I always have fun going out with Tutti. Besides the fact that she’s extremely entertaining to be around, I find it so fascinating watching people watching her: a 65 year old whirlwind of colours and raucous laughs and huge headscarves surrounded by a whispering, nudging, staring sea of beige. And while her eccentricity is an innate quality (like her warmth, optimistic outlook and natural instinct to be kind and helpful to everyone and anyone) she brings to mind this quote – one of my favourites by English poet Edith Sitwell:

“I am not eccentric. It’s just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of catfish.”