Day 2658

Day 2658
Saturday February 21st 2026
Winchester

Out again in another rain break – and the first time out since the 9th, due to the Florence/Pisa cultural break. I revisited a few things last night on the Rickenbacker 12-string, in preparation for coming out today and it seemed fine so I wasn’t too worried about forgetting much. Gareth was holding court at the top spot and there was a young Chinese duo – he on guitar, she singing – in The Square…the crossroads spot was free and I hadn’t been there for awhile so I set up pronto.
Coinage was very slow – nothing for a good (actually bad) twenty minutes then a coin and then sweet FA for another twenty minutes and I’m thinking I might as well not be here…then a CD sale, which brought forth extreme joyfulness – I could relax!

A youngish bloke with longish hair came up and asked if he could take some photos and I was about to say ‘Sure, and a contribution would be appreciated’ but I ended up saving energy and just said ‘Sure’, thinking he’d do it anyway. He had a proper camera and not a phone, which impressed me, and away he went. First off, he went across to the Vodafone door, bent down and shot away. I looked down for a minute, concentrating on the playing, looked up and he was gone and I thought ‘Bloody sod, the bastard’s buggered orf without contributing, then turned my head and saw him practically behind me, doing more photos, then across the street outside Pret…then a few feet to my right near the Starbucks door then a couple of other places. All in all he was snapping away for around 15 minutes at least. At the end he came over and asked if he could send some photos to my email address so I suggested he pick up one of the business cards, which has all that and my phone number on, and asked him to just put my name on any social media thing he might put any photos on – he said he would, picked up a card,thanked me and buggered orf and no donation! Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

I got a tenner for Life On Mars? so that was Song Of The day, which brought forth a slightly larger amount of joyfulness (as that’s a £10 profit, as opposed to a £9 profit from a £10 CD sale)…was able to complete a full two hours before it started drizzling, which was fine as my fingers couldn’t do any more due to the coldness setting in. The total was £29.92 and that included the first coin I’ve been given with the new king’s profile – a 5p from 2023. Well, it took you awhile but you finally reached my grubby hands, my tiny shiny little darling!