CURRENT MISSION

Going back to where I started and picking the right road this time.

ABOUT ME

ALL about me...how long would THAT take? Music, music, music...playing it, writing it, listening to it, teaching it...living it basically is my life. It drives me forward and it propels my ambitions and I intend to build a new life around it based on where I am at the moment, where I thought I would be, and how I can get to where I wanted to be and should have been by now.

PHILOSOPHY

Try everything at least once - and the things you like as often as you can. Life is simply, genuinely, too short. I have a ton of things that I've done but just as many that I want to do or to try, some of which I can put down here and some of which I can't - going to Uluru, taking the Trans-Siberian express, seeing the Aurora Borealis, swimming in the Pacific, going to Burning Man are among the things on my to-do-before-I-die list. But instead of putting a huge list here, I'll see who I click with and where it goes. The whole point of being here for me is not having to do things on my own but seeing how things evolve by meeting other people along the same thought processes.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

At this stage my participation is pretty much limited to being around to meet up with people if they want to have a chat or somebody to show them around. I'm not in a position to offer a couch yet, but as time goes on and my living circumstances change, I intend to change that.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

No experience yet but can't wait to get stuck in...

Interests

Music pretty much covers all the bases here. I'm a musician and that's all I've ever been. How I can fit that into my CS experience I'm not entirely sure yet but I'm sure that'll become clear as time goes on and as I start getting in contact with other members. I would imagine that if I can find CS hosts that have a piano that's a pretty obvious place to start. I love cooking and I'm pretty good at it so if you want to host a guy that'll turn up at your place, chat away, cook you a meal and then play for you while (or after) you eat then I'm your man...or I'm open to suggestions. A professional piano/keyboard player turns up in your life, what do you do with him?

• writing
• concerts
• cooking
• socializing
• music
• piano
• swimming

Music, Movies, and Books

Music - it would take less time to list what I DON'T listen to; from the complexity of baroque to the poise of classical music to the passion of the Romantics to the diversity of the 20th century to the explosion of rock music in the last 60 years...I could be listening to Brahms, Skrillex, Daft Punk, movie soundtracks, new age, jazz fusion, all in one day. I could spend a Friday night at a symphony concert and a Saturday night at a rock gig. Movies and books - terribly predictable really, Shawshank Redemption, Dead Poet's Society, Hill Street Blues, the Harry Potter books, Scrubs, Battlestar Galactica...fantasy; anything that can take me on a journey through ups and downs, highs and lows and leave me at the end of it feeling like I've been through...something! SOMEthing!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The first time I heard Beethoven's 7th symphony live.

Seeing the audience reaction from the stage as I played "You'll never walk alone" as the encore to a concert in Liverpool on the anniversary of Hillsborough.

Visiting the graves of Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert in Vienna.

Standing in the room where Mozart wrote, among many other things, "The Marriage of Figaro" and his Piano Concerti nos. 21 and 22.

Teach, Learn, Share

Ok I'll share; the worst thing I could imagine for myself would be to become conventional. I never have been but then I don't feel that I've ever really gone too far in the other direction either. I want to go further and further that way and I want to meet people along the way that can go there with me either through going on the journey or pointing the way. CS seems to me like the best way I've found so far to manage this. I'm jumping in at the deep end as far as that's possible. As I said above (but it's worth repeating), take what life throws at you to make you stronger, no matter how hard the blow might seem. And if it's something good, then all the better!

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Russian Federation, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ireland, New Zealand