Bloke walks in, soaking wet, hands filthy, glasses bent and smashed up held together with bits of tape and plasters. He talks very slowly and very quietly. Almost immediately I notice his glasses don’t have lenses in.

“hello” “hi I can see you are missing your lenses from your glasses” “yes I have lost them” (my brain is screaming “why the hell are you wearing them” then but I hold back) “oh dear” I say kinda sympathetically and there’s a long pause with him just looking at me. “What do I do?” “Well do you still have the lenses?” “One I lost a few years ago” “ohh right?!” “and this one dropped out this weekend near a bonfire” (this whole sentence took him about 40 seconds to say) “right so you need some new glasses then” “yes these glasses don’t work very well without the lenses in, it’s a bit of in inconvenience” “I can imagine” (why the fuck are you wearing them) “do you have a prescription” “yes here” “I can seem to find you on the records, how long ago was it?” “7 or 8 years” “could it have been over 10? Records get destroyed over 10 years” “maybe” “well in any case we need to do an eye test if it has been that long” “why?” “Because your prescription need to be in date to be made up” “ohh I don’t know my rights, can you tell me?” “Well we need an up to date prescription to make up some glasses” “lenses!” (There’s no fucking way frame he is wearing is reusable) “so would you like to book in” “cant you just copy these” “copy the lenses?” “yeah?!” “but you have lost them, there is nothing for me to copy” “ohh” “so do you want to book in for an eye test or try and see if someware else can see you sooner” he sits there comatose for a full minuet, then adjust the glasses with no lenses in and I can see that they are physically hurting him to ware and they are buckled and digging into his face. “What should I do?” “Book in, or try someware else” another 3 mins of him sitting there silent. “I just thought you could copy them” “as I said there’s nothing to copy” “ohh?” and he gets up saying he’ll find out his rights and leaves.