Day 2731
Wednesday August 19th 2026
Winchester
Back from the Amsterdam/Haarlem sojourn and back in The Square for a late session starting at 5:45…and I’ve got something in common with one of the Three Joes waitresses. She’s got a Van Gogh Starry Night top and I’ve got some Van Gogh Almond Blossom socks – they go well with my green shoes – purchased on Monday from the famous Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.
The temperature has finally gone down – it’s around 23 degrees today. Coinage is slow – how many times have I said that?! but it goes right up when I’m given a £10 note from one of the tables. There’s a mother and baby and a much older man, who I’m assuming is her father. It’s a Scottish tenner, which is fine as I can get it changed at the bank – I’d rather do that than risk it being refused in a shop, which is highly likely in these here parts.
All the chalk doodles are now gone due to the rain over the last couple of days – and by god we needed it as there was something like 40 days without it. Anyway, I won’t have to dust the back of the gigbag down like I always have to do when there’s a load of chalk on the ground.
I had a surprise sale – an album! In fact, it was the Scottish tenner man who bought it, for a tenner. I let him have it half price because it’s the one that I’ve been carting around for the past six months, so the cover’s not in good shape – the corners are bent after storing it in the trolley. I think I’ll have to put the next one in the gigbag – it’ll be safer there.
Anyway, the man doesn’t actually have a record player so it may be awhile for him to hear it – I said I wasn’t sure if the vinyl was a bit warped but if it is, he must let me know (I gave him a business card) and I’d get a pristine copy to him.
I did an hour and a half and he and his family came by as I was packing up – that’s when he bought the album. They said the baby was enjoying the playing but it’s hard to tell. I leaned over to him (the baby – eight months old) and smiled and waved to him but he just looked at me, mouth open, big blue eyes staring at me, like “What’s going on and who the hell is this weird guy?” Really nice people and nice to get a compliment after being away.
While the family were chatting to me I managed to shift the two CDs to a bloke who’d been listening with his girlfriend/wife outside The Eclipse, so all in all, I took home £32.50. Job done.