Diary Of A Busker Day 647 Saturday October 11th 2014 Winchester (1. Opposite Pavilion, Time: 2:15-4:15pm, 2. Opposite Oxfam, Time: 4:32-5:32pm).
When I got to Pavilion, my old mate Rick Tarrant was sitting outside the restaurant next door with a cup of coffee. I declined his invitation to join him as I wanted to start up. As he had his guitar with him, I asked how he’d got on and he said he’d got around £12 for just over an hour. I said that was alright, then told him about my great success in Hythe! I set up and Rick sat there for 15 minutes and in all that time I got only one donation. When Rick got up to leave, he looked my way and I just shook my head!
It got alot better, though. But one thing that offended me was people filming – sometimes entire songs – from just a few feet away, and then walking off without a donation. That happened THREE times, the offenders all being young women. There was one young guy taking photos – for a college project, as it turned out, but at least the chap had the decency to ask permission.
Just over the hour, Madelaine turned up with a friend. Actually, they were all part of a group of young folk standing near the cathedral grounds entrance…anyway, I’d forgotten her name but remembered it in time – ‘Hello…Madelaine’. She looked in the bucket and thought I’d done alright for an hour. I hadn’t looked until then. She asked if I’d had my hair cut since she last saw me. I said it was cut about four months ago, which was around the time she last saw me. I didn’t think she lived here because I hardly ever see her, which is a shame, but she said she’d been off to some other countries for awhile. She then went back to join her group, which looked like a tourist-ey sort of group.
Posh BrYan came by, red face and all, after his glass of wine at the posh place on my right. ‘You’ve brightened up my lunch again’, said His Poshness.
About 15 minutes before I hit the two hour mark and packed up, a man sitting at the table where Rick was earlier, came up and put a folded £5 note in. Wow! Not many of those around these days. No CD sales, either. Still, I did a rough count-up – about £35: very good…and they kept the door open. There was a rather more agreeable blonde girl there today, not the dark-haired bitch!
I finished off with another hour – which made it three: the limit – down at Oxfam. A woman in her 40’s, who I’d seen getting out of a car with a crutch at the 1st spot, suddenly appeared and sat down at one of the tables opposite. After a bit, she got up and crossed the road and it looked like quite an effort. Before she got to me, she beckoned me so I got up. She handed me 6 or 7p in shrapnel and said that was all the coins she had. But this didn’t annoy me, as she’d made the effort to come across. I think one of her feet was a bit bent in. She looked in quite a bad way, in fact.
Earnings: £45.63p
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