I’m really enjoying buying my glasses online, because up until the net optician appeared on the scene I had a very expensive hobby – buying new prescription lenses because I kept scratching the ******* things!!! I just hope that some of you out there have done it and it’s not just me…….

When I was little my specs were changed every six months, so they were the type of NHS specials that Jarvis Cocker would kill for. I was before my time with the Jack Duckworth look due to the permanent lumps of very sticky plaster holding the arms on. Lenses were not anti-scratch then, and it showed! I gouged them on twigs in the garden, by using them to dig my favourite car out of the sandpit, (oops!) on the pavement when I fell over in them, and on the zip of my Mum’s cardie.

I put them in my cricket bag with a matchbox, my school bag with a metal ruler, and then the spare pair got wrecked after our holiday in the box with the shells I’d collected. I also discovered that if you try and remove the scratches with your Mum’s nail file it really doesn’t help…..

Nowadays I have a scratch resistant layer on my glasses. Please note the word resistant – it doesn’t help if you put your car keys in your pocket with them, or your dog runs off with them and his little puppy teeth find them soothing to chew. It helps with everyday wear and tear though, and now I’m shopping at the online optician I don’t have the expense or the embarrassment!