Yesterday evening, after a day of practical tasks like food shopping, laundry, and tidying, followed by our amazing walk and a home-cooked dinner, I felt ready to head back into the Festival.

After a bit of flyering and a drink, Leftwing Idiot and I talked about which show to go to.…

Last night I celebrated my birthday with loads of friends. I had a great night with lovely people, and was given loads of wonderful gifts. I’ve written before about the big struggle I have with giving gifts, and how I find it almost impossible to avoid blurting out what I’ve got someone well before the event.…

Yesterday’s journey to Glastonbury was smooth and trouble-free. Remarkably we were able to get through security and into the Festival itself despite my tics going into overdrive the moment we got to the entrance. There’s a list of things you’re not allowed to take on site, which includes:

Glass bottles
Animals
People without tickets
Drugs
Fireworks

As the security staff checked our car and asked if we had any of these banned items, my tics announced:

“We have a Springer Spaniel in the boot.”…

My tics often come tumbling out in a rush, many with their own distinct voice and intonation. So this morning it was strange to find myself ticcing in a way that sounded a bit different.

I was ticcing like a language learning tape – the type advertised during afternoon TV – where someone speaks a line in a particular language followed by a gap during which the listener’s expected to repeat what they’ve just heard.…

It’s the early hours of Monday morning. It’s a humid night and I’ve been struggling to sleep, partly because of the heat, and partly because I’ve been reading Francesca Martinez’s brilliant new book What the **** is Normal?

If you’re looking for an inspirational story of a courageous disabled person overcoming adversity, then this might not be for you.…

I’ve written before about my well-established ticced animal sex song which includes the line ‘Hard in the face’ sung in a loud gravelly voice.

This evening it wasn’t animals getting it hard in the face, it was me!

I’d been sitting in my living room when I suddenly got up and lurched forward uncontrollably towards the wall.…

Before moving into the castle I lived at Leftwing Idiot’s flat for a bit. While I was there my tics developed a fascination with a particularly bright star that I could see from my bedroom window as I was going to sleep.…

Much of this blog’s a testament to the strangeness of having Tourettes. But there’s one on-going feature of my tics that I find specially baffling.

In the last eight years I’ve always had a ticced name on the go. Sometimes I know people with that name and sometimes I don’t.…

Most of the time my colleagues at work don’t seem to notice my tics, except when they’re really funny. And they’re often funny – adding loads of shared laughter to our working days. But they also bring a few extra challenges not found in most offices.…

I’m forever bombarding my friends and family with very strange ticced questions such as:

“Have you pissed on a unicorn in the last four days?”

or

“Can you get a kangaroo holding a jelly through your letterbox?”

But recently my questioning has taken a new turn and I’ve been quizzing people on what they’re thinking.…