I was born in Norway from a Norwegian dad and an English mum. Lived there pretty much all my life until I decided I wanted to go to university in England, which the Norwegian government kindly paid for me to do (apparently I have to pay it back at some point, but I guess I can worry about that later). Don't ask me what nationality I consider myself as though: when I'm in England I feel Norwegian and when I'm in Norway I feel English.

Summarizing myself generally seems rather difficult. I'm a happy, highly independent person pursuing what I love in all aspects of life. For everything else, see below.

In the 2nd year of my Ph.D. in pure maths. The plan is to pursue a career in academia, and hopefully live out my life without ever having a 'real job'. Who would want one of those when you could be paid to do maths all day instead? Ok, probably many people, but still.

Given enough time I'd love to also direct films, be a professional classical and/or jazz guitarist, and become world champion of badminton. A Wimbledon title might be good too, although I don't actually play tennis. I'm way too stubborn to consider any of the above unfeasible, but in the meantime I'll keep going with maths.

Outside of my work, I try to maintain a small repertoire of classical guitar pieces (which is rapidly converging to a set consisting of only Bach fugues), and jam along with my favourite jazz CD's. I play badminton regularly, and buy more films than I have time to watch.

In the last few years I've become addicted to wildlife hiking, especially in Norway, so will periodically try to go off on a big hike. In between I go for long walks in the woods around Oxford. Sometimes I think I'd like to live all alone in the wilderness of Norway, and reflect that becoming a hermit would be a bit too easy. I am making a concerted effort to avoid this, at least for a while.

Being far too competitive in games of Risk (or any game really).

I look uncannily like a reincarnated Christopher Marlowe.

Some of my favourite novelists: Hermann Hesse (especially "The Glass Bead Game"), Margaret Atwood ("Oryx and Crake", "Alias Grace" etc.), Haruki Murakami, Orhan Pamuk, Isaac Asimov and Umberto Eco. Also a big Lord of the Rings (I recently bought the folio edition for a whooping 120 pounds!! had to build up the courage to do that for a while). Oh, and Theodore Zeldin's "An Intimate History of Humanity"! Lolita too is a favourite.

Some of my favourite film directors: Kubrick, Kieslowski, Kurosawa, Bergman, any film with a script written by Charlie Kaufman, David Lynch, Coen Brothers. Plus too many other specific films to mention.

Favourite shows: The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, The Office (UK), Spaced, Sopranos, Big Train, Extras etc.

Favourite music: loads of jazz (Coltrane, Jarrett, Mehldau, Scofield, etc.) and classical (especially Bach, Bartok and Stravinsky). I also seem to find myself drawn to somewhat nonstandard female singers. Bjork, Fiona Apple, Kate Bush and most recently Joanna Newsom are huge favourites of mine. Please recommend me more!

I'm very passionate about trying to experience great art in general. My general philosophy is there's too much great art in the world and not nearly enough time to experience it all, but I'm gonna try anyway. Always up for recommendations of new stuff.

Food: I love eating and will try just about anything. I recently discovered my new favourite pancake combination: butter, sugar, peppered German salami and Sriracha hot sauce! It tastes much better than it perhaps sounds.

Music.
Wild nature to hike in.
Family and friends.
Physical activity/sports.
Seafood.
A room to retreat to.

My maths research, to be honest. Another frequent one is the shape of the nails on my right hand (an occupational 'hazard' of playing the classical guitar).

Enjoying a dinner with friends followed by a game of Mah Jong or other board game, or a late night movie at the Ultimate Picture Palace, or something similar.

Any of the above strikes a chord I suppose.