Specsavers

Time for new glasses. Actually time for a new prescription months, if not a couple of years back. So on Thursday last I rolled up for my appointment with the optician at Specsavers on Mono Street.

Have you tried to find a suitable set of frames when you can’t see clearly? In the opticians in Hounslow where last I purchased a new set of specs, there was either the possibility of temporary contact lenses or a video camera that allowed one to see the effect of new frames with old glasses in place. No such service here in the sticks. I wandered around with their only magnifying mirror trying to ascertain if the glasses made me look old, trendy, ridiculous, OK or very elegant. It was the latter I was after.

I was called into the treatment room. There was the usual eye-testing and eye-watering paraphernalia on display. I sat myself in the electric chair.

“Can you see the bottom line?” asked the Welsh Bangladeshi (I had inquired) optician

“No,” I said, wishing that I could. In life, particularly.

He loads yet more lenses on to the mediaeval metal contraption digging into the bridge of my nose. He leans over and reads my details which include my date of birth. Is nothing secret these days? No, of course not.

He starts to make gentle ‘retirement’ chit-chat as he fiddles with his machines.

“Are you retired?”

I am never quite sure how to answer that one.

“Not really,” I explain, “I have always been freelance so don’t quite get the idea of retirement.”

“What do you do?” he politely and rather uninterestedly asks with his back to me as he reaches into yet another case filled with glass lenses.

For some reason that day I gave an honest answer.

“I teach T’ai-Chi, meditation and Qigong.” I explain, “I also practice therapeutic massage and Reiki.”

Usually I mutter something along the lines of ‘This and that’ staying purposely vague about my skills. I have in the past attracted odd and unwelcome reactions to what interests and excites me. I don’t know why I was so open that day.

“Where do you teach?” he asks.
I explain briefly about The Bridges Centre, wondering if because I can now see the bottom line with my left eye and that the red circle is brighter than the green one he has a arrived at a formula for my prescription, all the time worrying about how to choose new frames when I can’t see them without my current glasses in place.

His next question jolts me out of my anxiety:

“Do you write?”

Well, having attended a creative writing course for the past few months since moving to Monmouth my answer was an unconditional “Yes.”

“I run an events magazine and we need an article for the next issue. Would you write one?”

Well, the question of what frames would suit and how I was going to choose something that was flatteringly fashionable and didn’t make me appear an old fogey was swept away. It isn’t every day one gets requested for an article from a commuting-from-Cardiff optician. He tells me that he does the Specsavers job part-time, at other times he edits his magazine and also is a life-coach. And currently the next issue of Ubizy, for that is the name of his A5 free publication distributed to all the bars, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, art-galleries and civic centres in Cardiff and Swansea, lacks one feature writer.

When I get home I immediately look for the magazine on the internet. It is a groovy little publication with some interesting articles amongst the advertisements. It resides at www.ubizy.com, have a look for yourself.

A few days later I sent an article down the tubes to him, with the message that I welcomed feedback and suggestions. He responded pretty quickly:

Hi Sue

The article was good but i think the lay person may not be aware of the practical benefits of T'ai-Chi or the how it can help them in everyday life. Would it be possible to alter the article to a more practical perspective?

The intro and history of T'ai-Chi is great, but i think the public would want to know what the 'Supporting The Sky' and 'Instant Flow' will help them to achieve.

I hope you take this as constructive criticism rather than be offended. I’m only looking at it from a reader perspective

thanks and cheers again

David

I replied:

Absolutely the feedback required, you know your audience. So good to get constructive advice. Will have another look, and send another version soon.

He wrote:

Thanku so much

I was a bit worried as you are an expert in your field, but l don't want the reader ignoring your article!

So the more practical it looks the better.

We will also add a photo / cartoon to get attention grabbing cues for it,

I re-wrote the article attaching this note with the second submission:

Have had a bit of a rewrite, refocused the article. Hope this fits the bill better. Please do let me know if more adjustments required: it is so useful for me to go through this process. T'ai-Chi is such a vast subject, getting it into a few pithy, accessible words is challenging! Also, I am not bothered about the title, the one I have given it is only a suggestion.

Look forward to your comments.

On Monday  received this:

Sue

Perfect

Thanks and speak to you soon

Regards

DR

I have often wondered how a writer gets commissioned. Now I know. Have an eye test. At Monmouth Specsavers. On a Thursday. And get scribbling.