Some of the best experiences I have had whilst travelling have been as a result of couchsurfing. I love the buzz of meeting people I never would have met if I'd stayed in the small corner of England where I'm from! The world on the whole is full of warm, kind and genuine people and meeting them is the essence of what couchsurfing is for me.

Long list of books that I'm working through and love including - The Bottom Billion - Paul Collier Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance -Robert M Pirsig From the land of the green ghosts - Pascal Khoo Thwe My Promised Land - Ari Shavit Born to Run - Christopher McDougall Everything was goodbye - Gusjinder Basran The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri Room - Emma Donoghue Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri The Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill Say you're one of them - Uwen Akpan The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt The Book thief - Markus Zusak When you're engulfed in flames - David Sedaris Wild - Cheryl Strayed The power of One - Bryce Courteney Wonder - R.J.Palacio The bandit queen - Phoolan Devi Half the sky - Nicholas Kristof + Sheryl WuDunn Films - The Intouchables, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Gone Girl, Gladiator, Forest Gump, Blue is the warmest colour, Calamity Jane, Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, Into the Wild, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original) Wild, Drive, The Notebook, Django Unchained Music wise I would give anything a listen but mainly I like Indie/Accoustic. But when I love a song I don't care who songs it, I love the power of a song to transport you to a time and place in your life - the feelings and memories they can evoke.