Diary Of A Busker Day 482

Diary Of A Busker Day 482 Tuesday December 3rd 2013 Winchester (Opposite Vodafone, Time: 1:50-3:30pm).

I’m in a better frame of mind than usual of late. I’m not sure why, though. The temperature’s not too bad, I suppose, and no wind. Maybe three days off the streets helped. Anyway, I’m a bit more cheerful when Delia turns up this time – she even mentions my mood of last Tuesday. I remember, I’d had that thing with my hearing and also the thumb pain. In fact, the doctor’s appointment was this morning. Of course, the ear thing miraculously cleared up just before I went in – typical, but I still asked him to have a look: no blockage, apparently.

The thumb’s a bit different. He thinks it’s just the strain of a lot of playing, and maybe a bit of – god forbid – ARTHRITIS. But not the really bad sort, as I’m – and he paused before he said it – ‘getting on’. Cheeky bugger – he’s as old as me, the sod. Anyway, Delia reckons it’s just ‘wear and tear’, which is probably right. I ask if she’s got the ‘mattress’ on, under her light raincoat. She thinks it’s funny when I say that, and says she got it – she starts unbuttoning her raincoat. I say she doesn’t have to do that, I believe her!

…later, a woman comes up after Somewhere Over The Rainbow and says ‘That’s my favourite song’, so I say ‘I’m lucky I was playing it as you were walking by, then!’ How lucky was I? Lucky to the tune of 2 pence.

A bit later, two old ladies walk by. One stops a few feet to my right, at the corner of Market Street and fiddles around in her purse for about five minutes, comes back, dumps some shrapnel in the bucket and says ‘I haven’t got a pound coin’. I say ‘It’s OK – it’s all the same to me’. She says ‘Sorry. It’s about a pound, all in change’. I say ‘That’s great, thanks’. She says ‘Oh well, it all comes out the same way’, which really makes me laugh.

Mandolin John stops by with a guitar, which he was playing, while singing, when I walked by him the other day. He says ‘I think I might ditch the singing – I don’t think people like me!’ I say he should just carry and not care what people think.

I was only going to do an hour as I don’t want to overdo the thumb, but I end up doing an hour and 40. Idiot! On the way up, I pass the violinist I’ve seen here, lately. He looks like he’s done alright, coinage-wise. I think it has its advantages – the violin. Very light instrument, very portable, and Laurie Lee did alright by it all through Spain. Hmm…but then I think of when I tried to learn it way back in primary school, in a sort of portacabin where they did the music lessons. I just couldn’t handle holding the bloody thing up for more than a couple of minutes. I’d get a burning pain in both arms, especially the left one: the one holding it up. I must have a circulation problem – I just couldn’t do it, so that was that.

I was till in an OK mood when I got home: I thought I’d done alright. But on counting up, I’d got less than £13 for over an hour and a half! £4 under the average. A disgrace. Mean people. So that restored me back to my usual foul mood.

Earnings: £12.92p