Diary Of A Busker Day 686 Friday January 30th 2015 Winchester (Opposite Bellis, Time: 3:50-5:30pm).
If it wasn’t for the non-appearance of an 18 year old Peter Symonds student – one Emma Cuifie, or Ciufie, or something like that – for a lesson (she never even sent a message, and I’m down by £15…and a capo I leant her), I never would have come in, because it’s cold these days. Today it’s 7 degrees: right on the line. However, I had the good fortune to sell a CD, to a couple in their 60’s who’d seen a photo of me on a Facebook site called Winchester Pics. The photo was taken at the Oxfam spot recently by a bloke who, incidentally, didn’t say he was going to put it up.
Anyway, when this couple saw the picture, they said – and I quote ‘We know him – he’s the best busker in Winchester’, and they put my name in the computer and all this stuff comes up, including, of course, the diary. They wanted a CD with The Third Man on, so at least I didn’t have to make a decision about it, as it’s not on the new CD.
Down’s Syndrome actor Tom walks by and stops next to me. He’s cheerful enough – he does a Chuck Berry-ish duck walk to what I’m playing, thrusting his head out and back – but he’s not very talkative, although I do find out he’s doing Much Ado About Nothing with his Blue Apple Theatre group at The Theatre Royal in July…and that he hasn’t got a new girlfriend, after Katie. Tom donates his usual 2p.
Shouting Phillip comes up the road, but oddly silent. No shouting or anything loud. Maybe it’s the cold. He goes into the bakery behind me and when he emerges, donates a £2 coin, but there’s no chat. Very weird. He goes over to the bench for five minutes, then leaves.
The first forty minutes isn’t too bad, but after that it gets a bit cold. The wind picks up for a few seconds now and then, and even just a few seconds is enough to cause quite a bit of pain in the old fingers. But like I noticed before, it really does help: doing the songs that involve playing up the neck and nearer the body – my body, not the guitar’s body! So, Blowin’ In The Wind (appropriately), Here Comes The Sun (inappropriately), Girl, and the 1st. Gnossienne.
The coinage is good, maybe because I’m the only one out, apart from Young Sam, who I have a brief chat with. He was here before me and walks by with a friend at about 5 o’clock. In fact, I asked if he wanted to set up, as I’ve almost had enough. No way, he says! He’ll be around tomorrow, though. It’s the first time I’ve seen him don a woolly hat – it must be bloody cold!
There was only one offender. A couple stop by the bike, near the window behind me, and I can tell the bloke’s admiring it. Then he comes up and says ‘Is that your bike?’, which I ignore, being in the middle of a song, because I really can’t handle that sort of rudeness. So he says it again and again I keep my head down…he says it again so I stop and say – or shout, rather ‘Sorry, what?’ So he says it again – ‘Is that your bike?’ ‘Yeah’, I say, and start playing again. He says ‘I really like it, where did you get it?’ I ignore him and he says it again so I stop and say ‘What?’ He says ‘Where did you get it?’ I shout ‘Peterborough!’ He doesn’t get it, though. They don’t get that to interrupt someone deep in though is a crime! His wife’s standing nearby, smiling. I bet SHE gets it.
At the end, I made more than the lesson would have brought me, so…thanks Emma whatever your stupid name is.
Earnings: £29.50p (Including 1 CD)
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