This isn’t easy. I’ve worn glasses since I was seven  except for the few years my astigmatism  took a break and for another few years when  it was happily masked by contact lenses.   I  soon needed readers in order to work so, one way or another, spectacles have been a glassy outcrop on my face for most of my life  and  taking them for granted  has been  the habit of a lifetime.

A few weeks ago  I decided my sight was fading.  I’d  put my glasses on and there was a mist I had to frown to by-pass.   I made an appointment with the optometrist to have my prescription checked.   My vision, she  calculated, had  improved.  My readers and the glasses I use when I’m not wearing contacts were disgusting. Not only dirty, even though I’d given them a good clean on my sleeve, but scratched to the point of insanity. She  assumed  that smile that psychiatrists  wear when they say ‘ no, murder isn’t normal’.My eyes were in remarkably good order considering,  but  she  couldn’t stress enough the need for proper maintenance.  I pass  on  her advice  in case you’re wondering about your own sight.

Don’t clean your glasses  on your sleeve.  Don’t use kitchen towel or undampened tissue. Dont use household cleaner. Don’t run them under a hot tap. Don’t touch the lens with your fingers. Don’t lay  your glasses  lens down on a hard surface. Don’t dump  your  glasses  in your bag with your phone and keys. Don’t leave them in direct sunlight, so not on the dashboard.  Don’t wear them on top of your head. Just about everything scratches them so if they’re not  on your face  they should be in  their case. You clean them using a circular motion with the microfibre cloth and special lens cleaner they should have come   with or you can  breathe on them and clean them with a slightly moistened cotton cloth, always provided you can a) find them and b)  see the dirt.