As for Tracey Emin, when I used to work in Waterloo she had a shop there. I'd often sit in the same tube carriage as her. She would bear a shopping bag with the letters E-M-I-N appliqued upon it. So not too easy to miss.

I've probably walked past many other famous artists but failed to notice them. I saw Gillian Wearing once outside Spitalfields Market. For all I know that could have been the thirtieth time that I'd walked past her. Clearly she prefers her work to speak for her -- or she's pathologically terrified of being examined in the public arena.

But this is the inevitable consequence of living in East London. At the moment, Whitechapel and environs boasts the largest concentration of artists in Europe. Which is why I can go for breakfast at 10am and see Tracy Emin sitting in the corner of the cafe.

She is surprisingly glamourous, considering the hour. Her hair is tied up, she's wearing make-up. she has a fur coat on and is sporting some magnificent gold earrings. Tracy seems to have a feline aura about her. Perhaps her pet cat has given her a bug called Toxoplasmosis, which some scientists believe has behaviour moditying effects.

Although amongst men, it's associated with less interest in seeking novelty, women with Toxoplasmosis are more open-hearted. So maybe it isn't such a bad thing after all.