I am male and was born in 1983 in west London, UK, where I still live. I studied Mathematics for a few years at the University of Reading, just 40 miles away. I got tired of Maths at that level and only got a diploma rather than a full batchelor's degree, but I also did a few extra-curricular German lessons, where I discovered a passion and a talent for learning foreign languages. After returning to London I started learning some Polish, which is a pretty difficult language (at least for English-speakers), and a few weeks ago I began teaching myself a bit of Russian. My other interests include geography, history (mainly 20th-century), the sciences, including mathematics (I was just tired of studying it properly). I should point out that I have a severe and progressive physical condition, which has profoundly affected my life and my attitude to life. I never had many ambitions or plans because I kept thinking I had only a few years left to live. Therefore I don't really have the qualifications or physical ability to have a job, but what I do have is lots of time to dabble in whatever I feel like. I'm not really much interested in the arts, except some forms of electronic music - I'm more of a technical, scientific, logical kind of person. That explains my interest in cars and most types of vehicles, architecture, the grammar and etymology of languages and in geography and history. I have quite a witty sense of humour involving a lot of wordplay. All in all, I'm interested in lots of technical things, though I'm not necessarily very knowledgeable, but if you talk to me about anything cultural or spiritual you might find me pretty uninformed and possibly a bit dull. However, even though I don't really believe them, friends and people ofen seem to think I am quite an interesting person. You will have to be the judge of that, by what appears on this blog.
Matthew, August 2014
