Despite two of my friends thinking them fab, I am going to take them back to Specsavers straight away and choose another pair.
Here's why. Look at this series of paired pictures. The shot on the right - the best of several taken today wearing the new glasses - is the same in each, while the left shot is me in the old glasses, on different occasions within the last month. Try to imagine how each shot in the old glasses would look if I were wearing the new ones instead.
It doesn't work. The new glasses can't lend softness and approachability to my face. They are too definite, too assertive, too challenging. They are the glasses of someone who wants to be boss. I'm simply not like that.
I now think I should have gone for these glasses instead, which I didn't see in the shop, but are on Specsavers' website.
So far as I can see, these are exactly the same as my old glasses, but in silver and pink instead of gold. I'd prefer gold frames, but they just aren't available any more. Silver with a hint of pink will do fine. Silver will match my jewellery. And these other frames won't dominate my face, nor put off anybody who wants to strike up a pleasant conversation with me.
Will Specsavers play ball and just let me re-order without additional cost? They might. In fact I've an idea that they are bound to, if the frames are in some way unsuitable and the customer is willing to have a substitute they prefer. They did it once before, in 2013. I hope they do so again now, without fuss.
I go on holiday very shortly, and can't leave this in abeyance for a couple of weeks. I'd best act tomorrow. So I'll be at Specsavers first thing, before going off for the day to see friend Alice, who won't now have a chance to see me with Dragons' Den specs on.
I dare say Jackie and Jo will wonder what on earth was going on in my mind, and may think me perverse; but it's my face, and that's the end of it.
I was back at Specsavers just after 9.00am, explained why I didn't like my new glasses, and said I'd like to have different frames, and would pay the difference if those were more expensive. There was no quibbling about having something else. And I didn't have anything more to pay.
Ideally I wanted glasses with gold metal frames, similar to what I had now. Gold frames suited my hair colour and complexion, and did not dominate my face. The nice girl who dealt with me went to some trouble, and came up with two examples of thin gold frames she thought I might like. You couldn't say they were oval like my present frames - they were square rather than oval - and I wondered whether having a decidedly less girly look was a good idea. But otherwise both frames ticked my personal boxes. One of them was a particularly light and comfortable fit, and I went for that one. They'll be ready for me when I get back from holiday: I made an appointment for 6th November.
I can't quite fathom why I'm finding it harder than usual to make a choice. But it's a fact that none of the frames I've viewed on the Internet, or examined in the shop, have made me very excited. Perhaps if I'd done this months ago, there would have been more frames around matching my notions of what looks right.
Well, I've settled on frames that are similar to what I now have, and so they ought to be perfectly suitable. I took a quick shot in the shop of what I looked like in the new specs:
They looked OK. But whether I'll love them the same as my old ones is impossible to say at this point. At least when you look at my face you see me, and not just a pair of glasses.
I will now go away on holiday, and come to them afresh on the 6th November.
