CURRENT MISSION

To feel free in everything I do..

ABOUT ME

I'm an easy-going half-English/half-Greek guy who loves travelling and has found he can do this even better by actually living in strange places around the world and teaching.

I'm currently teaching at an international school in Koh Samui, Thailand, and before that I was living in London. I lived here before for around a year so I know the culture really well. I can speak and read the language basically and love having a practice when I can.

About myself - well I love meeting other travelers, open minded people, and folks from different backgrounds other than myself.
I'm a generous, open minded guy who loves old music, world and art-house cinema, literature and socialising.
I can play pretty good folk guitar, OK blues piano, and pretty good bluegrass banjo. I also am learning the harmonica, and I've been cooking for 13 years.

I have a nice apartment with a couch, and while beds here are pretty cheap, I'd be up for showing some people around and getting some food etc.

PHILOSOPHY

'If the weather treats me right, I'm happy everyday.' (The Dubliners' quote, but such a true quote)

I also live by the Buddhist philosophy of desire being the cause of suffering, and that just by understanding that you can live a more peaceful live.

But more than anything I understand that our planet is just a mote of dust floating in a remote corner of an obscure galaxy located in a cosmos made of trillions of stars.... sometimes it really doesn't matter if you didn't get that job you so desired or that girlfriend you pined over for a month as we are like mayflies who live for a day in the sun and believe it is an eon.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm up for hosting. It can only be one person though as my couch is quite small.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

When I was living in Egypt I hosted a few people and showed a number of travelers around the city I was teaching in. I absolutely love the Couchsurfing experience and can't wait to get into it more with some European trips over the coming years. But so far I've already met a ton of brilliant people that I wouldn't have met otherwise.
I think the idea of letting friendly strangers come into your house while you cook/ get to know each other / show them around is a beautiful thing is similar to the way I traveled in all of the 30 or so countries that I have visited.

Interests

Old music - Delta blues, Dixieland etc.
Playing music - I'm still working on my theory.
Socialising.
Cooking.
Reading - speculative fiction, popular science, anything by Carl Sagan, J G Ballard, Kurt Vonnegut and Ursula Le Guin.
Fishing, Hiking and things outdoorsey.
Meditation, anthropology, philosophy, anything artistic, and of course, traveling.

• fish
• arts
• literature
• singing
• beauty
• dining
• cooking
• meditation
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• piano
• blues
• fishing
• hiking
• anthropology
• teaching
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Music - Rocksteady, Old Blues, Afro-beat, Folk, Old Soul, etc etc
Literature - speculative fiction, popular science, cult-American literature. Some of my favourite writers are H G Wells, Hunter SnThomson, Kurt Vonnegut, Carl Sagan and J G Ballard.
Movies - world, independent and arthouse cinema mainly: Werner Herzog, Studio Ghibli, Jim Jarmusch etc. I don't watch as many movies as I used to but I still respect the medium.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Actually overcoming my fears and going traveling. The amount of people with similar outlooks to me that I met was overwhelming... It caused me to shed numerous pretensions and appreciate our world from a global perspective instead of a parochial one.

Teach, Learn, Share

I have a strange collection of knowledge, most of it obscure and bizarre. If you want to know of the music scene in the Deep South before the 1960s, how to fish, or how to cook unique concoctions which I have created or borrowed from people, then it would be my pleasure.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can cook you some food, tell you a strange story about my life, sing a song on the guitar or banjo, make you laugh.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Laos, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Egypt, Thailand, United Kingdom

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