Diary Of A Busker Day 2582 Sunday July 20th 2025 Winchester.
Gareth is a the top spot and that bloke with the real upright piano is in MY usual Sunday spot in The Square. The nerve! However, the flowerman’s alleyway spot opposite Marks & Spencer is free AND in the shade. Anyway, I’m hoping to do better than yesterday…first song Albatross and a rough-looking, drongo-ish bloke pulls up on a bike, rummages round in his backpack but has trouble because he’s straddling his bike so he trows it down (the bike) rather aggressively and carries on with his backpack search. I’m wondering if he’s got a problem with me when two minutes later he produces a big round three-wicked candle and a big bar of white chocolate and offers them to me. When I very politely decline he seems to take it personally and quite aggressively – ‘What? Here, take it.’ I don’t want to aggravate the situation so I ask him to put them in the case in the hope he’ll bugger off. He then holds his hand out but it’s absolutely filthy and I just CANNOT touch it! He says ‘For your beautiful music’ and goes off, which of course makes me feel really guilty but there’s no way I was going to touch that hand, daarrling!
The coinage is terrible (again) and this puts me in a bad mood so I’m a bit less than patient when a couple of boys turn up and one asks if he can have a go on the guitar. ‘What do you want to play?’ ‘Stairway To Heaven?’ ‘OK, but just for a minute.’ He takes the guitar, sits down and plays a bit of the intro and the strumming 12-string guitar bit, obviously a bit nervous and I feel sorry for him so compliment him at the end, as does one of the market blokes who’s parked his car next to me, ready to load up.
My Saviour Of The Day is the Ukrainian bloke who has come up to me a few times recently on his bike. He’s always very complimentary and usually donates a pound or two as he did earlier today when he put in a £2 coin. Well, a bit later he came back and put in a tenner, so he’s now contributed £12 and the total for the two hours was £17.98, so that’s just under six quid from everyone else for a two hour session. For shame! Anyway, we have a brief chat; he hasn’t been back since the war started, didn’t get to see his father who’s now died but is quite happy here with his girlfriend.
Anyway, another two hours for crap coinage but on the plus side, while in town with the son and heir, we came across Don Lavelle doing his current painting at the end of The Pentice and he says he’s been commissioned to do a painting and the client wants ME in it! So finally it’s going to come to pass, HALLELUJAH! It’s for a woman whose four year old daughter has seen me since she was born.