As luck would have it, about half an hour after posting the previous message, I had a phone call to say that my glasses had arrived. Just been to the opticians, and I have to say that it's a strange experience wearing varifocals for the first time. I'm having to keep my head horizontal and look down at my laptop screen to get it in focus, rather than looking directly at it as I normally would, but I'm sure I'll get used to it in a few days.
The big "winner" for me is my middle distance vision. My long-distance vision had remained constant for about 6 years, but my close-up and middle-distance vision had changed quite considerably, and although, being short sighted, I could read simply by taking my glasses off, I was really struggling with things at a distance of a couple of metres, such as the TV. These varifocals should allow me to actually see the programmes again, rather than it all being a bit of a blur

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