Not a Visionary

Having spent two weeks focussing on a phone screen in semi-darkness, my sight really is pretty bad. Long story short I've shelled out £30 for a test and ordered varifocals plus a standard reading pair - just under £60 for the two including postage, which is an absolute bargain. Once again I used Zenni Optical (I'm not paid to recommend them, either, I just think they're great). You need a bit of patience, and you need to check very carefully that you enter your prescription correctly, but even if I've gotten it wrong and need to reorder, I'm still miles in front of the usual store prices. So now, the nervous wait, since I've never ordered nor worn varifocals before...

Money Out (in a big way): Crowded House ticket for June at The Eden Project (£65). No, I can't afford this. No, I couldn't resist. It's probably the one band I would choose to see if given all the choices in the world.

Out: £11 for Little X's birth certificate. (Just one of the many things I need to run around setting up, ie, I had to take her birth records to the council registrar's office to prove she exists. This is where I really miss Finland, where everything is automatically connected in the system... I really wanted to ask the UC website, then the registry office, and then the Job Centre, and then the Child Benefit website, why they can't just ask the hospital to confirm that she exists.) Related: about £10 in bus fares running about doing these things. I still have several weeks of not being allowed to drive after my surgery.

In: Council payment of £250 and Universal Credit advance of £360. There will shortly be a further UC advance, for kidlet, of £260.

Also in: payments for four survey programmes, plus two game programmes (about £30 altogether).

Visionary's Observation: I have spent basically zero time on my pc in the two weeks since Little X was born, essentially living my life in my new tiny sofa, and accordingly, using my phone. It's freaky how fast we adapt, since I've been able to do 95% of everything I needed on there, including dealing with my bank accounts etc. I still much prefer a desktop when it comes to most things, but it's surprising how phones can manage so much these days.