That's NOT How You Do It!

Lucy and Toshi have a very special friendship because it came about from an act of kindness and listening and learning from one another.

She is me before I saw the world. I grew up in small-town, where everyone did everything the same. You never question how you do anything until you see it done differently. And your initial reaction will be, that's just wrong. That's how I was thinking. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening when I visited my parents-in-law for the first time in India. I've learned to be understanding and try to see things from different cultural perspectives. It makes your life soooo much richer when you learn from a culture that's so different to yours.

Initially, Lucy looked quite different. Instead of the beret, she had two pigtails. But as I identified with her and her journey more and more I gave her the blue beret, because that was my signature hat from when I was little. And Toshi is such a sweetie. He represents all the beautiful things I love about Asia with its myriad of cultures. Did you know that the name Toshi in Japanese has lots of different meanings, depending on the kanji used for it? My favourite is "purple ladle".