pretty well in the distance without glasses. I could read a menu close-up using off the peg glasses, or borrowed reading glasses, or old reading glasses.

However, the computer screen is the problem. I want to use that all the time.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

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