Here I am with a couple of Couch Surfers, Jane from Queensland, Australia, and Jenna from St John's, Canada, who stayed with me for a few days shortly before Christmas. They were followed by a couple of young men, Josh from the States and now resident in Germany, and Malik from Pakistan, now resident in Sweden.
I'm a big Couch Surfing fan. Like many others, when I first heard of it I thought "great - a free place to stay!" I quickly discovered that the 'free' side of it was the least important. The best aspect is making new friends and getting to know a place from the point of view of a local person, especially when your host has some free time to show you around.
Now that I'm largely housebound, hosting Couch Surfers has become a significant element of my social life - this is how I travel and meet new and interesting people. I pay a price. One of the worst ME symptoms I have at present is 'brain fog'. This is a kind of fuzziness - like a combination of a really bad head cold with your worst-ever hangover - that invades my head. The more I talk, and the more noise there is around me, the worse it gets. One moment I'm enjoying an animated conversation about the horrors of loud snorers in youth hostels, the next moment the snoring is reverberating inside my head and I'm forced to retreat like someone with migraine. But it doesn't go away. And even though I only enjoyed having guests for five days my poor old head is still buzzing and fizzing and pining me in place, glued to the couch all on my own, wondering when the fog will clear.