In my twenties all I wanted to do was travel - after a 'gap year' spent going to the Far East, including hiking in Nepal and working on an Indian street clinic, plus 6 months working in Hokkaido Japan, I settled down to life as a management consultant in network industries - which took me all over the place. I worked in Colombia, Ukraine and Indonesia and many places in-between. One of my favourite place to work was Madrid...such a good life balance.
I am a trained primary teacher too - and had a fun trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana including visiting the school that my training school had donated computers to.
Then I got married and had a family.. and we did a bit of travelling but mainly of the family beach or ski trip variety - I did take the girls camping and biking all over the UK, especially to Wales and the New Forest and always to Edinburgh before Christmas.
Now my daughters have flown the nest and I have time to travel again. I am no longer a carer for my old aunt either and we have reduced the number of animals at home.. its fun.. this last summer I drove the camper van to Slovenia and back, then in the autumn up to Scotland via friends in Hereford and Bristol. I am a partly trained reflexologist and also do odd bits of work as I can. At home I also run an airbnb in the original spirit of Airbnb - ie spare space and not hotel glossy.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Best way to travel is when you meet local people and get to find out a different more personal aspect to a place - I've always preferred to stay in peoples homes than hotels whether its via house sitting, airbnb or friends .. I do host airbnb in the UK too and often meet such lovely people.

Last summer I 'sat' a Swiss farm just outside Zurich - responsible for 40 animals - from Shire horses and llamas to pigs and tortoises - it was such a wonderful experience and being there for almost 3 weeks we could settle in and meet the neighbours more than once, join in with celebrations and festivals and go riding with the wonderful Barbara. I really enjoy the different view you get of a place when you stay a little longer and / or differently.

Music, Movies, and Books

Eclectic wide taste in music... jazz, country and folk are favourites....

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

climbed several volcanos in South East Asia when travelling there, working in Japan and India... my favourite place the onsen on the shores of Lake Kushiroko when the lake was frozen over up in the north Island, Hokkaido

Teach, Learn, Share

I've tefl'd, can teach riding and gardening and various other things...

What I Can Share with Hosts

Ideas, information, songs, views on politics and sustainability ...also I'm pretty good at cleaning a fridge or something...

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, Poland, Russian Federation, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Indonesia, Japan, Poland