CURRENT MISSION - Home: Domestic bliss. Away: Make the most of it.

ABOUT ME - Active...interested...positive...friendly...thoughtful...?!

PHILOSOPHY - Honesty + empathy.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I love to extend stays whenever I have to work in Europe. I enjoyed staying in traveler hostels when I was younger but then discovered Couchsurfing - which is deeper and more gently sociable :-) As for hosting, we love meeting people who are travelling to Leicestershire and enjoy giving them an insight into our life and where we live.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Many fantastic CS experiences over the years - mostly surfing or meeting up - and I still love it!

Have occasionally pursuaded Couchsurfing friends to come and visit us in England. And we have hosted overseas colleagues and their families, and visitors to the University where I work - it's a great way to meet people from all around the world, and saves them from being stuck in a charmless hotel.

Interests

Walking up mountains, snowboarding down them, and mountain biking around the edges.
Garden parties, campfires and the occasional dinner party.
Woodland conservation and youth volunteer work.
Teaching every week at a children's karate class.
Creating and listening to all kinds of different music.
And family life of course - which I deeply love.

• beer
• walking
• gardening
• board games
• socializing
• music
• jazz
• guitar
• piano
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• snowboarding
• mountains
• feminism
• comedy

Music, Movies, and Books

I love jazz (Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Bill Lawrance), but also listen to some musical electronica (Röyksopp, Pendulum), metal (e.g. Napalm Death), some classical, and odd stuff like Balkan Beats, Eurovision, Steve Reich and Flight of the Concords!

Films should be original as well as entertaining or thought provoking, and give some insight into a culture, place or idea. Old favourites over the years have included Monsters, 12 Monkeys, Gridlockd, District 9, Moon, Taxi, The Life Aquatic.

Favorites books include some classics (Heller, Huxley, Heinlein, Harrison, Thompson, Buchan and Greene for example). More recent highlights include The Bees by Laline Paull, and Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Camping with 25,000 people from 135 countries in the Soraksan National Park in South Korea.

Other highlights include happy times inter-railing around Europe with my wife during long summer holidays away from my PhD. Playing in bands at gigs and festivals (metal guitar and jazz piano, but very different bands at different times!). But those things were many years ago now - I need some more 'amazing' things to add to the list!

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach - Teaching (!), piano, pilates, karate, snowboarding.
Learn - See 'Teach' above. Also, I'd like to be able to sing better.
Share - Jazz improvisation? That's a long shot...ok, how about a craft IPA?

What I Can Share with Hosts

Enthusiasm!
Music - we have a very nice piano, a keyboard, many guitars, a saxophone, an accordion, and many other instruments!
Meals.
Woodland camping at Shining Cliff, Derbyshire.
Visiting National Trust places like Stoneywell and Calke Abbey.

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Italy, United Kingdom