A very busy weekend
After sitting in what could be described as the oldest traffic jam in Yorkshire, we arrived at the showground gates. The Marshals directed us to the patch of grass which would be our temporary home for the next two days. So with the joys of camping playing tricks with our memories we set about putting up our colleague Tracy’s gazebo.
Now here’s the thing about Gazebo’s. Like tents, Gazebos don’t come with an instruction manual or any handy Ikea type pictures telling you how to put them up. So for handy hints, we watched someone else’s gazebo going up and tried to copy them. This approach would have worked well had our neighbours had same piece of kit as us. Unfortunately they did not and as no two Gazebos in the world appear to be the same we struggled. Of course, we could have asked for help, but then we are English and have an aversion to being marked out as the exhibitor’s numpties.
We finally nailed the gazebo down to the ground just in time for the heavens to open. Not a light shower but a rush of howling winds and driving rain soaking all of us to the skin.
We managed to get our stand up and assembled with all the paraphernalia, holding it all down with pebbles, stones and anything heavy we could get our hands on. All this done to the sounds, and back drop of the historic vehicles arriving, and assembling in front of us.
We had advertised that we were doing free spectacle repairs and MOTs and it wasn’t long before we had our first visitor, not for a spectacle repair, but to see if we could fix their umbrella. Well after much head scratching we managed to carry out a full repair and send off the hapless owner fully protected from the elements.
Now the whole point of us being there was to raise awareness of the need for good vision for drivers. Mr V and his mini me turned up with the 1968 MGBGT on Sunday and caught the attention of some passers-by. We had the ipads set up with a scaled down number plate to test driving standard vision at 3 meters not the required 20.5 meters. In the UK a drivers’ eyesight is only checked before they take their practical driving test and they are not usually asked about their vision again until they reach the age of 70. Before a person takes their driving test they must be able to read a number plate at a distance of 20.5 metres. After this the responsibility is on the driver to ensure that they maintain this vision by having regular eye tests and correcting any defects with spectacles or contact lenses.
A few curious people wandered over asking what we were doing, when we explained what we were up to, some people, mostly women happily took the test, some passing others not. The interesting thing was to watch the men make their excuses, either moving onto the wood turners next to us, or suddenly finding the vintage car nearby very interesting. Listening to the ladies cajoling, persuading and at times begging husbands to check that they were legal to drive became a bit of a fascination for us. Why was it the Gents really didn’t want to check their vision? Search me but the worry thing and the lasting impression of the weekend has been the realisation that you Gentleman really don’t like to admit that there may be a problem with your vision.
An eye test really isn’t something to fear, it is very simple and painless, taking around thirty minutes. If at the outcome you do need spectacles to drive then there is wide choice of frames available, including light weight and rimless titanium frames that are almost invisible. You can also use contact lenses to correct vision.
To book an appointment visit https://www.valliopticians.co.uk/contact-us or visit https://www.valliopticians.co.uk/practices to find your nearest practice.
To find out more visit http://www.safermotoring.co.uk/EyeChecksForDriving.html
For more details visit http://www.safermotoring.co.uk/EyeChecksForDriving.html
