As I woke up in the morning, my fingers were itching of excitement to go out and play the piano. The last day of July has come very quick and I was about to make most of it. Usually I don't busk on Sundays, but today I was eventually off my other part-time job and decided to compensate it with a full day of busking. Never mind my plans, in the end my day didn't go quite as I imagined...
It was 10am. I was already in Pavilion gardens setting up my signs an connecting wires. Although there was no soul sitting in the garden, I was still positive on amount of people passing by at the garden crossroads. I thought even if it's not very busy, I'm still going to make at least some money and some is still better than nothing.
As I was about to start, a large group of Asian girls were approaching my busking spot. They stopped by hesitating and giving me curious looks. As soon as I put my zebra mask on I got their full attention and they quickly gathered around my piano. Waving my head away I gave them all funny zebra looks tapping my zebra ears at times as a special gesture of greeting. Somehow it always looks funny and makes people laugh.
It was really nice to play for the group, some of the girls left after few peaces, but nevertheless new Asian tourists joined in and the crowd kept a constant decent size. I played the best piano tunes I knew including my own favorite "River Flows in You" by Korean composer Yiruma. That one especially went really well. The girls kept taking videos and pictures, some of them stayed aside listening for quite a while.
At some point one of the girls named Sarah came to me and asked if she can play the piano. It used to happen to me more often when I played without mask, but even now, being a zebra - I never let people down and encourage them to give it a go if they want to. So I gave up my seat and let her play. And guess what - she played few peaces including "River Flows In You". Well done to her! :)
Time went really quick and garden was getting more and more busy towards the early afternoon. At 12pm locally well known buskers with African drum and Saxophone came and I let them take over. Unfortunately there was a disagreement between them and the garden administration about me playing 2h and them being kicked out from the garden yesterday after playing for 1 hour. It took some time to sort out, but in the end I was informed since now everyone is allowed to play only for 1h and even if no one else is coming to play after me, I still need to leave and come back in 1h. No busker was happy about it and I don't know if they really going to push these rules further. I only hope that was just a bad day for everyone and it won't get that strict in Pavilion Gardens...
My fiancée Henriika came to visit me at the same time with a ready lunch and we moved to the New road. To my surprise there were four chess tables set up along the street inviting people to join in. Chess is one of my favorite games and I was really struggling to decide between continuing my plan with busking all day or having a break and play some chess...
Henriika is a very good singer herself and before I came out I encouraged her to go out and busk. Therefore she was ready with a small amp and microphone with her. As we were finishing our launch I finally decided to stay around, help her to set up, listen to her singing and play few decent games of chess.
I gave her the Wedding sign I made before and set her off busking. As I began my first game of chess, her signing quickly filled the street up with a pleasant and beautiful vibe in the background. The time went on, occasionally I looked up to give Henriika a smile and realised she is doing extremely well: she already had few £10 notes lying on her bag...
One and half hours later Henriika was absolutely thrilled by how much people enjoyed her singing and I finished my chess adventure proud with 5 wins and 1 draw. I decided to call it a day and spend the rest of the day together with her...
Funny enough when we got to the coin counting machine at the bank we were both pleasantly surprised - today I beat my highest hourly rate ever made in 2 years of busking and believe it or not - Henriika made even more dressed up as herself with nothing but talent and a pretty busking sign. That - my friends - is really something special!
Henriika is a very good singer herself and before I came out I encouraged her to go out and busk. Therefore she was ready with a small amp and microphone with her. As we were finishing our launch I finally decided to stay around, help her to set up, listen to her singing and play few decent games of chess.
I gave her the Wedding sign I made before and set her off busking. As I began my first game of chess, her signing quickly filled the street up with a pleasant and beautiful vibe in the background. The time went on, occasionally I looked up to give Henriika a smile and realised she is doing extremely well: she already had few £10 notes lying on her bag...
Funny enough when we got to the coin counting machine at the bank we were both pleasantly surprised - today I beat my highest hourly rate ever made in 2 years of busking and believe it or not - Henriika made even more dressed up as herself with nothing but talent and a pretty busking sign. That - my friends - is really something special!
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