ABOUT ME

I'm into personal exploration and growth in a big way. I'm inquisitive and prepared to make mistakes. As well as loving Canada and Canadians, living in Toronto is also about having a blank canvas to test new things out. I'm strongly self-directed and individual, and I'm a fairly unusual mixture of hippie and geek. I'm strongly alternative in many respects, yet you could probably introduce me to your parents. Conscious people tend to pick up on both my self-aware maturity and a certain boyishness about me. I'm political, spiritual, community-oriented and health-and-fitness conscious. I'm also queer - these days I prefer to identify as bisexual but I'm predominantly (like 95%) gay. I also identify as sex-positive and I'm starting to lean substantially towards being polyamorous.

Emotional openness and authenticity are increasingly central to my life. While I choose to be somewhat physically transient in this phase of my life, you certainly wouldn't describe me as detached. I love meeting all kinds of new people, hearing experiences and viewpoints, and learning from them. I'm enthusiastic for good conversation with most people, I'm often told I'm a good listener, and I'm usually good at retaining and building inter-personal connections with people I truly value.

I'm generally the considerate type and able to be well organised when I want to be. When you have my attention you have my attention, and I'm open-minded to a fault. I'm surprisingly capable of being a morning person. However I also have good senses of humour and fun, and I enjoy good nights out socialising and/or partying (often at gay/queer places).

Two things I particularly enjoy are animated spontaneous conversations (I talk intelligently, but not always about intelligent subjects), and strange and random sights and experiences, especially when travelling or with travellers.

Generally I'm strongly motivated to make the world a better place, not to make money. I envy people who really love their jobs; sadly my background as a public sector bureaucrat never made me one of them. I've put that career behind me now. I'm taking summer 2013 off to recharge and explore, and I will go back to university part-time to start re-training in the field of psychology in September 2013, while hopefully still earning a really enjoyable living as a creative entrepreneur. Life is much more exciting when you back yourself to make money for yourself doing things you love!

My travel highlight was a 5-month round-the-world trip in 2010. My favourite destinations are Scandinavia (especially Sweden and most of all Stockholm) and Canada, but I'd also particularly love to get back to Australia, Japan and the Middle East.

PHILOSOPHY

"Be who you are and do what you say, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr Seuss

Know yourself. Be conscious and present in as much of what you do as possible. Aspire to improve yourself or the world around you every week. Remember that you are a mere speck on the Earth's surface, and the Earth is a mere speck in the universe - your worries are insignificant! Doing something good, and collecting experiences, are both far more important than making money.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I love the CS ethos. I've had some very treasured experiences with people I met through CS - either via hosting, surfing, or coffee/drink meets. Some of these connections have endured. May there be many more still to come.

I also love how CS makes extensive independent travel more financially accessible to more people, and reduces the need for paid hotel/hostel accommodation. (It is so sad that society has organised itself in such ways that you're expected to "pay" to stay in a "hotel" when you travel... CS is a glimpse of the better future that is absolutely possible.)

From September(ish) 2013, I'm planning to live alone for the first time, in my 2-bedroom London apartment. This means I will be able to offer couchsurfing guests their own room, which I believe is best for you and for me, and is likely to energise me to host more frequently.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've hosted 12 surfers since 2009, including 4 different people I already knew from prior CS contact on my own travels. Also since 2009 I've surfed 15 couches from Helsinki to Sydney, and from Vancouver to Singapore.

17 lovely CS peeps have agreed to meet me for a coffee or drink on my travels, while I've done the same in London without hosting for 3 people.

And I've been to CS meet-ups of one kind or another in Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm, Jerusalem, New York City and Toronto.

My references and friendship links tell much of the story!

Interests

Politics (left-libertarian and green) | travelling | listening to music | reading | walking | going to the gym | board games | video games | occasional clubbing | contemporary art | cricket | 5Rhythms | yoga | spirituality | psychology | activism | sociology | community-building | learning Swedish

• arts
• books
• contemporary art
• documentaries
• coffee
• fitness
• yoga
• walking
• partying
• drinking
• clubbing
• politics
• video games
• board games
• reading
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• camping
• surfing
• cricket
• entrepreneurship
• psychology
• sociology
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Musically, I'm into electronica, and pop music that's either good or just happy and fun. My favourite artists include Pet Shop Boys, The Sound of Arrows, deadmau5, BWO, ABBA, Scissor Sisters, Crystal Castles, Ace of Base, Air, September, Kylie and Mika. I'm a big fan of the Eurovision Song Contest and the Swedish national song contest Melodifestivalen.

When it comes to films, I mostly like smart, thought-provoking, character-focused indie films. My favourites include: Billy Elliot, Beautiful Thing, Amour, Daybreak (Om jag vänder mig om), Adoration, Milk, Goodbye Lenin, The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen), Juno, This Is England, In a Better World (Hævnen), Together (Tillsammans), Lilya 4-Ever, The Orphanage (El Orfanato), Festen (The Celebration), and The Skin I Live In. There are certain kinds of trash movies I also enjoy, with Mamma Mia and Scott Pilgrim vs the World being the best examples.

I don't find as much time to read fiction as I'd like, but my favourite authors are Lionel Shriver, Nick Hornby, George Orwell, JK Rowling and Stieg Larsson.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Living abroad. It's a totally different life experience to just travelling, and many traveller types ought to give it a try
- Looking out over the incomparably beautiful Lake Siljan in Dalarna, central Sweden during the incredibly long midsummer twilight
- Reading a book while floating in the Dead Sea
- Staying at a Bedouin camp in the Jordanian desert
- Seeing the Taj Mahal (it really does live up to the hype)
- Feeding, bathed and being kissed by elephants at a sanctuary in northern Thailand
- Hiking in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm generally pretty clued-up about politics in the UK and, to a considerably lesser extent, Canada. My passion isn't so much mainstream politics any more however, so much as green/left-libertarian activism. I would LOVE to share radical political ideas, documentaries etc with you.

I probably have a better-than-average awareness and understanding of the English language - I often find myself advising on points of usage and vocabulary with non-native speakers!

I am also very enthusiastic about sharing the music that I love. More and more these days I am receptive to checking out the music that other awesome people love.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, United Kingdom

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