| 100 in 1000 |
- Spend a week up a mountain learning to ski
- Visit Karoline's place in Moravia
Hold a conversation in Czech (only)- Drink 500ml of each of the following beers:
PilsnerStaroprammen- Budvar
- Velke Popovice
- U Fleku
GambrinusKrusovice
Respond to at least one GOARN request (WHO and MSF are
also acceptable)Travel across the AtlanticReturn to South America- Read a book to, or with, an impressionably aged child
- Participate in one NanoWriMo Challenge and come within at least 10,000 words of the goal length
Have my nose pierced- Have my next tattoo drawn
Purchase the perfect jeans (x 2 pairs)- Attend a spin class 3 times a week for 8 consecutive weeks
- Bake Viv's cheesecake
Make David's casserole Make David's Chicken Cashew-nut StirfryInvite 4 people who don't know one another too well to dinner- Ride from Vienna to Venice on a motorbike (pillion acceptable, those less desirable)
- Attend a book group for at least two books
- Go on a choir weekend (learn and perform difficult piece in two/three days)
- Visit Madame Tussaud's (in London)
- Take an architecture appreciation course
Join an all-girl group and sing a soloPublish in a scientific journal (top two authors)Cook a duck or other 'waterfowl'. Locate the Al-Timimi's from Doha Veterinary PractiseHave a pedicureMaintain a Brazilian (ouch) for three months.Find a trustworthy Czech hairdresser- Treat my inner-6-year-old twice a week (at least)
- Do the liver-cleansing diet properly (12 weeks)
- Don't eat out for one month
Find a flat and flatmate- Purchase one Joseph sweater
- Purchase one of the following pairs of
designer shoes (they MUST also be COMFORTABLE, and be able to be worn with 4
different outfits and 2 types of occasion): Jimmy Choos, Manolo Blahniks,
Christian Louboutin (Ebay or 2nd hand are acceptable)
- Send 5 books to the booksphere and track them.
- Go hanggliding
- Read 10 'classic' books (from 1001 Books to Read before you Die)
Moll FlandersEverything is illuminatedMadam BovaryZen & the Art of Motorcycle MaintainanceCatch-22OdysseusOn the Road
- Run (non-stop!) for 5kms outside (preferably in a street race thingy)
- Send Christmas Cards on time
Make a collage/mural out of street lights on my wallBuy a bed, build it, and sleep soundly in itGo to AfricaHost an 'event' (classified as and when)Organise a 30th Birthday PartyWear a costume- Sing on stage
- Buy a painting that evokes memories of Prague (cannot involve queues!)
Learn a god-damned card game that stays in my memory (other than fish/snap)See sunrise. Be sober. Have woken for it. Excludes months Nov-Mar- Take a walk and flip coins at each intersection
Win something- Draft a will
- Take a roadtrip
Go to Italy already- Sea Kayak around Abel Tasman Park (NZ)
Get plantsTake a train to another Eastern European Destination (accession countries are acceptable) alone preferably.- Get UK to give me a provisional motorcyclists license and simultaneously get a 'card' license.
- Go SCUBA diving again - at least two dives lasting 30mins each.
Go to a dentist. *sigh*- Do a Czech Wine Trail. And live to tell the tale
- Make an 'outbreak emergency kit'.
- Go to bed prior to 11pm every night (inc weekends) for four consecutive weeks.
- Marvel over lack of tiredness
- Dine at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant (or Nobu)- preferably for free.
Bet on the nags- Do something for charity (applying and getting a 'red card' will count)
- Walk along the Champs Elysee
- Do 100 sit ups in a row
- Do 50 pressups (arms in tight)
- Make branston pickle (or nearest substitute)
- Cook something 'new' and 'adventurous' at least once a month
Find a mentorBe a mentorLearn what mentoring is all aboutMeet an online person in real lifeResist the flirt. Once. Just one night. It's okay if people don't immediately succumb to my natural charm. Really it is.Spend time at a spa (spa towns in the CR don't count)- Send a care package to someone
Get a Tata Bojs CD- Take a French/German/Dutch course and SPEAK THE DAMNED LANGUAGE WHEN I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY EVEN THOUGH IT MAKES ME SOUND
LIKE AN IDIOT!
- Order new contact lenses.
Make a list of things I take with me when I pack for different occasions- Eat lobster. Prepared by someone else.
Back up the blogPut everything onto an external hard drive- Find a DDR mat and console and 'dance, I say dance!'�
- Go to the beach and lie on the warm sand. For an hour. (with sunscreen on, natch)
- Take and complete a course in either: Tango, Salsa or Flamenco
- Join the Municipal Library of Prague
- Move to another country
Go to a live concert of a band I actually like- Pay off debts (student loan excl.)
Send thank you cards for every gift I receive (other than the gift of happiness, blah blah blah).- Get an agent (literary or theatre)
- Go to a sports bar without cringing, by personal choice
- Ride a rollercoaster
- Hold a snake
Spend a day wandering around a museum (not art gallery!) |
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| Fuch me: I'm blind! |
| Monday 4 February 2008 |
 WAY back when, in 1995, I was told by my (then) optician that there were some weird things in my eyes, and could I please get myself to an opthamologist poste haste.
He informed me (months later), that I had Fuchs heterochromatin iritis. A phrase that means the same as Fuchs endothelial dystrophy. I've written about it before - if you've been paying attention!
Essentially, my left eye is screwed. And since this is a hereditary condition affecting approximately 1% of the population, I feel special – albeit slightly blighted (or is that sightly blighted – ha ha).
Without trawling you through all the medical facts, it’s like having a dirty windscreen (permanently) in my left eye. There’s no nozzles that can spray it clear, no windscreen wipers to turn on instead of indicators…nada. Oh, no – hang on, there is one solution. A corneal transplant. A touch dramatic, no?
So I’ve only got this thing in one eye (the left – seemingly the side I inherited from Mamma, if my eyebrows are anything to go by) and other than a mosquito shaped ‘occlusion’ permanently in my field of vision (if I concentrate on it, I can make it jump around…though it may just be my eyeball revolving around it. Hot? Yeah, thought so!) I’m not really affected by it.
But lately, it’s gotten so I can be standing on the CORNER of the street, looking up at the street sign no more than 6m away, and I can’t read it. And THAT’S ridiculous (not to mention annoying). So off I went to an optician.
Who examined my eyes up close and decreed that she loved my eye makeup. Then she put those big googly eyed glasses on my face, and did the 1,2 test with the right eye. No biggie, same prescription as before. Left eye.
“Okay, now read the top line for me please, Dr Boxall.”
“er?”
“The top line”
“No, I mean, are there letters on the board?”
“oh. Well, perhaps try the top line of this screen.”
“A pointy letter. A round letter. A round letter?”
“Right….”
“Now, can you see dots?”
“I can see the four in the middle, but the other ones are blurred.”
“Okay, um…are they blurrier now…or now?”
“Well…they appear in different patterns each time…but no more or less blurred…”
“I think I’m going to have to refer you.”
“Really?” panic creeps
“Lets try this…” (rinse and repeat x 5 then…)
“Oh my god…I can see!”
“Really?”
“Yes. All the dots. Clearly. What did you do?”
“hmm…is it better now? Or now?”
“Then.”
“And now?”
“Yes.”
“And now 1 or 2?”
“The same.”
“Okay. Well…your previous prescription was well out. You used to be shortsighted. Now you’re long sighted. And your astigmatism has worsened three-fold. When you get your new lenses, it’s going to be a bit of a shock to the system, I can change you in stages if you’d rather not feel the discomfort.”
“Hell no. I can see. It’s joyful!”
Well honestly. In less than 8months, my eyes have changed from -0.5 (I’m not really blind at all), to +0.75.
Now do forgive any typos, but clearly, I can’t read as well as I will be able to in a few weeks…Labels: Navel Gazing |
posted by Nomes @ Monday, February 04, 2008   |
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| 4 Comments: |
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Me and my -6.5 eyes aren't talking to you.
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Hi GNomes,
So you had to go and try and do one better than your parents huh? Well just see (oops) what you get for your pains. Mind you, I can honestly say, from my great wealth of 27 years of experience, you don't need your left eye all that much. Other than constantly sporting bruises on my left side I've pretty much done as I please.
And it's an excellent excuse for not doing the housework - cobewebs? I haven't seen those in corners for all 27 years. Now that they've really fixed my right eye I can see them again - dammit!
Amazing the gift of sight isn't it? But I've always thought that I'd suffer more loss if my hearing went - imagine not being able to have conversations - rather like your Father, who is - I'm sure - getting deafer (or is that dafter) and even more selective as he gets older.
Glad you'll get your specs soon but I hate to tell you, the last time you had your eyes checked, if that was in Ipswich where all five of us traipsed in with you on the Monday after Mother's 80th do, was 17 months ago...... I know old age is starting to trip you up too (tee hee).
Really looking forward to your arrival. We'll blow up the lilo so that you can laze in (on?) the pool to your heart's content.
Love, Mamma
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Dear Nomes,
Well, glad you got that solved. Think of all the ways you will see the world differently now :)
Love that the blog is back.
All is good here in Toronto - we just got our umpteenth snowfall here - so looks pretty, but it's cold!!
love, Marisa
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-0.5 to +0.75 puh! Sure you've practically perfect vision. Poor me and my -5.5 and -6.0 eyes and a pretty bad astigmatism in my left eye to add to the mix!
Remember the time we stayed in paraparaumu during the G&S musical and I stupidly took out my contats before locating my glasses??? Oh dear!
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Me and my -6.5 eyes aren't talking to you.