Since 2018, Trevor Plumbly has penned humorous and heartwarming insights for NZ Optics on how retinitis pigmentosa (RP) has impacted his life. Although he says he’s no fan of the term ‘journey’, his h
In pre-Blindy days, life was pretty comfortable. I was a reasonably successful auctioneer and antique dealer in the family business in Dunedin, strolling towards retirement. The retinitis pigmentosa diagnosis of likely blindness changed things; suddenly, future plans and living arrangements needed c
You probably wouldn’t give this blurry 1986 photo of third-year University of Auckland optometry students a second glance.
Life can often throw up unexpected moments that change the direction of our careers. As a second-year student in Manchester in 1986, I answered an advert in the UK optics press for volunteers to spend their summer vacation helping an eyecare team in Tanzania. Summer holidays in Merseyside or Tanzani
From my point of view (excuse the pun) it’s getting tougher to write new stuff. My physical world is pretty much limited by tired bits and pieces these days, so imagination supplies the more interesting slices of my daily doings.
When it comes to salaries it is impossible to keep everyone happy. The recent controversy regarding optometrists’ salaries in New Zealand, triggered by a research report into salaries and the
What gives a life purpose? Nearly four decades ago, in Lower Moutere, my friend Hazel Nash decided to put the orchard land she was living on to another use. She had an outdoor education centre in mi
A recent salary report by the University of Auckland aimed to create transparency around pay, spark conversation between employees and employers and arm employees with salary benchmarking data to
I was saddened, but not surprised, to hear of the Covid outbreak at our recent RANZCO NZ meeting in Wellington. Conferences are well-recognised superspreader events.
I've fallen into a bit of a rut lately, with recent developments on the visual front forcing a re-think about my grandson Sam's advice to take things more seriously. Up to this point I've never felt the urge to be an 'investigative' blindy; there's too much stuff out there and it keeps getting updat
As a kid, events before you were born, even just one or two decades earlier, lie in an unimaginably distant past. For me, the Second World War was that long ago place. Whoever those people were in the black-and-white footage, living in unimaginably different times, bore little resemblance to the peo
