Sunday Stroll
A couple of weeks back I decided to go for an evening stroll and take in some fresh air after being couped up at home with a recurring dose of that sick bug racing around Europe this winter. I do love meandering aimlessly around the Gótico in Barcelona and this was the perfect medicine for my bed bored body.
Most of the metal shutters were down and more tourists than locals were milling among the alleys, churches and open cafés making the atmosphere feel strangely transitional between weekend and the working week. In contrast to the historic surroundings I was happily listening to the Guardians Tech Weekly podcast on my IPod Shuffle which although slightly smug in delivery (Aleks Krotoski excluded) is definitely worth a listen if you enjoy keeping on your tech toes.
After circling a few blocks I found myself at the back Barcelona’s Cathedral (see below) in a lowly lit square where an eccentric English busker had set up his wheely piano and was jerkily tickling the ivories. I switched the IPod to pause, seated myself on some stony steps and wallowed in the classical and abstract tinkling which sounded acoustically amazing drifting through the air and bouncing between the ancient walls.
It was definitely one of those “moments” where everything clicks and your lot in life feels very lucky indeed. That was until Mozart morphed into some tourist pleasing nonsense and the “moment” suddenly became taxable. So up I got taking the IPod off pause and throwing a few coins into the hat before walking home for some dinner.
I recorded the embedded clip above using the night setting on my Nokia E51 and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. I’m trying out various Video Hosts on this blog and this time I’ve used Viddler which has some good time-tagging features.
