Diary Of A Busker Day 2324 Wednesday March 13th 2024 Winchester High Street.
Nine days ago, after doing an hour, I went to stand up off the stool and the pain in my lower back on the left side was so excruciating, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bend down to pack up, I had to kneel on the ground and do it and I could barely cycle back home. I thought it might be carrying the gigbag on my back on the bike so I started walking in, with the guitar slung over my right shoulder and pulling the case with my right arm.
A few days after, I met posh bossy Sarah. She asked me why I wasn’t on the bike so I told her about my back and she frogmarched me into Boots to ask at the pharmacy. They gave me some really strong codeine tablets which I’ve been taking for a few days. Anyway, she came by today and asked how my back was. I said it was pretty much the same and that I’d got a physio appointment on Friday. She said ‘You know what, it’s probably because you’re crossing your legs. You’d be surprised how many people have back problems because they cross their legs.’
Well, I never knew that but she might be right. I mean, I cross my legs, right over left, 95% of the time I’m out here playing, because it raises my right leg to the perfect height for playing. And at the times when they’re not crossed, I raise my right ankle up a couple of inches to achieve the same height and I never knew that until today, when I thought ‘Fuck it, I’d better stop crossing my legs and get the old ankle up from now on.’ So that’s what I tried to do for the rest of the set.
And it’s not just the 14 years I’ve played out on the street. It’s the 45-odd years spent playing in the house!
Apart from that, a good day for coinage, Actually, more noteage than coinage as I got no less than THREE tenners (nothing to do with opera) and a fiver. One of the tenners was from ex-journalist David Mulrine, who hadn’t seen me in awhile as he’d been recovering in hospital after contracting the dreaded virus. Another was from Graham who came over after his favourite, Robinson Crusoe. I didn’t just happen to be playing it, I saw him sit on a bench and a bit of opportunism kicked in.