Merry Christmas! This will be our last post until 2013 (!) as I usually post every fortnight, and that will be after Christmas, when we shall be closed for our break. I hope that everyone has a great Christmas season, a wonderful break and a bright and prosperous 2013. And I hope that you come by and admire the Christmas lights we have installed for "Light Up Kapiti" - I enjoy all the decorations (even the air pump for the inflatable Christmas tree isn't too annoying) now they are up. Suddenly "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas".

Christmas is coming....

...but no geese to get fat! We have a plan to put up the lights for "Light Up Kapiti" in the next week, sorting out Christmas closed hours and Visique is running a pre-Christmas promotion for prescription sunnies. And I had a good day in the garden yesterday, a good year for the roses (have some at work - just lightly scenting the air) and a neighbour's cat to talk too. Christmas is the season of peace and goodwill - I hope that this year, everyone can calm down , stop and smell the roses and enjoy the blessings that we all have been given. After a fairly hard year for everyone, it is lovely to take time and celebrate with friends and family. Or just quietly give thanks in your own quite way. Most people in Kapiti are organised and we don't have a "Christmas rush", which is good. Just ensure that you have enough contact lenses, solution and a spare pair of glasses for the break!

Christmas present ideas?

We all have hard-to-but-for people in our lives: people we want to honour with a present at Christmas. There are many places to buy things that are good for humanity (Oxfam, Save the Children, World Vision) but occasionally we have patients who mention their hard-to-buy-for relatives and have mentioned that so-and-so really needs an eye exam or new glasses or complains of blurred vision or is squinting in the sun or whatever. And I will put the 2 pieces of conversation together and suggest a voucher for eye care or eye wear for Christmas. In many cases, the recipient is mum or aunty, always thinking of others, never herself, and her frames are falling apart or she is using hobby glasses as he good pair broke (months ago) and she "hasn't got around to replacing them" yet - "After Christmas dear". So, giving her a voucher is a good idea to ensure that she has an eye exam, and a solution to her visual problems, without making her spend money she feels should be spent on someone else. We do one or two eyecare or eyewear vouchers each year, and I am sure other practices do the same. Just a thought - and if you haven't given your nearest and dearest your Christmas list yet, maybe putting an eyecare or eyewear voucher on it is a good idea.

Sunglasses for summer

Spring sunshine is here - in fact, it has felt like summer for the past few days. And Visique is running a sunglass promotion for this year, similar to that of summer 2011-12, in that we can provide prescription sunglasses from $299 for the frames and lenses. And the beauty is that the sunglasses are fitted into sunglass frames, so someone needing a prescription doesn't have to "just" wear tinted lenses to a standard frame, which look like a prescription pair. Each Visique practice has chosen which promotional ranges to stock, and we have chosen Bill Bass, as they are a good quality, reasonably priced classic range for men and women. We can, of course, supply these with non-prescription lenses too, and many of our other sunglasses can also be glazed. Some of these are older stock, but as I tend to buy "classic" rather than "high fashion", they still look good. One thing many patients tell me is that they do not want to spend too much on sunglasses because "I'm so rough with glasses", "I go through like three pairs a year cos I'm always losing them" or "The ones at the petrol station are good enough for me". I believe that, if you pay a bit more for better quality, it will benefit you much more in the long run - including financially. If you spend $120 on a pair, which last you three years, that is better than 3 years times three pairs at $20 each ($180). And if they last a fourth or fifth year.... Prescription sunglasses, like any prescription, cost more that planos do initially - just as ordinary prescription glasses have a cost - but they are designed to be of benefit for years, not months. And we can supply special-use sunglasses or lenses for ski-ing, boating and fishing too.

Happy Labour Weekend!

It seems ironic, doesn't it, that the holiday celebrating the 40 hour week is one of the busiest weekends of the year. We have many people booking in, whereas Labour Weekend Saturday is often very quiet - patients are away or expect us to be closed so it's hard to encourage bookings, and I hope we don't come in to answerphone messages on the Tuesday from patients who forget the day is a public holiday. It does add a day to getting spectacles made up, but most people understand this. And it goes back to the old "you will need to wear your spare pair for a day longer"...if you don't have a spare, how will you manage when the labs shut down over Christmas/New Year? The weather doesn't look like it will be the best, but hopefully I can get out in the garden at some point. And spend time with my family - that's what a day off is about!

Well, I have finished my four half-weeks in New Plymouth, and it seems I missed the better weather here when I was there, and there to-day. Never mind, the practices are both warm and dry, and the patients warm and friendly. Business is tough for most people at present as it is for most consumers. So Visique Kapiti continues to offer value for money solutions for eye care - we're not the cheapest but we guarantee our products as we use suppliers who have a good track record with both product and service. Everyone can have an off day, but we don't like dealing with companies that blame the patient if the frame breaks when it should be a warranty claim. We tell patients how to look after their contact lenses or glasses when they first get them (but don't teach our grandmothers to suck eggs when they have had glasses for as long as some of us have been on this planet) and reinforce this if a frame is brought back frequently for TLC. And we can tell if something has been abused. If it should be a warranty claim, we will back you up with our suppliers - that's our place (and an obligation under the CGA). But warranties do involve care - if your car isn't serviced as per the schedule, the warranty might be invalidated. Frames and lenses don't always come with a guarantee card, but if they are looked after well, the guarantee that we offer (we keep your records) won't be necessary. And cleaning lenses dry, and by rubbing on your shirt, is never a good idea, never been recommended, and even if "I've always done it", it still means they scratch. And that's handling, not guarantee.

At work...in Taranaki....

Well, I've done two stints of three days each in New Plymouth, and have really enjoyed it (but it's nice to be home). First day up there, New Plymouth was the windiest place in the country, so I didn't get to appreciate it until this week when the sky was blue and it was warm. Really nice practice - wonderful colleagues and staff and the patient mix is different to that at home. I see people who are even younger than I am! Many of them are long-established farming families, so they have a familiarity with the province that comes of living there and visiting generations of family in the cemeteries. Kapiti has a few families like that, but most of us are "immigrants" - I've been here 22+ years and I think 25 makes me a local. I wonder what my children think, and will they stay here and marry other Kapiti people?

At work...in Taranaki

It's very quiet at work at present, but that is a good thing as I have agreed to work at a friend's practice in New Plymouth. I've only been up there about twice in my life, so it will be exciting - and flights to a new airport are always exciting. So, looking forward to meeting different people - and trying to get my head around farming lifestyles....each practice has a different mix of patients from all others. Even in the same town, the practice has a tone that sets it apart. It attracts people who want slightly different things from people who choose to go elsewhere. So, in Kapiti Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays for the next few weeks. Looking forward to going away. And to being back.

Spring again!

A lovely warm spring day, in August - long may the weather last! Visique is promoting a new prescription sunglass programme for 2012-13, so that will be exciting - new ranges,Hoya lenses and still very good value for the person who wants good sunglasses and needs a prescription to see through them. And I was working at a friend's practice yesterday - in Wellington - definitely didn't feel like spring. And each practice has a different group of patients - very obvious when you start working as a part-time locum and seeing several practices in a short period of time. It's not just geographical - Sercombe and Matheson has many people who live up in Kapiti but choose to work in town - but many of their patients are involved in central government, of course. It's more than that - each practice takes on the personality of its principals - young and trendy, older and more conservative, time for a chat, "get it done quickly 'cos I'm busy"....all different horses for courses. So, with several new practices opening up in greater Wellington, I know patients often ask if that is affecting business. The advertising is very obvious, and patients comment on how much they are aware of ads that just weren't there a few years ago. Yes, it can be a problem, especially if you want to retain staff in quiet times. And the advertising often tells only part of the story....*terms and conditions apply....but in the long run, I know our practice will be OK. Because we have so many lovely, loyal patients who have chosen me as their optometrist, their primary carer for their eyes. Not everyone shops at Kirk's, not everyone shops at the Warehouse.Some people like the impersonality of a large medical centre - there is always a doctor to see you, even if it is a different one each time. But many prefer a long-term relationship with one health provider - I'm like that - and I enjoy seeing patients over many years so I can know them and their eyes better. It improves my advice to them, and so the outcomes they get. Glasses aren't just glasses - more info you give your optom means that the most appropriate glassesare the ones you get.

A wet Monday...

...but we were busy this morning with patients, booked patients as well as walk-ins for frame adjustments and advice, and this afternoon it seems to be "rep day". All the "other" things that make optometry interesting. Our income comes, of course, from patients - we are not subsidised by the Government for any exams. (The Enable NZ subsidy, for children under 16 with a Community Services' Card, pays towards the cost of an eye exam, repairs and/or glasses, but that is not universal, only for people meeting certain criteria.) So, anyone who comes in and has an eye exam, visual fields exam, purchases contact lenses, lens solutions or spectacles, pays our wages (and the tax-man, and the bank and the suppliers and the landlord and ....) But in much of optometry, like any other "business", much of the time is spent doing "admin" - contacting suppliers, writing letters to specialists and GPs, tidying up the practice, calculating GST returns, doing continuing education, etc, etc. All necessary, but "doesn't pay the bills" directly. And all the extra work with patients - adjustments, helping select frames, appro-ing frames from suppliers - all fun but again "not paying the bills" directly.But it's all part of the profession, all part of the business. And it's all part of full-scope optometry, and that makes life interesting. Just refracting eyes, checking the power of glasses a person needs and saying "next!" is boring. It's part of the whole, but far from being the whole. I must need a cup of tea - too much philosophy for a wet Monday.