The fourth in this little series of mine, but this time not such a fun one. It all started fairly normally – I strolled into town after lunch and tuned up in my usual busking spot, at the front of this big alcove sort of thing on the high street.
It’s weird when I’m busking, some people are really nice – they’ll stop and listen to me, maybe talk to me and give me their spare change. But others are less than considerate. They’ll walk really close by me when they go past, sometimes strutting right between me and my ukulele case, like they’re really annoyed that I’m there getting in their way and they have to walk maybe an extra two metres to get past. That stuff I found weird at first but I’m very used to it by now. What happened today, I’m not so used to.
A few songs in, these guys on BMXs started cycling around in the sheltered area behind me. I didn’t really want to look around at them but I guess there were maybe four or five of them and they were a little older than me. They were shouting and swearing at each other in that annoying obnoxious way that you know is more for the benefit of the people around than themselves. I figured they were just passing through and they’d only annoy me for a few songs. I’m probably being paranoid but I feel like it was mostly because I was there that they decided to stay for the entire hour I was busking, going up on their front wheels and spinning around and then cycling up really close behind me, all the while shouting and laughing about nothing in particular and sometimes singing along to me like drunks do.
I dunno, maybe I’m being a bit of a loser, but just that they were there the whole time and I was facing the other way so I couldn’t see what they were doing until they nearly cycled over my heels, it was just a bit intimidating. Not to mention the fact that them shouting over me probably didn’t help me earn any money. So even though I saw two friends while out today and one of them gave me chocolate, I wasn’t feeling the best as I walked up to my bus stop afterwards.
Who’d ‘a’ thunk it though, bus drivers can really make your day. There’s this one guy who’s known around college for being the loveliest bus driver in the world. Whenever I have to bring my cello on the bus, he always asks me whether it’s ok in the luggage rack, and asks about my day, and everyone else’s day and is just generally really friendly. But today he was driving a completely different bus, and whilst waiting to leave the bus stop, he pointed at my uke and called out to me: “Oh no, has your cello shrunk?” I laughed and we had the briefest of conversations, but it just really cheered me up and completely restored my faith in humanity.
You know what they say about buses though, you wait all day and then three come along at once, well something else brought a smile to my face: I’ve just counted, and having said that shouting BMXers would not be good for busking, it’s the most money I’ve ever made in an hour!
The Elephant in the Room 