CURRENT MISSION

He who dares

ABOUT ME

I love hiking and camping, playing squash, thinking about the prevailing assumptions of our time, wondering about how humans construct morality, thinking about how human brains evolved to be so flawed, learning new science and technology and how it will impact our lives, in the near and far future....and more!

I used to be a physicist, but since returning to Zimbabwe became a part-time farmer, occasional teacher and tech-entrepreneur in the field of health and agriculture, specialising in the unique ability of working very hard to achieve not-what-I-want, over and over again! Now I've found myself in Luxembourg some how, on a whim, yikes!

Pet loves:
1. Sub Saharan savanna and wildlife
2. Unique insights and points of view
3. Beautiful architecture
4. Pondering the reasons for disparities in economic development between the various parts of the world during the last 5000 years.
5. Digging myself into awkward situations without a shovel
6. Singing Haddaway's "What is love" in Shona.

Some pet hates:
(points 1 - 87 omitted for brevity)

PHILOSOPHY

Too much to do, too little time. Arghhhhhh!!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Note to those looking for a couch with me:

I would advise against contacting me if you've responded to less than 70% of the messages sent to you. Yes, sure, everyone gets contacted by the odd axe murderer who doesn't warrant a response. But consistently ignoring messages from people in the CS community is inconsiderate and against the spirit of reciprocity that CS is built on.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

99.8% brilliant!

Interests

African savannah and wildlife
African and Russian history
Nerdy stuff to do with technology
Playing the piano (and in general making music with people and singing)
writing
squash
documentaries

• wildlife
• writing
• books
• architecture
• documentaries
• technology
• piano
• hiking
• camping
• agriculture
• astronomy
• business
• teaching
• entrepreneurship
• history
• physics
• science
• squash

Music, Movies, and Books

Books:
The Gulag archipelago
2 years with Lobengula
A 19th century biography of Peter the Great
The man eating lions of Tsavo
Life of Pi
A biography of water

Movies
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Deep Water
Capturing the Friedmans
Staff Benda Billili
Sharkwater
"Honest trailers" on Youtube
Sophie Scholl
The Counterfeiters
Downfall
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Shooting Dogs
The Peep Show

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Wrote a novel (https://www.amazon.co.uk/LIKE-SODIUM-WATER-memoir-heartache/dp/1868428540/)
- Made a documentary
- Had my laptop stolen in South Africa and fortuitously bought it back on Gumtree three days later
- Was chased on a motorbike by an elephant
- Was almost captured and (possibly) killed by an axe wielding youth militia
- Was bargained down on the sale of a dotcom domain from $USD 100 000 to $USD 1700
- Passed James Nesbitt in the corridor of a random train to Taunton while in the UK. Before I could say, "Shew, your eyebrows are actually bushier in real life than on TV" he had unfortunately already shuffled past me.
- Got kidnapped at gunpoint and strenuously negotiated for my life

Teach, Learn, Share

I will enjoy your take on a variety of topics, ranging from astronomy to zoology. I am very bad at general knowledge about the Royal family, just to let you know in advance ;)

What I can teach: The principles of high-risk-low-return business investment; The inadvisability of starting a semi-automatic motorbike next to a river, in gear; How to avoid being tusked by an elephant while riding on a motorbike with no brakes and no clutch; How to lose money in domain name speculative trading; how to put two socks and some dental floss in your pocket, and then hope that they metamorphosise into a wallet when you reach Luxembourg (argh!)

What I Can Share with Hosts

A brief history of sexual humiliations

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Comoros, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Netherlands, Qatar, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Luxembourg, South Africa, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe

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