11Aug 2020

I spent an hour or so this morning in the company of a very lovely, softly spoken young man who spent a lot of time staring deeply into my eyes.

I had to pay for the privilege, unfortunately. But that’s what you have to do when you get to my age.

He was, I’m sure you’ve guessed, an eye specialist. Not that my eyes aren’t fascinating, though.

I have a couple of pterygium’s, one of which is starting to creep into areas of my eye it should preferably not go. Hence the visit to the nice young man who will in a couple of months take care of the nasty little creeper.

But firstly – my ocular public awareness message for today – wear sunglasses. If you spend time in the north west – really really wear sunglasses. End of public service announcement. Just do it.

Anyway – back to the pterygium. I had discussions with my mum – my go-to for talking about the nice young men who stare into your eyes (she has one too, and while he’s not as young as mine I guess it’s relative depending on the ages you are comparing). The discussion, of course, diverted quickly from the starer-into-eyes, and onto spelling.

Mum remembers some things well and some things not so well, but one thing she does remember is the PT start to the spelling of pterygium (pronounced terrijium if you’re not clued up).

I mentioned other words that also start with pt – like pterodactyl. Mum denied all knowledge of knowing anything about pterodactyls. I suspect it’s because she didn’t want to lead me into accusing her of being old enough to having a pterodactyl as a pet when she was young.

We did have a brief discussion, about whether you’d be better having a pterygium or a pterodactyl creeping up on you. I think the pterygium wins.

And yes – all you smarty-pants out there who are salivating about your reply to my topic of the day informing me that pterodactyls weren’t dinosaurs, but they did exist around the same time. I know. But the title of “one eyed about pterosaurs” didn’t have the same kick.

If you have something starting with pt in your future, I hope you have a nice softly spoken young man to assist you. And let’s hope he’s not an palaeontologist.