Diary Of A Busker Day 2524 Friday April 11th 2025 Winchester.
Two days ago I had 18 year old student Alex Greenwood and two of his mates round the house to film me for a documentary Alex is doing on me. Today I’m meeting him at midday at The Buttercross so he can film me playing there, that’s if it isn’t taken. If it is, it’s going to have to be somewhere else…and it’s going to have to be somewhere else as there’s an instrumental duo (man on guitar, woman on violin) there, playing folky stuff.
Fortunately, The Square is free so Alex films me from inside the cathedral grounds parking the bike against the railings, then moves his camera (a Canon worth £2,000) near the road and films me intermittently for half an hour. For the first 15 minutes no one donates and I’m wondering if it’s because they can see I’m being filmed and don’t want to move into the shot or some people (people from out of town who don’t know me) might think I’m an actor and they don’t want to come into the filming. Who knows. It also gets the attention of two of the girls working in the twats shop, who keep looking out as Alex is filming. No sign of the twat himself, though.
Anyway, it eventually picks up and even an old regular makes an appearance. It’s the old bloke from Southampton, always in the same dirty blue jeans and blue coat, usually with roll-up in hand but he’s always complimentary, always saying ‘You’re very good.’
Done filming, Alex (and his assistant, his female cousin Jack) head off and I carry on for another hour or so. There are plenty of people about because the weather is now fine and the tourists are returning. The takings are an acceptable £32 so time to go home for a break.
Back in town, The Square is again free but so is the top spot so for a change I set up there for just under an hour and a half, which brings the total time to three hours. Near the end three foreign student girls come up and hold out a blue plastic bag.
‘We thought you might like this.’
‘What’s that, what’s in it?’
‘It’s some food.’
‘I’m not homeless, you know!’
‘No, we know…it’s from one of our host’s mothers. We don’t want it.’
‘Well, why don’t you give it to a homeless person, they might want it.’
‘We can’t see any.’ (that’s a first)
Right, what’s in it?’ I open the bag…
‘Well, there’s an orange – I like oranges, and a banana. OK, I’ll have the orange and banana.’
I then see a bag of crisps…’Oh, I’ll have the crisps, as well…and that small drink…and you’ve got two sandwiches, is that ham and cheese in one? Right, I’ll have that one…and there’s a few grapes – I love grapes. OK, I’ll have the lot, cheers!’
When I get home I’ll put the orange and banana in the fruit bowl and stick the sandwiches in the fridge and that’s tomorrow’s lunch sorted.