This is a simple post. In the last seven months I’ve had over 1200 ‘ticcing fits’ an average of six in every 24 hour period. Today I had just one.

Fingers crossed there will be more days like this.

Losing the ability to speak has been a regular feature of my ‘ticcing fits’ since they suddenly intensified last October. This evening Leftwing Idiot and I were out and about when I had a fit. It was mild and relatively easy to manage because I was in my wheelchair, but as usual I wasn’t able to talk.…

My friend Ruth got a new job today. I rang to congratulate her but it went straight to voicemail. My message went like this:

“Hi Ruth,
I just called to say
“Tits”.
No actually I didn’t.
“Tits”.
I rang to say congratulations on your
“Tits”.…

This afternoon I kept snapping my fingers together, repeatedly and simultaneously, on both hands.

Doing this gave me a jolt, not because of the physical sensation but because it recalled the familiar movement of a long-forgotten motor tic.

By my current standards it was fairly subtle – a tic affectionately known by my friends as ‘Crab Hands’ long before anyone knew I had Tourettes.

Last Christmas Fat Sister and I bought our mum a voucher for a spa day. Mum was keen that we went too so today the three of us, along with my support worker Bunny, headed off for a morning’s relaxation.

I’ve been on spa days a couple of times before but not for many years.…

It’s exactly a year since my squatting-down tic suddenly intensified and made my already unreliable mobility much worse. It first happened on a journey back from the pub that took five times as long as it should have. I was completely sober but you wouldn’t have known it to look at me.…

A film crew from the German TV channel, RTL, came to the playground where I work to create a segment about Tourettes for a show called ‘Explosiv’. They interviewed my colleagues, and a few parents, as well as videoing me leading a biscuit-decorating workshop with a group of children.…

Poppy was supporting me at work today and we were on a bus together this afternoon. I was in my wheelchair in the allocated space, and opposite me, in his pushchair, was a little boy about 18 months old.

He had an amazingly joyful laugh.…

It’s been one of the hottest days of the year so far. The evening’s just moving in and I can feel the air beginning to cool.

I’m sitting in the garden at the castle with Poppy. We’re both barefooted and we both have a gin and tonic in hand.…

Poppy’s just finished a degree in costume design and yesterday afternoon she had the final presentation of her work at college. When it was over, she went out to celebrate and didn’t get back to the castle until the early hours of this morning.…