IWEUA.COM
About Anna
About Anna
Hi... Welcome !
I thought it was about time I wrote a few words about me : people are
naturally curious, but often a little nervous to ask and sometimes you
want to explain and sometimes, you just don't know how to.
So here it is....... the big reveal :
I am an Engineer..... I live and breath it : Best job I ever had...!
I'm glad we got that out of the way........that's about it. Jan '17
I thought it was about time I wrote a few words about me : people are
naturally curious, but often a little nervous to ask and sometimes you
want to explain and sometimes, you just don't know how to.
So here it is....... the big reveal :
I am an Engineer..... I live and breath it : Best job I ever had...!
I'm glad we got that out of the way........that's about it. Jan '17
I remember fairly vividly watching the '76 Olympics and wondering how you got to do 'that'.... no... not score a
10 like Nadia, but work in teev, how did you get to be one of the Engineers working on a gig like that? In those
days it was all analogue electronics fairly comprehensible if you knew what a sine wave was, and that is what I
learned assiduously at college, and then a little later, it was all gone!
There was still a lot of analogue for the 5/6 years of my career, digital audio all around, but never video. And
then it was, I worked on parallel 601 machines, I had to make a parallel digital video D.A. once for the main
news gallery at Ten, can't remember why, all ECL logic and wire wrap : it did work. Then Serial 601... heady
days.
I started in professional audio, Advanced Music Systems, working with the Calrec team and the first assignable
consoles - cutting edge at the time, then to ProBel, then the dream job, the one a 24 year old is just too young
to really appreciate : Real World Studios...... Amazing times.
Then to Australia, a year 'off' after 7 years of non stop, I was to give up Engineering and become a bicycle
courier bien sur! That lasted a whole morning, fixing Studer A800s and building studios was far more fun.
A couple of lines in the Sydney Morning Herald, Ten needed someone.I cut my teeth in teev fixing Sony tellies,
though I had had some previous form with the old CRTs fitted into the S.S.L. 4000s ( remember them ? ).
I slaved away in a lovely workshop in the old Ten building at Ultimo, Sydney under the watchful guidance of
Sammy circa '95. Moving on to BVW 45s then 65s then 75s then 500s.... exciting times for a young bench
engineer learning their trade, ground up, in those days.
Meantime on days off, I was building bicycle frame courtesy of Reynolds tubing and my old neighbour in
Camperdown who had an oxy set... a labour of love of course. One of those frames, the one that had the right
dimensions, taking me 1200km back towards home via Thailand, Nepal and then wonderful amazing India.
Another two years in Sydney with Ten after that first trip, back home to the mad, exciting city of London for the
Millennium at Bloomberg, those years, it was a buzz. And then to a buzz of a different nature.
V.S.O. in Nigeria was.... looking back, life changing, tough at first, of course it was. I got lucky, meeting and then
working for the fledgling B.B.C. World Service Trust, now Media Action. I didn't want to come home, I had to
come home, it pulls you back, eventually.
Input Media, a company I will always look back on with very fond memories. My first M.C.R. role and not in a
quiet M.C.R., it was nuts at times! Thank you Chris.......
To Bangladesh for the B.B.C. again, another year away. My first Olympics, Beijing '08 in the middle of that and
then back to Dhaka.
Back to London and setting up my company, which still somehow employs me to this day and lots of work in
some of the most exciting and wonderful places I never dreamed I would ever get to.... imagine that?
So that was all work, I did say I lived and breathed my career, there wasn't a whole lot of time to do anything
else, apart from cycling, there is always time for that!
Well, this is my personal page, and if you have read this far, you deserve a little more.
For me it was 'easy', or natural.... deciding to transition, that is. I could say inevitable, something I had to do, to
resolve, one way or the other........ so no, it wasn't easy, not the 30 years leading up to me finally making my
first tentative steps. It wasn't easy trying to lead a dual life, one public / professional, one, very private. That
was hard... I just wasn't going to do it anymore, it had torn me in two, literally.
The details aren't important, though there isn't a lot to tell really. It is natural and easy to be curious on the
physical changes people undergo. Fascinating as that is, it really is just a day in the life of.... The big changes
individuals go through are the social ones, learning and growing into your 'new' self, with family, friends,
colleagues and the world in general. That is a fairly amazing process, an evolution of sorts, for me, a joyful,
liberating, very happy evolution.
I have been extraordinarily fortunate, I had a good career, one I really enjoyed. I have managed, just about, to
keep on top of life, I have had my moments like everyone else of course. I moved back to my home town after
25 years away to transition, if not there, then where? Close to family and friends who are all part of the deal, for
me it was and remains vital to bring those I love and care for, along with me, as much as possible. I don't want
to lose anyone, who does?
Then work... well, talk of luck. My industry is small, Broadcast, telly, it's a tiny number of people who do all those
big jobs. One thing I learned in all these years working in my industry was how amazing everyone was....
I had to tell my customers of course, one of which had recently engaged my services in a very public facing
role, visiting all their clients. The story I have recounted many times, the company? There is a clue on the page.
To any manager out there who faces the challenge of a member of their team undergoing a personal change in
circumstances, whatever that is - SUPPORT THEM! - As much as you can. You will never know just how much
loyalty you will get back from them, literally forever.
That's how lucky I got with a northern bloke, faced with someone who's just told them they are going to 'change
their gender' in Victoria station one afternoon April '15.
He had one question : ' How long is it going to take?'
My answer then, and now...... : ' I have no idea '
Best wishes,
Anna
January 2017
Upgrayde Broadcast Limited
10 like Nadia, but work in teev, how did you get to be one of the Engineers working on a gig like that? In those
days it was all analogue electronics fairly comprehensible if you knew what a sine wave was, and that is what I
learned assiduously at college, and then a little later, it was all gone!
There was still a lot of analogue for the 5/6 years of my career, digital audio all around, but never video. And
then it was, I worked on parallel 601 machines, I had to make a parallel digital video D.A. once for the main
news gallery at Ten, can't remember why, all ECL logic and wire wrap : it did work. Then Serial 601... heady
days.
I started in professional audio, Advanced Music Systems, working with the Calrec team and the first assignable
consoles - cutting edge at the time, then to ProBel, then the dream job, the one a 24 year old is just too young
to really appreciate : Real World Studios...... Amazing times.
Then to Australia, a year 'off' after 7 years of non stop, I was to give up Engineering and become a bicycle
courier bien sur! That lasted a whole morning, fixing Studer A800s and building studios was far more fun.
A couple of lines in the Sydney Morning Herald, Ten needed someone.I cut my teeth in teev fixing Sony tellies,
though I had had some previous form with the old CRTs fitted into the S.S.L. 4000s ( remember them ? ).
I slaved away in a lovely workshop in the old Ten building at Ultimo, Sydney under the watchful guidance of
Sammy circa '95. Moving on to BVW 45s then 65s then 75s then 500s.... exciting times for a young bench
engineer learning their trade, ground up, in those days.
Meantime on days off, I was building bicycle frame courtesy of Reynolds tubing and my old neighbour in
Camperdown who had an oxy set... a labour of love of course. One of those frames, the one that had the right
dimensions, taking me 1200km back towards home via Thailand, Nepal and then wonderful amazing India.
Another two years in Sydney with Ten after that first trip, back home to the mad, exciting city of London for the
Millennium at Bloomberg, those years, it was a buzz. And then to a buzz of a different nature.
V.S.O. in Nigeria was.... looking back, life changing, tough at first, of course it was. I got lucky, meeting and then
working for the fledgling B.B.C. World Service Trust, now Media Action. I didn't want to come home, I had to
come home, it pulls you back, eventually.
Input Media, a company I will always look back on with very fond memories. My first M.C.R. role and not in a
quiet M.C.R., it was nuts at times! Thank you Chris.......
To Bangladesh for the B.B.C. again, another year away. My first Olympics, Beijing '08 in the middle of that and
then back to Dhaka.
Back to London and setting up my company, which still somehow employs me to this day and lots of work in
some of the most exciting and wonderful places I never dreamed I would ever get to.... imagine that?
So that was all work, I did say I lived and breathed my career, there wasn't a whole lot of time to do anything
else, apart from cycling, there is always time for that!
Well, this is my personal page, and if you have read this far, you deserve a little more.
For me it was 'easy', or natural.... deciding to transition, that is. I could say inevitable, something I had to do, to
resolve, one way or the other........ so no, it wasn't easy, not the 30 years leading up to me finally making my
first tentative steps. It wasn't easy trying to lead a dual life, one public / professional, one, very private. That
was hard... I just wasn't going to do it anymore, it had torn me in two, literally.
The details aren't important, though there isn't a lot to tell really. It is natural and easy to be curious on the
physical changes people undergo. Fascinating as that is, it really is just a day in the life of.... The big changes
individuals go through are the social ones, learning and growing into your 'new' self, with family, friends,
colleagues and the world in general. That is a fairly amazing process, an evolution of sorts, for me, a joyful,
liberating, very happy evolution.
I have been extraordinarily fortunate, I had a good career, one I really enjoyed. I have managed, just about, to
keep on top of life, I have had my moments like everyone else of course. I moved back to my home town after
25 years away to transition, if not there, then where? Close to family and friends who are all part of the deal, for
me it was and remains vital to bring those I love and care for, along with me, as much as possible. I don't want
to lose anyone, who does?
Then work... well, talk of luck. My industry is small, Broadcast, telly, it's a tiny number of people who do all those
big jobs. One thing I learned in all these years working in my industry was how amazing everyone was....
I had to tell my customers of course, one of which had recently engaged my services in a very public facing
role, visiting all their clients. The story I have recounted many times, the company? There is a clue on the page.
To any manager out there who faces the challenge of a member of their team undergoing a personal change in
circumstances, whatever that is - SUPPORT THEM! - As much as you can. You will never know just how much
loyalty you will get back from them, literally forever.
That's how lucky I got with a northern bloke, faced with someone who's just told them they are going to 'change
their gender' in Victoria station one afternoon April '15.
He had one question : ' How long is it going to take?'
My answer then, and now...... : ' I have no idea '
Best wishes,
Anna
January 2017
Upgrayde Broadcast Limited
Some support sites for the community,my community:
GIRES ; Gender Identity Research and Education Society : and a quick video here
The Angels is a great, very mature and moderated support and forum site: http://www.angelsforum.co.uk
For younger people : The Mermaids is the place to go : http://www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/
GIRES ; Gender Identity Research and Education Society : and a quick video here
The Angels is a great, very mature and moderated support and forum site: http://www.angelsforum.co.uk
For younger people : The Mermaids is the place to go : http://www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/
