CURRENT MISSION

To eliminate liquorice from this world!

ABOUT ME

Well, I'm an Aussie, so I'm pretty relaxed, friendly and like to have a laugh.
I'm a good listener but can be quite boisterous.
I'm egalitarian in my approach to people, but prone to making shocking and outlandish statements for comic effect.
I spend most of my time in urban landscapes, but yearn for greener pastures.
I like spending a fair chunk of time by myself, to allow for pondering and reading, but enjoy having a fairly active social-life.

PHILOSOPHY

Never Say Never. You will truly be surprised by how your tastes, opinions and sense of adventure will change over the years. Plus, you'll have some great tales to relate to the grandkids (if you make it out alive).

Interests

Learning. Reading. Painting. Drawing. Laughing. Bushwalking. Camping. Kayaking. Getting lost in foreign cities. Meeting new people. Eating. Cooking (and then eating). Picnics (where you get to eat). Dogs, Ferrets, Tortoises, Rabbits, NOT cats. Lying in the shade of a tree, any tree. Dancing, just not well. Chuck Norris quotes. A drink or thirteen. Organising. History. Making lists. Swimming. Dinner parties. Beaching. Puns, especially the type which make you cringe and cause a sharp intake of breath. Lazy afternoons in front of the TV. Gossiping (not too maliciously though). Turning my face to the sun. Colour co-ordination. Raising my eyebrows independently of one another. Wind-surfing. Horse-riding. Bike-riding. Crosswords and word puzzles. Art (but not associated wankiness). Doing laundry (freakish, I know). Trees, trees, trees. Lakes and associated sports.

• cats
• dogs
• rabbits
• arts
• books
• festivals
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• chocolate
• wine
• beer
• partying
• drinking
• trivia
• movies
• chess
• reading
• tv
• puzzles
• painting
• drawing
• cycling
• kayaking
• camping
• surfing
• sports
• swimming
• history
• beaches
• lakes

Music, Movies, and Books

Books - I love "Franny & Zooey" by Salinger, but also enjoy Erica Jong, Khaled Hosseini, Primo Levi, Aldous Huxley, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Albert Camus, Vladimir Nabokov, Bill Bryson, Truman Capote, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Tennessee Williams etc..oh, and the occasional trash mag

Music - anything not involving metal or house, but particularly love jazz... and pop and folk and solid rock and hip hop and classical. Yup, pretty much anything. Although special mention should go out to Tracy Chapman, as she manages to elicit a visceral reaction every time.

Movies - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, A Streetcar Named Desire, Trainspotting, cheesy musicals, The Royal Tenenbaums, Four Rooms, childhood Disney classics, The Thomas Crown Affair, Little Miss Sunshine, Jaws, The Clerks series, Fargo, Point Break, good Pixar productions, Withnail and I, anything by Monty Python or Mel Brooks and chick flicks like Pretty Woman, Dirty Dancing, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry met Sally, Bridget Jones and Love Actually. (Sad, I know)

TV - Mainly documentaries, panel programmes, the West Wing, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart with some Family Guy, Entourage, Mighty Boosh, Sex and the City and the Big Bang Theory thrown in

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Lived in a cave in Turkey
- Visited Homer's tomb on the Greek islands (mainly an excuse to ride the quad-bike)
- Ate an exploding Bolivian cucumber

But there's so much more I want to go/do/see, like the Northern Lights, Neuschwannstein, the pastel streets of Havana, a souq in Morocco, Alaska, The Hermitage, floating in the Dead Sea, Machu Picchu, Sufis twirling in Turkey, The Smithsonian, Venice, Thai street food (bring on the fried grass-hoppers!), New Orleans, a Pole, whether North or South, the Sphinx, Pompeii/Vesuvius, San Francisco, Okinawa, el Camino de Santiago (as a secular pilgrim), Kiribati, Carnaval In Rio de Janeiro, Lenin's tomb, Victoria Falls, the Outback, a funeral pyre on the Ganges, Uluru, the Trans-Siberian Express or the India-Pacific, the Grand Canyon, Dubai, a banya, the Burning Man festival, the Galapagos...phew!

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach:
- Adding a pinch of salt to any chocolate dish, but especially cakes, actually brings out the flavour and sweetness
- I can show you how to use a lighter to open beer bottles. Not exactly an advanced skill, I know, but still handy on beaches and at BBQs
- I know how to make friendship bracelets. A dorky left-over from many summers spent camping during my childhood
- Making computers crash spectacularly is a bit of a specialty. Wait a minute, have I saved this draf....
- I make a mean basil pesto. So mean, in fact, that you still reek of garlic the next day
- I can make a Coke bottle into a wine glass

Learn:
- Chess
- How to drive a manual...and service a car
- Improve German, Polish and French
- Carpentry
- How to discuss films and books intelligently
- Improve my memory span

Share:
- I'm pretty generous with my crayons
- Happy to help out on trivia nights with knowledge which would never come in handy elsewhere (for example, the capital of Burkina Faso and names of the Jolie-Pitt brood)

Countries I’ve Visited

Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, France, Germany, Kuwait, Poland