CURRENT MISSION

My mission is to live, meet people, see the world. Also to rock out & drink tea!

ABOUT ME

I'm a 27-year old customer service guy by day, but by night I do many things, mostly playing bass in a rock band. There are three of us in this house, myself and two others, one's Welsh, the other's from Yorkshire. I grew up in Wigan myself, a small place not too far from Manchester, so I'd been coming here for years before I moved up. I like to be sociable and Manchester has so much to offer in terms of places to see and go and do. I would describe it as a great place to visit and I'll be happy to offer my -admittedly quite small- sofa for the good people of this site to utilize.

PHILOSOPHY

I would describe myself as a Humanist. I'm not religious at all, never have been. I prefer to think of the great things that humankind can accomplish while we're here. All the knowledge of the Earth and the universe to be discovered and shared between people & cultures. We are literally capable of anything and we should all work, live and experience life together. We have the same thoughts, feelings and desires as each other. Divisions and nationality mean little to me, as we are simply all human.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I know the city really well by now, and I actually rather enjoy showing people around, so I'd be happy to do so. As stated, anyone visiting has a choice of one of two small couches, or the cushions can be removed and put on the floor. Airbeds and sleeping bags are also available, if needed. Plus, I do a mean full english breakfast.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

A few months ago, a German lady came to stay with us for nearly a week. I hadn't arranged this, my ex-housemate (who now lives in Kiev) had our house up on this site. We went out for a few drinks one evening and ended up in FAB Cafe, which is full of sci-fi references. The DJ booth is the Enterprise bridge, the Thunderbirds hang above the bar and tucked away in one corner is the TARDIS. Add exceptional & random music played and reasonably priced drinks, and you have something close to a watertight hit.
A little while later there was an American guest, currently working in Korea as a teacher. It's not strictly a CS story since it was organised through a mutual friend of ours, but this one coincided with some days off work I had. It was on this occasion I discovered that I quite like just wandering around the city with someone who hasn't been before.
I guess I genuinely enjoy making someone feel welcome in this lovely city in this peculiar country of mine.

Interests

I'll be honest, I'm perhaps a bit of a nerd. I like music & films & videogames. I don't really care for sports & don't really watch television because we don't actually have one. If you're a musician, so am I and most of my friends, so we can geek out about chord progressions or something. To that end, there's a large amount of live music in Manchester which is well worth checking out, as well as most of the art galleries and museums. The exhibits change pretty regularly so I like to go and check them out when they change.

• arts
• breakfast
• drinking
• movies
• socializing
• music
• live music
• sports
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

I do read quite a bit, I enjoy a lot of books but most are either funny, dark or both. Kurt Vonnegut, John Wyndham, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett are favourites, as well as various non-fiction books about music, pop science & politics. Movies-wise, I'm a science fiction man on the whole, but I appreciate a good film wherever it crops up. Best films for me are Amelie, The Lives of Others, Children of Men, Alen/Aliens, The Thing, The Prestige & The Back to the Future films.
On music, it's more or less anything goes. There are certain types of music I just can't get into, but on the whole I'll listen to anything. My favourite band of all time is and will probably always be Pink Floyd. Closely followed and in no particular order by Led Zeppelin, Dubstar, System of a Down, Air, Kyuss, The Kinks, The Beatles, David Bowie, Skunk Anansie, Dead Can Dance, R.E.M., Dave Brubeck, Primus and so many many others.

Teach, Learn, Share

Well, I could give bass lessons if it was necessary.