My Background
I was born in Oldham, England in 1961 at Oldham and District General Hospital, which was famous for two things: Patrick Steptoe, the pioneer of in-vitro fertilisation was consultant there, and it overlooked Boundary Park, home of Oldham Athletic Football Club!
I did all the usual things, went to Primary school, then Junior School and finally on to Chadderton Grammar School. After leaving school, without an inkling of what I wanted to be when I “grew up”, I went to on to the University of North Wales in Bangor
After three years at the University studying Maths and Electronics, I graduated with a BSc (Hons) in 1983.
Another mill milestone in my life was when I married Paul in 1985. In 1986, Catherine was born, followed by Matthew in 1988.
In 1990 the whole family uprooted and moved to the province of Limburg in the Netherlands where we worked for Music Semiconductors.
In December 1994 we moved again – this time to Beuningen, very close to Nijmegen, still in the Netherlands. Paul and I worked for that world-famous electronics giant, Philips, in Nijmegen.
In July 2001 we upped and left for Canada, where new opportunities were calling. I accepted a job with Mosaid Technologies. Not before too long, everything went pear-shaped in the electronics and telecom industry, leading to huge job losses in the “High-tech capital of Canada”. I manage to weather two rounds of lay-offs in the two years that I was at Mosaid, but money and luck ran out at the end of April 2003. Happily I was re-employed the following year, but by a different company, IDT.
Unhappily that too came to an end in April 2008 and since then I have done a couple of short term contract jobs as an analog layout designer.
Before we go any further, just in case you ARE my big break, here’s my resumé.
My Interests
I guess that the best – and fastest – way to really get to know me is by discovering what I like. So here goes . . .
One of my main hobbies is photography
I also have a pet and dogsport photography business called MuddyPawz
I am also a Judge at Starters and Advanced level for the Agility Association of Canada (AAC). I compete with two dogs, Tyra and Ivan. Tanja, my first agility dog is now retired.
I intruct agility at Dreamfields some evenings (depending on the current timetable) as well as train my dogs there.