I'm a Northern Irish writer, researcher, and adventure enthusiast. I moved to Edinburgh in September, 2015, to undertake a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. I research at the intersection between psychology and ethics.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

In the summer of 2015, I hiked 1200 miles from the south-west of Poland back to my home village in Northern Ireland; a journey I undertook alone, and on foot.

I started using CS as a way to learn of European hospitality, maintain some form of personal hygiene and, if I was lucky, listen to a good story before falling into bed at the end of a long hike.

Now that I'm home, I wish to return the favour and care for other vagabonds who, like me, seek shelter and a good story.

Interests

Recreationally: Hiking, wakeboarding, skateboarding, surfing, climbing, life drawing, movement meditation, dancing, running, mountain biking, sailing, spoken word, didgeridoo.

Intellectually: Positive psychology, existential philosophy, process philosophy, social anthropology, quantum physics, environmental sustainability, post-growth economics, international development, social innovation, socialism, anarchism, technoskepticism, futurology.

• writing
• poetry
• photography
• dancing
• vegetarian
• vegan
• marathon
• running
• meditation
• drawing
• survival
• music
• spoken word
• cycling
• hiking
• surfing
• sailing
• skateboarding
• wakeboarding
• rock climbing
• anthropology
• economics
• languages
• physics
• psychology
• artificial intelligence

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: Hans Anderson's Fairy Tales, Henri Bergson's Works, Consolations of the Forest, Leaves of Grass, Silent Spring, A Moveable Feast, Into the Wild, Man's Search for Meaning, Feral, Dark Mountain, The Myth of Sisyphus, Robinson Crusoe, Tao Te Ching, American Psycho, Flourishing: A Frank Conversation About Sustainability, Daring Greatly, The Pleasures of the Dammed, The Wealth of Nature, A Vagabond for Beauty, Walden; or Life in the Woods, The Happiness Advantage, Ecotherapy, Last Child in the Woods, Wild.

Music: Mainly electronic; ranging from chill - Four-Tet, Jamie XX, Burial, Tycho, Emancipator - to more house and techno-based grooves - Scuba, Sascha Funke, Nico Lahs, etc. I also dig the old-school hip-hop kings; Notorious BIG, Compton's Most Wanted, Mobb Deep, Eazy-E, etc. In addition to that, I love soul, funk and jazz music, and of course, the oldies. Music's a huge part of my life.

Movies: Moonrise Kingdom, Princess Mononoke, Into the Wild, King's of Summer, Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, Home, Human, The Island President, Silence of the Lambs, Twelve Monkeys, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, City of God, Max and Mary, Trainspotting, The Lives of Others, The Art of Flight, etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've completed the 'world's most extreme marathon' on the Arctic ice sheets at the geographic North Pole. The temperature during the race was -35 degrees centigrade.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: circular breathing, surfing, skateboarding, wakeboarding, positive psychology, basic survival, social enterprise, vegan/vegetarian dishes, movement meditation, environmentalism, ethics, artificial intelligence.

Learn: cultures, foreign cuisine, new music, philosophy, languages, photography.

Share: love, hugs, smiles, positivity, optimism, pessimism, depth, stories, poetry.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Mauritius, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, India, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States