wasting time

Last night we went back to Fielmann (optometrist) to see if my glasses would be on time. This was suggested by our mate Herr Milster and naturally we assumed he would be working that night. He wasn't.

Instead we were directed to sit at a desk and were soon served by someone else. This guy had the personality of a depressed stone and purely dealt with the facts. My glasses were ready and he laid out a tray in front of me.

I whacked the glasses on and I wasn't happy with how the world looked through them. Now I'm sure that first time glasses wearers always say this, so to some point I am prepared to give it a bit of time to see if it settles. However, Mr Stone asked me how things were so I told him 'I can't really see clearly, things are distorted'. He said 'Maybe yoo try zem fur a pheu dayz den?'. 

I said 'Yea, but I need to do the führerscheinsehtest straight away'. Again he said "Maybe you vait a pheu dayz?'

We had already told him the appointment for the license exchange was the next day, and on reiterating that he agreed to do it now.

I sat down in front of the testing machine and first looked in without the glasses on. This was slightly different from when we did the test at another optician. Rather than four rows of circles and several batches, this was just three rows of circles in one batch. I could see the top row quite easily and I think I could have made out the second. The third row was blurry for me. The first optician said we needed to be able to read the whole lot, so I thought I couldn't pass this one without the glasses.

I started the test with my glasses on.

The circles looked pretty much the same to me with the glasses on than they did with them off. He asked which row I could see and I said the middle one. I read them out (having to squint) and that was it. Test over. I didn't even have to read the last line!

I was surprised about this and rued that I hadn't just done this without the glasses on. He wasn't particularly interested in listening to my protestations that I was having trouble with the glasses and that I wanted to do it again without the glasses.

By now he had escorted us back to the desk and someone else was using the machine. It seemed I had missed my chance to try again. Even when he escorted us to the 'checkout' I was still moaning about the test and wanting to try again, but he (and Nordine) were both sick of this at this stage. We paid for the glasses, and the official test, which says I need glasses :(, and left. 

The ironic thing is that while Nordine clearly needs glasses, her optometrist has made an error on her führerscheinsehtest and has ticked the box which says no visual aids required.

I can't explain why this bothers me so much, but it just does. Maybe I am in denial and have a long skewed perception that my eyesight is better than it actually is, but overall I just can't 'see' any improvement in my eyesight with these glasses. Right now my perspective is way off and if I had to drive immediately with these glasses I would think it quite dangerous. I have read a few accounts though of first time glasses wearers that have had these same sensations too so maybe I'm just adjusting.

Anyway, I've resolved to give it a try and see what happens. We have the requisite pieces of paper so at least we could make our appointment and exchange our drivers licenses over for German ones.

Cut to the morning and we make our way to the local district office. We had an 11am appointment and went to wait in the same old waiting room as before.

This time we were called in at exactly 11am. We went in to an office, spoke to the lady and gave her all our documents. She said 'Where is the translation of your license'. We said 'We spoke with your colleague last week and were told this wasn't required. We even showed her the list of stuff we needed that this office had given to us, in which this was not marked as required.

She was blank faced and just said 'We need this'. We repeated that we were advised last week we didn't need this. She said we would need to check with the Führerscheinstelle (Drivers License Office). Geez, if we could just sort it out there then why bother with you guys! I gave her my International Drivers Permit and she said it wasn't adequate. Another case of how useless these things are too.

Appointment over. We left in a bit of a huff and went back to the front desk to 'discuss'. The lady there said it was required and sorry if we had been misadvised.

Fabulous, what a waste of time.

We had to leave the office empty handed. This only gives me more time to stew about my stupid glasses, whether I need them or not and how I can slide my way through the test without them! Maybe I will go back and bother Herr Milster and have another shot on the machine.

Back at the apartment we looked up where you get the drivers license translated and how much its costs. You go to the ADAC and it costs around 35 - 50 Euros, EACH! AND it's not done on the spot. Marvellous. We emailed the drivers license office direct but no response as yet.

Lucky we are not working at the moment. It feels like we've spent quite a bit of time 'hangin' at the district office with very little to show for it! Would be incredibly frustrating if one had to keep taking days off work to go there.

Yet another to be continued situations.