Babes new glasses

With eye-wear like this, who needs enemies?

Babes recently found employment at a private biotech firm in Oxfordshire. I believe their main goal is to develop new cancer therapies. Regardless to say, Babes was informed she needed to buy safety goggles before working on the bench.

I had the preconception that they were simply lab goggles with prescription lenses attached to the inside.

I was wrong.

The adventure started with a journey to visit a friend in Birmingham. He was nursing a broken ankle. In my multi-tasking approach, I had suggested we book a sight test in Birmingham as well.

All went well until we drove home. Again, endless cones on the British motorway waylaid us by stopping traffic needlessly. Surprisingly, we had an irate driver pass us by. She made verbal gestures suggesting we needed our eyes tested. We just had them tested that day!

With Babes receiving a new prescription for her eyes, the second phase was to find appropriate safety eyewear.

Into Oxford we ventured. Oxford is a crammed, over touristic town with very little to see other than old buildings which could be found in better condition in Cambridge.

And as Shakespeare once wrote “what’s in a name?”

Really, never does Juliet’s comment ring louder than when I am in Oxford.

Babes has a work colleague who visits Cambridge once in a while – I really wanted him to buy me a Cambridge top so I could wear it around Oxford. He laughed nervously and gave me the “are you serious” look.

Of course I am serious! He never bought the top.

Damn the British politeness.

Where was this politeness when Babes and I were stuck on the M “whatever” heading out of Birmingham?

So there we were, Babes smiling beautifully as she always does and me being pissed off with the crowd of mindless consumers that walked this Earth. We ventured into every optician in town. All of them had the same frames – big and ugly.

Despairingly, we went for coffee and headed home. Pushed into the corner of resignation Babes accepted the fate of wearing the world’s ugliest glasses possible. We rehearsed in our head the Dr Nerd and Mrs Babes story.

How can one simple accessory change a person’s appearance so dramatically?

Heroically, as Babes is a hero to me, she continued to pursue a better alternative.

Abingdon, a small town about 10 minutes drive south of Oxford held the answer. The answer that took us to Birmingham and back was literally around the corner.

In the end, Babes is still a babe at work. Her glasses are currently being fitted with safety shields and I realised, sometimes what you need is really just outside your doorstep.

NOTE: The glasses Babes settled for are not on display