Diary Of A Busker Day 2290 Saturday December 23rd 2023 Winchester High Street
Like yesterday, the centre was chock-a-block with buskers so I ended up (like yesterday) down near the bottom of the high street. Opposite me are four or five food stalls – South American, Asian, Korean and one I forget. Yesterday, the money was nothing to write home about, despite hordes of peoploids about, but at least it wasn’t windy, unlike every other spot.
Yesterday, a weird bloke came up and rearranged the dispersed coinage in the case, all into the centre. I should have stopped him but just kept my eye on his hand to see if he’d lifted anything. He hadn’t so that was OK but a few minutes later he attempted to touch the strings of my guitar and that’s definitely not on. I instinctively leaned back and he got the message and buggered off.
Unfortunately, the coinage is even less than yesterday and I’m largely ignored…apart from the three young Korean women – all very small, and all with Santa hats with a light on, who are maning (womaning?) the food stall, who are bopping about pretty much the whole time.
…and apart from a couple with a boy and girl who stop to listen to The Third Man. At the end I ask the boy, who’s standing next to me, if he knows that one and I’m amazed that he does. “Well, I’m sure you know this one as well…” and I go into my recently worked out Jingle Bells arrangement. The children sing along and there’s a bit of applause at the end so I ask the father, who has filmed a bit of it, if he will take my phone and film it again, which he does, so that’s preserved for posterity…even the last chord, which I managed to fuck up. Always the way – you get though the whole song without a mistake, then fuck up the very end.