CURRENT MISSION

Acquire more (grumpy) animals! After that, we'll see... : )

ABOUT ME

Hellu! Born in England in a little village, emigrated to Australia with my family in the late 80s, pottered about the world in my 20s, lived and studied in Sweden a bit later and am now happily settled in Edinburgh.

I used to teach belly dance and love all kinds of dancing. If you would like to try Scottish ceilidh dancing, you should come with me!

PHILOSOPHY

I found this phrase on a greeting card with a picture of a cartoon rat looking happy and dressed as a lady, lying on a sofa. It really says it all....

'Look famous,
be legendary,
appear complex,
act easy,
radiate presence,
travel light,
seem a dream,
prove real.'

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have hosted a bunch of lovely people since summer 2008 from such places as Chile, Germany, Singapore, France, Sweden, Denmark and UK. So far, no bad experiences!

I was active with the Sydney CS group organising events and things. Edinburgh has a great community, which I dip in and out of.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've met some amazing people through Couchsurfing, many of which have remained amongst my closest friends. I have had a great time with the Couchsurfers I have hosted. All have been respectful and fun! You know who you are, thanks : )

It’s great concept. One I wish I had known about when I travelled in my early twenties as I was doing it without the site/references, which is a little more risky as you work only with your own ability to judge characters. Thankfully, I was mostly correct. Mostly…

Interests

Dance (all kinds!), music - mostly singing, sustainability, international relations, environment, massive silly outdoor pagan festivals (spoilt for choice in Scotland), people, food/cooking...loads of other stuff!

• animals
• singing
• festivals
• dancing
• tango
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• chocolate
• traveling
• music
• outdoor activities
• international relations
• languages
• cèilidh

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:
O Brother Where Art Thou?
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells
Withnail and I
Dellamorte Dellamore
The Royal Tennenbaums
The Road Home (Chinese film, not sure if I have the translation right...)
Little Tree (also a Chinese film, same translation question!)

Books:
Life of Pi (Patel), In the Skin of a Lion (Ondaatje) The Epic of Gilgamesh

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

;)

Teach, Learn, Share

Umm teaching….
Bellydancing
I've learned to make a great Swedish Sticky Cake (Kladdkaka). So good if you are into chocolate!
Anything you want to know about Australian animals. Most people are concerned with spiders and I can help if you are going to Australia and want to know which ones to be most careful with. I used to help with the spider show at the zoo. Unfortunately, they do not do acrobatics on command like the seals :)

Learn
Things about other cultures and nature.
How to keep plants alive.
Languages! At the moment I am one of those English as a first language people who is frequently put to shame by other who speak several beautifully! I have a laughably feeble grasp of a couple of European languages but nothing I would class as anywhere close to intermediate.
I’m a little bit interested in everything, so chances are if you can do it, I’d probably be interested in learning it!

What I Can Share with Hosts

General Kateliness :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Scotland, Sweden, United Kingdom

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