Both these Herdwicks were interested in me - briefly. That’s marketing these days too - measured by impressions and views, with endless short videos with top 3 tips to improve you/your life - all trying to lure a click out of us. But, it’s probably not the best marketing - the best is probably recommendation by someone who you trust.

My aim is that after your hour long test / high tech specs measurement / careful fitting of your stylish and clear vision providing specs that you go for a coffee with someone you care about and say “you ought to go there, it’s great - the people are lovely” and they really care about doing the best thing for each individual. It’s experiential, it’s memory making, it’s trust building, it’s about developing a fulfilling long term relationship.

Yes, Insta is good for showing nice things and being slightly witty, emails are good for keeping you informed of what’s on offer - but, another human whose judgement you trust is the medium we believe in. A new Ted Lasso series starts today- he was right before “believe”.

One of my daughters says we are not a celebratory family - she’s not wrong. We should celebrate more. It wasn’t a well thought out plan to invite some people for some fizz last week, but we were rammed and it was lovely. The meal after in the courtyard was great too. To be fair to us as a family, in the space of 8 days we are also celebrating two graduations (twins) as well.

The celebration was around my birthday, which feels more significant after my cancer diagnosis in January, big operation in February and subsequent recovery. It was also marking 10yrs since Eyeye started, 35 years since I first started testing eyes and 15 years since I re-entered the optometry world after a career in policy, research and politics.

It seems we have built a community and that’s something we feel proud of. Felt very moved at the people who came - with gifts too (not opened them, it’s tomorrow). We will definitely have another celebration soon - or will we? I hope so.

You will have heard us bang on about how too many eye test are rushed, to the detriment of patient and practitioner. The dangers of rushing of endless, but this particular danger is huge in our opinion.

Some patients want to know if they “need” glasses for driving. For a start, the fact that they are asking is a clue that they have some doubt. If the optom is in a rush, it’s tempting to answer this query in a legality orientated way. This will especially suit those people who love to state “I only need them for reading”, as a badge of honour. So, if they can see a modern number plate, in good light at 20m then the answer might be no. This ignores the fact that this is not a very stringent test and often it’s not good light - espcailly this time of the year. What we, as dediicated and caring professionals, should be doing is explaining how to optimise vision for driving. The starting question should be: Can spectacles improve the vision in the distance (we will come to close up in a moment)? This could be due to myopia (“short sight”) and/or astigmatism or hyperopia (“long sight”) and astigmatism … (dry eye, cataract etc can hinder too, but let’s (ahem) focus on specs here).

If the answer is; yes specs can improve the vision, then I can think of no reason at all why one would not wear them. Imagine bieng in court and admitting you had glasses that made you vision clearer for driving, but you decided not to wear them, when the accident happened - it doesn’t make sense.

At some point the issue of glare from modern headlights might arise and this is one of those examples in life where two things can be true at once - yes, some odern headlights are an issue and that needs looking at, but taking personal responsibility means optimising your vision for driving and glare will be reduced if you were the corrent glasses ….. with anti-reflection coatings (included in price here) and a nice clean window screen (inside and out).

Then there is near vision - to see dash info and sat nav on phone/integrated. If you find yourself putting your close work (“reading”) glasses on to see such things, when in motion, then you need a different solution too.

Your optometrist needs to be honest with you and not dodge these issues - explaining the why, how, when and what of specs wear. If they don’t then find a new one.