CURRENT MISSION

Having an adventure - not always that far from home...!

ABOUT ME

Basically, I love the idea of hosting people from all over the place in my apartment. When I was growing up, my Mum was an English language teacher, so we've always been surrounded by people travelling from here and there. Coventry is definitely off the beaten track of the UK tourist circuit, and I'm not going to pretend it's beautiful. But the countryside is, I'm very close to Birmingham International Airport, close to Stratford, Oxford and many of the other places people tend to want to go.

PHILOSOPHY

Wow - that's quite a question. Live and let live, I guess. I can tolerate pretty much anyone for a brief time. Kindness is central to everything. Happiness is great - but we can't all do it all the time. Sometimes it's worth getting angry about things - it's what motivates change. But as a rule of thumb it's usually a bad idea to get angry with individuals - it's usually a good idea to get angry about systems.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've hosted lots of lovely people so far. Summer 2010 has seen me take up my first CS adventure as a traveller. What an amazing way to see a city - thanks Richard and Isabelle. Looking forward to more trips :-)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

As a host and as a traveller - and plenty of informal couchsurfing (i.e. not through this site). A friend of mine and I once went to Belgium for a party and to see a friend of hers (we lived in Manchester, UK). Her friend was out for the evening, but his housemate got us drunk, took us around the town, and let us stay on his couch. Pepijn - we salute you!

Interests

Travelling and adventures - of course.
Hill walking, mountain climbing (although we don't have too many mountains close to where I live), long distance walking (walked across England last year, and the West Highland Way in Spring), cycling (I cycled round Northern Ireland in the snow and last year I cycled 200 miles across England). And of course there is also a really nerdy side to me as well (I am an academic after all) - I love industrial history (canals, factories, etc.)...

• fish
• dining
• cooking
• walking
• partying
• traveling
• cycling
• fishing
• rock climbing
• track and field
• teaching
• history
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Music - I regularly go to music festivals in the UK and around the world. Exit festival opened my mind to Serbian Indie music - quite an experience. Current favourite bands: Sonic Youth, Nick Cave and his various projects, Bon Iver, PJ Harvey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs etc. etc. etc.
Movies - I spend less time watching movies. But favourites from last year include Lives of Others, Control, Quand j'etais chanteur, etc.
TV - West Wing, The Wire, Spaced...
Books - Avid reader. Favourite authors: Italo Calvino, Ben Okri, Salman Rushdie (early stuff), David Mitchell, David Peace, Will Self - I can keep going on this for as much space as there is... Just read Orhan Pamuk for the first time - can't believe it's taken me this long!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Climbing Mount Fuji for the sunrise - even though it was raining!!
Eating fish and chips in Robin Hood's Bay after 11 days walking across England.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm pretty handy despite being an academic! But not handy enough to actually offer my own skills. I guess being a native English speaker is one of the strongest skills I could share. I'd love to learn Italian so that I can talk to all my Italian friends in their language rather than mine!! Oh - and I can teach you how to cook great English food - yes, there IS such a thing as good English food!!

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