Seeing Really Is Believing!

The four eyes, coke bottles or nerdy lot.

I say nerdy as that was the moniker given to us at school, being part of the kids who needed glasses. It might have been the lackluster frames most of us had. Back in our day glasses were expensive and often still are.

The Bobster was regaling me with a funny ( well it wasn't at the time ) story of how he got his first pair of glasses while still young. His father took him to his optometrist and Bob got the most affordable pair and if he could have, he would have only worn them at home. Yes, they were the original medical aid frames and as Bob just told me, it was on the eve of his gap year in London, the fashion capital of the world which he had to view through medical aid frames...

Rather typical of youthful exuberance that instead of buying himself some trendier glasses, he chose to support bars, concerts and many Burger chains.

As an adult, one understands that paying for glasses does involve a loan from the bank most of the time but as a youngster it was a almost worse than sporting braces and definitely a thorn in any romantic ambition.

Our medical aid is brilliant except they don't sponsor glasses. Fair enough, at least we hardly ever pay to visit the doctor, hospital etc. ( yes, in South Africa we had an expensive medical aid yet still had to hand over oodles of money each time we saw a doctor ) but Bob needs optical sunglasses, now that he is working outside more often. Last Saturday we headed into town knowing we'd have to bite the bullet and fork out a fortune for optical sunglasses.

Bob was mentally bracing himself for having to get the cheapest medical aid frame similar to his childhood. I was mentally bracing myself for hours of choosing a frame and having to caution against the cost of them...

Well, a new branch of an optometrist chain has opened only a few weeks ago in Oberwart: Fielmann and because they are always playing adverts on tv interviewing happy clients, we chose it as the first port of call.

Having to watch our pennies, we sort of took the offensive and asked for the least expensive option. We need not have bothered as they had an entry price that made both of us speechless while at the same time performing a mental dance of joy.

Can you believe that for the princely sum of Euro 17,50 one gets:

• An eye-test
• A choice of frames, granted not the top fashion line, but still trendy.
• Optical lenses.
• A carry etui.
• And the most amazing service.

Bob chose two pairs and all in under five minutes which is amazing when you consider that there are hundreds of frames to chose from. We even paid straight away and perhaps there was still a niggling doubt about those possible hidden extra charges, but the price for two optical glasses came to Euro 35.

Biggi