New Piece of British Slang: A “chugger” is someone who comes up to you on the street and asks you to sign a petition and/or contribute money to their (usually charitable) cause. I looked up the etymology on line and the best I could find is that is a combination of charity and mugger.

Mimes for Queen of Heaven: Judie’s “Cakes” group had a meeting last night (their final one of the first half of the course).I went off to the Soho Theater and saw Trygve Wakenshaw, a mime originally from New Zealand, present his one-man show “Nautilus”. I’ve been a big fan of mime ever since I attended Tony Montanaro‘s mime school at Celebration Barn in South Paris, Maine in January of 1973. In addition to Tony, I have seen Marcel Marceau and, of course, the incredible Bill Irwin many times. Wakenshaw was an interesting mime/comedian. He is not a classic mime in that he uses his voice to add sound effects to what he does and sometimes talks. My first impression was–that seems like mime cheating–and it took me a few minutes to get past that and warm up to him. He is a good mime (you can tell he has trained), but he is after something else. His show, the third of a trilogy according to the handout, was a series of vignettes which gradually merged together and became more manic. A very enjoyable 75 minutes and for £12.50, you couldn’t beat the value.

I got back in time to see all of the ladies leave from the Cakes group and Judie and I went to dinner at Super Tuscan, perhaps our favorite restaurant in London. It is a small Italian restaurant in this little alley about five minutes from our flat. Wonderful, fresh food, with ingredients imported from Italy, an attentive staff (not always the case here) and an interesting wine list, hand picked by the owner, who loves to chat about them. For Montclair restaurant types, imagine a cross between Corso 98 and Fascino.

Vilnius, Here We Come: Judie’s mother was born in Lithuania and immigrated with her family in the 1920s. (Her great grandmother refused to leave and died there after World War II.) So going to Lithuania was on our list of things to do while we are in London. We are going this weekend. Alex has a Lithuanian friend he met while at Oxford. Juoazas is a violinist and he and Alex entered a music competition at Oxford, but unlike the other competitors, who played mostly classical pieces, they played Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli gypsy jazz. They won. During a break, Alex went with Juoazas for a visit to Lithuania and had a memorable tour. He suggested that we contact Juoazas and his family. So we did and they insist that they will pick us up a the airport and give us a personal tour of Kedainiai (where Judie’s family came from) and Vilnius. This weekend is the Feast of Saint Casimir (the Patron Saint of Lithuania). This should be a great trip.

Self-Portrait: I decided to post my self portrait on Facebook and I really got a huge and gratifying response. I do think it is a very good painting and far and away the best thing I have done here. I’m thinking of creating a separate page on this site that will just contain all of the things I have done in chronological order. The progression is quite clear. It is a bit intimidating in a way. Having made this progress and having produced something that is as good as the self portrait turned out to be, what do I do next?