Diary Of A Busker Day 2605 Wednesday October 1st 2025 Winchester.
I could have set up at the top spot but I was there for awhile yesterday so I thought a change might be in order. Some of the local businesses might agree…so I set up down at the crossroads. Coinage was slow until three chinese girls – students here, turned up and one bought a CD. In fact, it was her birthday – this was Gigi, and her two friends were Chan and Kathleen – ‘Oh, that’s my mother’s name!’ I said, which caused them great amusement. They asked if I knew any birthday songs – ‘Well, only this one but it’s probably the best’ and I went into, you guessed it, Happy Birthday. Gigi was well chuffed.
Then the woman who’s got loads of videos of me doing La Vie En Rose came by. Apparently, the La Vie En Rose one she did yesterday has got over 500 “likes” on her Instagram page. Today she told me her name – Su (the lack of an E at the end is a long story, she says). Anyway, now I’ve got a name (and only a two letter one, at that) so I don’t need to call her “the woman who likes to video me doing La Vie En Rose” anymore, thank god.
I met an American couple with their year old daughter. I knew they were American because when the bloke opened his wallet there were more dollar notes than British fivers. I asked whereabouts in the U.S. they were from and they said California so I said California Girls was in my repertoire and he said ‘Oh, well SHE’S a California Girl!’ so I played it for them. Their next stop is the Cotswolds and Stow-on-the-Wold.
A ten pound note donation came from a(nother) legless drongo, who was sitting in his wheelchair (obviously) at the flat white bench just behind and to the left of me. He donated after the second outing of Everybody Wants To Rule The World. That donation was more than a third of the entire takings for the two hour set so he’s officially my Saviour Of The Day.
Back home for some lunch of mackerel and vegetable rice and half a baked potato from two days ago…
…back out and The Buttercross is free (they’ve had enough of a break from me)…and it’s Wednesday afternoon so it’s Posh Sarah’s meeting day in Nero’s. She emerges at 4:30 and comes over to say hello and ask how I am…
‘I’m fine, Sarah, thank you.’
‘You’re OK here?’
‘Yeah, the weather’s fine so it’s fine.’
‘Better than it’ll be on Friday. We’re going to be battered to death with the storms, apparently.’
‘Right, I won’t be out then!’
Sarah then turns her attention to the foreign kids sitting behind me on the monument steps. ‘Where are you from? Italy?’
‘Spain’ says one.
‘Spain, right…well make sure you clap at the end of a song. He’s great.’
And you know what? They do as they’re told, although the clapping gets less and less until by the fourth song, there’s nothing! Still, they’re well-behaved. Only around 12 years old, I reckon.
I did an hour and a half, by which time my back and arms were aching, especially my left arm at the elbow. This is a bit worrying as I’ve had this pain for a couple of weeks now. I reckon it – and the back pain, is just age and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Anyway, there was another ten pound donation, so a joint Saviour Of The Day. The tenner accounted for just under half of this set’s takings. It was from a bearded man in his thirties on an electric bike and I’m sure he’s donated a tenner a few months ago.