Profile information
Travel information
I am currently
At home
Activities i am interested in:
I've recently finished training for the CELTA qualification as an English teacher and am looking to use these newly acquired skills. I also enjoy doing practical work in home, garden, wherever needed.
Description
I retired from my last deskbound job in 2022 and am currently free to travel as my two children do not yet need my help with any grandchildren. Combining volunteering and travel is an obvious choice for me. Since my teenage years I've done many different types of voluntary work.
I've enjoyed the variety in the types of work I did last year and this year. I spent time in France doing carpentry work, helped with harvesting pumpkins and beetroot in thé Czech Republic, worked in a gingerbread bakery in the months before Christmas, then got a seasonal job with organic gardeners, to help care for their show gardens and run market stalls. I've recently completed the training for the Cambridge University CELTA qualification for teaching English as a second language.
I'm a German currently living in Germany, but lived in Britain for 18 years in the 1980’s and 90‘s. I completed my school & university education in the UK, was in paid employment there for 13 years and had two children there. I brought up my children bilingually, always providing the richest language environment of the minority language I could manage – in German while we lived in Britain, in English while we lived in Germany. Speaking English has allowed me to connect with people of many cultures, both at work and in my spare time.
Interests
Carpentry
Outdoor activities
Van life
Books
Performing arts
DIY & crafts
Cooking & food
Art & design
Sustainability
Cycling
Hiking
Vegetarian or vegan
Beach
Politics / Social justice
Nature
Culture
History
Gardening
Farming
Languages
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Polish: BeginnerMore details about my language interests
Learning: I've been learning Polish by self-study and am almost finished working through the first (level A1) textbook. Teaching: I'm competent and happy to help with language learning in both German and English.
Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn
I'm interested in:
Eco Projects
Hospitality/Tourism
Art Projects
Some knowledge of:
Gardening
General Maintenance
Life at a Farmstay
DIY and building projects
Able to teach about:
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Helping around the house
Helping with Computers/ Internet
Languages
More details about your skills
I will do work on computers for limited numbers of hours per day. It's the type of work I did for a living for 30+ years, but I'm looking for more variety now. Of course, due to doing this work, I'm practiced in picking up new skills. Ever since my first full-time job in the 1970's I've been retraining every few years due to technologies becoming obsolete.
In my spare time in the last 50 or so years I've successfully completed many DIY projects in my/my daughters'/friends' homes including painting, wallpapering, laying floor coverings, sewing curtains and assembling pieces of IKEA furniture of almost every complexity. I've had compliments on my vegetarian cooking.
My experience of voluntary work has included: Giving out food at a food bank; light forestry work; being a hiking guide and organising weekends away for a family hiking group for 7+ years; helping to run an English-language Toastmasters public speaking club in Germany for 10+ years; being treasurer of a Friendly Society in Glasgow; sewing costumes for community theatre; helping my children's schools and after-school-care places with summer feasts and children's discos; harvesting fruit & veg; carpentry work.
Age
69
What else ...
I tend to take more time when visiting museums and historical monuments than everyone else I know. I much enjoy company while working or hiking (i.e. in all activities where my companions and I have common goals), but I also like to have time to myself.
Some more information
Smoker
Driver's licence
Allergies
NeinSpecial dietary requirements
Vegetarian
Photos
