CURRENT MISSION
Currently gearing up for a trip to India, after laying low for the past year.

ABOUT ME

I come from a small place in the highlands of Scotland called Dornoch. It's a picturesque seaside town of around fifteen hundred people, with a 13th century cathedral (where Madonna got married), a world class golf course (on which many a celebrity foot has trodden) and is generally an excellent place to grow up: safe, friendly, clean, instinctively egalitarian; an ideal place to reside when growing up, or growing old.

In between, however, departure beckons, for the flip side of living in such a small community is a total lack of exciting prospects.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at University, I moved to Scotland's largest city, Glasgow, and spent eight years working menial jobs and indulging a passion for music in a band called The Balladeers, a kind of medieval rock outfit. In January 2012, we released our first and only album, eponymously titled, and available to listen to on the internet, before I flew off to Australia, not to be seen by my homeland since.

Now, after two years in the antipodes, and with little desire to return home any time soon, I'm leaving for Southeast Asia at the end of January, where I'll stay for the foreseeable future. Vietnam first, then Laos and Cambodia, with a view to settling in Thailand for a while with an old childhood friend.

After that? well, time will tell...

PHILOSOPHY

Travel is such a good thing for a person, but so bad for the planet. That's not much of a personal philosophy. Just an unfortunate fact. Hmm.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've only couchsurfed a couple of times, both in Paris with the same host, Christophe, who is now a close friend. I've hosted twice in the past but the flat was small and got so fiendishly cold in winter (compounding the low temperatures was the fact the flat is above a bottle shop with fridges blasting round the clock) that it was rather unrealistic to expect a person to spend the night and survive.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Was hosted by the saintly Christophe on first CS trip to Paris. To say the experience was eventful would be to indulge in the drollest of understatements. Couldn't have had a more pleasant experience with Christophe, his generosity and goodness went far beyond the call of duty and I'm forever grateful to him for that.

To the events of the trip, though. On the second night I found myself at a party in a castle miles outside of Paris (Versailles, as I later found out) and after losing the person who took me there, just managed to get back to Paris but it took all night. There, I discovered I'd somehow spent just about every penny I had and was then horrified to see my only debit card emerge from my wallet in two pieces.

Abject, destitute, depressed, and increasingly worried about this unfolding crisis, I had to undertake what turned out to be the most excessive marathon back to the area of Paris I needed to be in, this took about four hours and, by the time I finally got there, Christophe had had to go to work. I was in such unspeakable distress the prospect of killing ten hours walking around the city in such a wretched condition was deeply unappealing, but I had no other choice.

The following day brought little relief, and was spent trudging from corner to corner of the city (you must remember the unutterable torments my body was going through - pulled and seized up muscles, achingly stiff all over, blistered feet) looking for a bank of any kind that might be able to help. None could. After exhausting every concievable option, I decided (at the behest of Christophe) to insert the broken debit card in its two pieces into an ATM and see if it worked as by this point, it was painfully apparent the card was of no use whatsoever and if it was retained, it wouldn't matter. Miraculously, it worked, and I was reacquainted with money and suddenly all my worries were over. Sadly, so was my holiday, entirely spent trying to extricate myself from this most miserable of situations. I'm sure there is lesson in there somewhere.

Happily, my return to Paris about five months ago was much more successful. Got to spend more time with Christophe and everything was much more civilised. I saw many of the things (and much more) I didn't see the first time. My affection for that magnificent city will ever endure.

Interests

Interests are a funny thing - ongoing, evolving, some enduring, while others drop away. The interest I used to consider most permanent of all - making music - barely even features as a thought for me now. That's not to say it never will again, or that I don't still enjoy picking up a guitar, just that these things are not a priority at the moment. I love reading. Words. Conversations. I love learning new facts, both meaningful and trivial. My favourite writers around just now are Bill Bryson, Richard Dawkins and George Monbiot. Favourite dead ones are Carl Sagan, Herman Hesse, Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, and a lot of the old Russian guys.The bands in like listening most to are The Doors. The Beatles. The Kinks. The Stone Roses. I've been listening to triple J almost constantly since in Australia and have discovered new music to numerous to list here. Really like Lana Del Rey. I like classical a lot. Hated it when my Mother would play it when I was growing up, but now I like it. My most immediate interest is travelling and, in turn, meeting people. Travelling alone through new places can get lonely. So I always have to overcome my boyhood shyness and get talking. Probably the thing I'm looking forward to above everything else in Asia is the food. I'll do a cooking class this time in Thailand.

• dining
• cooking
• breakfast
• marathon
• walking
• partying
• shopping
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• guitar
• golf

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I guess an Australian sunset or sunrise is pretty hard to beat.

Teach, Learn, Share

Brush your teeth before breakfast. Not after. Brushing too soon after eating, especially something acidic, erodes the enamel away.

Bad sunglasses are worse for your eyes than no sunglasses, because they dilate the pupils letting more UV rays in, but have little or no protection.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Cambodia, England, France, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Netherlands, Romania, Scotland, Spain, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, United Kingdom

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