CURRENT MISSION

I intend to continue on to be a lecturer.

ABOUT ME

I've been reading a lot about Taoism recently, and I think it has a lot of sensible things to say. I'm not very good at putting the principles into practice though. I'll keep trying.

My favourite animals are seals. This is in a fairly abstract sense though, since whenever I actually met one it had an overpowering smell of fish and either humped off down the beach or stood its ground with what I perceived to be murderous intent in its eye.

PHILOSOPHY

I suspect time does not exist.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

To date we've had a lot more people stay unofficially than through the site: our sofa had over 4 months' worth of visitors sleeping on it in 2013. Mainly they were friends who were moving to Bristol and needed a couple of weeks to get sorted, but we had some people just visiting the city. Probably my favourite experience was taking such a visitor along to Sauna club, which we have every week in my friend's back garden.

It seems Bristol is a very popular couchsurf destination, and we get a high volume of requests. As a result we've adopted a policy of only accepting requests from people who have actually read this profile and made an informed decision. The good news is you're fine because you've read all this way down the page. As proof of this please work the phrase 'Knickerbocker Glory' into your request as subtly as possible.

Interests

I recently finished my PhD in theoretical physics, and am now starting a postdoc at Berkeley. I also teach Kung Fu (Northern Praying Mantis), which I've been learning for 13 years. I'm learning a couple of other styles as well (Baguazhang and I Chuan). I play Bridge and (more recently) Mah Jong. I used to play the guitar regularly but that's slipped with my PhD. I help run a music festival in honour of my friend. I mainly listen to grunge but the festival doesn't have any of that. I've been learning Japanese Calligraphy for a year or so, in lieu of learning the Chinese long sword. I love tea.

• animals
• fish
• festivals
• running
• sauna
• clubbing
• gardening
• news
• reading
• music
• guitar
• fishing
• calligraphy
• physics
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Authors whose entire set of works I love: Hunter S Thompson, William Shakespeare, Philip K Dick, Edgar Allan Poe

Books which I love individually: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Metamorphosis, The Chuang Tzu, Neuromancer

Characters whose exploits I enjoy across media: Sherlock Holmes (when portrayed on screen my preference is Cumberbatch then Rathbone), James Bond (when portrayed on screen my preference is Dalton then Connery).

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm very happy to talk about / teach physics and Kung Fu, as I teach and learn both every day when I'm at home.