CURRENT MISSION

Growing green things, learning to cook, and messing about in boats.

ABOUT ME

These days it seems I always carry string, a swiss army knife, some interesting rocks, and a handkerchief - just like a boy in an Enid Blyton novel.

I spent some time WWOOFing while I was travelling and these days I work as the production clerk at a bakery and in customer service at an organic delivery social enterprise, so I want to keep on learning more about gardening and food. But I have to admit that nothing gets me as excited as a ridiculous boating adventure.

I should also warn you that I'm a lacto-ovo-vegetarian. Eggs and dairy are fine, but I don't eat anything with a face.

PHILOSOPHY

Pay it forward.

Por qué estoy en Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I spent a couple of years traipsing around the planet and I found I liked slow travel best, taking the time to explore an area and get a sense of what life is like there, rather than just dashing through the big tourist areas and moving on to the next place. In the same way I always felt much more connected to a place when I couchsurfed, and would much rather stay in someone's home and get to know them a little, than in a backpackers hostel where things are a bit removed and impersonal.

During my travels I had lovely generous couchsurfers rescue me/ feed me/ teach me things/ take me on adventures, and now that I'm back in Melbourne and living in an apartment in one of the outer-inner suburbs it's time to pay it forward. I ask that you stay for no longer than 2 nights and respect my need for quiet at night. I've found that my place gets very hot in summer, so I can't accept guests during the hottest part of the year.

If some day I travel again and stay with you, I think it's important that you know I am a budget traveler and I like ridiculous adventures, sometimes more than is healthy for me. The more I stretch my boundaries the more likely it is that I will get myself into situations where I am out of my depth. There have been times where I have turned up at a host's house tired and smelly and struggling to socialise, and although I always try to avoid that kind of situation I worry that I'm not always a very entertaining house guest. My apologies in advance if this is how it goes, I want you to know that I really appreciate having the chance to get to meet some locals, it's not just about the free bed for me.

Intereses

I like to knit, read, play the ukulele, sail, rollerskate, experiment with the edible-jungle that is my garden, collect clouds, learn new things about bread, and teach mending workshops. I have a fondness for hats, wildlife, environmentalism, craftivism, back-to-basics skills, automata, edible weeds, edible flowers, treehouses, and lists. I used to write poetry, and I wish I'd studied science.

• wildlife
• books
• poetry
• cheese
• baking
• vegetarian
• gardening
• flowers
• traveling
• socializing
• knitting
• sailing
• budget travel

Música, películas y libros

My degree is in writing and literature so books are a big part of my life. One of my favourite things to do is to read a book when I'm in the place that it's set - reading Moby Dick while on a tall ship, reading Huckleberry Finn on a raft, or reading the Phryne Fisher novels in Melbourne. I also collect books that have been censored and banned in the past.

Lately, surprisingly, for the first time in my life, I'm really enjoying non-fiction. I like books about growing food, garden history, food culture, eating locally.

Algo increíble que he hecho

Six weeks at sea on a rusty tall ship.

Enseña, aprende, comparte

I can teach you how to mend your clothes and other crafty things, or I can teach the basics of how to play ukulele and harmonica.

I'd love to learn more about baking bread and speak a little bit of some other languages. I would be very happy if someone would teach me to iceskate. Also, I'd like to know how to make clockwork toys, and how to do celestial navigation, and glass blowing, and cheese making, and woodwork, and identifying edible mushrooms, and brewing, and sign language, and braille, and tap dancing, and ceramics, and welding, and origami, and photography, and beekeeping. Also, I've always wanted to be a bellringer in a church. Where do people learn how to do that?

Qué puedo ofrecer a los anfitriones

Riddles. Many many riddles.

Países que he visitado

Austria, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Malaysia, Norway, Scotland, Singapore, Switzerland, United States, Vanuatu

Países en los que he vivido

Australia, New Zealand

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