I am a divorced with two adult children adopted from the Philippines. I am recently retired from a professional career in social work, which has had me working with adults afflicted with mental health challenges, counseling individuals and couples, managing regional community services for the Canadian Hearing Society and supervising a provincial vocational rehabilitation program. Most recently I have become interested in cash crop gardening, and have some entrepreneurial ideas to explore; but I'm a good distance away from seeing a profit!

I deeply cherish friendship and do all I can to nurture solid relationships from my past and present; retirement has now given me the opportunity to build on that.

I value kindness, generosity, genuineness, honesty, tolerance, flexibility, patience and trustworthiness. I enjoy being helpful to others. I feel that I am adventurous and spontaneous. I can respond well to change and look to making things better. I care about the environment and regularly try to be mindful of what it takes to help improve the quality of our planet.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love the excitement of traveling, visiting new places and re-visiting old ones; I love engaging with people at all levels, cultures and interests; I have had 3 fine couch surfing experiences being hosted in Ontario; I have also co-hosted on 3 occasions--couples from France, Germany and USA.

I am presently in the last phase of preparing for a four week journey through Germany, and look forward to meeting new friends through the couch surfing network

Interests

My interests are wide and varied, as I am curious by nature and am fascinated with almost all that goes on around me; this sometimes works to my detriment in that I try to pack into my day more than 24 hours allow.

I love athletics, music, cooking, fine meals, photography/art, various games, cars, theatre and traveling and enjoy sharing experiences in all of these areas with others. My favourite athletic activities are cycling, table tennis, hiking and skiing. I have recently rejuvenated my interests in reading and have discovered the benefits of audio books. I love listening to different documentary and music radio broadcasts, especially from our excellent non-commercial national CBC Radio network

I have had the good fortune of visiting most European countries, the Philippines, parts of Canada and the USA, east and south Africa

Music, Movies, and Books

I enjoy reading mystery thrillers, factual and fictional adventure stories, historical novels and travel-related books.

I am almost entirely ecclectic in my musical taste and will often play a gypsy jazz number followed by a rock number, then classical--especially choral and pipe organ renditions; I equally love folk, all kinds of jazz and any genre of music that features the guitar; I play this instrument--not as well as I wish, and I continue to learn. I am a bass voice in a community choir in Kingston, called Open Voices. You sometimes would have to pull me away from the vast array of musical depiction on utube, where I can easily pass away several hours at a time becoming excited and inspired by what I see and hear in the world of music.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Having mustered up the courage to travel to the Philippines to adopt 2 young children

Teach, Learn, Share

Being kind of a jack of all trades but a master of none, I don't see myself as a teacher, although if pushed , I think I would do a decent job of teaching beginner guitar, valuing and nurturing relationships, and bicycle touring.

I I want to continue to learn more about all of my interests cited above as well as about any new ones that come my way. I get excited about sharing those things about which I am passionate and actively look for opportunities to hear about life stories from those I love and from those I have yet to love.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I feel I am an open individual, perhaps wear my heart on a sleeve too much at times, but am willing to pay the price if it means sharing genuinely my beliefs, interests and experiences