I am a Brit who has lived in So Cal for the past nine years. Work brought me from London to Newport Beach initially and I have been settled in Redondo Beach for 6 years. I still have my English accent, although when I go back to the UK I am told I sound American, which never fails to amuse me.
So, a little about me. I am fortunate to have a career that I love doing something that really plays to my natural strengths as a relationship builder and "people person". I am very independent in many respects but would love to share my life with someone special again. I have a wide and eclectic circle of friends and I am loyal and generous to a fault. People often remark on my sweet and kind nature. My house is typically bursting at the seams with visitors, friends and houseguests. I have a very busy social life and love to try new bars and restaurants but I am also very happy cooking in my kitchen, enjoying a great bottle of wine and good conversation with someone I care about. I really LOVE to cook (French, Italian, Thai, Indian, Indonesian - I have a pretty wide range) and my kitchen has awesome views of planes taking off and landing at LAX, Downtown LA and the Hollywood Hills in the distance.
In the summer I get out out on the water on my SUP at every opportunity and in the winter I enjoy running - mostly 10ks and half marathons - although my haphazard "training" approach probably wouldn't work for everyone. I don't take exercise too seriously but am naturally pretty athletic and love to be outdoors. But we're in So Cal so that's not really a unique differentiator, is it!?
I am very committed to a number of causes and one of my passions is architectural conservation. I volunteer as a docent at the Gamble House in Pasadena on weekends and really enjoy sharing my knowledge of art, architecture, design and social history with members of the public. It's a real contrast to my "day job" and I love it. Some weekends I question why I am back in the car on the 110 Freeway driving all the way to Pasadena but no matter what mood I am in on the way there, I always have a huge smile on my face by the time I drive home.
I love to travel which is a good thing considering my family is spread over three continents. I have a sister in Bali who I try to see once a year and I am long overdue a trip back to Europe. My ideal partner will be someone who travels well and isn't afraid to go off the beaten path and try new things. My most memorable vacation in recent years involved backpacking through a jungle in Northern Sumatra to see orangutans in the wild (something I had dreamed about since I was a child) but I am also not averse to lounging poolside in a nice boutique hotel. I have degrees in French & German, studied Arabic for a year before going to University and lived in Italy as a teenager so I can get by (or get into trouble!) in quite a few languages other than English.
On the negative side, I am technologically challenged. Making the switch to iPhone 5 was totally traumatic for me and I still haven't connected the blu-ray player I bought in December to the internet. My house is full of books on a wide range of subjects and I have read 99.9% of them so if you consider being well read a negative (only in LA) you probably don't want to waste a wink on me!
I am looking for a guy who is intelligent, attractive, fun, funny, kind, caring and principled. I am NOT the girl who is going to be primarily fixated on what you do for a living, what kind of car you drive or where you live. What is most important to me, beyond that immediate spark or chemistry are your values, how you treat people and how you view the world we live in. Are you someone who cares and do you have values and principles that you are prepared to stand up for? Oh, and if you know how to connect my bluray to the internet that would be awesome too..... :)
