CURRENT MISSION

We are one love, one heart, let's get together and feel alright

ABOUT ME

I like going out and staying in, being busy and lazy, depends on how the wind takes me. I love meeting new people and hearing about other lives, come and tell me your stories.

PHILOSOPHY

All things are connected, and all sentient beings are one consciousness.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Fully and wholeheartedly. I'm both offering and seeking space, and to share experiences and perspectives.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

One surf and one host experience so far so quite a newbie! I've had a great time doing both, can't wait to see what else CS brings and what I can give to other travellers.

Interests

Life, the universe and everything, unceasingly curious, ever seeking, always learning. People and situations that show me different life views, and that surprise and delight me.

• birds
• design
• coffee
• flying
• boating
• traveling
• magic
• swimming
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

I have wide and varied musical tastes, I love swapping music and discovering new artists. Music makes the world go around, and what people choose to listen to tells you more about them than ten thousand words.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

*Alpha Beta: on a whale and dolphin survey boat, Mull*

The day had been slow and the count was low, we'd seen a couple of harbour porpoise, and had spent our time counting seals and birds instead. We had turned for home, tired and chilly, grateful that our Skipper was pushing his craft through the brutish waves that seemed determined to keep us out at sea. Some of the day-volunteers were hanging over the side, suffering with the big swell that had at times cradled us from us side to side, or twisted us diagonally like a fairground ride; they were desperate for something stable under their feet and one or two looked like they would never put to sea again. The rest of us were sipping coffee in the cabin, looking forward to a pint and a hot dinner, and some time to plan tomorrow's surveying.

A tired voice called from the watch on the fly bridge, "fin..." and we slowly made our way up on deck, thinking it would be the same porpoise we had seen not long before. We strained our eyes into the setting sun, a sickly yellow under the thick storm clouds. And then we saw them, one by one, scimiters in twos and threes, appear and disappear from the blue grey sea. As one we let out the cry "Fins Fins FINS!!" and knew we were seeing something truly special, not small and dark like porpoise - larger, greyer - multiple shining curves of dolphin dorsels slicing through the swell. Forgetting our weariness, we grabbed cameras and clambered onto the fly bridge, some of us squeezing in front of the radar mast to get more of us up there. How many fins...5...10...15... maybe more... we lost count.

They started circling the boat, travelling on the same heading as us, and spiraling closer with every circuit. We throttled back to drop a hydrophone so we could hear them chatting to each other. Clicks, whistles, buzzes, hums, chuckles. A couple of the braver ones came alongside, and we could see the markings on their flanks, the notches on their dorsels. They turned to swim sideways in the water to look back up at us, looking deep into our eyes, our souls. Connection. More were playing off the bow, jumping over each other, "come on," they seemed to say "come and play!".

We retrieved the hydrophone and Skipper gently eased up the throttle. A few more came alongside, they too turning to look up at the landlings, and our bow wave rose underneath them, lifting them along with us. And then they were swiming at our nose, riding the uplift of our hull, leaping and playing in the foam, jumping across our path, somersaulting alongside and ahead and behind, over each other and the waves. Each time they left the water our gazes connected. it seemed like we were the observed beings, and that felt like an honour.

We throttled back again to take some closeups and drop the hydrophone, and this time we could hear them bumping against it, nibbling it and rolling and playing with it in the water. Some of us reached over the side to trail our fingers in the sea, yearning to be in the same element as these wild spirits just below us.

Time drifted past as we drifted in the tide, looking into each others' eyes across elements and species, with some of the dolphins coming near our hands, inspecting them with clicks and burrs. Then the dolphins went wild. "Come ON... make the bow wave again so we can play together!" they seemed to be saying. We retrived the hydrophone once more and eased open the throttle. The bolder ones encouraged the more timid ones to come closer until we had a dozen sleek bodies slicing through the water with us, spray flying over us and soaking us with dolphin-blessed sea.

Then, like the beginning of the end of the world, a searing bright pink-white flash of lightning burned our eyes and our ears were instantly numbed by a bellow of thunder of biblical proportions directly overhead. To the west where the sun had been, we hadn't noticed a grey-black mass streaking across the sea towards us, a wall of rain like the start of the great flood. The sea before it was pulverised into a million dents. "DOWN, DOWN!" yelled the Skipper, and we scrambled and slithered off the decks into the cabin, but not before the wall of water hit us.

Stunned and soaked, we stood in the cabin wide-eyed and silent. Remembering the dolphins we moved to the windows and rubbed the condensation from the glass, straining once again to see the scimiters. They had vanished with the lightning like a magic trick of cosmic proportions.

We sat in meditatation for the rest of the voyage home, feeling the connections between us, between them and us, between our worlds, occasionally smiling, knowing each others' thoughts, sharing the wonder through our eyes, no words needed.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can help you learn about:
*Practical sustainable living and trading
*How to teach
*Website design

I would like to learn about:
*you
*other countries and cultures
*the differences and similarities between our languages

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom