My head does economics and numbers, my heart does a big extended family, and my body does Zumba. I'm a good and inventive cook, and although my room will often be untidy because I've left it in a rush, I am clean and in shared rooms I'm pretty civilised: in my Glasgow flat I sometimes get called 'The Kitchen Fairy' when I wave my wand and make it sparkle.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I've shared a flat in Glasgow for four years now, with a crowd of people who run the Doune the Rabbit Hole music festival (look it up!) and it's just been a great, fulfilling and engaging experience. Up to now I've also had a house also in the South of Scotland, spending time 50/50. But instead I'm now setting up in Barcelona. It's a great place and I like the people I know and have known here over the past twenty years. And I really want to be in Europe whether the UK and Scotland are or not, though I'll do my best to keep them there too. So while I'm in Barna I'll also be living and working in Glasgow, and commuting between the two.

Interests

• music festivals
• cooking
• politics
• live music
• economics
• languages
• sign language

Music, Movies, and Books

My favourite music is live, so I love festivals and gigs - mainly indie and jazz - and bars with live bands, and concerts from classical (Sibelius, Elgar, guitar concertos, cello, and big orchestral works) to modern experimental. And I'm a sucker for a good voice singing jazz standards. And cheese too. My Desert Island Disc has been Walk On By since it first came ou. When I lived in Sweden I used to buy broken ginger biscuits from the Kex factory next to Abba's recording studio, and they have set off a few earworms.
My Life as a Dog, Autmn Sonata and Six Scenes from a Marriage are my favourite movies, and I'm still scared by Doctor Strangelove.
Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson spell bound, and I worked out I'm a celestial twin of Kurt Wallander. John Irving has taken over as my favourite english-language fiction writer since Anthony Burgess went. I'm currently catching up with Orhan Pamuk.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

You're getting two:
The first one is a lifetime 5-4-3-2-1 package: five grandchildren, four children, three wives, and two wonderful long-term girlfriends.
The second is eating my first ever fresh mango while flying through the crater of the volcano Popocatépetl in Mexico's Presidential jet.

Teach, Learn, Share

Share food and conversation, learn Catalan and Spanish and sailing.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Humour, I hope

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, Scotland, Sweden