CURRENT MISSION

Have as many interesting stories to tell on my deathbed as possible

ABOUT ME

Ego Patricius, peccator rusticissimus et minimus omnium fidelium.

PHILOSOPHY

I believe that there is no great cosmic purpose to our lives -- the answer to "why am I here?" is whatever you decide it to be. My goal in life is to accumulate as many interesting experiences and stories as possible, and see as much of this incredible world as I can before my constituent molecules are recycled into other things.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've couchsurfed all over the world; I've also hosted tens of people in London.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've met some incredible people through couchsurfing, and had some amazing adventures that I'll remember forever --- but the stories are to be told over a bottle of port, not here!

Interests

I love the great outdoors, and most of my weekends I'm busy doing something or other. I'm a qualified diver and skydiver, but I haven't been doing enough of them lately. I also love hiking, and I've met some incredible people that way. Aside from all that, I love maths (and have the PhD to prove it). I also love programming, linux and free software. As part of my job, I get to travel around the world, which is fantastic! Become a mathematician and see the world, that's what they don't tell you in school ...

I'm also extremely interested in permaculture, as I think it offers the best hope for engineering a sustainable ecology for ourselves. I've WWOOFed in various places around the world (India, Costa Rica, Japan)

My father is an artist, and instilled in me a love of art. My favourite artist is Caravaggio, but I like everything up until about the Impressionists. (Don't take it personally! It's just my taste ...) I've been lucky enough to see many of the greatest galleries in the world, and hope to continue!

• arts
• running
• traveling
• eating out
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• hunting
• scuba diving
• skydiving
• paragliding
• ecology
• engineering
• mathematics
• software
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

I don't usually have much time to watch movies or TV; I'd rather read a book. I'm a voracious reader of all kinds of books. History, popular science, maths, and agricultural books are my favourites.

With those caveats, my favourite film is Memento; my favourite television show is The Wire; my favourite author is Orwell.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hiking the Great Wall.
Offroading around Tibet for two weeks.
Watching the sunrise over Mount Everest.
The Empire State building at night.
Learning to skydive in Florida.
Seeing some of the greatest galleries of the world (the National Gallery, the Met, the Louvre, the Prado, ...).
Exploring sunken WW2 wrecks in the Red Sea.
Designing irrigation works on a farm in India.
Paragliding in the Himalayas.
Diving with hundreds of dolphins off Mikurajima.
Glacier hiking in Franz Josef.
Seeing the most beautiful place in the world, Milford Sound.
Running naked on a nudist beach in Hawaii.
Watching the shooting stars on Haleakala in Maui.
Hiking through the jungle for a week in Corcovado.
Hiking in the Rockies for two weeks.
Cruising through the Bayou in southern Louisiana.
Studying rifle marksmanship in Bisley.
Canyoning in the French Alps.
Seeing the Red Light districts in Genoa, Amsterdam, Tokyo, ...
The sunset over the Atlantic from Galway Bay.
Working on a transatlantic research voyage for a month.

I'm sure I'm missing some ...

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ireland, United Kingdom

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