Last week I wrote with huge sadness about the death Amy El-Keria.

This afternoon Ruth, Leftwing Idiot and I went to Amy’s Day. This was how her family had chosen to think of her funeral.

Initially Ruth and I had been worried about attending – we didn’t want our tics to disrupt the service and intrude on her family’s mourning.…

Although I get regular support from a lot of different people, I think of Leftwing Idiot as my primary carer. As such he regularly gets jabbed with all sorts of things because of my motor tics. This blog’s littered with examples of him being hit with stuff: legs, hands, onions and lots of other things.…

As well as the ubiquitous pantomime, over-eating seems to be another Christmas tradition. It almost feels like an obligation to guzzle great quantities of extra food at this time of year. You’ve probably just tucked into a mince pie yourself.

If you have, it might not be the best time to start talking about puff pastry.…

I’ve written many times about the importance of increasing people’s understanding of Tourettes and about my mission to ‘Change the world one tic at a time.’ But never before has this felt so important, and never before have I wished the world could’ve been changed more quickly.…

Poppy, Leftwing Idiot and I went to get a Christmas tree this evening. My wheelchair came in handy for getting it back to the castle.

But there was a slight glitch – I kept head-butting it all the way home, accompanied by my tics singing along:

“Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree, why are you so prickly?”…

This morning I woke up early, for the second day in a row. Yesterday I had to get up and head off to catch a train while it was still dark. This morning I stayed in bed watching the sunrise, thinking about all the funny and interesting that had happened in the meantime.…

On the way home in the cab tonight Fran and I were talking about holidays we’d been on. I suddenly had a strong memory of walking round a hotel I’d been staying at several years ago.

What was unusual about this was that it was the walking, not the holiday that I was remembering.…

When I first started thinking about getting a wheelchair it felt like a daunting and upsetting prospect, but the big decision to go for one turned out to be the easy bit. Finding a chair that could cope with both the force of my movements and my determination to be as independent as possible has been tricky.…

I was out shopping with Fat Sister and King Russell this afternoon when I started to have a ‘ticcing fit’. We were in the street and I was in my chair. My body arched up and my head was tipping over the backrest, which was all very uncomfortable.…

I started having a ‘ticcing fit’ earlier but was – as is often the case – reluctant to admit it. I’d got stuck on my hands and knees, with all my muscles locked in place. My arms were bent at the elbows and my hands had curled into the shape of claws.…