Nationality:Welsh New Zealander

Age: Born in the year of the snake, under the sign of the archer (wooo cryptic)

Occupation: Journalist

Things I would most like to do: learn Maori and Welsh and Italian, play guitar, do volunteer work in Amazon rainforest, go back to my ancestral home/s, be able to hula hoop for more than five rotations, take up boxing, buy my own computer.

Favourite pastimes: hanging with the posse, catching up with the fam, reading, messing round on the net, running, cooking Thai food, eating Thai food, writing poetry, etc.

Favourite Word: nostril. Perhaps if I have a daughter someday I will call her nostrila. Just look at the word, it's perfect.

Favourite places: Glastonbury Tor and Bath in England, the Brecon Beacons in Wales, South Westland in New Zealand, the Blue Mountains in Australia, Central Otago and North Dunedin in New Zealand.

Favourite Food: Thai. more specifically, red curry from the Thai Cafe in Dunedin. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Favourite Musicians: Jeff Buckley, Courtney Love, Aretha Franklin

Favourite Films: The Blues Brothers, Kitchen Sink, Monty Pythonmovies (especially Holy Grail!), The English Patient, The Crow, The Matrix, Howard's End, The Piano

Favourite Telly: Michael Moore's The Awful Truth, Charmed, Anything with Ruby Wax/Jennifer Saunders/Dawn French, Sex in the City, current affairs shows.

Last Five Books Read: Alain de Botton - The Consolations of Philosophy. Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady. Zadie Smith- White Teeth. Nicholas Shakespeare - Bruce Chatwin. Deborah Moggech - Tulip Fever.

Quote of the Week: "In the mountains of truth you will never climb in vain: either you will get up higher today or you will exercise your strengths so as to be able to get up higher tomorrow" - Nietzsche