“What we do in our family,” confides Eric as he combs my thinning strands of hair over his two-sided comb with that typical modern with-it flicking motion, “is to get my mother to take our eye-test scripts with her to Thailand when she goes back there on holiday.”
He steadies my head and tilts it to the vertical, as he examines his handiwork, then continues snipping, “It’s like a quarter of the price we are expected to pay here in Wellington, you know. Them and dentists, that’s the sort of profession you want to be in, not something like hair-dressing.”
I glance up in the mirror and am comforted by the sign which reads “cut – $29 ; over 65 – $24”. My superannuation card in my wallet ensures that I will benefit from their rates…
Mind you, I also got a 15% reduction in price for my eye tests, but that simply reduced a shocking amount due and payable, down to an equally shocking $879.30 In SA Rands that’s approximately R7,300 for two pairs of spectacles; one for short distance vision (such as in shops, a cinema or TV) and another for reading and using the computer.
The lenses are apparently cut in Sydney, Aus and then they fly them to Auckland to be fitted into my existing frames. After the anticipated 10-day wait, I find that the short distance ones are ready and waiting for collection. Somebody, ahem somebody has mushed the reading lenses, and Sydney gets a request to re-do them.
Another anticipated ten days’ wait. I really hope that the new ones will improve my vision. Perhaps a better quality of blog as well?
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