The government’s spending cuts are brutal, hitting crucial frontline services throughout the country. Today I joined thousands of people on a protest march through central London, organised by the TUC.

I’ve been on protests before but they’ve always been against war and violence in other countries.…

Earlier on I was talking to a colleague at work who kept referring to my ‘partner’. When I told him that I don’t have a partner, he looked confused and said, “You brought her to the RockCorps event last year.”

It suddenly dawned on me that Poppy holding my hands to stop me hitting myself, and me ticcing “I’m a lesbian” had caused some confusion about my sexual orientation.

I’ve had a pretty full-on day. A summary of it would look a bit like this:

Travelling, laughing, banging, confronting, sobbing, regrouping, eating, reflecting, relaxing.

But I suppose as a blogger I should put in a bit more detail, so here goes.…

I described in an earlier entry how I’ve been ticcing, ‘Mystery’ whenever I hurt myself. I’ve now started saying it whenever I see other people get hurt. Leftwing Idiot told me earlier that when he was watching a tense thriller with Poppy yesterday, she’d said, “I think they’re about to get mystery’d”.…

Fat Sister is currently working as a paediatrician in a hospital. She’s just told me that she’d called a baby a squirrel earlier on. It slipped out without any warning and she had no idea why. The baby’s mum hadn’t minded though, and she’d laughed as Fat Sister added, “Cute little squirrel”.…

“Russell broke the shower.”

Russell broke the Microwave.

The first of these is a genuine tic, the second is a description of what King Russell did this evening.
In fact he didn’t just break the microwave, he blew its door off.…

I was at the pub earlier with a group of friends including a mate who’s been staying with Leftwing Idiot over the weekend – she and her fiancé are both born again Christians. My tics inadvertently set her up for an awkward moment:

TH: I love fish.…

I was excited to welcome a big group of friends to the go-karting track where I work this morning. Many of them have Tourettes and we’d never had the chance to meet up and race each other before.

All of us – children, parents, carers, and friends – have first-hand experience of living with Tourettes.…

I went out to dinner tonight with Fat Sister, King Russell and some friends. I often worry when eating in restaurants because my tics sometimes make me spill or drop food.

Tonight I got really messy, but for once it had nothing to do with Tourettes.…

Poppy has made me the most amazing gift ever. I’m now the very proud owner of a pair of bespoke padded gloves that are light, beautiful, stylish, comfortable and above all not red.

Don’t get me wrong. I like red as much as anyone else but for almost a year, whatever the weather, I’ve had to wear red woollen boxing mitts to protect hands, chest and face from ferocious and frequent arm tics.…