How are you today?

[blue]

Trouble is, my eyesight is so rubbish without specs now, that I can't make out the controls on the camera clearly (let alone the view through the viewfinder ).

Same here! My eyesight is so bad now, but I could never afford glasses. I'm seriously thinking about trying to find a cheap magnifying glass I can carry around with me. I rather like the idea.

[wirbel]

Same here! My eyesight is so bad now, but I could never afford glasses. I'm seriously thinking about trying to find a cheap magnifying glass I can carry around with me. I rather like the idea.

What kind of country doesn't allow it's citizens to get some glasses for a cheap prize? We're not in the middle ages anymore are we?

[blue]

What kind of country doesn't allow it's citizens to get some glasses for a cheap prize?

The UK! Glasses are notoriously expensive here, my colleague's last pair set her back £170, and that was the no-frills plain frame kind. Way out of my league.

I was talking to a customer about this on Sunday and he told me his mum actually does have a magnifying glass! She wears it on a chain around her neck. AWESOME. I'm going to look for one.

[wirbel]

But if it's only for reading you can get like these really cheap china-made glasses at these cheap stuff stores. In the Netherlands stores like 'Action' or maybe even LIDL. In Sweden we have a store where almost everything cost 1 Euro; there they also have magnifying glasses for cheap, so I'd try to find a store like that to have a look around.

[blue]

Wirbel, you are a genius!! I didn't even know about these cheap reading glasses, but I walked over to Lidl after work today and got a pair for £2.50 - I now have THE GIFT OF SIGHT!!

Oh my goodness, what a relief. I can't believe what a difference they make, I hadn't quite realised how blurred my vision had got. Now I can read again without having to hold the book 6ft away from me on a pole.

Thanks so much for that info, you're a star.

[wirbel]

Glad I could help.

[blue]

Just to let you know folks, I'm expecting to be offline again for a while soon so don't worry if I'm not around for a bit, I'll be back when finances allow.

[RobB]

Hope you're not away for too long Beth? We'll be missing you.

[blue]

That really depends on how things pan out now I'm losing that further few hours from my basic contract Rob, it equates to about £60-£70 a month off my already meagre wage. The only 'extra' I have is my internet subscription so unfortunately, it's the only thing I can cut out when times are really tough. I have to start trying to bank up my gas meter now in the summer so I don't have another horrendous winter like the one before last, where I had no heating or hot water for weeks on end. I simply can't go through that again.

Come June I'll be spending most of the week at my daughter's looking after Rocco, so I'll be able to pop online while I'm there. In the meantime I've probably got another couple of days till this month's subscription runs out.

Does anyone else find when they have time off work they get sick? Ugh, I came down with a cold yesterday and woke up this morning with a perforated eardrum. [b)] So annoying, it's such an awful pain and there's nothing you can do about it, it just has to heal by itself in time. Bloody typical, every time I take a week off I get ill with something or other.

Ah well, thank god for paracetamol and ibuprofen.

[RobB]

Was it a violent sneeze that caused your perforated eardrum? It seems strange that a cold would cause it otherwise.
I really hope you shift your cold quicker than i have......i've had mine for three weeks now and its still hanging around.

[blue]

No it happened during the night while I was asleep Rob, I think there was just so much fluid in my tubes because of the cold that it just went through the eardrum. It's happened to me once before many years ago, as soon as I woke up I knew what had happened. [b)]

I've been alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen every four hours but it's such an excruciating pain, the tabs just take it down to a dull roar for a while. I'm reacting to the ibuprofen, I really shouldn't be taking it but I can't get through without it. The annoying thing is that it won't start to heal until the cold has run its route and the pressure eases on the eardrum.

NOT the happiest Easter I've ever spent! [b)]

Ah well, I just need to distract myself from it.

[RobB]

Sounds very unpleasant.

Seems you have a weakness there from that previous occurance which doesn't bode well for the future.
Hope it heals soon for you and in the meatime that the medication will dull some of the pain.

What a shame to have to suffer like this during your easter hols.

[blue]

Well my daughter persuaded me to ring the out of hours doctor's service, the nurse I spoke to there says it sounds like an infection and she's concerned about the amount of painkillers I've taken and the reaction to the ibuprofen, so she's given me an appointment at the hospital this afternoon. I probably should have just rung on Saturday morning but I tend to just get on with things by myself, I don't like bothering the doctor unnecessarily.

Yeah, not at all how I plannned for this week off to go! I was so looking forward to it, and to seeing my grandson. Obviously I have to keep away from him in case I pass on the cold. Anyway I've rung my Supervisor at work to let her know the situation and give advance warning that I might not be back in on Thursday, it really depends whether the cold has dissipated and my ear has begun to heal by then.

Euggh, what an Easter weekend!

[RobB]

well, have fun at the hospital. You can see how many other viral infections you can pick up from other patients during your visit?

[blue]

Turns out I already have more than I thought! Big infection in both ears, the right eardrum has a hole in it and the left one would have followed if I'd left it any longer, so I'm glad I went. In addition I also have a bad infection in my tonsils, which explains why I can hardly swallow or talk.

Doc reckons it will be a minimum of 7-10 days for the infection to clear, so I'm now going to give my Supervisor the bad news. She leaves on Thursday, the day I was supposed to go back, which will leave one member of staff to run the shop. Looks like our AM is going to have his work cut out, but then if he'd sorted the manager's position and the fourth member of staff we've been missing since November, all would have been well. Maybe this will teach him a lesson to get things sorted when they need to be sorted.

Anyway I'm off to curl up in bed for a while and give the antibiotics a chance to kick in.