Diary Of A Busker Day 2439 Saturday September 14th 2024 Winchester.
A fine day, with sunshine and little or no wind and the temperature’s gone up a few notches, to around 20. It’s 2 o’clock when I start up at The Buttercross – loads of people about as it’s a Saturday afternoon. After 20 minutes, I suddenly think “that’s strange, no Claire” and no word of a lie, as soon as I’ve thought it, she’s there! She didn’t materialise in front of me but I turned to the right and she’s walking towards me, up from The Pentice.
And so it begins – the dancing, with people taking photos and videos. I meant to do not more than two hours at the most but I carried on for a marathon of three and a quarter hours because every time I was about to stop, something would happen to warrant further playing. For instance, a man came up behind me, right up to my ear and asked for Cavatina (which I’d played ten minutes before) and before I could answer, he’d put a £10 note into my jacket pocket.
Then an old bloke who was sitting on the bench with his wife came across and put a fiver in the case and said ‘that’s for the next few songs’. And then, of course there was Claire, who never stopped once, apart from when she took her fleece off and put it with her bag, next to me. I mean, the stamina of the woman is incredible!
One woman, who must have seen her around the time she turned up, thanked me for ‘looking after her’! The woman with the two boys in the bike box turned up near the end – Claire had a mid-dance chat with her and told me later that the woman asked if she knew if I’d be around tomorrow, as there was “loads of things going on”, apparently. I said I had no idea what was going on but I’d probably be around if the weather is like it is today. The only thing I know for sure is that Claire will definitely be around!
Anyway, at 5:15 I packed up and I really needed to as my right shoulder was acting up. As noted, it was a hell of a long session – I must have pissed off a few of the shop workers but no one said anything. Three women and a man from Spec Savers stood at the door, watching Claire for a bit…for a change from sitting down, I stood up a few times – a rare thing! Several people, mainly women, came up to dance with Claire and it always ends with a big hug, often extended to well over a minute, with back patting accompaniment.