After all the excitement of supporting England, it all came to a disastrous end yesterday. The England team lost quite badly yesterday against Germany at a score of 4-1.
So, I now have to choose another team to supportJ. It does not take long for me to change sides. Some of the favourite teams are Argentina, Brazil, Holland (who have not lost even one match so far) and Germany.
I was deciding between Brazil and Argentina, but I made up my mind to support Brazil.
This time while I was in Bangalore, I got my eyes tested. I wanted to get it tested here, but always kept pushing it. Finally, when I was walking around in Commercial Street, trying to find a pair of sunglasses for my husband whose luggage was misplaced– courtesy British Airways, I spotted a vision express and decided to get my eyes tested. I was 100 % sure that I will come out of there with a prescription for a pair of glasses and that’s exactly what happened. A week later, just a couple of days before I was to come back to London, I got my new glasses and actually, I could see much better. Initially, I though I did not have a problem with my eyes, but the glasses made realise that I did have a problem (clearly- I was being stupid). I was prescribed a distance vision of -1.75 for left eye and -1.5 for the right eye.
After coming back to London, I used them everyday and then got so used to them and found that I wanted them all the time. I was not able to use my sunglasses as much as I wanted to (considering Sunshine rare here) I could not benefit from both proper vision and sunglasses, as I could not use them together. Some of my friends recommended that I get a photo-chromic glass which reacts to the light. Somehow, the idea of just sticking to one pair of sunglasses and not being able to use my own sunglasses did not go down too well… so I decided I needed contact lenses. Therefore, booked an appointment for getting contacts.. I was told; I needed to get a new eye test for it, after which there would be more tests for contact lens fitting. They also told me, the whole process is going to take 2 hours, I was a bit worried as to what are they going to do with me for 2 hours!
Went to specsavers(store) this Saturday, got my eye test. I was told I had more power when compared to the tests that was done in India, so I was prescribed to wear -2.25 left eye and -1.75 right eye. I was a bit worried as it had only been 2 months since my first test. Anyways, I have to trust someone, so I had to spend some more money and get a new pair of glasses. Then came the contact lens fit time, underwent some more tests, looked in to strange machines, the doctor looked through my eyes with some strange pen like things with lights coming off them etc. After about 20 minutes, the doctor said, my contact lens power is different from the specs power. Its -2.00 for the left and -1.5 for the right and by this stage, I was confused as to what is going on? The doctor addressed my concern, by saying that this is quite common and used some medical terms that went well above my head. He placed the contact lens in my eye; it was more comfortable than I thought its going to be. Then came the fun part.
He sent me to another lady who gave me a session of the do’s and don’ts of contact lens world. She even taught me how to put them on and take them off, she got me to do it myself twice, I was quite happy that I could do it. I was actually dreading the whole idea of placing something in my eye, with the eye wide open. It’s a weird experience, but it’s easy with some practice. I had seen some of my friends do it, and I used to wonder how they do it with such ease and will I ever be able to do something like that?
They sent me off, with contact lenses in my eyes and gave me about 5 pairs of lenses to try. I went home, went to play tennis, and had them on for about 5 hours. I had some trouble taking of the lenses off my eye as it was the first time I was doing it all by myself. On Sunday, I wore them all day, had slight trouble getting them on, as the lenses would not stick to my eye at all. In the end, somehow got them on.. and got them off before going to sleep. I was chuffed :)
I kind of liked the idea of contact lenses, and also the idea of wearing glasses to work. Thoroughly confused - Now I have to decide how often do I want to wear them? Do I want to wear glasses to work? Do I want contact lenses? Do I need contact lenses for leisure or everyday use? Do I go for monthly/daily/yearly? Don’t know the answers to all questions yet, but that’s probably why they have sent me off with some lenses to try and see how I feel with them.
One of our good friends(lets call them Y&S) are leaving the UK for good and moving back to Bangalore.. and a few of us wanted to do something special for them, that they could remember for ever… So we decided, as a complete surprise, we shall take them to dinner to a restaurant in Central London in a white stretch Limousine.
As always, I was given the task of organising the event. I went away and contacted a number of limo provides for quotes. First we wanted to get a Hummer Stretch Limo, but figured that its too expensive and also too big for 8 people. So, we finally settled for a normal white stretch limo.
There was a bit of confusion as to how we actually invite the couple without letting them know what we plan to do. As they have kids, they need advance notice unlike us, who can get ready in a jiffy. In the end, we managed it somehow and they were ready at 6.45 PM. They were pleasantly surprised, when they say a stretch limo outside their door, ready to take them for a ride.
The interiors of the limo was fantastic. They had wine and champagne glasses everywhere. There were dim inset sparkly lights inside, nice steel interiors and leather seats. We were 8 adults and 2 kids and not once before this we had been together in one vehicle. We normally need 2 or sometimes 3 cars to comfortably fit all of us. It was a great experience, all of us in one car, drinking and chatting away..
It was a great evening out that all of us will remember..
I have been taken out of my original role and been deputed to a new project. The project office is based in a new location and I am really excited to be a part of both the team and the office. London is a very old city and therefore there are very less sky scrapers. A number of buildings are listed and therefore cannot be destroyed or externally modified.
The highlight of the new office space is that it has about 33 floors.. And although we are on the 12th floor we have some great views. This is the first time I am actually working in such massive building. I get cheap thrills like that J
The best part of this office is that we don’t have many phones yet, which means no one can contact me easily. I am left all by myself to do some work without disturbance, which is fantastic. I am a big fan of natural light and clear glass windows, and the office has a lot of both. It’s also closer to home than my old office; it’s a 20 minute train journey which is a luxury by London standards.
All in all, the choice of moving from my original role to the new role, worked out really well from all aspects so far.
