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I have been working as a professional wordsmith since 1993.
During those years I've created and contributed to a wide variety of
texts, from promotional leaflets and newsletters to scientific
coursebooks at university level.
I specialise in linguistics and TEFL, and I'm one of the very few
people who transliterate into the International Phonetic
Alphabet.
My qualifications relevant to this profession include:
- Membership of the Society for Editors and
Proofreaders - a testimony to high quality (and ongoing)
training, valuable experience and proven reliability
- Trinity Cert. TESOL, teacher of English as a
Foreign Language
- Dip ELS (Open) - Diploma of English Language Studies
- Open University degree in linguistics, Ancient
Greek & Latin, and astronomy/cosmology
My business background covers the
UK and Hong Kong,
including PR work for J Walter Thompson, and 10 years running a special
interest travel company (classical music festivals, natural history, fine arts and architecture, and fine food and wine).
And just so's there's no risk of you thinking I'm all work and no play, I'm
also involved in ...
-
Car Driving - I qualified as a
member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM)
and I sometimes have fun in a skid pan, too.
-
Scuba Diving - I'm a PADI Open
Water Diver and have dived the English Channel, the Med and the Red Sea.
-
Winter sports - I've spent winters abroad skiiing in Switzerland and France, I've had a go at snowboarding, and I spent time in the Canadian Rockies using a snowmobile and helping train a dogsled team.
-
Aviation - I hold a Private
Pilot's Licence, with IMC and Night Ratings. I have also
piloted a glider, a hang-glider and a helicopter, and have gone hot-air ballooning - and now I'm learning to fly a microlight.
-
Martial Arts
- judo many years ago, tai-chi between times, and now ki-aikido - yessss!
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Sailing, including
- restoring and sailing a two-mast,
gaff-rig traditional wooden boat
- windsurfing - the, er, wobble'n'splash
variety
- yachting – Solent Points, Cowes Week and
Kiel week racing and cruising, DoT Yachtmaster, Short-range Radio
Operator cert
- Tall Ship - crewing the STA's Prince William,
in the Azores.
-
Opera - for 10 years
I went to Covent Garden twice a week. I've also been to umpteen
performances
at Bayreuth, Salzburg and Glyndebourne.
-
Family - I'm the
mother of four young adults.
-
Weird and wonderful - I hold a Reiki first degree, and I'm learning crystal healing and dowsing.
-
Overseas travel - I
have travelled widely overland in Europe, Asia
(including Trans-Siberian Express), Africa and South
America.
- For 10 years I ran a travel
company specialising in art & architecture, wildlife,
gastronomy, and music festivals.
- I have spent more than a month in each of these
countries:
Iceland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal
(including Madeira),
Pakistan, India, Nepal, USSR, Hong Kong, Japan, Peru.
- I have travelled overland in:
Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Andorra,
Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, Thailand, Malaysia,
Singapore, Indonesia, Macao, China, Taiwan, Zimbabwe, Venezuela,
Canada (by train from the east coast to the west), Colombia, Bolivia.
-
Languages - some years back, I
had good
conversational and written French,
Italian and German.
I still have smatterings of them, and some knowledge of many
other languages.
There's a reason why I've mentioned all these things - if
your text has anything to do with any of them, you can expect
an extra polished result!
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