CURRENT MISSION

be a light unto yourself

ABOUT ME

I am working in the Dublin at the moment, I have just started my own business ( https://goo.gl/ASNmzQ ), which is exciting and scary at the same time. BUT this also means I'm having less and less time for socialising and couchsurfing......

Personality wise, I'm kinda 50/50. I'm happy in my own company & need my own time & space but also love people & company. Definitely have to keep a balance between the two! :) Otherwise the craziness starts to break through the gaps.... ;)
the rest I'll let you decide if we meet and i hope we do! :)

PHILOSOPHY

going with the masses is easy.
finding your own unique individual way is much more difficult and takes a lot more courage but it is very rewarding.
i haven't achieved this, but i am working on it. :)
i believe and hope, that once you find your own special groove in life, life becomes so much more simple and easy. sometimes i think people make life harder for themselves by trying to fit in........... social pressures and norms are hard to live up to. what is normal? seems like its just something one fella decided one day and we all followed...... baaaaaaaa 🐏🐏🐏

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I like to participate in CS in as many different ways as possible. At first I only used CS for surfing & meeting people when traveling but during my travels i saw how some local groups had established great communities, who came together to welcome travelers to their country/city/town. so when i returned home (from a period of 2 months traveling in the Middle East) i was keen to get involved in organising local events etc to build my local CS community further! i have gained so much from this, it opens you up to seeing your own country in a new light and see it with the eyes of a stranger. :)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

so according to CS.... i am now a pioneer and veteran or something.... of couchsurfing.
I have involved in the community since around 2009 so I am here because i believe in the original philosophy of CS..... the kindness and hospitality of people in every corner of the world...
I also have a BeWelcome profile.....

Interests

besides travelling.....
ok, my current interests are; yoga.... I practice at home everyday, it's so important to me.
Dancing; I love to dance forro (Brazilian couples dance), dancing with a partner is for me one of the few times you completely disconnect from your thoughts and connect to your heart and feelings.
All things relating to Palestine (involved in the Irish solidarity group), getting out for a spin on my bike (I live really close to the worlds second largest city park, The Phoenix Park).
SAMBA!! I play in a samba band! And again, this is another really important part of my life. The guys I play with are a second family. And the music never fails to lift my heart!

more.....
cooking at home, potluck parties and if money allows... trips to nice restaurants. trying new foods, new recipes.
gigs. dancing. more dancing.
Saturday nights should involve beer and banter! :)
I am becoming more spiritual, I am getting into meditation and am learning more about shamanism. I am currently finishing my training as a sound therapist. This is my first level of training into eastern philosophy healing & medicine. My formal training was all super western and evidence-based medicine, which has its place, but why not bring together the benefits of both.... :)
I am trying to learn how to nourish each aspect of my being; physical, emotional, spiritual, mental etc..
lots and lots more, but these are a sample of whats going on with me now!

• dancing
• cooking
• recipes
• wine
• beer
• potluck
• yoga
• meditation
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• business
• hitchhiking
• friends
• gigs
• exploring
• shamanism
• family
• forró
• samba

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: first and foremost... SAMBA... but then I like to listen to other genres at home.. Seu Jorge, Lou Reed. Other Lives, Gogol Bordello, Obrint Pas, Fat Freddy's Drop, Fela Kuti, Tamikrest, John Smith, First Aid Kit...... random selection I know.....;)
I am also listening to a lot of kirtan, mantras and chanting style music... I am in a phase of discovery with this...

Movie: not a huge movie expert... I have a simple philosophy for music/arts/film...... do I like it? do I not? It doesn't matter to me if its Hollywood, a documentary or low-budget indie film. Last good international film I watched was Sweet Bean, a Japanese film. It's very beautiful. Check it out... Last good Irish film I watched was Good Vibrations.

Food: I am not vegetarian... despite everyone thinking I am (I dont know if its a smell/look/movement I make that makes everyone CERTAIN I am a veggie.... hahahaha). There is a new hipster term "flexitarian”— eating a plant-centric diet, with eggs, a little dairy, and occasionally meat... for me this is a more realistic diet... and how people's diet used to be... meat was considered a treat by my parents and grandparents... once/twice a week.. not everyday. Meat should be treated with respect and appreciation. Spiel over........ ;)

Colour: lime green

Pint: Guinness

Guilty pleasure: pain au chocolat...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Its not really the places you visit, and the things you see, for me, it is the PEOPLE.
People are mostly good. The kindness i have been shown by many CSers around the world has amazed me!!

Simply getting involved in CS has been amazing. It gave me a new faith in humanity... which may seem like a big statement to make... but its true.... when I was younger I was much more suspicious of people... "what do they want from me?" kinda attitude.... I look back now and see how much I have changed.... "What can I offer?" is more often my feeling each day... Basically coming from a place of love rather than fear. I would rate this simple change of attitude as pretty fecking amazing.....

Otherwise, in terms of travel, one amazing thing I have done is travel to The West Bank; volunteer and live in a refugee camp there. Life-changing experience for me............

Teach, Learn, Share

By 2050, our oceans will have more plastic trash than fish.

The price of a litre of bottled water in Ireland is around €1.50. worldwide, each year, more than €30 billion is spent on bottled water while 2.5 million tons of plastic bottles are thrown away. In the U.S. 30 million water bottles go into landfills every day. Producing a litre of bottled water emits hundreds of times more greenhouse gases than that of a litre of tap water.About 2.7 million tins of plastic are used for bottles each year. Making bottles for the U.S. market takes 17 million barrels of oil- enough to keep half of Irelands 2 million cars motoring for a year. At least 1.6 million people die each year from contaminated water: 90% of these are under 5 years of age. Significantly more is spent in the developed world on bottled water every year than would be needed to end the deaths of all those children.

Here are a few links detailing how our oceans may by 2050, have more plastic than fish.......

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/10/full-scale-plastic-worlds-oceans-revealed-first-time-pollution
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/04/the-arctic-ocean-is-filling-with-billions-of-plastic-bits/523713/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/plastic-waste-oceans_us_58fed37be4b0c46f0781d426

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Cambodia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Palestine, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ireland, United Kingdom

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