I have been increasingly finding that I need to take my glasses off to read, thread needles, pick up dropped stitches and so on, so given that it's been over two years since my last eye test I thought I should probably brave the opticians. I have now spent a somewhat staggering amount of money on not one but two new pairs of glasses: new varifocals for everyday and a special pair for looking at a computer screen (I should be able to claim back the cost of those from work, at least).

I'd booked the appointment for today because my friend A, her partner and child are staying near Windsor this week and she'd proposed that they come to Oxford for the day, so I spent a lovely few hours wandering around the more picturesque bits of the city with them (Christ Church Meadows, Merton Street and Oriel Square, the Covered Market, Radcliffe Square), pointing out colleges and ranking them by their relative degree of being up themselves and noting various other sites (five-year-old B was fascinated by the idea of the Bodleian's tunnels). We ate takeaway sushi in the "urban meadow" that the council have created in Broad Street, went to look at the dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum, and had ice-creams from G&D's (apparently if you're five mint choc chip with maple syrup and gummi bears seems like a good idea).

This would have been a fairly normal day in the Before Times, but is probably more than I've done in the whole of the last 15 months. (I also ended up lugging far too much stuff around with me, because after so long only ever taking my phone and keys with me I'm apparently incapable of judging what I might need, and had a massive backpack with a raincoat and a cardigan (not needed in the slightest), my camera (not used), my knitting (not touched), a bottle of water *and* a mug of tea (useful, but I probably didn't actually need both) as well as my kindle. My phone, obviously, was in my pocket instead.) On the other hand, it was lovely to see A and family, and it will be good to be able to see properly again.