Monday the 18 of January I went to Liverpool for a business meeting. The first one in a very large project with England’s National Health System.

It was a quick trip, that started off the right way, with a “Game of Thrones” chair made out of electric guitars at the station, and Virgin giving me an upgrade to First Class. I usually can care less about traveling in first class for short train rides. But it was nice to have eggs florentine for breakfast, and wifi, nonetheless.

When I arrived at the hospital where my meeting took place, I loved the initiative they had implemented: a fresh produce vendor at the main entrance, with excellent produce and really affordable prices (although I guess coming from London any price seems affordable).

It has always amazed me how in many hospitals, especially in the USA, they will only have the worst food available, whether in the cafeteria or the vending machines.

The following day I went to Cambridge to meet lead researchers and the director of the awesome Microsoft Research Center.

The “healthy-fresh-local” food catering we were served for lunch in the giant meeting room, proves that large institutions are starting to change their attitude towards health and consumption.

Being under NDA as I am, I cannot mention what we discussed during that long meeting, but let’s say I was very pleasantly surprised to see the very interesting research projects they showed me, and I assume they liked what we do at my company because some of those researchers are coming to a workshop in our offices in Spain next month. Who would have thought, a few years ago, that I would be collaborating with Microsoft? But I am happy to see that it is them that have changed their attitude towards free software and open source, and not me. “I won” – we all win.