October 14th - Day 179

Due to children commitments and dentistry, I only had a couple of hours in the morning to catch my music for today. I knew it was the last day of "One and Other" on the Fourth Plinth, so checked the net to see if any musicians were up there before noon. What I hadn't realised was that 100 days ago, when "One and Other" began, it wasn't at midnight, but at nine in the morning. And that was the time that the last plinther was due to be scooped back down to earth by the yellow cherry-picker - the same time I'd be dropping the kids off at school. I decided to go to Trafalgar Square anyway, in case there was a post-plinth party in full swing.

It turned out to be a quite subdued affair. A couple of small film crews were conducting interviews, one of them with Anthony Gormley. Thirty or forty former plinthers were standing about chatting, sharing plinth experiences, none of which involved reprising a musical turn. Behind them all stood the newly vacated plinth looking strangely naked.

I went for a coffee in Pret and wondered what to do. I saw Clive Anderson. It didn't help. Back in the square I watched two Harris hawks go about their daily pigeon-scaring duties. Here's a photo (no photos of Clive Anderson having a coffee I'm afraid):

So, with only an hour to play with, I resigned myself to another trip underground along the tube subways, though since I had to get the tube to the dentist anyway it wasn't a difficult decision to make.
This is...oh, I didn't get his name, but he was playing gentle African lilts on his guitar and singing to match. I listened, gave him a couple of quid (for which he asked God to bless me), took a photo, listened some more, wondered if anyone passing wondered why I'd arranged to meet someone in the tube subways under Waterloo Station and went to the dentist.