tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-232124552008-04-21T12:12:44.260ZLucy Annnoreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1145522565973996672006-04-20T08:25:00.000Z2006-04-20T08:42:45.986Z

So now I'm back I've been catching up with my reading. According to the Google Blog, the Google Calendar has just been launched. I've been a particular Google fan ever since they opened up their personalized home page, which has my favourite ever feature: a pair of Google eyes which follow your cursor around. You go cross-eyed looking at them, but they're ever so cute. So now I've checked out

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1145518304083448552006-04-18T12:03:00.000Z2006-04-20T07:53:28.610Z

I haven't been posting because I've been on holiday: I volunteered as an untrained assistant on an early-season sailing trip in Greece. It was great. I couldn't afford a paid-for holiday, having given up my job. But I wouldn't have wanted one. The trip was for the handicapped, and their carers, and one of the girls I was looking after was legally blind. Her seriously impaired vision is the

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1145523174585920852006-03-19T11:28:00.000Z2006-04-20T08:52:54.586Z

It's a good idea, if you actually want to measure your progress in fixing your eyesight, to get hold of a Snellen test chart. They're those pretty things you get in the optician's. You can order them from the internet. I'll do this at some point, but at the moment I worry that if I do an eye test every day I'll start to become anxious, and will get depressed if my prescription doesn't

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1145520940965835912006-03-15T20:41:00.000Z2006-04-20T08:21:14.606Z

So now I learn that smoking is very bad for your eyesight. This is terrible news! Smoking is one of the things that has kept me busy and happy while I've been trying to correct my vision. Cigarettes have the effect &mdash probably a trick of the mind &mdash of making me feel relaxed. And when you're relaxed your eyes are also relaxed and you see more clearly. Apparently, research at the

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1142255960709881622006-03-13T13:12:00.000Z2006-03-13T13:19:20.710Z

A while ago I wrote a post about a site called glassesdirect. You type in your prescription and they send you spectacles for just £15. I ordered myself a pair, much weaker than my current prescription. They arrived today. They're neat black plastic frames (though you can order several types), and seem solid enough. But the best thing is that my eyes feel comfortable wearing them. Since I've

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1142255479665567082006-03-13T12:46:00.000Z2006-03-13T13:11:19.676Z

The reason I decided to try and improve my eyesight, the reason I even thought it was possible, is that I have a very clear memory of something very strange. About ten years ago, at a time when my eyesight was deteriorating very rapidly, I would spend a lot of time relaxing my eyes and exercising them. I was desperate to see clearly. One day I was sitting at home without my glasses on. For some

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1142256850958215712006-03-12T18:31:00.000Z2006-03-13T13:35:12.390Z

Man Ray's lovely photograph of an eye with glass tears. Everybody loves it. Me, it reminds me how important tears are once in a while. Dry eyes are unhappy eyes.

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1142072064855551142006-03-11T10:14:00.000Z2006-03-13T11:42:53.896Z

So here’s an update on how things have been going for the last week and a bit. I haven’t worn lenses at all. I’ve worn glasses probably for no more than three or four hours a day, often less. I’ve had them on only to go to the shops or when I’ve met up with people. And the rest of the time I’ve been practising the Bates method techniques. Whatever I’m doing I’ll take a few minutes to exercise and

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141937658175323652006-03-09T20:39:00.000Z2006-03-09T20:54:18.190Z

There's the weirdest claim about to be made in a BBC documentary to be broadcast on Saturday. The producers apparently claim that various exercises in spatial awareness can make you cleverer. The suggestions that caught my eye (ho ho) include: 1) Shower with your eyes closed 2) Walk around the house with a blindfold on The rest is probably silly, even if it's intriguing: loads of mental

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141808466361340122006-03-08T08:50:00.000Z2006-03-08T10:33:00.016Z

I've never even heard of them, but apparently all the stars are buying labradoodles. You can see why. They're a cross between a labrador and a poodle, and were first bred in the 1970s as (get this!) guide dogs for blind allergy sufferers. They don't moult, you see. And they're completely beautiful.

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141559846107102742006-03-05T11:57:00.000Z2006-03-05T12:04:42.833Z

So after all the frightening surgery stories, there's also this incredible second-by-second description of the process. As soon as I sat down, we got started. The doctor placed a small metal device with a loop at the end around the surface of my (now frozen) eyeball. This held my eye in the correct position I immediately couldn’t see anyting out of this eye - presumably because it was exerting

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141557309051222342006-03-05T11:08:00.000Z2006-03-05T11:19:29.396Z

Here's an image of a prescription I found on the internet (must scan my own when I can borrow a scanner). The SPHERE records short-sightedness or long-sightedness (myopia or hyperopia). That's what I mainly have to worry about. CYL records the amount of astigmatism, which means things seeming clearer in one direction than the other. AXIS records the direction of astigmatism. What bothers me is

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141555430952064002006-03-05T10:43:00.000Z2006-03-05T11:07:25.526Z

I came across this article about the pros and cons of laser eye surgery. It seems very balanced: it can work, they say, and it can go wrong. Me, I find it terrifying. I'm sure a scientist would say that on balance corrective surgery is a good thing, provided the indications are followed. But when I read the comments people have left about their surgery horror stories, they accumulate in my head

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141380603855816652006-03-03T10:10:00.000Z2006-03-03T11:18:47.976Z

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141380492413365502006-03-03T10:08:00.000Z2006-03-03T11:11:51.956Z

This man has a good brief paragraph on what Bates was about. He also intriguingly mentions neuro-linguistic programming and self-hypnosis as ways of improving eyesight. Odd.

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141375904061783642006-03-03T08:51:00.000Z2006-03-03T09:04:46.293Z

A key principle of the Bates method of improving your eyesight is that our eyes are basically lazy. And if we don't make them work they just deteriorate. One way we stop them working is by having lenses with strong prescriptions. Every time I go to the optician I come out depressed. My eyesight has always got worse. It might be just half a diopter, but the optician will always insist that they

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141308977090886472006-03-02T14:04:00.000Z2006-03-02T14:18:44.093Z

I've just ordered two more books off the internet, and I'll report on them when they arrive. They are Aldous Huxley's The Art of Seeing and The Visual Handbook by John Selby. (Neither of them is in print, and the Huxley is very expensive on Amazon, so I went to Abebooks.) Huxley is famous for The Doors of Perception, which was about his experiments with mescalin, and which gave Jim Morrison's

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141297855472791942006-03-02T11:07:00.000Z2006-03-02T11:36:45.333Z

This morning I went for a walk along the beach. For the first time since I was eight I wasn't wearing glasses or contact lenses. I live in Brighton. It's a very clear day. The clearness helps. Even if everybody is a blur I can see obstacles coming. I know some blurs are people. There's a man with a dog. There's someone on rollerblades. He's dangerous: I keep out of his way because I don't know if

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23212455.post-1141215561954678592006-03-01T12:18:00.000Z2006-03-03T17:50:00.333Z

Yesterday I left my job. There are several reasons, but the biggest is that I was scared I was going blind. My eyesight has been deteriorating year after year and I've been getting stronger and stronger prescriptions. There are millions of people who get by with vision that's even worse than mine, but I don't want to be one of them. A month ago a friend of mine, called Cathy, mentioned a book:

Lucy Annnoreply@blogger.com