I've just spent the last 40 hours in Switzerland, and by the time you read this (all being well), I'll be touching down at Birmingham Airport to head back to try and catch the second half of Scotland vs England.
I'm enjoying coming to Switzerland, and I've been here on the same sort of route four times in the last little while.
It's pretty easy to get to Birmingham for me, and it's pretty easy to jump on the Swiss Air flight to Zurich, and it's very easy to get the train from Zurich to Basel.
This time, Beatriz came with me, and we watched some extraordinary surgery with Sebastian Kuhl at the University of Basel, an absolute expert and genius at guided surgery and everything that goes with it.
He was so kind to us, and we'll definitely be doing a lot more work with him as we move forward and develop courses on guided surgery and other digital stuff.
He is another one of these guys who has reached an extraordinarily high level. He used to play professional football (in the Bundesliga division one).
But you come to these trips, and you get here, and you see some nice things, and you work, and you fly home, which passes in a second.
This time, though, we made an arrangement based on the last time I was here.
When I was here last time in August, the guys I was with took me for a meal, and we sat by the River Rhine and watched people floating down with what looked like big fluffy pillows, either under their backs or under their chests.
There were streams and streams of them floating down the river and under the bridges, and I couldn't believe it.
I was with Martin (Tereh) that night, who I worked very closely with in the ITI Academy, and he is brilliant.
Martin made the mistake of telling me that he reads the blog, so Martin, this one is for you and in blog terms, we do what's called an HT (hat tip). So, HT Martin, for the idea for this blog.
When I was here the last time, I asked Martin why people do this, and he said, "Oh, lots of these people are going home from one end of the town to the other floating down the river".
So they turn up at the side of the river, take their clothes off with their swim shorts underneath, and just put them in this waterproof bag that they fold up, which turns into a pillow, and float down the river for maybe 20 or 30 minutes.
You can get out, and there are showers at the side, change behind the bush and get on with your business or walk back up and do it again.
I was gobsmacked.
I was saying to Martin, "People actually do this? They actually float down the river on their way home from work," and the answer, which is typically Swiss, is "of course." Of course, means why doesn't everyone do this?
Of course, means this is entirely normal.
Of course, means this is a brilliant thing to do, why wouldn't you do a brilliant thing?
It's typically Swiss. It's brilliant.
And so we talked on that night, and I said the next time I come if it's ok, we'll do this, and he set it up for Bea and I to walk down to the river yesterday afternoon after we'd finished at the hospital and float down the river twice (Bea went three times as I had to go to a meeting).
What it did was put a flag in the sand that Martin made of that time in September when we came to Basel and floated down the river.
A brilliant thing to do when you're working, when you're travelling somewhere else that you don't know very well so you'll remember it for the rest of your life.
Cheers, Martin.
Blog Post Number - 3564