When I woke up yesterday morning my tics, as usual, woke up too. But unusually I couldn’t hear them – I’d pretty much completely lost my voice.

“Biscuits” and “Hedgehogs” came out as strangled squeaks and completing a sentence was almost impossible.…

I haven’t been very well for the last few days so yesterday morning I went to the doctor, supported by Poppy. We’d only been in the waiting room for a minute or so when a boy, aged about two and a half, made a beeline for us.…

I’m going to keep this short because I’m still not very well and concentrating on anything for more than a few moments is a struggle.

My ‘ticcing fits’ have increased dramatically, as they always do when I’m ill. It’s just before 6am and so far today I’ve had at least one fit an hour.…

Yesterday afternoon a very familiar feeling slowly crept over me, and it wasn’t one I was pleased to experience.

My throat began to sting, and it got slowly worse over the course of the evening until it became a sustained throb.…

It’s Saturday morning (although only just). I’m lying awake a little after midnight and I’m surrounded by much more noise than normal. There’s rain relentlessly beating down outside and I can hear the high-pitched squeal of water sloshing over gutters. The rhythmic sound of the rain is punctuated periodically by groans of thunder.…

Five days ago, as he was leaving for a month in Edinburgh, Leftwing Idiot entrusted me with his precious plant, my former nemesis – the geranium.

He was visibly nervous about leaving it in my care and he’s already sent me three emails asking how it’s doing.…

The summer holidays are always the busiest time of year at work and all three of the children’s projects I help run started their playschemes on Monday. My role includes lots of fundraising, developing services, and supporting more than fifty volunteers.…

A month ago I came across the Trekinetic wheelchair at the Mobility Road Show in Telford, which I went to with Fat Sister and my dad.

The Trekinetic’s designed as an all-terrain chair and can go over ground that no conventional wheelchair could ever manage.…

It’s Poppy’s birthday in a couple of days so Zoë and I have planned a surprise. We’ve made her a spectacular and gaudy cake.

Poppy’s a costume designer and has spent a lot of time recently hand-carving some foam into a pair of breasts for a costume for Cassetteboy.…

Leftwing Idiot popped over this evening to say a final goodbye before he goes to Edinburgh for a month, and he didn’t come alone. With him was my old nemesis, the geranium.

Since its arrival in his flat over two years ago my tics have hit it with a barrage of insults and abuse.…