Day 2646
Saturday January 24th 2026
Winchester
Kev’s slouching near the Buttercross, there’s a bit of wind in The Square and the Nando’s sandwich board is obstructing the Nando’s spot so I go up the road a bit and set up at the crossorads (aka in front of Starbucks)…and I immediately regret it because it’s like a gale there. I decide to carry on setting up, thinking it’s just sporadic and will calm down soon but it doesn’t. It’s relentless and unforgiving and twice as bad as yesterday. There’s no chance of me standing up even for a few seconds as whenever I attempt it, a massive gust blows the case away from me so I’m stuck sitting down with my right leg over the case lid with my heel against the front of my album, which is secured in the usual position, in the cavity between the two parts of the case.
I got lucky early on when a bloke in his thirties put a tenner in the case (it was there for a few seconds before the inevitable retrieval before it blew away). This was after five minutes and I was thinking this might be the order of the day. Wrong. I was there for an hour and five minutes and there were only three more donations, totalling £2.35. After half an hour Kev walked by and left his amp with the bloke at the stall next to Gus’s. Kev said something to the bloke and they both then looked at me. I don’t know why I think it but I think Kev complimented me.
Ten minutes before I packed in I was doing While My Guitar Gently Freezes and a bloke came up and said –
‘Is that a new guitar? Is that a proper one?’
‘What do you mean, “is that a proper one?”? Does it not sound like a proper one?’
‘Is it a Fender?’
‘Yeah, it’s a Fender Squier!’
And he walks off. Maybe he thought I was a bit abrupt. Well, for a kick-off he interrupted me and then the snobbish ‘is that a “proper” guitar?’ rubbed me up the wrong way. What the hell’s that about? What’s a “proper” guitar? Maybe he thinks Squiers aren’t legitimate. Also, by that time I’d really had enough of the wind and needed to stop and it was affecting my mood, and when that happens, it definitely IS time to stop!
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