Day 2640
Wednesday January 14th 2026
Winchester
I didn’t think I’d be out today due to the forecast of rain on Monday for yesterday and today (they got it right for yesterday) but there was no sign of it today, so…
A couple of young blokes sitting opposite the top spot ruled that out so it was down at old faithful – aka Nando’s.
I’d only done thirty seconds when one of the friendlier homeless blokes – the one with a foreign accent, turned up with beery breath – ‘You know that candle you gave me?’ It took me a few seconds before I remembered I’d given him one that a bloke gave me months ago who was so aggressive when I tried to give it back, I decided the safest option was to accept it.
‘Oh yeah.’
‘I have not lit it.’
‘No?’
‘No, I wait for a special occasion.’
‘Right, OK!’
The coinage was bad – nothing for twenty minutes and then the amp packed in. Bugger! I took the batteries out, put in the reserves and…nothing – no power light and no sound. Weird, I always make sure the reserves are charged up. Oh dear, what to do…well, Sainsbury’s is right near by and I know they sell double A’s. I’m really lazy these days and can’t be bothered packing everything up so I decide to put the guitar away, take it with me to Sainsbury’s and leave everything else where it is, which I’ve never done before. Sod it, I’m in a trusting mood today! So I made a dash to Sainsbury’s, which took ten seconds, got the batteries, went to one of the machines, which didn’t work so I had to get a worker to sort it out, then back out again. The whole operation probably took no more than three minutes…and the stuff was untouched. Phew.
Anyway, I put the new batteries in and…nothing! Well, now I’m panicking because it must mean the problem is with the amp and the nearest amp shop is in Southampton and I ain’t doing it!
Well I opened the battery compartment, fiddled around with the batteries and the power light flickered on…and off, and on again…and off…then on and I managed to get the thing working and it was fine for the rest of the set. But that’s a worry. Oh well, if the amp’s on it’s last days, it’s served me well. I’ll have to have a look before I come out with it again.
Back up and running, I make my first money – from a woman in her early thirties with a big smile, which is what I have after she donates £7.17 in coinage. Finally, some appreciation! She goes off but that’s not the end of her. Fifteen minutes later she returns and starts going on about the Beatles song Yesterday. The problem is I can’t understand 90% of what she’s saying as she speaks in a tongue I’m not familiar with. She sings some of the words and I try and remember the chords but it’s not what she wants. She sings “Why she had to go I don’t know…” and touches my right hand for a few seconds, then picks individual strings on my guitar, which is taking a serious liberty to say the least. I mean, I let that kid do that not long ago, but an adult should know better.
The weird thing is she seems to almost burst out in tears on a few occasions and I don’t know if it’s something emotional she’s associating with the music or if it’s due to frustration with me not understanding what she wants. Anyway, after a bit I start thinking she wants me to just play the melody so I do that and she seems a bit happier but she keeps singing the middle eight bit so I just play the chords (it takes a few goes before I get them all right) and sing the bloody thing and this must be the first time I’ve ever sung that one. Sod it, no one’s listening (bloody good job!) and she sings along with me, again getting teary every now and then. At the end she again touches my hand then kisses me on the cheek, says ‘See you again soon’ and she’s off, down towards the statue. Now, I don’t think I’m imagining it but when she leaned into me I’m sure I got a bit of beery breath. Not nearly as much as the bloke earlier but definitely something there.
Someone I haven’t seen for ages, Rob who loves The Third Man, walked by with his two carers, a woman and man. They smiled at me, but Rob? He completely ignored me! Haha, cheers mate!
It was a two hour set, which was long enough at 6 degrees…and I had a “two CDs for £15” sale and not only that, the well-dressed woman with baby in pram didn’t want any change out of a £20 note so that’s an £18 profit and thank you very much. ‘Have a nice day,’ she said as she went off. Well, her contribution amounted to around half of the total takings of £37.82.