Diary Of A Busker Day 285 Tuesday September 18th 2012 Winchester High Street 1. Opposite Oxfam, Time: 11:54-1:19pm, 2. Opposite Bellis, Time: 1:44-2:44pm
An earlier than usual start as I need to be back home for Tom and Owen’s guitar lesson. A weird thing; I was a few songs into the set when my Pickwickian, pipe-smoking regular and one of the only ones I still haven’t got a photo of – suddenly popped into my mind, and then…he’s here, in front of me! And after a brief chat I still can’t bring myself to ask him if he’ll pose.
Later on, during The Third Man, I see Walter crossing the road – great! Now I can do his request of the other day – Bridge On The River Kwai. He comes over – ‘Same old song,’ he says. ‘Yeah, but I’ve got something for you, Walter,’ and I go into River Kwai…and he loves it. I made an old guy smile for thirty seconds! Then he points to something above my head so I look up and there’s a big pot of flowers hanging from a hook, the flowers flowing in great abundance over the sides. I’ve never noticed them before. ‘Oh, the flowers. Do you know what they are, then?’ I say. ‘No. Mind it doesn’t fall on your fucking head!’ says Walter. I don’t know; there’s something really funny about an old man swearing.
A bit later, a man comes up and says, ‘Someone should do a painting of you.’ ‘A painting? Why?’ ‘Well, you’re always here, playing!’ Well, I don’t know if that’s a good enough reason and it’s only after he’s gone when I think I should have said, ‘I know it’s not quite the same thing but the other day, a guy put me in a sketch he did of the high street…does that count?’
When I get home, and counting the money, I notice someone’s chucked in a shilling, dated 1962, so it’s the same age as me. I think, ‘Well, how about that? We both came into being at the same time, we both have been to a few other places along the way, although I bet that shilling has never been to (deepest, darkest) Shillong, and now here we are, both in the same place.
Earnings: £24.02 and one UK shilling + 3 CDs