Day 2647

Day 2647
Tuesday January 27th 2026
Winchester

On the way in I stopped off at the bike shop around the corner from Sainsbury’s and got the bloke to do an adjustment on the front brake which hadn’t been working properly for a few weeks – there was too much slack in the cable – it turned out to be a simple thing to fix and now I know how to do it! In the high street the bloke who does Bod Dylan was down from the top spot and Kev was in between the crossroads and the Nando’s spot so that was out. I set up in a new spot, up the other way from the Buttercross, just out of earshot of Mr. Dylan. I was opposite the Nat West bank, in fact just down from my own Lloyds.

And it’s another windy day…one of the old blokes stopped as I was setting up to ask how I was. I said I was fine (the fingers weren’t freezing yet) and I was at this spot because Dylan was down the road. My man said he liked Bob (the real one) which led me to inform him that I’d seen him (the real one) in Paris a few months ago.
‘Really? How was he?’
‘He was brilliant…you’re never quite sure what he’s going to be like but he really was brilliant.’
‘He’s getting on now, isn’t he? A friend of mine say him years ago. He’s 87 now – my friend, I think…wait, he’s…30 plus 47, that makes…oh, I don’t know…but he’s old!’
‘Yeah!’
‘Anyway, nice to see you again, Marvin, take care.’
‘Cheers, yeah…’ I was trying to remember his name but I don’t know if he’s ever told me…which is possibly why I can’t remember it!

Ed stopped by and donated 14p. I asked if he’d listened to my Billy Balloon album – the vinyl, which I’d given him months ago. Well, he hadn’t because he didn’t have a record player – ‘But I’ve heard the CD.’ I informed him the vinyl edition was slightly different – minus a song and a different running order due to the limitations of pressing a vinyl album – ‘But it’s better than the CD.’ He said he was going to see a friend soon, who had a record player and he’d give it a spin then.

Anyway, like I was saying, another windy day so I spent most of the time sitting down with my leg over the top bit of the case. It started to drizzle at one point early on and I was about to rig down (ha), but it stopped. In fact, I might as well have packed up because after an hour and 10 minutes I’d accumulated the huge total of £4.15. No really worth coming in for. Oh well, at least the bike got fixed.