View From the Other Side..the other side of the tracks

by Nancy Halverson, Feature Writer

Other side of what you ask? As some of you may not know the background, here's a bit of a refresher.

Some Background

I joined the Southwestern Ontario Chapter STC way back in 1997, as a career switcher. I worked contracts for a while, and then got a job with Inscriber in Waterloo. My husband finished his PhD in 2002 and found an academic posting in Sheffield England, and we moved here. Now, I'm working and the kids are in a good school, we've friends and our own home, and life continues as normal. Except of course, that I'm driving on the other side of the road, my kids have other accents and I'm quite addicted to English toffee. Life is normal, but always viewed from a slightly different angle.

Annual General Meeting in UK

In June, I went down to the AGM (Annual General Meeting) of the STC-UK. Actually, I took my whole family down to London for some 'museum-ing', while I attended the all day AGM. It's a small and disjointed chapter in many ways—diverse in scope and sparse in membership. That meeting went very well, and I got conned (I mean elected) to the post of Second Vice-President. (Which, by the way, is the reason for my official switch from the SOC to the UK chapter). I'm hoping they don't ask for much, 'cause it's tough to get to London from here (as you'll see).

Train Riding as a National Sport

Train travel is so everyday here—many people hop on a train daily for an hour or more to get to work. However, as normal as train travel might be, so are delays. It's a national sport actually, complaining about the rail system (ah, when British Rail ran everything, the sun always shone and no one was ever late...) Halcyon days no doubt.

The rail system's been privatized for a while now, and there's been precious little investment in the things that might keep it running. Oh, the seats may be nicer now, and the doors safer, but the tracks still get affected by everything from too much sunshine (it happens) to the wrong kind of leaves falling on them.

A FrameMaker Session

Our chapter had scored a free session with a FrameMaker guru (Shlomo Perets) and an evening workshop set up in London. A friend of mine from Manchester way (about an hour east of Sheffield) booked us both on a train for the event. Nick's a translator professionally, but finds the STC helpful, and FrameMaker especially valuable.

Getting There is More Than Half the Battle

I left work at 3 p.m. and walked the five minutes to the station to meet Nick. The train was only 10 minutes late pulling into the station, and we set off. It had turned into a pleasant day—after a morning of rains (and some floods), but by time we were enjoying our wine and snacks (Nick booked first class—he must have known something), we were traveling through warm sunshine. We were making fairly good time for about 15 minutes, and then the train slowed. We waited for the inevitable announcement, "We do apologize for the delay, we'll let you know why we're stopped as soon as we get any news..." Blah blah.

Nick and I spent the time productively, discussing our jobs and the advantages and disadvantages of FrameMaker 7, structured FrameMaker, XML etc.

A Change in Jobs

I suppose that I should tell you now that I've switched jobs. I had been working for a company (Lynx) who produced software for mortgage administration. I had resigned myself to keeping that job, and wasn't looking around for anything new. The work was boring, directionless and very not-innovative, but I was willing to keep the job in this lack-lustre climate. A recruiter called me up—he had my CV from the previous job search—and he told me about a job with a company that produced software for interactive DVD producers. I started to get excited about the possibility right away, and was over the moon when the company wanted to see me right away. Actually, I had my first interview the day before the June STC meeting, and my second interview was already scheduled for the following Tuesday. Everything seems to happen at once sometimes.

About ZOOtech

So, now I'm a sole writer for a small, but international, funky, young and exciting company. It's called ZOOtech, so I tell everyone that I work at the zoo now. It's a great opportunity to organize (small 'm' manage) a docs department, and I felt very comfortable right away. My boss is the product manager, and he used to be the tech writer for the company, so I've got a great amount of support and access to all the resources I need. Unlike my job with Lynx, I've got complete access to developers and managers, and, I get to influence the GUI. There's even a dedicated usability engineer and I work closely with her.

The Reason for the Trip

My agenda for ZOO includes transferring the current docs from Word to FrameMaker, and it was for this reason that I wanted to go down to this London session, and to pick Nick's brains about structured Frame and translation etc.

Back to the Train Saga

Which brings us back to the train trip. We'd been standing on the tracks for about an hour and a half when we finally were given some indication of the scale of the problem. Considering that we were due to arrive in London at 6 p.m., and our meeting was to start at 6:30, things were getting a little tight, time wise. Apology after apology from the train staff, but we were only told that there were signaling problems, which honestly, can mean anything.

A Bus Instead of a Train

It turned out that all the trains were being stopped at Derby (pronounced Darby—one of those English niceties). Derby's usually only about 30 minutes from Sheffield on a normal run, but this day, it took a total of two-and-a-half hours for our train to actually pull into the Derby platform. We were told that our journey would have to continue by bus. So, we stood with the rest of the disgruntled passengers, in front of the train station waiting for a bus.

I suppose, more intrepid travelers might have pushed through to London. But, as we got into Derby at roughly the same time that we were supposed to be pulling into St. Pancras in London, well, we just cut our losses and climbed aboard the bus back to Sheffield.

Placing Blame

Nick blamed himself—he figures that he's fated to never meet Shlomo in person. See, Nick's tried to take courses from him in the past, and things were always delayed for one reason or another, so he took another Frame course.

We also were a bit narrow with our travel window—leaving only an hour to spare for travel delays can be over-optimistic. But many times, that kind of scheduling is not tight at all.

A Car Instead of a Train?

You may wonder how long it would have taken had we driven down. Well, the way the roads clog up in this country, it probably could have been anywhere from four to eight hours, which is why the prospect of spending a pleasant journey in first class for just over two hours seemed so much better.

I don't know if I'll attempt another mid-week evening in London—while it was pleasant enough, you just never know when things will work and when they won't. Still, the delay wasn't because of a crash, and no one was injured, and I got to tuck my kids into bed, so it wasn't a total loss.

Phone Meetings

I'm told that our STC council business will mostly be conducted via phone calls and other electronic meetings, so I'm hopeful that I won't get have to venture too far from home for a while. We are going to try for another meeting of tech writers in the 'North' sometime soon, to try and reach others like me who don't always make it to the London events.

FrameMaker Tales

As for my questions about FrameMaker, I'm still doing more research. If anyone has any tales to tell, please, share them with me.

More on the exciting life of the ex-pats (someone who is working outside their own country) next month. Here's a picture of me and my husband with our youngest daughter (7 years old) that was taken at Tintagel (legendary home of Arthur) in Cornwall.

About Nancy Halverson

Nancy grew up in Toronto, but has lived in Ottawa, Melbourne, Waterloo, and now Sheffield. She has travelled through the South Pacific, Australia and Indonesia, which is where she met her husband, Ryan Wilson (another Canadian), along the way. A career switch introduced her to the STC in 1997. Her writing experience has included several contract positions and a position at Inscriber for several years. She has two daughters and has been living in England for two years.