I work in schools encouraging children, parents and teachers to travel to school by bike, scooter and walking rather than driving to school.

Last time I couch-surfed, I was hiking the Tour of Mont Blanc and before that I was riding my bicycle through Europe... England, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Switzerland Italy, back through France, Monaco, Andorra, Spain, Portugal and back into Spain, where I caught a ferry from Santander back to the UK and pedaled home via Wales. I cycled around 7000km and raised over £3000 for the charity Save the Children. The Tour of Mont Blanc was more more relaxed as I splashed out on mountain refuges and cooked meals - rather than sleeping in a mini tend and eating with a camp stove.

I've travelled and volunteered in Central America, Spain and the UK including environmental education activities with kids and helpxing in an amazing location in the lush Andalusian mountains...a truly hippy ghetto paradise with yurts, solar power, water from the local stream and many vegetables and fruit grown on site. This spot and the people certainly made me think about how I should be living my life.I have been veggie ever since.

I like music, films, books, getting out on my bike, walking, eating good food and festivals but since reaching my thirties and settling down, more of my time is spent at home.

I'm always up for adventures and would love to visit deserts and cold places as well as more mountains, the middle east, the Americas... I got my motorbike licence some years ago so would love to do an epic ride from Michigan to Argentina but I would be torn between petrol power and pedal power. A long walk or a canoe ride down a river would be cool too.

PHILOSOPHY

Work hard, play hard.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I live with my wife so hosting would be a joint decision. I am up for meeting couchsurfers if we are free and show them some of Sheffield

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have slept on many couches of friends, I had my first real couchsurfing experience in Mexico city with three really cool girls, which was amazing. I've also surfed in France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and England meeting some really nice people along the way.

Interests

Food, beer, music, festivals, films, travel, books, sunshine, fields, hills, mountains, trees, rivers, culture, food, politics blah blah blah

Music, Movies, and Books

Everything: house, Dub, reggae, soul, funk, hip-hop, drum n bass, jungle, jazz, chillout, ambient, rock, a bit of folk n classical, ska, electro, breakbeat, techno... anything that's gonna make me wanna move.

Films- Too many to mention, good ones include, johnny mad dog, masrine, a prophet, irreversible, the barbarian invades, Paris jet em, pans labyrinth the departed, London to Brighton, children of men, jarhead, munich, chopper, the edukators...i like my cult classics, world cinema/foreign films, political films, gangster films, vietnam, south american cinema, anything with gritty realism plus the odd sci-fi and action film is a bit of a laugh- predator etc. All time favorites include full metal jacket, platoon, casino, goodfellas, leon, scarface, apocalypse now, taxi driver, requiem for a dream...err there's too many!

Television; Mostly box sets these days...Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, The Wire, Treme, one of my all time favorites has to be Sopranos but the thick of it is absolutely brilliant too and recently watched Curb your enthusiasm which had me in stitches.
Used to love the Simpsons but it should have finished years ago. err, comedies such as brass eye, spaced, adam and joe, vic and bob, family guy erm, i guess comedies and channel four dramas are best plus the odd documentary such as unreported world.

Books- I definitely don't read enough but the Kite runner was excellent. Political books are interesting and academic literature too. 'Intimacy' by Hanif Kureishi is one of the books i've enjoyed most, the curious incident of the dog at midnight, Monbiot's 'Captive State' , The shock doctrine, 'American Scream-the Bill Hicks Story' (hicks is a legend), Down and out in London and paris, road to Wigan pier, all quiet on the western front and 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' are worth checking out too

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

bungee jumping was certainly one not to forget, even better than skydiving.
Volunteering in central america and spain has allowed me to meet and make friends with all kinds of people i never thought i would and has changed my direction in life. My work life is important and inspiring working with kids...cycling across Europe's pretty epic too.

Teach, Learn, Share

Im generally pretty good about letting people know about cool clubs, bars, pubs, cool places to visit in cities I've lived and around the world. I love music,festival, people, food.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Time, conversation, sharing stories, food, beer, wine...good company (I hope)

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Australia, Austria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Italy, Laos, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Portugal, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom