Its an ageing thing and soooooooooooooooo annoying, not that ageing is annoying, but not being able to see!!!! I am short sighted, so I can still see things without my glasses without having to extend my arm ( that classic move) but I DO have that problem when I am in my regular glasses and I brilliantly left my new reading glasses in the US ( was it a subconcious move to reject having to use them???) that would have let me read up close without problems. So I have to take off my glasses to read hard copy and on for the computer. Grumble.

Hi Olivia

Are you not entitled to NHS support and all? As a student I would expect you are, in which case I assume you could get new glasses for a fair price ( - I'm not 100% sure though). If I were you I'd have my glasses sent over from the US though... happened to me once a few years ago, and when it came to reading for/writing my dissertation, I thought I was going to die after a few days... Had to call and beg my mum to send them asap, I was getting terrible headaches...

Unfortunatly, as a fellow glasses wearer, I have found that despite being a student we are not entitled to any support from the NHS. You can only get free glasses up to the age of 19. In specsavers you can get a certain percentage off as a student, but thats about it.

I thought about having them sent over, but I was afraid they might get crushed or something...I had just got them before I left! and was always losing them and forgetting them, and found them a nuisance--too hard to have two pairs of glasses ( and DO NOT say the bifocal word...no no no).

Most of the time off the computer I do not wear them, am used to just being short sighted....its how I have gone through life.

I am in deep denial about the eye changes anyway, so I will probably just grumble and keep on as I am at least for awhile....

Little story about my aunt, who, at 60 plus was told she needed glasses, fair enough she thought and went ahead and bought herself a pair of top of the range specs,they even had a designer logo onthe side, only to be told she only needed them for reading not for outside, she was well miffed as she thought it was an all the time thingand that was why she went for the best, so she sometimes used to wear them round her neck when she went out - she said they were too expensive to keep just for indoors .

i've also found i can't get ANY reduction on the costs of glasses/contacts from the NHS, even when i had no income at all, due to living with a partner who has an income. it is assumed that this partner will come up for such costs, i guess. don't like how that pushes you into dependence - i'd rather be dependent on the state than on any individual (male) person.

anyway, on the evening before my 30th birthday, one of my teeth broke off. since then i've realised that i'm truly getting older. i'm already half blind and a quarter deaf (so to say), so i'm looking forward to some great technological innovations - or else, long years of deafness and blindness. ageing is one of the "facts of life", i guess.

Tell me about it!

I have noticed the aging process creeping up on me in recent years...skin that was once youthful is now wrinkling, body parts that were once firm now sag, fatty food I used to be able to shovel into my mouth without gaining an ounce now settles on my once-slim thighs, I had my hearing tested last year and the youthful audiometrist (or is it audiologist?) brutally asked if there was any early-onset deafness in my family because I am going deaf (and there is!) so that now I can't listen to my iPod without thinking about the damage it is doing to my ears. Boo hoo.

I celebrated my 32nd birthday yesterday and went to a Wilco concert last night. I was disappointed to find out on arrival that there was no seating and I had to stand up for 3 hours...I was horrified when I found myself wishing I had worn 'sensible' shoes and commenting to my partner that the music was a bit loud!

Hey Olivia, have you looked at www.glassesdirect.co.uk? They start from £15 for both frame and lenses - I got a pair when I had my prescription made stronger but couldn't afford to spend the extortionate amounts they charge in the opticians. I initially had my doubts seeing how cheap they sold lenses&frames for (you think - whats the scam here?), but they aren't bad at all and good quality. I would definatley recommend for people who are on a tight budget.

A couple of years ago I spent half an hour in the morning furiously rubbing marks on my forehead - I thought I'd done a rubbish job with my foundation and couldn't understand why it wasn't coming off.

Alas, that was my introduction to forehad wrinkles! Boohoo!

my mum did a proper diet (weightwatchers meetings and all) last year. she also went back to dyeing her hair, which she had displayed in proud grey for a while. overall, now she appears about 15 years younger. in fact, she could easily be my older sister.
i always thought i'd refuse to engage in our society's cult of youth. now i'm not that sure anymore.

on another note: how do your partners cope with ageing? and how do you deal with him/her growing noticeably older? my partner is seriously worried about going bald. buying tonics etc. but he doesn't like to talk about it. i find it reassuring that i'm not the only one growing older

piglet, i just turned 32 too (well, a month ago)

mokey, my optician explained that they keep a range of budget frames, and for the lenses, it depends on the correction you need. i need -10/-9, so he said he could get me a cheap pair of glasses for about 40 pounds. and that's a small village optician.

their are a few reasons why it gets so much more expensive: with that sort of correction, standard glass lenses will be _very_ thick. special (expensive) glass will help keep them thinner. also, they will make your eyes look very small. you can minimize that by using extra small frames. ah, but that excludes the budget ones.

so, yes, you can get cheap glasses, even from standard opticians - but maybe they won't look good. some opticians have told me "with your eyes, you can't get the cheap glasses" but what they actually meant was "if you get the cheap glasses, it won't look good".

I find researching in a university as a PhD sudent arounds lots of younger students at undergaduate level makes me feel a little old!

I am paranoid about aging - I am determined to remain the same trouser size as I age. Must.

My boyfriend always stresses about his hairline and how it visibly recedes (it doesn't, in actuality!).

shani - yes, the more bits and pieces you need added to the prescription the more it adds up. However, the site I have used has a huge range of good quality frames beyond the budget ones you see in the high street, and the glasses don't look any different - I have both £200 glasses from the opticians and the £15 pair, and the £15 ones are much nicer. I am extremely short sighted, so I know all about thick lenses!!!

For me, it was the oh-so-gradual putting on of weight! I have always been skinny and it was around when I hit 34 that I noticed my clothes were starting to feel a little tighter .

Although I would still have been classed as slim, I began to realise that to stay in the same dress size I could no longer eat crisps and choccie bars as and when I felt like it. So I lost afew pounds and have to keep watching it now, as opposed to previously taking it for granted!