LOCATION

Close to Norwich (2 miles) but semi-rural 150yr old cottage with large 200yo garden and woodland. 30-40 minutes walk to central Norwich. Buses are 10mins walk away but not ideally placed/timed. Though I can sometimes offer lifts/collection to/from city centre.

CURRENT MISSION

Live life to the full, love everything and everyone, take nothing personally, grow into being 100% authentic, passionate, confident without growing old or growing up. Every day is a new opportunity, someone new to meet. Working with arts projects, The Human Library, and public speaking about diversity and inclusion.

ABOUT ME
I'm queer and non-binary, I have several cats (in case you are allergic), my house has thousands of books, musical instruments, art, and Dr Martens and is more like an eclectic museum. I love languages and different nationalities and cultures, and am well travelled. I relax by cooking, gardening, playing guitar and reading.

Addictions
Rioja, Risotto, Cats (currently x9), Curry, Cheese, Clothes, Jalapenos, Charity and Secondhand Shops, Languages, Travel, Books, Art, Gardening, Dr Martens, Doctor Who, Cameras, Trees, Self-development - this is not a cry for help, I am happy, out of my tree and already done therapy and dated plenty of therapists.

Educayshun
I tend to collect education rather than qualify or finish. An eternal B grader because always distracted, I amassed 14 average O'levels, 3 A levels and an S level. Got a degree in life from UCL with a minor in Economics and Stats and a spare-time study of Hebrew, Spanish, and snooker/pool, thrown in. I studied Theology afterwards and did a short course in Modern Standard Arabic and continued my Greek and Hebrew. Also managed to study archaeology and other ancient and modern languages awhile. Nearly started an MA in Gender Studies and a PhD, but found life progresses faster than any ability to get qualifications in it!

Wished now I kept my music studies going rather than giving up after grade 5 piano and grade 7 musical theory, but have dabbled in guitar and piano and singing since, including recently in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. I played violin for 4 years but would not dare torture anyone again with my playing - it resembled Sherlock Holmes' tuneless straining.

My unqualifications include: business mismanagement, computing, programming, search engine optimisation, social media marketing; photography; multilingual passion for languages, words and translation; religious, psychological, philosophical, sexuality and gender studies; DIY mainly carpentry and wiring jobs; gardening - well digging holes and filling them, growing my own veg and fruit in extensive 1 acre walled and wooded 200 year old garden. Cat herding (currently 11!) but I want Alpacas and Owls (again).

Oh I've done stand up comedy, played guitar naked, am in the middle of writing several books and had a short documentary made about me, and somehow regularly end up on the Radio or interviewed on TV about community politics, mental health, gender, or Doctor Who.

Finally, I am transgender non-binary asexual and exploring radically all gender/sexual expressions and therefore very open-minded as I hope any visitors would be too.

PHILOSOPHY

Live and let live, learn from each other, love all. "What would you be like if you were the only person in the world? If you want to be truly happy you must be that person" - Quentin Crisp

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Offering several double beds, sofa beds, summer houses, tents in the garden, even a yurt on occasion. I love to cook and host, go for local walks, show folk around Norwich, drink, eat and philosophise into the early hours. Happy to leave guests to themselves or show them around, eat out/in with them, talk into the early hours in front of a log fire with wine, whisky or port.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

All couchsurfers met have become close friends. But that is not compulsory.

Interests

Travel, culture, languages, Spanish, Hebrew, Danish, French, German, Arabic, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Swahili, Japanese, Turkish, food, wine, cooking, deserts, trees, middle east, Egypt, philosophy, theology, psychology, psychotherapy, exploring soul, gender, spirituality and sexuality, ancient world and wisdom, old books, gardens, cats, camels, England, Spain, USA, New York, Kenya

• cats
• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• singing
• street art
• photography
• documentaries
• beauty
• diy
• lgbt rights
• human rights
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• cheese
• coffee
• gardening
• clothing
• reading
• traveling
• billiards
• music
• guitar
• piano
• art history
• business
• communications
• economics
• gender studies
• history
• languages
• psychology
• statistics
• snooker
• food
• ancient history
• norwich

Music, Movies, and Books

Rock, opera, jazz, classical, cello, oratorios, stabat maters, U2, Green Day, Bach, Beethoven, Verdi, Puccini, Haydn, Handel, Puccini, Queen, Simple Minds, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Katie Melua, Suzanne Vega, Sandi Thom, James Blunt, Simple Minds, Japan, David Sylvian, The Waterboys, The Alarm, Rainbow, Pink Floyd, Journey, REM, Crowded House, Louis Armstrong, Amy Winehouse, Pat Benatar, K T Tunstall, Natasha Bedingfield, Karl Jenkins, Ludovico Einaudi, Tanita Tikaram, Avril Lavigne, Sheryl Crow, Allegri's Miserere, Marc Almond, Soft Cell, The Pet Shop Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Meatloaf, Marillion, 24, SG1, QI, Desperate Housewives, West Wing, Question Time, Top Gear, The OC, Pride and Prejudice, Tipping the Velvet, Dr Who, One Foot in the Grave, My Family, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, CSI, Grey's Anatomy, House, Shoebox Zoo, Nip/Tuck, Will and Grace, Friends, Heroes, Torchwood, Sharpe, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Californication, Spooks, Alias, Dark Angel, Beauty and the Geek, Project Runway/Catwalk, Brothers & Sisters, Xena - Warrior Princess, American Princess, X-Files, Twin Peaks, Spooks, Judge John Deed, Fawlty Towers, Friends, The L Word, That 70s Show, Monkey, The Water Margin, The Vice, Skins, Shameless, eachers, Sex Change Hospital, Devil's Kitchen, MasterChef, ER, Paperchase, The Professionals, Thunderbirds, Smallville, Dawson's Creek, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Dexter, Dirty Sexy Money, Pretty Woman, Casino Royale, Lawrence of Arabia, Matrix, Star Wars, Cry Freedom, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Waterloo, Dr Zhivago, Any Pedro Almodovar Spanish flic like Three Women on the edge of a nervous breakdown or High heels, Mariachi, Desperado, Edward Scissorhands, Silence of the Lambs, Being John Malkovitch, The Mission, Top Hat (Fred & Ginger), Breakfast at Tiffany's, Seven Samurai, Spaghetti Westerns, Pleasantville, The Cube, Solent Green, Logan's Run, Capricorn, Donnie Darko, Gremlins, The Butterfly Effect, The Breakfast Club, Aeon Flux, My First Mister, Kill Bill, Mrs Doubtfire, Last Tango in Paris, Solaris, Pretty in Pink, Normal, Memoirs of a Geisha, Chocolat, Mr and Mrs Smith, Tomb Raider, Ma Vie en Rose, Equilibrium, Gattica, TransAmerica, Poison Ivy, Secretary, Crash, Videodrome, Devil Wears Prada, Gladiator, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Small Soldiers, The Net, Hackers, Sneakers, Wargames, Se7en, The Bone Collector, Independence Day, War of the Worlds, Cool Hand Luke, The Great Escape, Strictly Ballroom, Dirty Dancing, Kate and Leopold, Rain Man, Lost in Translation, Fantabulosa, Oranges are not the Only Fruit, Chose Secretes, Cat People (1942/82), Dangerous Liaisons, The Sheltering Sky, Sirens, Alien, Species, Predator, LA Confidential, Some Like it Hot, The Seven Year Itch, Dead Poets Society, School of Rock, Goodbye Mr Chips, The History Boys, The Browning Version, The Cell, 8mm, Bound, Bible, Lord of the Rings, Talmud, Conundrum, Dan Brown, The Invitation, Poems of Tennyson, Harry Potter, P G Wodehouse, Morris West, Susan Howatch, Song of Songs, Gender Outlaw, Alice in Genderland, A life of Unlearning, Game of Thrones, Haven, Sense8, Tales of the City, Suits

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Why one? I've had a documentary made about me, been on TV a few times, and regularly on Radio, or in the newspapers - usually for good reasons and not in the court and crime reports! I did a TEDx talk on mental health and being yourself.

I spoke to a crowd in Norwich of 2,000 on staying in the EU, and not voting for Brexit - I'm a xenophile and citizen of Europe!

I went to the European council on Transgender in Berlin and ended up clubbing with 500 diverse people from dozens of countries in the city's queer and liberated clubs.

I've visited the USA a dozen times and have many friends there.

I spent 10 years travelling the Middle East like Jordan, Israel and Egypt, as well as Kenya in Africa.

I've been to the USA, Denmark, Netherlands, Turkey and Scotland, in the last 6 months. I continue to travel regularly for my work running the UK Human Library. I've fallen in love with Edinburgh owing to a regular visits and new friends there.

Teach, Learn, Share

Personal self-development, languages, photography, confidence, eco-gardening; juggling. WordPress; cooking; Wisdom and philosophy; Humour and honesty. Wine, whisky, sherry or port tasting.

What I Can Share with Hosts

My love of life, attitudes to thriving, joy of being, stories, humour, music, photography skills, language love, advice, wisdom, connection to self, community and environment

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Spain, United Kingdom