Day 2715
Wednesday July 8th 2026
Winchester
Due to everywhere else being taken, I’m down at the same spot as yesterday…and the heat is the same, at around 29 degrees. Oh well, at least my back doesn’t hurt as much (though it does later on).
Three schoolboys aged around 14, come out of the Oxfam shop and listen. At the end of the song one says ‘That sounds like a twelve string.’ I nod towards the headstock and say ‘Yeah, that’s because it is!’ They then walk off, the one who spoke sometimes turning back and giving the thumbs-up.
A few minutes later and these three are back but this time they’ve got the whole class with them! In fact, there are a few whole classes wandering about. They must be having a high street field day. Anyway, the whole lot are my captive audience for Everybody Wants To Rule The World – loads of applause at the end, then Can’t Take My Eyes Off You – when I did the chorus the boy who spoke before shouts “I LOVE YOU BABY!” I couldn’t resist, I shout “WELL, THANK YOU!” to him.
It’s funny, at one point I made a mistake because I never EVER get used to a bunch of people standing in front and listening and it sometimes freaks me out. Silly really.
Anyway, again loads of applause at the end of that one and then they moved on down the road towards the King Alfred statue. Donations? Indeed. One 5p coin…which I’m afraid was the order of the day because the coinage was absolutely dreadful (£6.37 total). I gave it an hour and a half and then I’d had enough. I was starting to make stupid mistakes because my mind was wandering. As I was putting the guitar away, a mother and her young daughter of three (or four) stopped.
‘Would you like a lolly?’ asks the mother.
‘Oh, well, if you’ve got one to spare. Thank you!’
‘Or you can have a chocolate’ she holds out a packet of four.
‘Oh no, I’m on a diet. I’ll have the lolly though.’
Mother hands me a lolly and says ‘We haven’t got any money to give you.’ Then the daughter chips in ‘Yeah, we give you enough, anyway!’