Get ready for a new face

Where has my leisure gone? The time to do anything? (Like blogging)

I returned from holiday on the 4th October, and will depart again in a week's time. In between I seem to have done nothing except catch up on almost four weeks' washing and ironing, processing and publishing a boatload of holiday photos, meeting friends not seen for a while, and attending a series of necessary appointments.

Here's the full list up to the end of this week:

5th  Pilates; then a long lunch with friends (called them the A Team).
6th  Evening meal with friends at a bistro (the B Team).
8th  Beauty salon (electrolysis); evening meal and cards with friends (the C Team).
9th  Evening meal with friends at a bistro (The D Team).
10th  Optician: eye test.
11th  Hair salon: cut and blow-dry.
12th  Dentist: check-up (all OK); pilates; then a long lunch with friends (The A Team again).
13th  Winter flu jab; evening quiz plus meal with friends at a village hall (The E Team).
15th  Beauty salon (electrolysis); evening meal and cards with friends (The C Team again).
16th  Volvo dealer: two new front tyres to be fitted, and new wipers all round.
17th  Optician: precise fitting of new glasses.
18th  All day far from home, seeing a friend (The F Team).
19th  Pilates; then a long lunch with friends (The A Team yet again); evening quiz plus meal with friends at the golf club (The G Team).

There are other friends or groupings of friends - call them the H, I and J Teams - that I would have liked to see, but couldn't fit in. Such as my friend Emma and cousin Rosemary, both in Kent.

That's a lot of socialising and medical stuff. And there's more; I had to stay in for a couple of deliveries ordered from Amazon. And I've been devoting time to walking around the village and elsewhere to ensure that I get in my 10,000 steps a day. Thank goodness I gave up attending Slimming World. Thank goodness I'm not addicted to watching TV.

I'm sure there are much busier people, but I feel quite busy enough!

And there's even more. I long to wash my caravan down - it's a bit grimy from its West Country tour. I need to mow my lawns front and rear. I need to do some weeding, bush trimming and lawn edging. I need to lop a third off the height of my long rear hedge... I don't think much of this is going to get done before I depart for South Wales and then the New Forest. Oh well, hey ho.

One thing I've done may prove controversial. That eye test revealed that my existing lenses won't do any longer. Both eyes have become more long-sighted since the last eye test in January 2016. The difference, as demonstrated on Specsavers' amazing computerised machines, was marked. I've been compensating. I really need new lenses.

And new frames. Sadly, the gold metal frames I've been using for a very long time are no longer fashionable (if they ever were) and I can't get an exact replacement, either at Specsavers nor anywhere else. I haven't needed to pay more, but I've had to go for something quite different in frame style and colour.

I'm satisfied that I won't look daft in them, and that they will certainly be modern and trendy; but I will not look the same as I used to. New glasses can greatly alter one's facial appearance: I think this will shortly be true of me.

As you can see already from my list of appointments and meetups above, I will collect these new glasses on Wednesday 17th, and from that moment I will step out in the world as a new and unfamiliar woman. A bit like the new Dr Who. Alice (whom I see next day) will be the first friend with the opportunity to pass judgement. I hope she isn't overcome with shock and dismay. I hope she'll commend my choice. I hope the new glasses are a wow at whatever place we lunch at. But I'm not really sure what other people will think. I may of course obtain an immediate verdict at Waitrose, and then at the butchers, before I drive home. If the people who know me there goggle, and are lost for words, then I'll know the worst.

I wish I could supply a sneak preview, but (can you believe it?) I forgot to take a selfie while wearing the demo frames at Specsavers last week. Fancy forgetting to do that! Not at all like the usual me! I must have been in a right tizz. So everyone must await the first shots, later on the day of collection.