Diary Of A Busker Day 477 Sunday November 24th 2013 Winchester (1. Opposite Oxfam, Time: 12:10-12:50pm, 2. Next to The Slug & Lettuce, Time: 1:25-2:55pm).
It’s pretty full up today: Rob at The Butter Cross, Guy and some of his Threepenny Bit franchise down at Vodafone, and a drum/guitar duo near Marks & Spencer. This is my first time out in almost a week, the reason being – I’ve done something to the left thumb joint…and I was trying to rest it! I know what it is, too. It was that bloody long stretch in the middle bit of Borsalino. I was really trying to get it right, so I could do a video and put it up – playing it on the electric twelve-string, too. But I think I’ve buggered it right up – the bit where the thumb meets the hand. So I haven’t been out doing any marathon sessions, although I’ve still been going through stuff at home, like a new song I’m trying to write, which probably defeats the object. I haven’t gone near Borsalino, though, well – not the offending section, anyway. I’ve got a bit worried about it as it hasn’t got any better, so I’ve booked an appointment with the GP. I wanted to see him rather than a nurse, as he knows all about my history: the Focal Dystonia thing from years ago.
That middle-aged foreign lady who I always see pushing a pram with -I’m assuming someone else’s – baby, is across the street, on her own today. After a few minutes, she comes across and contributes about 40p. The money’s slow, though…and I get some quite vicious blasts of cold wind, so 40 minutes is enough. Also, that drummer from down the road was getting on my nerves!
I took a break in Waterstones – a break-time browse. There’s a new book on display: Great War Fashion. They really are milking the approaching centenary, now! It did, however, provide me with an occupation for a few minutes. Full of interesting stuff. In the Perspiration section: ‘A wartime woman might also spare half a potato, with its’ absorbant starchy juices to rub under her arms’
Back out, they’re all still in place: Guy and Rob… I set up at The Slug, as, although Rob’s just the other side of the alleyway, I can barely hear him. I manage to sell a CD – an £8 one! – to one of two Chinese girls, who say they’ve seen me before. That made my day, actually.
A little girl, about a year old(?), wearing the same coloured trousers as me (burgundy) provides some amusement to me and a few others, sitting at some tables and walking by – by ‘dancing’ around in front of me and then wandering around, pretty well ‘dancing’ all the time. A couple of times, she wanders into the road and her dad has to run and get her back. She must have been there, ‘dancing’, for half an hour.
After the 1st Gnossienne, a couple donate, the woman saying it was used in a film – Chocolate, or ‘Shocola’, she says, as the film was French. Chocolat(?) I say I quite like to hear other versions, so I’ll look into it.
A man likes my Horizons, although I messed it up at the usual place. He says ‘It’s always good to hear some Steve Hackett’. I say ‘That’s the only one I know!’ ‘That’s OK’, he says. OK is good enough…and I did OK here. A hell of alot better than the first place.
Earnings: £27.21p (Including 1 CD)