Eggs, golf balls and chips: Britain can't resist a reality check for Blaine

For a man who is supposed to be surviving for 44 days in a box without any food, David Blaine has had a surprising number of fresh eggs sent in his direction.

Yesterday, with cloth and cleaner to hand, his girlfriend, Manon von Gerkan, was hoisted up 40ft for a brief reunion with the illusionist - albeit separated by perspex - to wipe away the yolks that have impaired his view of the river Thames. The first was dispatched from the crowd below within the first half-hour of his stunt commencing.

"I find it quite bizarre that people here have felt it necessary to throw eggs and other things at David," she said, peeved. "We never had anything like this in New York - the worst we got was the odd f*** off. I must say I find these kind of people really strange."

The reaction of Britons to Blaine's widely self-publicised feat of survival and mind control has also included a volley of golf balls.

Other strange responses have been witnessed. Most people normally don't expect much in the way of applause when they perform certain vital bodily functions. But then most people do not normally carry them out in full view of hundreds of onlookers, some munching sandwiches, others eagerly photographing the whole thing. And that's not counting the live television feed.

Forget whether this was art or illusion, the question that everybody wanted the answer to yesterday was: how does he go to the toilet? The answer - with care and discretion - came just after 1pm yesterday, day threeof his planned 44 days of incarceration, when Blaine took hold of the end of one of the two tubes going into the box, which appeared to those below to have some kind of receptacle attached to it. Blaine then discreetly covered himself with a sheet and disappeared from view for a minute or so before re-emerging to a round of applause.

He then used the other pipe, which supplies water, his only sustenance, to the box, to flush out the receptacle. "Give him a cheer everybody,'' cried one young woman, "he has been to the toilet ... He is my hero."

Blaine doesn't have many other ways of entertaining the crowd of tourists, curious passersby and determined fans that have gathered by the Thames near Tower Bridge. Sometimes he sits up, sometimes he lies down, sometimes he waves - but it's good enough for most people, although perhaps not enough for those women who reportedly removed their tops yesterday in a bid to entertain him.

And there's only another 41 days to go.