Jan's Biography
The youngest of four children, I was born near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, which makes me just about qualify as a northerner. Childhood ill health gave me the time to become an avid reader, a trait I still have! I passed my eleven plus (yes, I’m that old!) and was able to go to the local girls’ grammar school. Having gained respectable grades at GCE A level I went to the University of Manchester where I obtained a degree in Politics and Modern History.
Then, as now, such degrees didn’t provide an entry into any particular career. My immediate career choice on leaving university was in a wine merchants, but unfortunately the owner’s business acumen did not match his knowledge of wines and the Collector of Taxes foreclosed – thus providing me with an insight into the power of the Inland Revenue and encouraging me to join that august body, at the same time as marrying my university sweetheart. Seven years later I left the Revenue and husband at the same time, and moved to Birmingham.
The technology revolution was beginning to speed up, so after a short course in typing and word processing I joined F International, a company almost entirely staffed by women that sold bespoke computer software to businesses. Not only did I learn something about computing, more importantly many of my colleagues were interested in improving their personal image, thus enabling me to discover which colours I should wear and what style! Not very earth shattering perhaps, but it’s saved a lot of time and money over the years!
Another seven years passed. Boredom was beginning to set in, when I saw an advert for a ‘Human Resources Co-ordinator’ for a manufacturing company in the Black Country. After a very long interview process I was successful, and entered into what proved to be the happiest period of my working life in HR. The company underwent a massive education programme in modern manufacturing principles, and the knowledge I gained from this experience has been useful in many ways ever since. However, although the people in the Black Country are wonderful to work with, their dialect is such that I had to have a translator for the first three months of work.
By this time I had re-married, and moved to a wonderful house in the suburbs – the sort of place which everybody says has much potential. It still had potential when I left to move to the Isle of Man in 1996, along with a very large removal van plus trailer, two cats and another trailer containing, amongst other things, a hot smoker (for smoking fish), several plant containers and a lot of loose pieces of wood. Having worked in the food industry for two years, I moved to work for the Isle of Man Post Office, and subsequently Manx Telecom, losing another husband in the process.
Moving to another country is always interesting, and the Isle of Man is no exception. Although they speak English as a rule, the Manx people do have their own language and are very proud of their traditions. It’s a lovely place to live as long as you can leave it every so often, but living there made the transition to Lincoln much easier, as the slower pace of life is much the same. I moved to Lincoln with the man who was to become my third husband (is there a trend here?) and worked at the County Council and the University before seeing the light and becoming a student of acupuncture, again at the University. Being a practitioner in a discipline which is so rich is an endless source of excitement, but my particular area of interest is in treating stress and its related conditions.