The RYA failed me on medical grounds, so I can't teach people to sail - my eyesight wasn't good enough. Since I couldn't get them to change their policy, I decided to change my eyesight.

-5.25 in left and right until Friday June 13, when I went to 13 Clare Street in Bristol for Lasik (Mr Slazus). Best not to be superstitious.

"We could do monovision if you like", I was told, and in all my researches, including this website, I had never heard of it. Nor it seems had the receptionists. "That means just one eye, 'cos "mono" means "one"", the girl behind the desk said.

In fact, it means different treatment on each eye to allow me, with some slight astigmatism left in my left eye, to read and see distance without glasses. First time for 47 years! (OK, I'm 58). I can read the small print on my watch face only with my left eye, and see number-plates in the distance only with my right. In my head I'm bifocal, it seems.

The next day I reached out and put on my specs, as ever, to find the room all blurry. The big moment was in the shower on that first morning - I could see all my toes and count them without glasses! The pleasant surprise is still with me when I shower.

After-effects? Some glare from headlights for the first few weeks, and I need good light to read in bed. After my August check-up I was sent to Croydon to the Number One Man, Professor Ventner, because I still felt I was getting only 90%, and he performed a minor surface operation, radial "C" cuts, on my right eye, giving me 20:20 vision on the subsequent check-up. The optometrist in Bristol was so impressed she told me she was going to e-mail Prof Ventner to congratulate him.

Overall comments?

The surgery bit is fine, and I like the way they talk you through it all during the operation. In the time it takes to describe the process to your friends (which I often do) he's done one eye. I was a bit surprised to have no medication. "What about the Valium?" I asked. Apparently it makes your pupils wobble. And also why didn't they clamp my head in some gadget or other?

Front of house the Bristol place needs to be improved. The young women are friendly, but know little of the process you're going through, and mainly seem to be interested in getting you back in good time to be operated on. "Come back at 2.30", one said, "in good time for your 2.45 operation". In the end I was dealt with at 4.15, and that meant a two-hour wait because I had come back even earlier.

The Optimax computer system seems to be pretty dire at keeping track of appointments, and I really don't like the check-up people reading the notes about me after I have sat down with them. "Have I seen you before?" one asked me. My daughter's retort to that was that if she needed to ask the question, maybe she should have the treatment herself ....

Would I recommend it? It's such a big thing, having your eyes done, that I wouldn't make the decision for another, or urge it on them. For me it's been great: snorkelling without problems, never having your vision steam up as you enter a warm room, pulling a sweater over your neck without holding your glasses, sailing in driving drizzle without feeling you need wipers. Keep asking people and decide for yourself.