Day 2714
Tuesday July 7th 2026
Winchester
Crikey, another week of extreme heatness – it’s too hot to do ANYTHING! But enough moaning…Don Lavelle’s carrying on with his latest painting just up from the Buttercross – there’s a girl singing there so that’s out…I glance to the alley and there’s some tape across the other side – The Square is taped off and no one’s aloud in because of a big fire at one of the eateries, La Monde, yesterday. All the places have lost two days of business and one of the owners was crying, apparently. I hope it was The Arse of The Square.
Down at the crossroads there’s a girl with a sax and at the flower seller alley is Kev, slouching in his deck chair, droning on…and on…and on.
Oh dear, what to do…sod this, I’m going to get a cab to the station and bugger off to Southampton. I’m getting a cab because I’ve just walked into town with a heavy guitar case and a heavy trolley, I’m hot and I’m not walking back uphill to the station. But there are no cabs about, either at the side of Sainsbury’s or down at The Guildhall. So what am I going to do? Sod this (again), I’m going to have to set up at the place I haven’t been for ages, opposite Oxfam, next to the Gospel Hall. Talk about a blast from the past. Oh well, at least it’s in the shade, although I’ve got sweat dripping off my face more or less from the word go.
Coinage is slow (yawn) and remains so. I was going to give it an hour but I soldiered on. It’s not as busy as the main bit but still, there’s a steady stream of people. After an hour and a half and after Here Comes The Sun’s 2nd outing, a man stops with his young son.
‘Hey, can you sing my favourite song, My Sweet Lord?’
‘Um…well, I can do a bit I suppose’ – I know the chords (which will sound good on the 12-string)…and the words, so why not? I do the first verse and a bit of the 2nd and that’ll do – ‘I can’t really do any more as there’s a key change but anyway, there you are!’ He drops a dollar bill into the case, I pick it up and say ‘Sorry, have you got any English money or even euros?’
‘No, I don’t.’
‘OK…well, I’ve got this QR code, you can do that on your phone.’
‘Sorry, it’s not working well over here.’
‘In that case I’ll accept it. I can put it with the other one I’ve got at home.’
‘Yeah, well just think of it as a token of my appreciation!’
‘I will, cheers.’
At the end of the requisite two hours, mainly standing up, my back had had enough. Some days it’s fine and some it isn’t and today it wasn’t. It was one of those days where I feel OLD!
Coinage was £14.90 plus one US dollar bill.