Leftwing Idiot and I were reminiscing earlier about a ticced song I used to sing on the subject of sheepdogs. Neither of us could remember the words, and unusually nor could my tics. Fortunately I’d written them down in this post. We were both extremely pleased I had.

Jubilant, I went to put the kettle on, but before I got there I started having a very unusual ‘ticcing fit’ – all of a sudden I found myself crawling at top speed over to the waste-bin, onto which I promptly slammed my head.

Realising that I wasn’t just being silly, Leftwing Idiot quickly came over and helped me get into a safer position on the floor. And that’s where his help stopped being helpful. For reasons best known to himself, he grabbed Piggy and squeezed a loud ‘Oink’ out of him right by my ear. By this time I was completely locked up from head to toe and couldn’t move a muscle. At the first squeal I felt an enormous wave of over-excitement rush up my body, but with no way to move all I could do was let out an ear-splitting screech of my own. Leftwing Idiot winced and looked shocked, but still managed to laugh – I was laughing too even though I still couldn’t move.

When the fit got really painful, Leftwing Idiot gave me some of my emergency medication, which always makes me very giggly. From the corner of my eye I could see Piggy on the floor next to me, and then I noticed the lamb in a basket behind him. They were both staring at me, as was the inflatable monkey, also in the basket, and the eyes on Leftwing Idiot’s socks! It all got a bit too much.

The fit lasted nearly half an hour and was very painful at points, as well as quite funny, though more for Leftwing Idiot than for me. As soon as I got my speech back I insisted that he put Piggy back on the Blu-ray player where he belongs.

I enjoyed Leftwing Idiot mucking about during this fit despite the discomfort of being completely overexcited and unable to move a muscle at the same time. If whoever’s supporting me is as relaxed as Leftwing Idiot was this evening it makes even the most painful and difficult situations more bearable. But I’m glad Piggy’s back where he should be.