A Portrait
I grew up in Wiltshire. Boarding school, cut-glass accent, hills that go on forever. I loved it and couldn't wait to leave, and I've spent my life since finding new things to be helplessly drawn to.
I've always learned the way some people eat - past the point of necessity, just for the sake of pleasure. Postgraduate study, music, yet another language that’s still a work in progress and probably always will be. I've been told I have an unusual mind. I've also been told other things, but we'll get to that.
I find it almost impossible to do anything halfway. Travel, conversation, a really good meal that becomes three hours without anyone noticing - I like to take my time, I like to lose track of it entirely. I hope you do too. Most continents visited, many wrong turns taken. The Silk Road is next.
London suits me. Jazz bars, late evenings, the kind of nights that start one way and end another. But give me November on a Scottish clifftop and I'm equally content. Wellies, bad weather, a flask of something warming. One thing never seemed like quite enough.
Here's what I know about myself. I'm curious about almost everything, and I bring that same unhurried attention to every experience. When something catches my attention I tend to fall in completely. It's both a strength and a weakness, depending on who you ask.
I don't really know how to end these things. I know what I like. I have a flair for the kind of experiences most people only imagine. And I suspect, I rather hope, that you're not most people. If life's but a dream within a dream, why not come and play?