mandarin dream

Fulfilling one my long-term ambitions and starting to teach myself mandarin, thanks to the excellent lessons available at learnchinesepod. That I can learn to speak a new language while cycling to work, for nothing, and get updates all the time to match my speed of learning, has been one of my moments of unadulterated technophilia vis-a-vis the www. The last one (and it was the first) was probably in 1996 when I met an Italian guy after using the email address at the end of his bicycle diary of the Atlas Mountains, it turned out that he worked round the corner, we had lunch and he helped us plan a similar trip. (In fact, Andrea, if you're still out there I'm afraid I still have your Cadogan guide, please get in touch and I will gladly return it. Your technophilia was probably less encouraged than mine through our encounter.)