April 30, 2019
I realised the other day that some people who’ve known me for years don’t realise I have really bad eyesight. I have a genetic condition from my old man called keratoconus - in theory causing a progressive thinning and bulging of the cornea. In practise it’s a very easy disability to live with. Especially as our optometrist is a bit of a genius and my condition has - if anything - improved over the last ten years under his care. Upshot is I have to wear old-fashioned hard contact lenses. Specs don’t correct my vision. While they correct my short-sightedness, I still get a kind of multiple double-vision effect from the distortions in my cornea. But at bed time I do wear specs. And my grandfather used to collect spectacle frames. So when I needed some in ‘96 or so, I asked my gran for a pair of 1920s-1930s wireframes which I still wear today. Going to bed selfies take a bit of time if you’re like me and insist on taking them at f1.8 with a manual focus lens. But surprisingly, I usually manage to get a frame or two in focus.