I Spy ...

After a long-awaited, er, wait and much, much stress, I awoke today ready to head into the city for my initial laser eye surgery consultation. Why was I stressing, you ask? Well. The appointment was in Manly, which is north of Sydney. I live a fair way away from there. I drive, so that's not so bad, no? Except that it's one heck of a drive and I? I am not the calmest driver at the best of times.

Luckily for me, I convinced a workmate to come along for the drive. She had two roles; give me directions, and stop me from getting so panicked that I would crash my car into any oncoming traffic. I'm happy to inform you that she succeeded with both of those endeavours. We're alive and kicking, hoorah!

We followed directions from an internet print-out which ended up getting us totally lost; we drove across the Sydney Harbour Bridge twice (!) and eventually found our way after a driving time of 90 minutes. Did some "Thank God we're still alive" eating and shopping, wandered around a couple of malls, and eventually found the Eye Clinic. It was a gorgeous place, very relaxed and modern. I was called in after only waiting five minutes.

I started off with a lady, who measured my eyes and did the little puff-of-air test in each. Then I had to do a general optical exam with the letter/number/colour chart where she tested my prescription. Then she tested the moisture levels of my eyes (which are pretty dry, she informed me afterwards). Fast forward twenty minutes to some more measuring, after which she placed some stinging eye drops in and asked me to wait outside for 15 minutes to let the effects kick in.

I wandered back outside to sit with my friend, who kept on sneaking weird glances at me. Turns out the eye drops were to dilate the eyes, so my pupils were ginormous! She laughed, told me that I looked like I was on drugs, and we both agreed it would be best if we weren't pulled over by any police cars on the way home.

Fast forward again to even more tests and measurements, and that was it - I am a successful candidate for laser eye surgery! Next step will be checking some dates with Jase and my Dad (aka: The taxi drivers) and booking in the surgery.

I'm currently left with hugely dilated pupils that make me look as though I've been experimenting with all kinds of drugs, and one heck of a headache from squinting in the sunshine all the way home. But I'm also hugely satisified in the fact that I sort of know how to drive to Manly now, coming home only took 55 minutes. Squee!

I will be glasses and contact lens free in no time! (And also hugely poor, but that is absolutely not the point right now.) *shimmies*