Boots Opticians and the Spiffy New Glasses

I was lucky enough to be sponsored by Boots Opticians to attend BritMums Live. They very kindly paid for my travel and accommodation, which was handy! 

As a part of the package, I was sent to my local Boots for a free eye appointment a few days before Brit Mums Live. I wandered in, not really expecting much, on account of the fact my eyesight had clearly not changed. 

Ninety minutes later, I left the opticians with an order in for a shiny new pair of glasses with Transitions lenses with a clever coating that actually repels dirt. Oh, and the knowledge that my eyesight has somehow improved to the point that I could legally drive without my glasses. 

What I learned during my eye appointment is that Boots have had a massive change in the way they price their glasses. Remember before, when you used to go shopping for glasses and have no clue what you were spending until they rang it all through the till (at which point you tried not to faint)? Boots have done three things to change their glasses:

1. The price on the frames is what you pay for the frames including normal lenses. You can pay for added extras, like Transitions Lenses and Protect Plus, but that is also clearly labelled. 

2. All Boots lenses now come with Boots Protect coating as standard. 

3. When you buy your glasses, all additional pairs you buy are half price. So if you want to go mad and buy a pair of reading glasses, some sun glasses, a pair for Thursdays, you can.

The Boots Protect coating is the special coating you used to have to pay £40 extra for. It reduces glare from bright sunlight and also protects against UV - but not just on the outside of the lenses. Sunlight often sneaks down the back of your glasses, reflects off the lenses and gets into your eyes, so they put the protective coating on the back of the lenses too. The guy told me all this, and I nodded and went "oh, right" and was suitably impressed but it wasn't until I went to the meeting before BritMums Live, and learned more about UV damage, that I realised just how important this was (that will be covered in a different post).

They also demonstrated the Protect Plus coating for me - this is the one you pay a little extra for. Not only does it do everything the Protect coating does, but it's also scratch resistant, and has something I call "toddler proofing" - the coating actually repels water. The nice man got one of the lenses and a felt tipped pen and showed me how you can't even really draw on the lenses very well, and it wipes off really easily. 

I was really impressed with the service at Boots Opticians. They take a photo of the back of your eye as standard, and show it to you in your examination. The optician pointed out the parts you normally see in that drawing from science text books, and showed me what we would be looking for in the event of glaucoma (runs in my family) or other damage. They keep a copy of the photos on file, so that they can compare back to previous photos and track any changes.

What I was also really impressed with, was the help I received in choosing my frames. The man who was serving helped me to narrow it down to two frames, and then we enlisted the help of another member of staff to help us decide between those two. Whenever I've chosen frames before, it's been me, on my own in the corner of the optician's, with no clue what I'm doing!

Brit Mums Live

This June, I'm going to Brit Mums Live... I'm beyond excited about this fact.

As part of my preparation, I'm doing this little meme to introduce myself to my fellow attendees..

Name: Vicky

Blog: Single Mother Ahoy (your'e here already!

Twitter ID: @SingleMAhoy

Height: er... I think I'm about 5.2" ish. 

Hair: long-ish, blonde... Might have had it cut before June though!

Eyes: Green... I usually wear glasses unless the sun is shining; then I splash out and wear contacts.

Is this your first blogging conference? Yes! Am half excited, half petrified!

Are you attending both days? Yes and toying with the idea of staying in London an extra day.

What are you most looking forward to at BritMums Live 2014? The atmosphere! I watched loads of the live streaming and was horribly jealous of all the people who got to be there and experience it all first hand.

What are you wearing? I have literally no idea. May need to do some serious shopping/blagging before June!

What do you hope to gain from BritMums Live 2014? I want to improve my blogging skills but also my writing in general.

Hands up who else is going?

June 2013: That Was The Month, That Was

This time last year, I was something of a jibbering wreck. I'd just left an abusive relationship, but was still in contact with S's father and taking her to see him on a regular basis. I was torn between my desperate wish for S to have a proper father, and the feeling in my gut that I needed to keep her safe from this man. And that was messing with my head a fair bit.

In September last year, I posted something I'd written about strength onto Facebook. People made positive comments, and one person asked me if I'd considered blogging. I have had a LiveJournal blog for years, periodically going back to it whenever the thought grabbed me, but really only ever used it as a sort of diary; never for actual structured, planned pieces. Since having S, I'd been reading parenting blogs from the States regarding Attachment Parenting; I honestly wasn't aware there were many parent bloggers in the UK (that thought seems unimaginable now - like I'd been standing with my back to a massive, noisy crowd and not even noticed!).

I started my blog without putting much thought into it. I already had a Google account, so I just set up a Blogger, and began writing. I would post links on my personal Facebook page, and harass all of my friends to read them. Occasionally I would join in a blog hop or a linky here and there, and then I would get a few more readers. The number of hits on the blog each month went up and down. Some months they went up, others they went down. Most days I was happy to get more than 100 hits.

Here we are, 9 months later. Although I've joined Tots100 and Brit Mums, and I've set up a Facebook page for the blog and been active on Twitter, I still didn't really think people other than my friends (who obviously felt obliged) were reading.

In the last couple of weeks, things have gone a big bonkers. People I don't know have emailed me and said they think the blog is good. Some people on Twitter have said so too. People have shared my posts with their friends. 

Two massive things happened this week though. Firstly, a lady I know only through Twitter, who I have not personally harassed to read my posts at all, told me she would like to sponsor me to attend Brit Mums Live next year. I thought she must have me confused with someone else, whose blog was good, until she commented on some posts and I realised she wasn't confused after all. Which meant she actually did think my blog was good, and she really did want to sponsor me to go to Brit Mums Live.

The second thing is a tiny bit epic, as far as I'm concerned. Gingerbread is a charity for single parents. Their website is an endless bank of resources I've been using since I got a few months into my pregnancy and realised I really should just consider myself to be a single mother. I think they're fantastic, and I liked the idea of maybe writing a couple of pieces about them. So I emailed them. When I got a response really quickly, I was surprised; charities like this don't usually have the resources to reply to emails quickly, they're busy fighting fires with budgets and helping people with real problems. The first paragraph of the email said:

Thanks very much for getting in touch. I’ve been dipping in and out of your blog for the last few weeks, so it’s great to hear from you directly!

At this point, I nearly fell over.

Turns out it's not just my friends and people I harangue on a daily basis who read my blog. So many people have re-tweeted my posts lately, or shared links with their friends. It's all quite overwhelming. I feel all warm inside!

At the start of June, I set myself a target to get more hits than in May. When I hit that target fairly early on, I set the target of getting to the next thousand. Then the next. And now, here I am with almost 5000 more hits on the blog this month than last. I cannot even compute that.

I've had people agreeing to send me products to review, people agree to have me guest post on their blog, and in some cases ask me to write something for their site. Not to mention the fact a BBC producer searched Google for single mother blogs and came up with little old me!

I am, frankly, gobsmacked. And completely at a loss as to how I will top this month in July. Thank you to everyone who has supported me, you've made me very happy!

In all seriousness, if you have an idea for a post, a certain aspect of my life you'd like to know more about, please do contact me.

Thank you for reading!