Since retirement

Nigel Burnett Hodd has been retired for over three years now. We still have many patients who started with Nigel 40 years ago and some even saw Mr Frederick Burnett Hodd, Nigel’s father.

Many of you may not know that Frederick’s father, George William was also an Optometrist in Moorgate, London. For more on the history of the practice please go to our history page. We went to see Nigel to find out what he has been doing since retirement:

Nigel, are you glad you retired?
Well, I felt that the practice was being delivered into safe hands and hence I should retire, like my father did when I took over. I have to say I am enjoying every minute of it. However, I want to let all my patients know how much I have loved our friendship over so many years and how much I appreciate all of you who recommended me to retire, even though I would no longer be seeing you.

I miss every patient I have ever seen and can remember most of you by name and lens type! Thank you for giving me so much pleasure over the years.

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What have you been doing with your time since retiring?
Well, nine years ago, Rita and I upsized to a wonderful level plot of just over an acre in Woldingham, Surrey. I am an asthmatic who loves cacti and gardening but I am affected by pollution (London traffic) and pollens (especially oilseed rape and lilies), so Woldingham, at 900-feet up, has no fields of rape or traffic pollution. After one year I have already thrown away my inhalers and become a lot healthier.

After a lot of work, we now have two glasshouses containing over 650 varieties of cacti and succulents.

Last year we decommissioned our hard tennis court and have built eight raised beds and a beach hut as a fabulous entertainment space. A 4-hole putting green will be added next spring as I am an active member of the North Downs Golf Club some 1,000 metres away.

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Have you given up optics altogether?
Not at all. I am Honorary Treasurer and Secretary of the International Society of Contact Lens Specialists and I am in charge of organising a five-day Congress in Seoul, South Korea in 2020. I am also a Council Member of the Association for Independent Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians (AIO). These two organisations keep me pretty busy.

Any new challenges?
I recently won ten 1st prizes at the local flower show. Among them were prizes for Best Male Produced Eccles Cakes and Best Photograph. I am also chairman of the Friends of St Johns Home in Whitstable, Kent.

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