I'm in a bad mood this afternoon, and busking while feeling bad isn't good. I can't pretend to be happy, and customers are more attracted to genuinely happy buskers! Maybe busking will make me happy again.
Yesterday wasn't great for business, but it was a good day nonetheless. I sat down and got absolutely no customers for the first two hours. I did, however, write my little thank you present for Ravintola Tori, since the people there have been so great to me. It was a fake complaint letter from a married middle-aged man (or so I imagined) named Wayne Peters, from New Hampshire, U.S.A. The man in the letter complains about the lack of variety in blanket colors, the expensive prices at Tori, the cute staff members who make married couples jealous, the "fancified" food, and, finally, me. Yup, the guy complains about me. It's more humorous in context, I bet. They said they will frame it and put it up in the resto, and perhaps even scan it and put it on the homepage of their Web site. Sweet!
Lots of free time, though. Finally, one of the waitresses, a cute British girl named Natalie, asked me for a story that would fit into this little frame. She wanted it to be about her, her presumed boyfriend, and their dog. What I wrote was rather cheesy, but I think she liked it. She tipped me well. (She also later ended up getting a necklace, too. She picked my favorite.)
An old lady came up to me and started looking at necklaces. She began to talk to me, and we kept switching between Finnish and English. She asked for a poem about anything, so I wrote a poem about, well, busking. Me busking. And only having one more week to do it. (In fact, I have less than a week, since I think my last day will be on Thursday.)
She tipped me for the poem and also got a necklace. She was very nice, but kind of rambled a bit about her family. But she would interject with compliments, telling me that I have beautiful sea-green eyes and that I'm "very good-looking." How nice of her to say. I am sure I started blushing, since I don't take lots of praise well.
After busking, I met up with this girl from Shanghai, whom I had met a few nights before. She needed a place to crash on her last night visiting Finland, and I opened up my doors to her. I already had an extra mattress laid out and everything. We went shopping a bit and took her stuff to my apartment. Then she took me out to a fantastic dinner at this fancy-shmancy place called Juuri. She ended up spending over 90 euros on dinner for the two of us. (Three appetizers, two glasses of wine, two main meals, two desserts, tea, tout.)
I told her that it was too expensive, and I tried to convince her to let me help pay, but she wouldn't let me. She said that she would have spent another 140 euros on a hotel room (i.e. a bed), and she would rather spend that kind of money investing on a great meal and good conversation. We had both.
I ended up taking her to Erottaja Bar, and I paid for two Brooklyn Lagers. (I like to support The Brooklyn Brewery, wherever I might be.) Then we went home and talked. And looked at photos. And listened to music. And talked. And then we went to sleep. She left to London this morning, but we decided to stay in contact, and she said I am welcome to visit her in Shanghai. I just might...
P.S. The writer from Nyt told me that the story will for sure run this Friday. Look out for it!
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