In Praise of Loitering

It's so wonderful to work designing systems and websites and creating things in code, to think about how things fit together and the craft of doing that beautifully, and then to have the real privilege to be able walk outside, and just be in a city that is the epitome of beauty and design. 

The Borne (or Santa Caterina i la Ribera) neighbourhood, home to the Picasso museum and 18th century excavation sites, and galleries and eateries and tattoo parlours, always reminds me the of how special it is to be in an urban space that isn't full of inhuman grey boxes, and ugly grey and glass urban design.

There's so much beauty here, that this purple wellington stuffed with flowers outside an art gallery is so insignificant in the dense scheme of things, and yet at the same time it's a reminder that the devil is in the details.

In cities, as in websites, sometimes we just need to get from A to B. But in cities as in digital systems, sometimes small moments of delight, however minor, are far more important than the reasons that brought us there in the first place. Barcelona for ever and always, finds small and beautiful ways of always reminding me of that.