bitful

Today's Italian phrase is

Ho comprato gli occhiali su internet
(I bought my spectacles online)
Literally: 'Have bought the spectacles on internet'.

I'm shortsighted, I hate wearing glasses (I generally can't stand anything on me: rings, wristbands, watches, sunglasses…) so I usually keep a crap pair at home to put on last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

I would not be seen dead in them, and yet I need to have some, just in case. Of course the tatty old pair I had decided to snapin two just before going on holiday last August. That is why when a fire alarm woke us up one morning in our New York hotel room I had to walk down all 44 flights of stairs of the Hilton Times Square and stand in the street wearing little more than geek spectacles bound together by a plaster. Charming.

It's not that I can't afford new glasses, but I simply refuse to spend hundred of pounds for something I wear around twenty minutes a day. The broken ones were free from the NHS when I was unemployed all those years ago.

Then one day I saw a big ad in the tube for glassesdirect.co.uk. I selected a 15 pound frame, entered the results of the eye test I'd just taken(free because I'm over forty and my mother suffers from glaucoma), paid 18 pound 75 pence and a few days later my glasses arrived and they fit perfectly. If they hadn't, I would have been able to return them free of charge. Oh, and the standard clear correction lenses were free (tinted, graduated, sun-reactive are a little extra). And they threw in a piece of candy that looked like a huge eyeball.

You can also select some frames, pay 3 pound 75 to have them delivered at home with blank lenses so you can try them on, then send them back for free and order one of them with your prescription lenses.

Also, you can upload your photo and virtually try the frames, and enter the measurements of your current pair to be shown all those that match.

I don't know and don't care what their business model is. It just works for me.

If you are reading this from the US, this excellent article at 43folders.com (Adventures in $40 eyeglasses) has several links and tips to buy your glasses online.

Compra anche tu gli occhiali su internet!
(Buy your spectacles online too!)
Literally: Buy also you the spectacles on internet!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 7:03 am and last modified on January 4th, 2008 at 7:41 pm, and is filed under italian, personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.