Meeting with Aubrey De Grey

Moving to California
Sorry for neglecting this blog, but I've had a lot of things to do recently because something big in my life is happening right now. For those who aren't friends on my facebook probably won't know what's been happening since December. I actually met the most amazing girl from LA in California. We are now in a long distance relationship and have been since January. From the moment I saw her I knew what I wanted, she is so beautiful, and to my surprise she also turned out to be so interesting too. We have a million things in common, she is just so similar to me in so many ways that it's unbelievable almost. I love her so much, and she clearly loves me. She makes me incredibly happy, and I just can't wait to get to California. So I'm working my boring job as much as possible right now to save the money to get to California to see her. I'll be staying in California for a month sometime between June or July, at least that is the plan. It's so hard being so far away, but I'm so determined to make it work. I've never felt so much of a connection with anyone before in my life. She is so perfect for me, and she feels the exact same way. She also happens to be a vegan, maybe that's why she looks so young too. She is also a supporter of life extension, transhumanism and all that, which I thought I would never find a girlfriend who had similar views on this as I do. If everything goes well I will be hoping to move to California by early next year at the earliest. From what I understand, raw food and healthy living is a lot bigger in California than where I live. Hopefully I'll get to meet a lot of like-minded people when I'm there! I'm really looking forward to it. So I'm really working hard lately and saving everything that I can to go to california to be with my girlfriend as soon as possible. I'm so excited about everything, I wish I could get there more quickly to be with her, but I am really trying, and she knows that. :)


On March the 7th I had planned to meet with Aubrey De Grey, for the first time. He was giving a talk there and we were going to meet up before the talk. Because of circumstances at the time I wasn't able to make it early in the day, but then at around 5pm I had a call from him asking me if I was still able to meet with him in Oxford, as I felt so bad on this day I thought I wouldn't make it, but I just had to go, even though it was already so late in the day, I quickly got ready and within 30 minutes I was out of my house and booking a train for Oxford. I arrived in Oxford quite late at around 9pm and then met Aubrey outside of the train station. At last! From the moment I met him it was obvious that I was going to get along so well, actually I get along with everyone anyway and since there was obviously a lot to talk about, it would definitely be an interesting and fun night. So we headed straight for the pub near the train station and we talked for almost 3 hours about everything that has been going on in my life over the last few years, and especially my relocation to California. We talked about SENS, my plans for the future with regards to what I want to do, which I told him that I definitely want to be involved in aging research at some point, and clearly California is the best place for that, it was just that things happened in the past that really changed my life a lot and I kind of lost track of where I was headed (I'll write more about this another time).

 We talked a bit about my girlfriend in California, who he already knows, and we talked about a lot of other general stuff which I'm not getting into here. It would take too long anyway haha. So after about 3 hours it was time to close at the pub and we headed off to find a hotel because all the trains had stopped running by this time. He walked with me in Oxford and made sure that I found a hotel to stay at for the night. I was worried that I would end up walking the streets on my own trying to find a hotel, and not knowing Oxford at all, this was a scary thought (thanks Aubrey again!). So we finally found a hotel that was open, booked a room, and then I said goodbye to him as he left to go to his hotel somewhere else in Oxford that had been already booked. It all seems like a dream now, it was bizarre meeting Aubrey after all this time, but he was extremely easy to get along with and I had a good time. It was also great to get to know Aubrey on a more personal level too, as I've always seen him giving talks and never got to know how he was outside of all that. I hope to meet again at some point in the future, possibly in California. So thanks so much for that Aubrey, again. Only next time I hope to be a little more awake if I meet with him because on that particular night before going to Oxford I must have had around 3 hours sleep in total. It was certainly worth making the effort and I'm so glad that I did.