CURRENT MISSION

To complete my PhD and not lose my mind! To love my children and give them all I can. To live a varied life with as few preoccupations as possible! To find the courage to think and act 'out of the box' and dismiss society's bad influence on me. Society! To prepare myself and those around me for a Prosperous Way Down - partially by learning that personal relations are the most valuable.

ABOUT ME

I filled up my living room with plants, sofas and a monstrous climbing wall project that I doubt will be finished soon. I enjoy the outdoors, cooking, solving crossword puzzles on the couch under my girl's blanket. I work in an academic world but I enjoy digging holes, moving dirt, cutting down trees and other manual work I can get my hands on.

I hope to learn how to enjoy life. I need projects often involving traveling to work towards - they keep a smile on my face. I do not deal well with status quo.

PHILOSOPHY

I try to avoid being narrow-minded. I believe the first - and perhaps the best - way to make society a better place is by being happy and by making people I know happy. I try to focus on living life and not waste my time in achieving. Kick me when I worry! And please, tell me how it is to live your life. Tell me how you are creative.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I want to let others learn from my own travel experiences. I want to learn how others live their life and let others understand why I am who I am. I want to learn and hopefully teach how to live the good life and how to make people around me happy. Yeah, people should be happy!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

During my time in Bolivia I met several couchsurfers staying at the apartment I shared with three others, one of whom is a couch surfer as well. All have been great, and now that I've become established in my own flat I am the one enjoying visitors! I look forward to being on the road again, and I hope I manage to plan my travels to include couchsurfing.

Interests

Family. Community life. Transition. Permaculture. Organic farming. Sports (tennis, running, skiing, kayaking). Do-it-yourself work. Beer brewing.

• diy
• cooking
• beer
• baking
• running
• boating
• traveling
• puzzles
• drawing
• outdoor activities
• kayaking
• sailing
• skiing
• sports
• boxing
• rock climbing
• tennis
• swimming

Music, Movies, and Books

I especially love 'Big Lebowski', 'The Flight of the Conchords' TV series and 'Terminator 2'.
I read all the books I can get my hands on! If you think 'Harry Potter' is for kids, you're just too old.
As far as possible in 'A song of ice and fire' (aka Game of thrones). Reading about Gaia, homesteading, future scenarios.
I listen to almost every kind of music, at the time it's Joaquin Sabina, Kill Bill soundtrack and always Jack Johnson. I like to play sports, now it's tennis, kayaking tennis and bouldering and do things a bit out of the ordinary.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I went swimming in the dead of night once, off a sail boat in the Mediterranean. Stars above, a frighteningly black ocean around and beneath me. All alone fighting off panic I dived and found myself encapsulated in bio-luminescents, plankton giving off light when moving. The sensation of being nearly weightless, of hearing nothing and having all these little lights on and around me was mesmerizing, other-worldly and very strange. It was a feeling and an experience unlike any other I've had or probably will have again.

Teach, Learn, Share

Every time you worry ask yourself whether you really have to. Ask people if it's necessary to worry about a particular thing.
There is no recipe of living - trust in yourself and broaden your perspective.
Be creative - draw, write, cook, build, play, fantasize, sew, whatever - it is the spice of life. It'll make you wonder at the possibilities of the world and the world wonder at you.

On a different note, but still in the Teach, Learn, Share category, here is my answer to requests for rye bread baking instructions:

For 2-3 breads - size depends on the tin

Acquire a sourdough! Most sourdough bakers will love to donate one. Or make your own from scratch. The web has suggestions.

In a big bowl, mix sourdough with approx. a litre of water and 2-3 spoonfuls of coarse salt (Don't be afraid, rye bread can take a lot of salt).

Put in the kernels that you want in the bread. I use about a pound of rye kernels, a ½ pound of wheat kernels, ½ a pound of sunflower seeds and some flaxseeds. Pumpkin seeds are terrific but also more expensive than the ones mentioned.

Leave overnight (begin the project in the evening) under a moist kitchen towel for the seeds to soak up the water. Using a lot of seeds/kernels will result in bread that stays soft/moist longer. Don't put the dough in the fridge. It will slow/stop the (desired) bacteria growth.

In the morning after, add ½ litre of water and a little less than a kg of rye flour. With practice and experience you will adjust the amount of flour to the preferred consistency of the mix and the preferred characteristics of the baked bread.

Butter the tins. You only forget this step once. The wasted work from bread burned on to the sides of the tin leaves a strong impression.

Mix the dough well. I use my hand, it's hard work to do with a wooden spoon but doable. It is a sticky dough to get your hand into. I suggest you keep one hand clean to hold the bowl, turn on the tap etc.
Scrape dough off hand with a spatula.

There's is no actual kneading of the dough (with no wheat flour in it, no gluten will come from any kneading. Only unnecessary work).

When the ingredients are fully mixed, put the mixture in the tins. The tin should be between ½ and 2/3rds full. If you have a potent sourdough, your bread will rise more.

DO NOT FORGET TO SAVE SOURDOUGH!

Keep the sourdough (approx. 2-3 decilitres) in an airtight container. Leave some space for it to rise. If you know that it will be a couple of weeks before you use the sourdough again, put a spoonful of coarse
salt on top of it, close the lid and shake so the salt is distributed over the surface of the sourdough. This will keep (undesired) mold from growing on it.

Leave the tins under a moist kitchen towel. The towel and dough may stick together. Be careful not to tear off the top of the dough when you take the towel off again. Leave for 5-10 hours. With experience you'll learn when the dough stops rising. When that happens, bake the bread.

I bake my bread 90-100 minutes at approx. 175 degrees Celsius. If the breads turn out to be too soft on the sides when you take them out of the tins, you can put them back in the (turned off) oven for 10-20 minutes, upside down and with a wooden spoon or the like in the oven door. Experiment.

The breads should leave the tins easily. If they don't, help them unstick by putting a knife between bread and tin all the way around. If it sticks to the bottom, you're screwed... The bread is still good, but may be difficult to handle and it's less pretty if some of it came off while taking it out of the tins.

Avoid cutting the breads right after oven exit. They can fall apart (and you can burn your fingers). After an hour or two, the best pieces (the ends, with 3 breads there are 6!) should be eaten with only butter. Don't feel bad about eating all the ends, they're not very good after some days anyway.

After the breads have cooled down completely, keep them in plastic bags. I keep the one in use out on the table (still in a bag) and the other (ones) in the fridge.

Good luck and enjoy making your own!

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