CURRENT MISSION

Visiting Greece in August 2013

ABOUT ME

I love the unusual, the unique and the strange. I love travelling and have lived and travelled extensively in S.E Asia but Cape Town is still the most beautiful place on Earth in my book. I can take a walk on Table Mountain, watch the sunset over the ocean and party like a demon all on the same day (otherwise known as "Saturdays"). I love going out dancing and taking photos. I'm respectful, inquisitive and I believe in trying everything at least once. I'm vegetarian but I'm lousy in the kitchen. I'm an information junkie. I hope to always continue a never ending love affair with the unpredictable.
I can advise you where to stay/eat/party/drink/chill/lose your mind/take a road trip/get involved with NGOs...anything you can think of. I'm Capetonian born and bred so I can make sure you see more than just your run-of-the-mill tourist traps and that you meet the real people that make (es)Cape Town tick, but besides that I also work in the tourism sector so I can tell you craploads about the Western Cape province coz working in tourism used to be my day job :)
I'm also a member of Cape Town's LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & intersex) community so I can give lots of info on Pink Cape Town, including how to get involved with supporting NGOs like Luleki Sizwe - a Cape Town based charity fighting for lesbians against 'corrective rape' in South Africa. Or when the open mic drag night is. Or the best places to hang out. Or how to get involved with Africa's first organisation for transgenders.
Please though, I want to meet you regardless of your orientation. Bring champagne and I might never let you leave.

PHILOSOPHY

"20 years from now you will be more disappointed by things you didn't do than those you did.
So throw off your bowlines. Sail away from the safe port. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover" - Mark Twain

"Everything I really like to do is either illegal, immoral or fattening" - Alexander Woollcott

"Music is the shorthand of emotion" - Leo Tolstoy

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." - Nietzsche

"Girls with slick, shiny barbershop haircuts, trimmed so short your fingertips can barely grip it, girls whose shirts button the other way, girls that swagger...girls who get stared at in the ladies room, girls who shop in the boys department...girls who live every moment looking like they werent supposed to. It's the girls that get called sir everyday who make me catch my breath, girls with strong jaws that buckle my knees, the girls who are a different gender who make me want to lay down for them." - Tristan Taormino

"Paradise is where I am." - Voltaire

"There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust." - Edgar Allen Poe

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

"There is no bottom to my heart and no limit to the acrobatic feats of my imagination." - Anais Nin

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..." - Jack Kerouac

"Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words 'make' and 'stay' become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free." - Tom Robbins

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library" - Jorge Luis Borges

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

As long as I'm in Cape Town, you'll always be welcome! I make sure that people get a real view of this city and the surrounds by making sure they try something or meet someone that a guidebook wouldn't have led them to.

Interests

Reading, Writing, Orchids, Short stories, Dancing, Hiking, Chilling on the beach, Nature, Great vegetarian food (this is more of a necessity than an interest ;), Interior Design, Kinbaku, Topiary, Shoes, Jewellery, Poetry, Art, Costume Parties, Lomography

• arts
• writing
• books
• poetry
• design
• interior design
• dancing
• dining
• vegetarian
• running
• partying
• drinking
• gardening
• shopping
• reading
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• sailing
• bungee jumping
• tourism
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC: Jamiroquai, Lovage, CSS, Placebo, Radiohead, Ani di Franco, Missy Elliot, Lucy Pearl, Bob Marley, Deep Dish, Rihanna, The Herbaliser, Nellie McKay, Nelly Furtado, Metric, Morcheeba, Thievery Corporation, Kosheen, Gossip, FreshlyGround, Springbok Nude Girls, Lark, Ida Maria, Red Snapper, Ursula Rucker, Stephane Pompougnac, Madonna, The Bellrays, Vivaldi, The Roots, Pink, Peaches, Moodorama, MSTRKRFT, The Presets, Manu Chao, Maxwell, Groove Armada, Kaki King, Florence and the Machine, Buraka Som Sistema, Black Kids, Aaliyah, Billie Holiday, Erykah Badu, Kings of Leon, Santigold, Mirwais, Tegan and Sara, Waldeck, The Hives, TLC, Bob Sinclair, Kanye West, Jenny and Johnny, Raphael Saadiq, Cut Copy, Lykke Li, Crystal Castles, Pantyraid, Moloko, Basement Jaxx, Studio Apartment, Rolling Stones, Gwen Stefani, Common, Kelis, Hed Kandi

BOOKS: The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The World and Other Places, Lolita, How to Travel with a Salmon, I the Divine, Kite Runner, The Alchemist

MOVIES/TV: Snatch, The Life of David Gale, CSI Las Vegas, The Amazing Race, Summer Heights High, Flight of the Conchords

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Snorkelled in the ocean with a huge Whale Shark in Mozambique.
Walked on the Great Wall of China on Christmas Day.
Slept in the Borneo Jungle.
Been to the Banaue Rice Terraces of the Philippines.
Learned how to ride a scooter in Taiwanese traffic!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can give tips on travelling around S.E.Asia.
I'm also a mean copy editor if you need any writing that needs to be looked over.
I can advise on regions just outside of Cape Town eg the Cape Winelands, the Cape Garden Route (where you'll find the highest bungee jump in the world), the Cape Overberg (home to one of the best landbased whale watching sites and the southernmost tip of the African continent), the Cape West Coast (you can drive along this coast en route to Namibia) and the Cape Karoo desert.

Countries I’ve Visited

Botswana, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mozambique, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Africa, Taiwan, Viet Nam