The Big Optometry Blog

   It's early in the year but Optician has been struck by a spate of early holidays so its all hands to the pumps in the office.

The worry earlier in the year was that after Optrafair and the BCLA conference things would quieten down but, no. There is plenty going on and the hard-pressed Optician team is running aroundlike never before.

If you are wondering these are my legs. I've shaved them ahead of the forthcoming effort by the Optician Ironman Team's effort in the UK Ironman. We are raising money for Vision Aid Overseas and you can donate money here

I have spared you all for some time from Ironman talk but I was struck on Sunday by how good Maui Jim's sunglasses are for running.
Sunday was a blistering hot day and, having been for a cycle I realised my prescription cycling specs would be too heavy.
It's not often I go for the hat as well as sports specs. While that combo blocks out the sun it does make for a hot, sweaty and steamy mix so the eyewear has got to be right.

I'm not using orthok at the moment so --shock horror what eye wear to use. Of all the sporty Rxed specs I have the lightest by far are the Maui Jims. To be honest they are in my son's prescription as time has knocked a bit of minus off of mine so I nicked them back. Excellent vision and as light as a feather to boot.
Anyone who competes in long course events will tell you that makes a lot of difference on a long hot run.One less thing to worry about, clear vision and no messing about.

 I'll get a photo taken and post it up shortly.

NICE's reaction to the AOP's advice on NICE guidelines do little to reduce the mud in the water surrounding the referral of glaucoma potentials in practice. The latest NICE missive still sets up a situation where thousands of additional patients will be passed on to the hospital service.

As ever the practice feeling happy about the changes are those where an shared care scheme exsits which offers payments for the work optometrists do. Everyone is getting excited about 21mmHg and how that is measured but at the end of the day the issue is the work done and the money paid.

No one can have avoided the current row over MP's expenses and allowances. It is all very depressing. The Commons appears to be inhabited by people who are paid to represent us but appraently in some cases have no idea how ordinary people feel or think.I can't imagine many people having sympathy with the argument that MPs are hard up when they draw a salary of £70,000, claim at least another £24,000 and have most other necessesities provided by way of allowances. One snippet did make me laugh though. Among the items claimed; duck houses, TVs digital cameras, mirrors,rugs and £2,500 sofas were spectacles and eye tests often claimed on behalf if office staff..

One MP found to his cost after submitting a claim for £210 for spectacles for his wife, who also happened to work in his office, that the limit for such an expense is £50.

The rules are very different for others who claim designer specs on expenses. A court in Swansea heard how a couple tried to claim £1500 for six pairs of designer specs. They of course were facing charges of theft and false accounting rather than batting away questions from journalists.

It's a hobby horse of mine, probably because I realise how great sports eyewear can be and because I value it so much.  I have plenty of stone chips and bramble marks on my eyewear to appreciate the value they provide.

Yet again I have been sent and email extolling the virtues of cycling eyewear .

Don't get me wrong, this is good for the sector, but it misses out on so much great product out there.

I am lucky enough to have tried out a whole range of sports eyewear from the cheap and nasty to the excellent.

Once you have cycled in, say, a Rudy Project frame glazed with prescription Drivewear, you are hooked. For changeable light conditions Transitions lenses are a great option in a performance frame such as  an Oakley .

If style and performance is what you are looking for the digital glazing now offered by Maui Jim is another option. If you need something lower down the budget then otjer products such as the modular Nalinni from Norville offer the function with a little less style.

Changing light conditions always pose a problem so while a Rupp + Hubrach Silvershadow with a moderate tint galzed into a Rudy Project frame with a side vent provides excellent mist-free vision for light sun there is always the problem of what you do when conditions go to full sun.

Bright sun category eyewear is not something you want to be wearing unless there is full on sun so that is where the compromise is usually made.

  The solution so far has probably been to wear contact lenses or use orthoK and then option for a Transitons activated by product or swappeable lenses ( not popular on the go).

Some products on the horizon will hopefully address this  as the next generation of glazeable Transitions sunwear makes it onto the market.

The sad fact in all of this is that 'cycling specific eyewear' is available from sports retailers at very low cost, but a lot of the quality is shockingly poor. Unitl the optical retail business gets to grips with sports eyewear, as it has in Germany. That massive market will remain untapped.

You may be shocked by this news but it has to be true, it says so on the internet.

A website whose function is to encourage married people to have affairs informs us that women in the healthcare professions are much more likley to have affairs than pretty much anyone else. The phrase "gagging for it" wasn't used but I think you get the picture.

This bizarre website, whose mantra appears to be 'having an affair will strengthen your marriage', says it has about a third of a million people ( mainly women obviously, possibly in nurses uniform) signed up and ready for an bit of extra-marital rumpy pumpy. Apparently a large proportion of these women are in the healthcare business, and, says the press release "We all know how stressful the healthcare sector can be, so it's no surprise that these women are seeking something to relieve the tension caused by their day jobs,".

Silly me, I thought they just wanted a sit down in front of Coronation Street with a cup of tea. 

Presumably Optician was sent this tawdry piece of  titilating tat becasue of the health connection. Call me an old cynic but prefer to think of it as a obvious piece of viral marketing designed to be seized upon and posted on websites throughout healthcare sector.

That will never work.

If you find that patients are a little more friendly than usual let Optician know and we'll put them straight.

A Dutch optician's attempt at humour has upset the feminist franternity. Check it out here

I'm not sure how sexist it is but it certainly isn't very funny.

I could mention the legendary hummour baypass most of those crazy Dutch guys have ubndergone but that would upset my Dutch opticien buddy Kees and he's a big guy.

What could possibly connect Maui Jim sunglasses and Slow worms? Read on. 

I must admit to keeping my Maui Jims for best. I have a pair of the digitally surfaced rimless ones with the Passport lenses. They are pretty damn good sunwear good but it wasn't until Sunday that I found out how useful they can be.

I admit it I was gardening in my Mauis, not something I would normally do, but I had a few boards to put down in the greenhouse, a spot of planting and some compost to get rid of and , you know how it is. It was a hot sunny afternoon and I already had them on because I had been out for a cycle that morning.

The first job was chucking a load of stuff on the compost heap so I took off the cover and swung the bag of compost over my head. I felt the Mauis being pulled off my face as I swang the bag. I looked down and luckily saw them and popped them back on.

As soon as I put them back on I noticed a face looking up out of the heap and a long sleek iridescent silver/beige body. It had been camouflaged beautifully but with the lenses on I could see it perfectly. I'm not that short sighted and realised  it was the polarisation and the tint that made the slow worm visible not the correction. The effect was really impressive.

Perhaps I need to get out more but I felt it was quite a treat to see such a beautiful creature living close by. I popped his cover back on and will look out for him in my Mauis next time I am down on the allotment.