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Has it really been TWENTY YEARS since I was living in New York and hanging with the radical environmentalists in Central Park?
TWENTY YEARS since I bought this poster only to carry it around the world for the next 3 years before bringing it home and getting it framed?
I can remember the “edginess” of being an environmentalist in 1990. Seriously. It was so NOT mainstream.
Jeez. Way to make a girl feel old.
Earth Day New York 1990
I love Ikea! A quick glimpse inside my boys’ bedroom will attest to that.
And I love Paris!
And, I love Ikea in Paris (where the boys and I had a memorable last meal in Paris a couple of years ago).
So this? THIS just thrills me to bits.
TO BITS, I tell you!!
You know how I was having the perspective dilemma here, well I ended up taking the expensive route.
And OH, how worth it is was!!
Actually, I have taken the VERY expensive route.
1. Multifocal lenses in a new pair of “all the time” glasses.
2. Multifocal lenses in a new pair of sunglasses (yet to come… bank balance has to recover first)
3. “computer glasses” which open my world RIGHT up when I’m sitting in front of my 24″ iMac processing all my photos
…showing arm detail which caused Boo to describe them as “old lady glasses”…
4. Single contact lens for photography jobs.
How on earth am I going to keep all that straight?!
All I know is, that once I put my multifocal glasses on and got behind the wheel of my car, I could not believe how much I had NOT BEEN ABLE TO SEE BEFORE!
I should NOT have been on the road, people. It’s really scary actually, to think how many people are driving blind, or nearly blind, as I was. Tsk tsk.
Anyway, now that I have *gulp* spent my money and opened up a whole new world of sight, I can and probably will, preach to and about those who are still “making do” with out of date prescriptions, or worse, no glasses at all when they really KNOW that they need them.
IT’S WORTH IT!! GET YOUR EYES CHECKED!! You SO won’t regret it!!
PS. All photos taken at my computer with Photo Booth.
PPS. I am NOT nekkid. Hair is covering singlet straps (sheesh!)
My crazy gal-pal Brenda over at Mummytime started a Flog Yo Blog tradition about 5 weeks ago. It’s all about discovering new blogs and making new bloggy friends.
Of course, it’s taken me this long to hop on the band-wagon. Sorry Brenda.
Hop on over to Brenda’s blog and link up to spread the linky-love.
Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…
My photography course is keeping me sane.
I’m absolutely serious.
The timing of this course could not have been better. It’s my escape. It’s my distraction therapy. It’s my creative outlet.
And last week, we students were let loose on the streets of Newtown, with instructions to photograph strangers.
Part of the exercise was to lose our timidity and nervousness when approaching strangers.
And part of it was learning to use the available light .
So, with cameras thrown into Manual mode, and the light fading and then gone, we hit the streets.
I approached everyone and anyone who interested me visually in some way, which completely surprised me! At the beginning of the class, I thought that I would not be able to approach a single soul, but, from somewhere deep within, I found the confidence to stop strangers, and despite receiving a LOT of refusals, did not lose my nerve once.
So… here are some of my street shots…
I feel as though I’m walking towards the right. Slightly. Just enough to make sure that when I try to walk in a straight line, I end up in a circle.
I went to the Optometrist this morning.
It’s been *ahem* SIX, maybe SEVEN years since I’ve had my eyes checked. Things had gotten so bad that I had been using a 20 year old pair of glasses for night driving, a 15 year old pair of glasses for watching the telly, and just being blind as a bat for everything else.
My eyesight has deteriorated rather a lot, which was to be expected.
I’ve always been short-sighted, but now, of course, with the blessings of middle-age, that’s become much worse AND I’ve become rather long-sighted too.
And it’s really effecting me when I’m using my camera. I either have my contact lenses in, which allow me to (partially) see in the distance, but don’t allow me to see the back of my camera for settings etc, or no glasses at all and set my camera eye-piece to compensate for my partial blindness. This works a treat, except that I can’t see WHAT I’m photographing unless I’m looking through the eyepiece.
My rather gorgeous Optometrist suggested that we try wearing just ONE contact lens. For my short-sightedness. And leave my other eye for close-up (I can only JUST get away without needing a prescription for that one too).
He popped the lens in and I promptly walked into the wall.
Partly because I was in shock at being able to see clearly in at least one eye, for the first time in about 4 years.
It does feel odd. But I was able to drive home. And I’m able to sit here at my computer and type this to you (although it’s really quite blurry).
I’m going to trial this for the next week, and then will go and see him again to work out what to do.
This is, by far, the cheaper option. The other options are either contact lenses (x2) for distance and reading glasses for close up (plus prescription sunnies), bi-focal lenses and prescription sunnies, or a pair of glasses for distance and a pair for close up AND a prescription pair of sunnies.
If I can manage with ONE contact lens and non-prescription sunnies I’ll be very happy (and not nearly as poor as any of the other options would make me).
Anyone else using this method of sight-management?
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I’m still angry. But I’m not thinking about it quite as much as I was before.
Every day gives me a little more much-needed distance.
Thank you SO much for your amazing support. You guys are helping me maintain my sanity during this awful awful time.
Brenda is one of the funniest, wittiest, cleverest bloggers on the internets. And today, after months of chatting and a couple of weeks of planning, we met up and had lunch together.
And we laughed and cried. Seriously! And made plans to take over the world together! (Well, maybe not so much of the last bit, but HEAPS of the laughing and a tiny bit of the crying.)
And I feel as though I have made a lovely new friend.
As I’m sure pretty much the whole bloggy-world knows already, the incredible Martin (XBox4NappyRash) and his wife ET had a beautiful baby girl named Sanne last week. They’ve been struggling to conceive for a LONG time, and the WHOLE of their faithful internets followers have been leaping with joy at this exciting news!
Dan, over at All That Comes With It, compiled this celebratory video to help us all do just that. Be sure to check out the dorks 3mins and 56secs into it!
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I know things have been pretty silent here lately. I’m not sure what’s stopping me from documenting this latest lead-up to a family court mediation, but something sure is.
Toto is not coping very well with it all. Well, to be honest, none of us is, but he’s the one who seems most demonstrably upset. Then again, that could well be puberty talking.
DH has told the boys… yes TOLD the boys… that he will be having them during the week very soon. Both boys are incredibly distressed by this, as they want to actually take away the Sunday nights that they spend with him. It’s mainly to do with having to be organised for school on Monday, but also has a lot to do with DH’s temper when stressed out by mundane parenting acts such as ensuring that homework is finished and uniforms are on and breakfast is had and lunch is ready.
The boys meet with their own lawyer again next week, and both are going to tell her exactly what they want, and what they don’t want.
Hopefully this time she’ll take more notice of that.
I’m incredibly anxious about it all. Debilitatingly anxious if I’m to be honest. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but my experiences so far have been so negative that I’m having trouble maintaining my optimism.
Still, I know that we’ll survive, whatever the outcome.
I’m just pretty sure that we won’t be able to agree on anything at this mediation, and will therefore be heading back to Family Court for another expensive and devastating hearing. (insert sound of sanity and money flying out the window here)
… jiggity jig.
…………………… and despite a couple of sunburned shoulders (mine), all is well.
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Toto and Boo both went back to school this morning.
Boo could barely contain his excitement at seeing his friends again.
Toto could barely contain his anxiety at the prospect of a change of teachers, classrooms and being away from me.
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Missed you all. The 800+ posts in my Google Reader are quite daunting. Please understand if my commenting is a bit on the slow side.
It’s good to be back.
xoxo
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