May 2009 Archives

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.