Diary Of A Busker Day 589 Saturday July 12th 2014 Winchester (1. Opposite Pavilion, Time: 12:58-2:58pm, 2. Opposite Oxfam, Time: 3:07-3:54pm).
Young Sam’s back in town and at his usual Butter Cross residence. In fact, he’s not yet set up as there are 3 people playing across the way. Down at Vodafone is that weirdo John. I have a chat about him to Sam – I tell him about what happened the other day, and Sam also thinks there’s something not quite right about him. He says John’s come up to him a few times and definitely been a bit odd. I say I think he’s left home, going by the huge rucksack he always seems to have with him. I know he was having problems with his landlord – I remember him saying awhile back – so I suppose I’ve put two and two together…who knows. But I’m not going to ask him! Sam says that if he’s left home, he should get away from here and travel around a bit and not get into a rut, which is maybe what’s happened. Again, who knows…
I set up around the corner. It’s very busy, noisy, and a hot day, and of course, this is the one place where I play where there’s no shade! A man sitting with his wife outside The Eclipse comes up, donates and says, ‘I read an article in the Chronicle about a year ago where you said alot of people listened (they’ve got no choice!) but didn’t give you any money, so…there, I’ve done it!’ I said, ‘A year ago?’ He said, ‘Yes’. He’s wrong – I said, ‘That was three years ago’, which it was, and I’m amazed anyone still remembers it!
Near the end, His Poshness of BrYan, who’s been sitting at his usual table the whole time I’ve been playing, comes up and contributes. I thank him and remark on the warm weather and that I almost took off my jacket. BrYan says, ‘Well, you see all these people walking round, you know, wearing vests, with tattoos, and you think “We are an ugly lot”. People say to me, “You always look so smart”, and I say, “When we wake up in the morning, we’ve all got to put clothes on, and it’s just as easy to put nice clothes on as to put bad clothes on, you know”‘. Indeed, my Posh friend, and it certainly is warm, but I wouldn’t go as far as to remove the jacket, and I say this to BrYan (not emphasising the Y, of course). BrYan says, ‘I couldn’t agree more. You’re a man after my own heart’.
BrYan now wants to talk about money – ‘How are you doing? – well? I could hear the clunk of change from over there’. I say, ‘It’s not too bad but it hasn’t clunked for about fifteen minutes, apart from your kind donation, so I think I might have outstayed my welcome’. Indeed, but I’d been there nigh on two hours, so after I’d done the two hours, I left…
…to do a shorter session down the road, via the backstreet…and I sold a CD! The lucky purchaser, a man, came up with a £5 note – for a £5 CD, of course, but as I (but not he) knows, I ran out of them a few weeks ago. So I lied and said, ‘Ah, now I’ve’, and he pre-empted me – ‘You’re going to tell me you’ve run out of them’. I had to tell him he was right…but he was very welcome to have a look at these other ones, for £9…and then because I was feeling guilty about lying, I said he could have one for £8! Which he did. But the whole lying thing is starting to get to me. The first time it happened, it wasn’t a lie, as I really had just sold the last one, but I’ve done it about three times now…and it’s definitely a lie now! I wonder how long I can keep it up. Of course, I could change the sign to: CDs – £5/£10, and then offer the £10 for £9…
Earnings: £40.42p (Including 1 CD)
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