… and so, instead of busking in Strokestown I headed for Roscommon town where there is the shelter of an archway. Roscommon is twice the distance but on both previous occasions I’ve played there, people have been kind and I’ve more than covered my fuel for the trip - forty miles or thereabouts for the return journey.
Today though, there was an icy wind blowing right through and before I had even begun to sing, my case blew closed. I put my phone under the leading edge to tilt it back and witching a few minutes, it blew over and landed upside down and closed on itself.
I moved it back to the wall and put the phone under the front again but further down the tunnel and so apart from the fact that my hat was in serious danger of blowing away, I was set to go.
Sleet and wind and rain don’t do much for peoples humour and, while I did my best to create a sunny mood, after a very cold 45 minutes with my fingers finding it harder than usual to find the right strings and my voice blowing back into my lungs, I’d made a total of €1.05. I sang ‘Warm Hand’, the song I always close with and was just about to pack when someone dropped a two euro coin and, encouraged, I decided I’d do a few more songs although I didn’t think I’d make my petrol money for today - a first. Then a couple came by and wanted a photo and dropped in a few small coins.
A couple of minutes later an oriental girl came by and carefully placed a €10 note into my case which would have blown away if I hadn’t picked it up. My fuel covered, I thanked her and she gladly accepted a CD. Hanna is from South China and living in Ireland now and is perhaps the first Chinese person ever to have contributed to my busking. Thank you Hanna - I can go home and do some unpacking.
No comments:
Post a Comment