CURRENT MISSION

To live well.

ABOUT ME

I'm the sort of person who doesn't much like describing myself.

PHILOSOPHY

I try to accept doubt and uncertainty as an integral part of life, and see them as essential to discovery and development. Beauty is very important to me, and I see kindness and courtesy as the specifically human forms of beauty.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've met several people for drinks, long talks and a few days travel, and also stayed with a couple of couch-surfers in China. I haven't been in the same place long enough to host anyone, but am hoping that will change in Hong Kong.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I haven't had a lot of couchsurfing experience since joining three years ago, but every experience has been positive and all the people I've met have been interesting, kind-hearted and open-minded. I think couchsurfing is an excellent idea, not just to find a place to sleep (I've actually only stayed with other couchsurfers twice) but to meet and establish friendships with a diverse, life-enhancing, mind-altering group of people.

Interests

Literature, Philosophy, Science, Ecology, Food and Wine, Aesthetics, History, Most other things except sports and cars.

• literature
• poetry
• beauty
• dining
• wine
• drinking
• traveling
• cars
• opera
• sports
• ecology
• history
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Some of my favourite writers (in no particular order) are Tolstoy, Proust, Trollope, Wilde, Eliot, Orwell, Patrick Hamilton, Housman, Auden, Larkin and James Fenton. I read a lot of novels, history, poetry, philosophy and popular science. Movies I love include 'Kind Hearts and Coronets', 'Swing Time' and almost anything by the Coen Brothers. Music: Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Wagner to the Rolling Stones, the Doors and David Bowie.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've swum with turtles and sea-lions in the Galapagos, dived with hammer-head sharks, been on elephant safaris through Nepal and India, written an opera and staged it off Broadway...

Teach, Learn, Share

I know something of poetry, literature in general, philosophy, history and (like the old Greek) men and cities.

I want to learn about almost everything.

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, North Korea, Oman, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States