I was rooting around in a drawer last night and found an old pair of glasses.

They must be about twenty years old and I rarely wore them as they were heavily tinted sunglasses, and sunglasses are not exactly on daily demand in a place like Ireland. I only wore them one year when in France and then they were put away and forgotten. As sunglasses went, they were brilliant as they had prescription varifocal lenses. I got them as a free yoke with my main glasses.

The years passed. I had various adventures with my eyesight and went through many visits to opticians and ophthalmologists. I also got through more than one new pair of spectacles, but haven’t had a new pair recently. My current ones are six or seven years old, and things are beginning to get fuzzy.

Back to the glasses I found last night.

Just for the laugh I put them on. Okay, the room suddenly looked a good bit darker but my eyes adjusted. The main thing I noticed though was that I could see things clear as crystal. They were much better that my daily yokes. Brilliant! Herself didn’t like them on me though. She said I looked stupid wearing sunglasses in a dimly lit room watching television. I pointed out that Bono somehow got away with it. She pointed out that I don’t like Bono. Damn! She won that one.

I’m back to my usual pair at the moment so the screen is back to being fuzzy. Sadly the sunglasses hurt my nose so I can’t wear them for very long.

I think I’ll wear them on Monday though. I’ll nip down to the Post Office with a mask over my face, my hat pulled down at the front and with just my sunglasses on show. It will be interesting to see if they shit themselves?

I’m taking delivery next week of a new pair of spectacles [note to the Gardaí – I’ll be breaking the 5Km limit for the umpteenth time] so I won’t need the sunglasses any more.

But I’ll keep them just in case?