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Last night, while cruising the net I came across a really neat gadget  for DIY sight tests. The gadget hasn’t got a name yet, nor is it avalable for purchase yet. So what exactly is this little beauty all about? In essence it is a small and very simple plastic attachment for your mobile phone, with which, provided you have the appropriate software, you could perform a simple sight test to estimate your visual acuity and the resulting estimated refractive error of your eye. The good news is that the gadget costs less than US$2 and could be usefull in remote parts of underdeveloped countries where sophisticated equipment for comprehensive eye examinations is just not available. The bad news is, that it is not a substitute for the traditional compehensive eye examination since it is designed to do only one small and simple task – estimating a refractive error based on the user’s information input. Eye conditions other than myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and presbyopia cannot be detected. ... read more

The importance of regular eye tests was demonstrated during the world cup soccer match between England and Germany 2010 this morning .If you are only remotely interested in the sport of soccer, you will probably have spent quite a few hours over the past few weeks watching games life on TV. And when you live in this part of the world, this means that you would probably have done this at times when you really should have been in bed sleeping. After 2 weeks this nocturnal habbit can actually start to play tricks on your mind and on your visual acuity. Maybe it is time to come and let us have a look if your vision is still ok. If, for example, you saw last night’s game between Germany and England and the replay of Frank Lampard’s kick looked something like the picture on the left, then you are well overdue to have an eye test. Look, we’d be happy to spend some time with you to determine what exactly causes your slightly distorted outlook, so please don’t hesitate, ring us and make an appointment for an eye test. Ah, and yes, our optometrist is British and therefore definetly impartial. (The image above was uploaded by an unknown person and we have bluntly used it here to make our point of the importance of having regular eye tests). If your name happens to be Jorge Larrionda or Mauricio Espinosa, we’ll do that eye test even for free! ... read more

You better believe it! I found these photos from the Sao Paulo Fashion Week 2010 while cruising the net. If trends on display are anything to go by, then sunglasses as a fashion accessory are definitely on their way out (or are they?). Seems like they are being replaced by the good old diving mask! Don’t you just love it!!! Ah, and while we are talking about trends, looks like the “Brazilian” is also on it’s way out! Apparently this topic was discussed in detail on the “G1” news site. ... read more

This is not a joke, “Ad Specs – The Self Adjustable Spectacles” are being marketed for developing countries by the Centre for Vision in the Developing World and Global Vision 2020. So what is so special about these glasses? They allow the user to correct their own vision. How? ... read more

This will be my third trip to Timor Leste. I am currently sitting here at Sydney Airport waiting for my flight to Darwin and then on to Dili. It’s always a long trip, almost as long as going halfway around the world. I started this morning on a 7.00am flight from Nelson to Auckland where I had the pleasure of meeting the Fred Hollows New Zealand team. Planned arrival in Dili is 7.15am tomorrow morning.
The Fred Hollows Foundation has been very active in East Timor for the past 5 years or so and have been instrumental in helping the local NGO FoNaroman Timor Leste (Giving Sight Timor Leste) in providing basic eyecare to the people of Timor. Can’t wait to meet the team again and to spend the next 2 weeks with the optical team in Dili. ... read more

Another busy day at Nelson’s Womens Lifestyle Expos 2010. It was a great opportunity for us to showcase our collections of outstanding frames and we certainly received great feedback. At this point we would like to thank each and everyone who visited us at our stand and hope that you had as great a time as we had. For those of you who entered our “Win Your Own Free Frame” competition, the big moment has just come. And the winner is: ... read more

We are getting really excited about the upcoming weekend and can’t wait to meet all of you at Womens Lifestyle Expo 2010 in Trafalgar Center. It is the first time for us to exhibit some of our gems outside the store and we make sure that you will have a great time at our stand. To celebrate, you can enter a competition to win a frame of your choice from our current collection. And the best thing is – price doesn’t matter! If you choose the most expensive one we have – so be it! We don’t mind. We are there to make sure that you have a great time and the competition will be just a small part of it. The winner of the competition will be drawn on Sunday night at 5.00pm and we’ll post the result right here on the blog as well. ... read more

Yesterday I received a copy of the “Summary Results from the 2009 Health Workforce Annual Survey”. The survey is conducted by the Ministry of Health in an effort to provide statistical data about health care professionals in this country. What I found particularly interesting are the numbers of eyecare professionals actively practicing in the Nelson/Marlborough area. The 2009 statistics show that in 2009 there were 13 Optometrists and 4 Dispensing Opticians practicing. ... read more

Providing great and personal service must be right on top of the list of our priorities. Often it’s the litlle things that are appreciated most. Thist doesn’t only include free replacement of screws and nose pads, it also includes fitting new lenses into customers own frames. This is sometimes required when the prescription of only 1 lens needs to be, or the current frame is still fairly new and satisfactory. When this “lens replacement service” is required our aim is to do it in a way so the customer is not without her/his glasses for too long. Ideally we would use our in-house fitting service. We carry many high quality anti-reflective coated lenses in stock, and if at all possible, we try to manufacture the required prscription “on the day”. If, due to the required prescription and/or lens design, we are unable to do this, we use our state of the art frame tracer. ... read more

You may have noticed that our Online Shop is not accessable at the moment. It is currently being renovated as the “old” shop turned out to be rather difficult to navigate and we also had a few issues with it’s integration into the main website (that’s what happens when an amateur tries to do everything himself – never mind, we enjoy it). Hopefully we’ll be able to get the shop back online in a few days or so. ... read more