Diary Of A Busker Day 665 Wednesday November 5th 2014 Winchester (Opposite Oxfam, Time: 2:42-4:03pm).
Back to the scene of the crime, literally. The temperature: 8 degrees, in other words, 2 degrees above the limit of which, below, it is impossible to play. Namely 6 degrees! It’s still cold, though, but at least there’s no wind.
I sell a CD, which saved the day, really. A woman of about 70 came up during Can’t Help Falling In Love to ask about the CDs. She had a look but didn’t want to pay the £8, although she was very pleasant and complimentary (but compliments don’t buy a loaf of bread, etc.). She said she’d try and get her daughter to to buy one some other time, and went off saying ‘Very soothing music’. Anyway, she started walking away but stopped near the C & H entrance on my left, so I thought ‘I’m going to play something similar to the Elvis one and see if she comes back’.
So I went into Somewhere Over The Rainbow…and it worked! She comes back and asks to see the CD again, I get one out and tell her both songs are on it, AND in the original keys. And to demonstrate, I do the first chord of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and she knows what it is! She says ‘In A, is it?’ I say ‘Yes, indeed!’ Then I did the same with the Elvis one and she knew that, too – ‘Key of D’, so I said ‘Right, you know the right keys!’ She says ‘Well I used to be a music teacher at schools until I got arthritis’. I said,’Oh dear’, naturally.
Anyway, she bought the CD and then said that I must be cold. I said I was OK but I’d probably pack it in in about 10 minutes. It turned out to be another half hour, though, so I lasted an hour and 20 minutes, which is plenty long enough! My hands were seizing up – it was no good. I couldn’t play any of the fast things.
I forgot: a woman collapsed in front of Maison Blanc, between the building and the tables…so I couldn’t see her very well! Someone had to phone an ambulance and a sort of hybrid police car/ambulance (a police car with ‘ambulance’ on it) turned up after 20 minutes. It all happens here, down the arse-end.
Earnings: £13.75p (Including 1 CD)
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