CURRENT MISSION

Cryptic version: make a compromise between understanding and doing. Straightforward version: enjoy the good stuff, make some plans, act on them.

ABOUT ME

I'm an Englishman in Barcelona who is kind of kicking around teaching English. I'm playing plenty of music at the moment and enjoying that. I pretty much always have the feeling that I need a little more direction in life... (sigh).

PHILOSOPHY

"It is not he or she or them or it that you belong to." {Bobby D}

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I used to do a fair bit of couchsurfing, often when I was busking Bob Dylan concerts(!) I couch-surfed in Croatia, The Netherlands, France, Finland and Estonia, and had a lot of really nice experiences. I also hosted a bit when I was living in Budapest.

Now I'm planning to travel alone again, so here I am!

Interests

Music, words, people, society, language, comedy

• concerts
• beer
• music

Music, Movies, and Books

An alphabetical walk through my music tastes: the Auteurs; Jacques Brel; Nick Cave; Dylan; Eno; Flaming Lips; Woody Guthrie; PJ Harvey; Iggy; J5; Kinks; Love; Joni Mitchell; New Order; Orange Juice; Gram Parsons; Quannum; Rolling Stones; Spiritualized; Television; Underground (Velvet, the); Stevie Wonder; t reX; Neil Young; Warren Zevon.

Ok, let's do some books too: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis; pretty much anything by George Orwell, Woody Allen's Complete Prose, Kafka, Steinbeck, Sartre (although I've only really tried his plays), Bliss by Peter Carey, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance... currently reading The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Walking miles to find a waterfall just outside Sarajevo, getting soaked in the rain (the colours in my passport started to run), and then some friendly locals buying me beer.

Teach, Learn, Share

I've been teaching English for the last twelve years, so I guess I know something about that. I've been mildly obsessed with pronunciation since moving to Spain.

I'm interested in cognitive approaches to language and language in use, particularly in how points of view move through society, how they are produced and reproduced, whose points of view they are, and the effects they have. Yeah!

I have a band (or they have me) - The Mild Antics - playing gigs and open mic nights in Barcelona. https://www.facebook.com/mildantics/

I used to run a small guide to Budapest - events, bars and things to do. It's probably still worth a look if you're heading to Budapest: http://www.hubcafes.blogspot.com/
but ignore the events bit!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Hungary, Spain, United Kingdom