First, a photo, to avoid the "Who on earth's that", shock-horror questions. Taken last year for our company website.
Here are the bare bones of my post-Tain Royal Academy life to date:
1960-63: Edinburgh University. Found I was not really prepared for university. Chose the wrong subjects, did hardly any work, went to the pictures every single day. Scraped through to a degree, but with lots of failed exams and even one "turned up a day late for exam" (Latin prose) experience. Only my final year course on modern Scottish history engaged my interest 100%. But too late.
1963, July: Flirted with accountancy, but couldn't live on the four pounds a week I was offered. So:
1963-64: Moray House College of Education. Also not necessarily what I needed, but I enjoyed it. I failed conspicuously but deservedly to become a history teacher, but scraped through for English. I did, however, have a good time.
1964-1966: Germany - teacher in Brunswick
(Braunschweig), working from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. with 3 hours off
in the afternoon. Loved the place, country and people, but hated
the job. Stood it for 2 years, and then moved on. Had job offers
from Basle, Valencia and Casablanca.
1966 to the present: Basle, Switzerland. The perfect small city;
the perfect location at the point where Germany, Switzerland and
France meet; and cosmopolitan (with a third of the inhabitants
non-Swiss, a completely new experience for me. Taught English
for 5 years under much more humane conditions and
twice the pay.
1971 Decided to return to Scotland. Gave
up job and flat, packed hundreds of books in flimsy parcels and
sent them to my parents (some of them actually arrived and can
now be bought at the second-hand bookshop opposite St Clement's
Church in Dingwall!), arranged an interview at Edinburgh Education
Department and then changed my mind.
Got a job as translator at F. Hoffmann-La Roche ("Roche")
"the world's biggest pharmacy" Valium. Librium,
Rohypnol, etc. Settled down in an international marketing department
in a language-services group made up of Swiss, German, Spanish,
Italian and French colleagues. French was the dominant language
in the group, so "Thank you, Mr Melvin, for giving me a solid
grounding that I was able to flesh out (beef up?) over the years".
In 1982, I became head of the English group.
1988 was my watershed year. I left Roche to join a former colleague in setting up our own translation company, aiming for the niche market of "translation into English" and the principle that all employees become partners. The latter aim was a bit idealistic and did not work out in every case, but the company was a success right from the start, and now has branches in Zurich and Lausanne as well as Basle. To my (and others') huge surprise, I became something of a workaholic (the miracle of private enterprise!).
2002 March. I took early retirement. I am now into my third month of it and it hasn't really taken place I'm working almost as much as before and mostly at my old desk. I seem to need it, though I'm sure this will change as time goes by..
Stats:
Marital status: single.
Interests: reading, surfing, hiking, concerts & opera, cinema,
travel (not too far and not too long, though I have enjoyed two
longish stays in the USA). Oh, and watching "Eastenders",
of course.
Political affiliations: none, but leftish tendencies. Believe
in federalism and PR, and am prepared to stick up for the less
absurd forms of political correctness.
Contact: igsm@tiscalinet.ch