CURRENT MISSION

Keep on laughing and learning!

ABOUT ME

Hi, I'm Nicko! I'm 32 - after living offgrid on a narrowboat around the UK for 2 1/2 years, I sold it (along with everything else I owned!) and toured and worked around the world for a while :)

Pre-pandemic, I was working as a freelancer in theatre as a lighting designer, stage manager and assistant director, and as a jack of many other trades. I now work in finance/tech, it's the latest life experiment! 🤣

I love a karaoke session, whistle excessively, and cook by trial and error (haphazardly!) for myself, and with some care and consideration for others. and Drop me a message and we'll meet up - easier to share this kind of thing in person!

PHILOSOPHY

I think invisible imps cause coincidences by time-travelling and manipulating tiny accumulated events in our respective histories - I have all sorts of silly theories about the universe I know not to be true but I have fun self-deluding with :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I decided a few Summers ago to pass on the CS hospitality I had received while travelling. For 6 weeks, I thought I would try a sort of social experiment and host anybody who got in touch for the period. Despite listing the boat as having no toilet, no shower and lots of insects I ended up hosting nearly 50 different people, some days I had 10+ guests, with people camped out on the roof and the deck. Boat occasionally felt like a bizarre floating campsite, and was a kinda a 24 hour non-stop party, but we had a lot of good barbeques and river swimming and it was a fun time!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Discovered CouchSurfing while completing a walking and camping trip across Holland, Belgium and Germany in February 2009 (it suddenly got very cold and started snowing and blizzarding on a regular basis, so decided to try CS, as seemed a warmer and more sociable option than freezing nightly in a tent in a field), the rest of my trip then took off in all kinds of unexpected vistas, and would not have been as eye-opening and ultimately mind-changing as it was, without the kindness and conversation of all the CSers I met.

Interests

Singing, piano, accordion, play-writing, wildlife, poetry, theatre, trumpeting, foraging, urban exploration, films and film-making, live music, all-day hikes, composition, education, trivia, literature, home-made electronics, biking, DIY, lighting design, rock-climbing, experimental cooking - I attempt to try most things that come my way - introduce me to something!

• wildlife
• writing
• literature
• poetry
• singing
• design
• dining
• cooking
• walking
• electronics
• boating
• movies
• traveling
• music
• piano
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• rock climbing
• solo travel
• urban exploration
• food
• foraging
• sustainable agriculture
• experimental cooking

Music, Movies, and Books

I like books a lot. Big fan of Joyce, Hesse, Nabokov, Perec, Marlowe, Beckett, Woolf, Pound, Walcott, Heaney, Sebald, Wyndham Lewis, Shakespeare, Pynchon, Foster Wallace, etc, etc Read a heap of other stuff - a lot of stuff about climate change at the moment.. Movies: as and when I'm in the mood. Sometimes I'll watch a few in a day, sometimes none in a month - but off the top of my head right now fave movies might be: Aguirre, wrath of God, The cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover', Modern Times, Chungking Express, True Romance, Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing, The City of Lost Children, Metropolis, Wall-E, Singing in the Rain, Primer, Brazil - there's this epic Korean naval drama called 'The Admiral' which I also think is kinda cool... Music-wize I like a bit of everything, but a lot of classical/orchestral stuff - and something I can boogie to :)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Biked across France (twice), traveled by bus from Edinburgh to Cyprus, lived in a rainforest in Malaysia for a month, sung with Pavarotti, written plays and lots of literature - various things are scattered around..

Teach, Learn, Share

Willing to learn from you whatever you think is important (I'll listen - I like listening), and if you like, I'll teach you something about London or whatever you feel you want to learn from me- I'm happy to help open up this city to newcomers as much as I can, and know lots of great places around the city!

If you'd like to stay, please bring me food offerings! I eat anything, and appreciate it very much! Teach me something new!

N.B. I'm not a big fan of rude people, or people who just do cut and paste e-mails, with generic rubbish about how much they 'love music' and 'love meeting new people' - who doesn't!? There's plenty of hotels and hostels in London. If you'd like to stay in my home, please be courteous and tell me something intriguing about yourself! Let's have a mutually positive CouchSurfing experience, and I'll do my best to make you feel welcome and be a decent host to you! Probably two nights max is good for me, but I sometimes have let people stay longer if I enjoy the company :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

I used to be a dessert chef and a baker - I can make chocolatey things.
I can probably fix something that's broken, definitely create something you ask for , and am pretty effective at solving any problem you want to throw at me...

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Malaysia, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, France, Ghana, Malaysia, Switzerland, United Kingdom

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