Times have changed.

In the past 24 hours I've had face to face meetings with Mads Mathiasen in his remote "bush block" in New South Wales, Australia to discuss our Nepal Himalaya Heights trip, a meeting with Seb Kemp who was holed up in his dad's attic in Somerset, UK while we chatted about this summer's Alpenrock DH trips, and then with Jean-Marc Pellissier in the little hamlet of Lourtier, tucked in the big Alps of Switzerland. OK, OK, the truth is, I didn't fly around the world in a super fast jet and actually meet face to face with these fine mountain bikers, but we met on Skype. How about Skype? A mere five years ago the notion of talking to someone in real time while seeing them was something from Star Trek or maybe James Bond. When my parents ran their first bike trip in England and Wales 1972 it was before faxes! They communicated with hotels via telex. What the hell is a telex? Now we email, text, cell phone, Skype and Google it all up eagerly.

The Puma telex machine, circa 1980.

Maybe you think that i'm old school and can't wrap my brain around the times. Maybe the times are changing so quick and my head's spinning. What's in store in the next decade? Teleporting? Could be. By the way, my Skype meetings went really well - things are looking good. This photo is of yours truly back in the mid-70's on one of my folk's trips, it looks like i was pissed about a telex or something. Check out those short shorts and white socks in the background and the first generation Bell helmet. If you're interested, check out some old cycling photos from the old days here. Good times. Bring on technology i say.

Where's that telex?