CURRENT MISSION

I want to meet as many interesting people as possible, and do as many wild and adventurous things, and visit as many of the beautiful places in the world as I can, while I can.

UPDATE - October 2022. I sold my big house in Gladstone late last year, and retired earlier this year. I have bought a block of land just outside Gin Gin, in Queensland, and am living temporarily in a very comfortable shed, fully off grid and self sufficient while waiting for a house to be built, hopefully due in February, 2023. In the meantime, you are still able to stay if you're largely self sufficient, i.e. camping in car or tent.

UPDATE - June 2024. I've had the new house delivered a year ago, and everything is now completed, ready to accept couchsurfers again. It's a 2 bedroom house, with just one spare room, with a queen size bed, so couples are fine, or groups of up to three if one wants to sleep on a mattress on the floor.

CONTACTING ME

Whilst I do try to check emails daily, it's not always possible, especially on weekends. If you have a short notice, or urgent request, please contact me on my mobile phone, either SMS or call me, on 0428 739549. I will still ask you to place your request through this site as normal, but at least I will know about it, and will be able to answer you quickly. And if you SMS me, please allow 5 minutes for me to respond, before you look for other hosts. If you phone me, I won't recognise your phone number, and due to so many spam calls these days, I will let the call go through to voicemail, but don't be put off by that. If you leave me a message, I will be notified immediately, and will call you straight back, and I'll be able to give you your answer straight away.

ABOUT ME

I'm very easy going, love to spend time with friends, entertaining, barbecues, and volunteering. A strong believer in environmental issues, I strive to reduce my personal impact on the environment. I would love to one day be self sufficient for food, and am now self sufficient for energy, with 20kw of solar on the roof, a big battery, and EV charging also taken care of by the solar system. I prefer living in the country or bush, since I enjoy peace and quiet (although you may wonder when I have the sound system cranked up with some of my favourite music)

PHILOSOPHY

1. Life gives back as much as you put in to it, most times much more.
2. No matter how bad I feel, there are many worse off than me.
3. Every day is a positive (hey! At least I woke up this morning! Some people weren't so lucky).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I love meeting and hosting visitors from around Australia, and from the rest of the world. I intend to make the most of my remaining years here on earth, by travelling, and going on adventures. I love travelling in the Northern Hemisphere, Europe, Russia, China, Alaska and Canada, and hope to see a lot more of those areas before I depart this world forever, and hope to do some "surfing" myself, then. Update! June-July 2019 I had another great trip to Europe, including a Mylene Farmer concert in Paris, several stops in Holland, then Prague, Krakow, Warsaw, Sochi/Adler, Krasnaya Polyana and Moscow.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have hosted numerous wonderful people from all corners of the world, and have made a few lasting friendships as a result. I really enjoy having people stay at my place, the more the merrier! Even though I'm a few kms out of town, it's a very quiet, peaceful place for a few days of rest out of your busy schedule.

So far, my only "surfing" experience has been when I stayed with an ex-pat Kiwi (New Zealander) in Narvik in Norway, in January, 2014. While there, I also met several other couch surfers. Since then, Feb 2019, I couch surfed in Dunedin NZ when I shouted myself a concert by Gin Wigmore, and again in Prague.

Interests

I love cats and dogs, and I also love to spend time visiting and helping kids in foster care. I'm into camping, fishing, and restoration of antique farm machinery and stationary engines. I'm also a keen skydiver, but have had to take a break for a while. I'm also a volunteer with foster kids (I'm a "Pyjama Angel"), I'm in the SES (State Emergency Service), I teach Taekwondo, and have just begun Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, (2019). Update! I just had my first skydive in over three years on 17th of August 2019! UPDATE - June 2024, that was my last skydive, and unlikely to take it up again, even though I'd dearly love to.

I have set up my own off grid solar system, am currently restoring an old motorbike, and have several old restored farm engines lying about, which I will happily "fire up" for anyone interested.

• cats
• dogs
• environment
• dining
• traveling
• restoration
• music
• fishing
• camping
• hunting
• skydiving
• olympics
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Most styles of music, but prefer popular music from 60's to the 80's, classical, rock etc, but not into rap, grunge etc. Some of my favourite artists are Russian Vladimir Kuzmin, French beauty, Mylene Farmer, and kiwi lady Gin Wigmore. I also enjoy some more modern music, like that from Pink, Taylor Swift, Adele and Olivia Rodrigo.

Favourite movies include Forest Gump, Life as a House, Green Mile, Avatar, Shrek and Ice Age.

No favourite books, as I simply don't read them. I could never get into reading something that took more than 30 minutes to read. June 2024, I have started reading the odd novel now!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

There are more than one, sorry...... I've seen the Northern Lights from Narvik in Norway, been to the Abba Museum in Sweden, the Sochi Winter Olympics, sky diving, and visited Lake Baikal in Russia, which is an absolutely amazing place. It is the world's oldest and biggest lake, it holds 1/4 of all the worlds fresh water in liquid form, and it holds 27,000 cubic kilometres of water. Just think about that!! I love the Russian people I've met so far, and had a couple of amazing holidays there, a much under-rated country in my opinion. Snorkelling at Magnetic Island in North Queensland was also amazing.

Teach, Learn, Share

I love to share my experiences with whoever wants to hear them, and I similarly love hearing others' experiences. I'm also hoping to get into teaching English abroad, and do international house sitting in future.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Aussie Barbeque, Sushi, home made rum and a game of pool. (Sorry, I had to sell the pool table, when I sold the big house in Gladstone).

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sweden

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, New Zealand