POOR Toby Tovey. The Adelaide-based artist arrived here looking forward to discovering why Hong Kong is known as the culinary capital of the region.
But no such luck. Virtually from the moment he touched base here he's been suffering from a bad tummy.
''But it's not because of anything I ate,'' he hastily explains.
Adds Tovey: ''My condition is all down to the excitement of being in Hong Kong and worrying that my exhibition - which is my first-ever in Asia - goes off well.
''You see, I am a worrier by nature. I worry about every painting I do. In fact, the paintings I have destroyed number much more than what I have exhibited.'' Tovey numbers artist David Hockney and actor John Hurt among his friends.
They all first met in the 1960s when they lived near each other in London's artist quarter of Hampstead.