The challenge of new glasses

I really like my new frames, but wow, the new lenses
 are taking some adjusting to, and I don't know why.

I took the plunge a couple of weeks ago and went to a Japanese optometrist (with my husband for linguistic support). This is something I've been avoiding for . . . well 17 years (by doing it in Australia when we were there). But it was unavoidable this time, I was struggling with blurred distance vision. Plus I've had a lot of headaches. There are many possible triggers for my headaches, but I thought my glasses could be one, so I set out to eliminate that.

I've heard all sorts of things about the Japanese optometry world and not all of them good. But, I thought, it can't be that bad, can it? After all there are a lot of Japanese people with glasses!

Part of my concern is that for the last 2 ½ years I've been wearing transition lenses, the new form of trifocals! The idea being that for close vision you view through the bottom of the glasses and distance the top, with middle distance somewhere in the middle, but with no hard line between these different parts of the lens. They've been brilliant and didn't take much time to adjust to. When I got them I had made it to the stage where I had to take my glasses off to read, which is really annoying. My sunglasses are still that way, so I can't read a map or my phone with them on. I wasn't sure that Japan had transition lenses, but it turns out they do.

Another of my problems with using glasses for reading is that my favourite recreational reading place is on my side in bed. I deliberately got thin frames this time for side-reading comfort (my previous frames had thick arms which hurt my ear and head sandwiched between my head and the pillow). But it turns out that the ideal place to read through these lenses is a bit narrow and when I lie down the glasses get knocked to the side making it hard to read.

Sorry, I'm whinging here.

My hopes are pinned a little on the pair of reading/computer lenses that I've also ordered (recycling old frames). Apparently they will have a larger area for reading and the top will work for the long hours of computer work that I often put in. We'll see. They can be collected early next week.

Oh, have you ever tried putting on ear muffs with glasses on? It can be tricky! I've had a tricky time with my ear muffs this week pushing my glasses up off my nose, which means I'm looking through the bottom half of my glasses and not exactly road-worthy on my bike! And believe me, ear muffs are vital riding in sub 10C weather (if you have a helmet on), ears are quite vulnerable.

Ah, the challenges of middle age. I now understand why everyone in the "senior choir" at the church I grew up in had their own music and couldn't share. It was because most of them wore bifocals and had to have the music at a specific place in order to see it.

I do like my new frames—they are delicate and comfortable on my face. They've also got a cool design on the arms and the inside of the arms is teal, one of my favourite colours. I just hope that I get used to the lenses soon.