I am a writer living with my labrador, in northern Portugal, on the border of Spain. I like borders. I am from London, and have lived in Brazil, China and Japan, and learned the languages.
My place is off the beaten track but it's surrounded by beautiful countryside, however, the work situation is a bit limited so now I am trying to move back to France.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

My mother immigrated to England from South Africa, and she encouraged me to travel, my parents took me on a road trip around the United States from coast to coast and that gave me the travel bug, we drove around in a car and camped in the Rockies and saw Old Faithful at YellowStone and deer footprints on the beach in Nova Scotia and visited Thomas Jefferson's plantation
I'll always remember the 1st trip which I made without my parents, I was 18 years old and my dad gave me some money and I spent a week walking around Paris learning to speak French by pretending to be lost.
After that I had the bug and ever since then I've been living in different places and learning their languages and I love it, but now I'm stuck down by work and child care I'm happier hosting than travelling. My best experience hosting was in Hong Kong during the Umbrella Movement when I decorated my flat with protest posters and hosted my guests in tents in the living room just like Occupy. I used to busk and jam with guests on the roof.

I like to meet people, exchange ideas. One of the best experiences I had was running a kind of hostel in Hong-Kong which I decorated with stuff from the occupied central movement. .I really enjoyed hosting,
and after the Hong Kong government forced Airbnb to close down my listings on Airbnb I switched to Couchsurfing. I've met some very inspiring people through hosting, and it's been a privilege to meet them. Now I'm hoping to meet more people by being a guest.
I enjoy meeting people from around the world. I speak English, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and French. I really enjoy speaking these languages, and sharing travel tales, ideas, and jokes. I also enjoy singing and playing the guitar and I've had some great jams with guests. I like to have a game of chess, or share a glass of wine and enjoy my flat here in Valença, Portugal, or at Praia Patos beach in Spain which is 30 minutes drive away.

Interests

Swimming diving singing traveling bicycling left-wing politics art painting learning languages cinema camping sustainable lifestyle freeganism squatting civil disobedience vegetarianism. This January I would have been in China for ten years. I enjoy discussing the country, its culture and politics. I like to share stories and experiences with travellers, and learn from them and listen to their stories.I also enjoy singing and busking in the street and a game of chess.
I am open to new experiences! Art is fun and I enjoy all kinds of art especially street art, photography, graffiti, body, concept and performance arts.I have many interests and I am open to new ones!

• arts
• culture
• singing
• performing arts
• street art
• photography
• dining
• wine
• gardening
• politics
• movies
• chess
• traveling
• socializing
• painting
• music
• guitar
• piano
• camping
• surfing
• scuba diving
• swimming
• emergency services
• entrepreneurship
• languages
• science
• budget travel
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

I liked Bertrand Russell's essay "In Praise of Idleness" but I was too lazy to read the whole thing.
I've just finished translating a biography called Red Dog, which is about the life of woman from Chongqing who was imprisoned by the Communist Party of China for ten years because she wanted to leave the country to study.
I'm kind of nerdy, so I read popular science, such as Thinking Fast and Slow, The Selfish Gene, A Brief History of Time, but I also enjoy history and biography, for example Primo Levy's Is This a Man is one of my favourite books.
The Seventh Seal is one of my favourite movies. And The Matrix, Fight Club, V for Vendetta, underground Chinese movies and Brazilian cinema., eg City of God

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Joined in the Hong Kong Occupy Central democracy movement.
Published some articles in Mandarin and was the first European elected to Chinese PEN
umped 8 metres into the waterfalls in Saikong, Hong Kong
Motorcycled from London to Rome
Saw a crocodile swim under my canoe in the Okavango
Built a house for teachers in Botswana
Survived death riding a motorcycle
Hired a city bus to drive around Lhasa.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can show you around my town, we can have an interesting conversation about life. Maybe we can even have a game of chess or we can play guitar. I am happy to teach you a few words of any of the languages I know which includes Chinese, Japanese, Cantonese, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian. I love communicating in different languages and I believe that when we learn to speak another language we enhance the richness of our experience of life.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can show you around Valenca do Minho, cook you a meal or teach you how to say "mum curses the horse" in Chinese

Countries I’ve Visited

Botswana, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Monaco, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Portugal, United Kingdom