Diary Of A Busker Day 201

Diary Of A Busker Day 201 Sunday February 26th 2012 Winchester High Street Opposite Phase Eight, Time: 2:25-5:05pm
A pleasantly temperatured afternoon decides me to venture into town – something I don’t normally do on a Sunday. There’s just one other bloke out – a guy with an acoustic guitar outside the Vodafone shop, down at the crossroads. I walk back up – there’s loads of people about, as today is the farmer’s market, although it’s busy everyday in Winchester now. The money’s no better or worse, though.
A girl walks around carrying a tray of something. She walks by me so I ask what’s in it; chocolate brownies, tiny ones, so I get one – my mid-session snack. Two coppers come by for a chat. It’s always somewhat forced – for them, this chatting to the street people. ‘How’s it going today,’ says Mr. Policeman. I tell him, ‘The first forty-five minutes were alright, the second, not so good.’ He asks me about my amplifier, ‘Does it have batteries?’ ‘Yeah, six double A’s.’ ‘Yeah? And how long does that last you?’ ‘Oh, about fifteen hours. Pretty good, really.’ ‘Really?’ ‘Yeah, almost a week out here.’ ‘Oh well, (he looks up the road, sees a bunch of people approach)…better let you get on, you’ve got some traffic coming.’ ‘OK, thanks.’ I reckon he’s fulfilled his daily chat-to-a-busker obligation. I wanted to ask him about the stupid rule, the ‘busker’s policy’, about having to move all buskers on if there’s a complaint about one*, but the cops are off.
…later, a young Chinese guy who’s been listening (enjoying?) for awhile comes over and pours in a grand total of 8 pence in 2p coins; shrapnel. Maybe he wasn’t enjoying that much. I really must get to the bottom of this, hopefully not deliberate, stingyness which seems to be peculiar to the Chinese community. This is a long session, and I haven’t had a break. In fact, it’s not so much the cold, although at 5 o’clock it’s definitely making it’s way through me, as the fear of acquiring  hemorrhoids that is concerning me, after 2 1/2 hours sitting on this stool.
Earnings: £25.11
* I investigated this. I phoned the council and told them what happened the other day when I was asked to move when there were complaints about someone busking up the road. I was told the police should not have asked – or rather told – me to move if there were no complaints about me, which there weren’t. They advised me to contact the police and ask them to ‘update their policy.’

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