Thursday, December 24, 2009

Happy Christmas!

Here's a nice hot picture to warm you up in this chilly weather - consider it my virtual Christmas present! Not that it's that bad, weather-wise, here at the moment. Thank the Lord. I do so hate ice. At least today, we've just got the rain - though other parts of the country are still having horrendous difficulties.

And it's great to finally be on holiday as the University doesn't open again till 4 January. Is it just me or has December lasted at least 3 months by now? At least the general slowness of time has meant I've been able to get on with writing stuff fairly well. I've now gone through all the minor edits for The Gifting and have only the more major items and a good read-through to tackle. Something to get my teeth into soon, I hope. Other fun writing news is that for a while The Bones of Summer was No 5 in the Amazon UK gay romance charts and I was so astonished that I nearly fell over my own jaw. Or would have done but really my head was way too huge anyway by that time. I'm also happy to say that I've received the final version of A Stranger's Touch from the publisher and I'm really happy with the way it is now. Good editors are utter gold dust, I can tell you.

Meanwhile, I've picked up my new glasses. Um, I don't really like them. Sadly. And it's been making me rather tearful today - though that may be to do with the fact of Christmas as well. I get very shaky at Christmas. I need to put the whole concept out of my head and just think of it as a nice holiday with Lord H and all manner of thing shall be well. As Julian of Norwich would put it. Gawd bless her. Anyway, the glasses are weird - they're variefocal, like my old ones, but the reading gap seems excessively small so I have to keep moving my head or the book to fit all the words on a normal sized page in. Plus the area at the right of my right lens is really rather hazy. Should it be like that?? Plus they're hopeless for the computer, as the distance is too far away for the reading area of the lens (and anyway it's not in the right position), and too near for the distance area to kick in. I'm wearing my old glasses to type this. I think I'll give the new ones a week at home to see if anything changes, plus a week at work and then book another optician's appointment to see if anything can be done. But the thought of spending even more money on them is making me very cross and upset, sigh. I asked Lord H earlier what he'd do if I couldn't see to read or write any more - and he very sweetly said he'd read to me and would take dictation, though he'd have to shut his eyes when it came to typing up my rude stuff. Could be interesting ... Especially as he doesn't touch-type. Ah well. Still, he remains, as always, this year's super-hero.

Anyway, enough moaning from me. I hope you all have a very happy Christmas, and I'll catch up with you soon. Though you might look a bit fuzzy, depending on my specs. Happy Christmas!

Anne's website - going for the impressionistic look ...

9 comments:

Cathy said...

Happy Christmas to you and Lord H.
Cx

Anne Brooke said...

Thanks, Cathy - hope you & the family have a good one too. Loads of love & hugs

Axxxxxxxxxx

Nik Perring said...

Happy xmas!

Nik X

Anne Brooke said...

You too, Nik! Axxx

Megan said...

Merry Christmas Anne. Wishing you and Lord H a wonderful, peaceful time together
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anne Brooke said...

Thanks, Megan - hope your Christmas is marvellous too! :)) Axxx

Jilly said...

Happy Christmas Anne! Just swivelling my eyes about my vaifocals and mine seem to be fuzzy at the sides as well. I think you can get ones with different layouts, as it were. I find the middle bit of mine is ok for the computer provided I sit at the right distance. I find it better to have a separate pair of reading glasses for reading in bed - though sitting in a chair and reading is fine with varifocals. I hope you get them sorted soon. I think you can usually try varifocals for a while and if you don't get on with them they'll usually change them without much if any cost.

Vicki said...

Happy Holidays, Anne!

And well done on the Amazon rankings. :)

If I were you, I'd take your glasses back to the optician and talk to them about your woes. I only wear glasses for the computer and the last time I got new glasses, the screen looked warped through them! They retested my eyes and replaced the lens at no charge. If your optician wants to keep your business, I'm sure he'll do the same for you.

Anne Brooke said...

Thanks, Jilly & Vicki - I'm going to ring next week and see if they can fit me in sometime! :)) Axxx