Making the Switch - Opticians

I've been wearing glasses for about fourteen years now and lenses for about twelve.  Being barely a teenager when I started, it wasn't my choice of optician, I just went to the family one - a private optician in Morley who was great at his job and had a lovely friendly receptionist who I still see occasionally when I'm around Morley.  When he retired, we all made the switch to Specsavers.  There are a whole range of benefits of being a customer at Specsavers:

• They have a Buy One Get One Free offer on glasses
• They do a special direct debit, delivery system for monthly contact lenses which includes free check ups
• They repair their glasses in store for free
• They provide cases and solution with the lenses (or not if your getting overloaded as I was)
• They have evening and weekend appointments (including Sundays)
• They have lovely friendly staff and are very efficient

In the whole time I was with them, I only had one complaint - that they couldn't find a way to put the initial on the address so that my sister and I didn't get confused with our contact lenses.

In a bout of financial updating and planning last year, I cancelled all my direct debits including Specsavers.  I had a back stock of lenses to last me six months so I cancelled the programme knowing that at some point I would have to switch to a German optician and get the ball rolling over here.

That point came last week.  I finally booked myself in for a contact lens appointment at Frenz in Bremen.  I didn't especially choose this company - the one nearest us in Huchting had recently closed down and this one was near the tram stop in Bremen.  One thing I have noticed is how crazy the window displays for opticians are here in Bremen.  I'll be walking down the street and see a lovely ornament and wonder how much it costs, only to discover that it is just part of the optician's window display and not for sale!  Frenz has crazy bright coloured stationary hanging everywhere in the store which makes no sense to me but I love stationary so there we go...

The woman who I had my appointment with was very professional, helpful and didn't struggle with my German so I decided to stay with them.  I was dreading the test as my German alphabet has a flaw - the letter 'R'.  I never noticed it until kids at school started asking me 'Was kommt nach zwei?'  (What comes after two?) and wetting themselves when I answered 'drei' (three) with a really confused look, waiting for the punch line until I realised, my accent was the punch line.  Never in eleven years studying the language has anyone pointed out my inability to produce an authentic German 'R' sound but now I notice it all the time, especially when spelling out my surname in public, eek.  So you can imagine how I was looking forward to the eye test.  I was over the moon to discover that the German (or maybe just the Frenz) system uses numbers!!  And there wasn't a 3 in sight!  Perfect!

So two appointments down, test pair of lenses approved and just waiting for payday to order my first six months worth of pairs.  I have to say, the downside is that there is no automated system here as there was with Specsavers but the branch in Bremen is so handy that as long as I am organized enough to get my order in and paid for on time, I won't have any problems.  (Fingers crossed!)