CURRENT MISSION

to become who I am...and make things a little better

ABOUT ME

I'm friendly and I love meeting new people.... I'm still good friends with someone I met in supermarket queue 10 years ago.. and someone I met at a bus stop....my friends charmingly tell me I have a chaos factor... whenever I get started on an anecdote there is much rolling of eyeballs and 'that would only happen to you!'
I'm a bit of a bloody minded idealist if that's possible.. I have the odd moment where the world convinces me that I may have it completely wrong and that really everything sucks but my optimism generally reasserts itself.
I've been living and working mainly overseas for a few years now and in the process I've kind of re-made myself as a person who can cook, unblock toilets and tolerate being electrocuted in the shower....

PHILOSOPHY

I always try to listen my instincts and follow what is in my heart though often that means taking the harder road... I guess my philosophy is to ask even when there don't seem to be answers and to try even when I'm not altogether sure that I can.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Since I'm often travelling with work, I can't always host. However, having been a newbie in town myself on many occaisions, I do my best to make people feel welcome...answer questions, offer advice, arrange the odd meeting and trip... I've also stayed with and visited some great people when I'm travelling and have been well and truly humbled by their kindness and willingness to share a little of their worlds with me

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Partying in fancy dress in Cologne, exploring the hills of Syria, hunting for cowboy-hatted csers at a desert rave and many wonderful conversations.. I'm not quite sure how to summarise! Meeting really fabulous people and generally being left with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside that there can be such kindness floating around the world.... in simple terms sometimes it is good to be able to do something good.. and nice to have some of my faith in people restored..

Interests

I'm secretly a bit of a closet geek... I've been know to chat about the Geneva Conventions till 4 am but I don't do that all the time!
I love books, poetry, politics ... but I like to spend time here going out having fun and hanging out with friends which I love... I think I spend slightly more time than I should in bars and going out dancing when I'm somewhere where I can. On the flip side I like to wander round in the hills by myself or get a map and go explore and get muddy!
I love banter.... good quality banter is a dying art and when I get a sniff of it I'm caught.... my friends tell me that when I'm on form I'm somewhere between Bertrand Russell and Oscar Wilde - not quite the look I was going for but there you are!

• arts
• books
• poetry
• dancing
• cooking
• partying
• politics
• traveling
• swimming
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

I love cheesy movies - Princess Bride, Flash Gordan, Bride and Prejudice plus misc chick flicks.. I also love horror (particularly if it involves zombies) but I tend to scare myself half to death so I'm trying to wean myself off and satisfy myself my doing bad zombie impression with friends. Love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and secretly wanted to be her when I grew up... still working on that. Haven't quite got the high kicks and staking down pat..! Currently slaking my thirst with True Blood. Red Dwarf - you've got to love lines like "smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast" its almost up there with "he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy".
Anything with a whiff of some reality or what could be reality grabs me... (West Beirut, Paradise Now, Hotel Rwanda, Children of Men) but I'm a bit of a wuss and will sit in front of the screen crying buckets.
Music.. I'm a bit of a musical floozy and I tend to inherit favourite groups off other people... longstanding loves include Tracy Chapman, Dave Matthews Band, Lifehouse as well as some seriously retro stuff. I enjoy partying to dance music.
Books.. recent favourite is Five People You Meet in Heaven but I love books like 1984, Cry the Beloved Country, Brave New World, A hundred years after Beatrice etc

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Just one? I could never pick just one. I do things and names in multiples (as you will discover) - escaping from a charging rhino, rainbows over Victoria Falls, holidaying from my life by becoming a glamour make up artist, being smuggled into a military base, swimming through flooded wadis walled by the deserts sand in Jordan, the sun setting on the Himalayas and firing the mountains with pink...

Teach, Learn, Share

I am a bit of a thinker so love to ponder with people... I'd love to learn salsa.. and I am trying to teach myself to cook with reasonable success...

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Jordan, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom

• 

•