CURRENT MISSION

become even more wise, funny and sexy than I already am

ABOUT ME

I have been living and working in Manchester, UK for four years. I'm about to start a new career teaching English in Vietnam.

Depending on the time of day and what's on the to-do list I operate at wildly varying degrees of maturity; I have a progressive, liberal and left-leaning outlook; I have occasional short lived intellectual urges; I use too many semicolons and my disposition is calm, contemplative but sometimes distressingly cynical.

PHILOSOPHY

I think it is important not to worry, unless something really matters: and it hardly ever does. I have realised I'm altogether too passive and indecisive, so I am trying to change. I'm not really a Christian but I think its really important to 'turn the other cheek' and be forgiving most of the time. Tolerance is also very important. I have an individualist stance and I think that people should decide for themselves what's good for them and act accordingly.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have co-hosted three pairs of surfers last year and two single surfers, a trio and a two duos this year (2009). In 2008 year I went to America and where I was hosted in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The generous efforts and kindness of my hosts and their friends made what could have been a lonely trip a fascinating and convivial one. Hats off to couchsurfing!

Interests

Films, TV, history, the USA, literature, anything to do with the sea, the Royal Navy, the Mutiny on the Bounty, the US Navy, ships, submarines, sealife, celebrities, aeroplanes, geopolitics, alcohol, narcotics, espionage, the Cold War, weaponry, Africa and the Islands of the Pacific.

• literature
• movies
• tv
• geopolitics
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

I know any - every - and all films. My recently compiled top twenty films from 2000-2010 include There Will Be Blood, The Fountain, The Bourne Identity/ Supremacy/ Ultimatum, Spider-Man 2, About Schmidt, Rescue Dawn, Gladiator, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban/Goblet of Fire, Children of Men, Let the Right One In, and Spirited Away.

I like Kevin Costner, James Cagney, Richard Burton, Natalie Portman, Errol Flynn, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Emile Hirsch, Rachel McAdams, Reese Witherspoon, Jim Carrey and Anthony Hopkins. I have got a massive crush on Lindsay Lohan that just won't go away no matter how badly she behaves or how many shit films she stars in.

Music: my favourite musics are Beethoven's 7th Symphony, Kachaturian's Sabre Dance, Wagner's Tannhauser Overture and Clint Mansell's music from The Fountain. I love the Wall movie and concert by Pink Floyd and all of the songs in it. I used to be into dance, trance, hard house, superstar-DJ-bigroom sets and everything that goes with that, but not much anymore.

Books: George Orwell is the only author whose books I have read all of. Since doing so I've been searching in vain for as good a writer as he; John Steinbeck comes closest. I like the IDEA of and Vladmir Nabokov and Marcel Proust but I need to become older and cleverer before I'll be able to properly appreciate them. David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, Ghostwritten) is my favourite author still working. He's only written four books but I really liked all of them and Cloud Atlas is spectacular and amazing in ways that no modern books ever are.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I once swam through the veins of a living whale (they are of such a girth that it was possible for me to do so) before bursting out of its heart into the sea. I was by myself and the camera I was filming it on got broken.

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom

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