First Contact

After he knocked off from work (or was it "got knocked off by work"?) this evening, Eric Banana made his way to the Optical 88 outlet at Plaza Singapura to collect his contact lenses. The optician, Dennis Tham, got Eric Banana to wash his hands thoroughly with soap before he briefed the latter on the supposedly easy process of putting on the contact lenses.

Theoretically, Eric Banana understood what Dennis was saying. The practical part was... a little more challenging as he embarked on the grand task of putting on his first pair of contact lenses. Eric Banana started with his left eye and... after a long while, he was still at it. Wah lau eh! Frustrated, he then asked Dennis if he has ever encountered anyone who did not manage to successfully put on contact lenses. The latter's reply was no. No? How can it be? Eric Banana was quite sure that he would be the first one to break the record... when all of a sudden, he managed to successfully place the contact lens onto his left eye. His right eye took a *erm* longer while since he used his right hand (his master hand), which was kinda awkward. Nevertheless, he succeeded eventually. Yay, clear vision without spectacles! :)

Mission accomplished? Well, not quite. There's still the even grander task of taking the contact lenses out. Dennis said that the removal part is much easier - just pinch the contact lenses out with the thumb and index finger. Erm, like how? After the world has abandoned him and moved on, Eric Banana still could not get the contact lens out from his right eye. Dennis - bless his kind soul - even went to the extent of demonstrating the process of putting a contact lens on his eye and removing it. Seeing that Eric Banana's right eye has turned all red, Dennis offered to end his agony by removing them for him. That was awfully nice of him but Eric Banana declined politely - he was not about to let another person's fingers touch his eyeball. After much difficulty, Eric Banana finally managed to remove the contact lens from his right eye. He then proceeded to remove the one on his left eye with relative ease. Okay, maybe Eric Banana belongs to the rare group of people who are not fated to wear contact lenses.

For reasons unknown to Eric Banana, he found himself popping the contact lenses back onto his eyes at Dennis' urging. This time, it was faster. It had to be, since the first attempt took something like between eternity and forever. The removal process was also faster.

At the end of it all, Eric Banana was extremely grateful to Dennis who was very patient and helpful. He will try putting on the contact lenses tomorrow morning. With some luck, he can pop them in before lunch time. Maybe he should start trying to put them in now so that he can get a super early headstart or something.

Oh, and Eric Banana cannot believe he spent 1.5 hours stabbing his own eyes just now >.<