CURRENT MISSION

Ending consumerism

ABOUT ME

I live in Hackney in North London sharing a fantastic house with fantastic friends (if CS says I am in Doncaster, ignore it - it's a quirk of the system and I've never even visited Doncaster!). I've spent the best part of a decade working in politics - first on environmental issues, now on UK welfare rights and child poverty. I feel very lucky with the friends and family I have and to be living in such an amazing city.

PHILOSOPHY

I can't say it any better than William Saroyan, the Armenian American writer, so I'll leave it to him...

"Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might. When you get angry, get good and angry, and when you laugh, laugh like hell! You'll be dead soon enough."

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I heard inspiring things from friends who went on a 10 month low-carbon circumnavigation of the world without flying. In late 2009 I set off to travel from London to Kuala Lumpur over land and met up with many CSers on the way who greatly enriched my travelling experience. I now occasionally host, mostly meeting up with people as I live in a shared house so it is rarely possible to give people somewhere to stay. I hope to participate by helping people who share my love of leftfield and eclectic art, music, film and culture, using my local knowledge to guide them to the most interesting and exciting things going on in what is probably the most diverse and energetic city in the world for art and culture.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have had some wonderful CS hosts and guides who shared my cultural interests and took me off the tourist trail so I could discover the real local culture. Too many great stories to relate, but many of them involve hosts taking me off to unusual and unexpected places and events that mean partying all night and meeting all kinds of welcoming generous people who are full of interesting ideas and stories. It's not just the experiences themselves, its the learning about other people, cultures and ideas that stays with you after, helping you develop as a person, that is so special.

Interests

breakfast, lunch, dinner, culture, philosophy, music, art, mountains

• arts
• culture
• writing
• dancing
• dining
• breakfast
• partying
• flying
• politics
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• science
• tourism
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:
Icelandic electronica, Bulgarian folk, Romany (Taraf de Haidouks, Goran Bregovic, Fanfare Ciocarlia, gypsy speed brass!), Bach, Tallis, Ligeti, Penderecki, Grisey, Sufjan Stevens, Lambchop, Bill Callahan, Notwist, Joanna Newsom, Bjork, Sigur Ros, Múm, Animal Collective, Juana Molina, Neutral Milk Hotel and lots, lots more...

Film and TV:
Kurosawa, Ozu, Czech new wave film, Bergman, Kieslowski, Lars von Trier, Shane Meadows, Kusturica, The Wire, 6 Ft Under, Sopranos, Chaplin, Keaton

Books:
Knut Hamsun, Dostoevsky, Primo Levi, John Fante, Bohumil Hrabal, Vaclav Havel, Mikhail Bulgakov

Dance:
Akram Khan, Henri Oguike, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Matthew Bourne, Klaus Obermaier

Art:
Morandi, Donald Judd, Anthony Gormley, Turner, Jeremy Deller, Marina Abramovich, folk art

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Sitting in a natural hot spring in the Icelandic highlands in the midnight light.

The endlessly breathtaking landscapes of Tibet.

The hospitality and generosity of all the people I shared train carriages with travelling through Western China - and the delicious food they all fed me.

Discussing early Pink Floyd with Boris Johnson, the eccentric Mayor of London. I'll still be trying to vote him out though!

Teach, Learn, Share

Guitar, English, philosophy, science studies.

Would love to learn the banjo or the accordion, or new ways to dance.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom

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