>I have never visited an eye doctor but I get my specs from an optician.
You sure? At least where I live, you get an exam from an "eye doctor" (typically an optometrist) when you get a prescription. An optician fits and sells glasses. Ophthalmologists are M.D.s who have broader latitude in prescribing medications, etc.
This is one of the differences between UK and US English. In Britain, the term "eye doctor" just isn't used.
It's of a type with legislator vs law-maker; it's only really in the past few years that politicians in the UK have occasionally been referred to as law-makers.
