While I was chatting to a group of men in a bar tonight, one of them was very taken with my gloves. He pulled one off and put it on himself. I said, “I’ll need that back in a second,” and went on chatting to his mate.…

Leftwing Idiot said he’d been talking to a friend about me and my special powers. She lives nearby but I don’t know her. She’d seen me in Morrisons at some point and remembered exactly how I bang my chest. Although she’d felt worried, it wasn’t because of me, but because of how everyone else in the queue was reacting.

Laura called earlier. She’s been reading the blog which she’s been enjoying. She told me that it’s made her think about Tourettes – and its impact on me – in new ways.

One of the things she wanted to know was why she didn’t have a tic-name, like Leftwing Idiot, King Russell or Fat Sister.…

It’s been a bad day, not specifically because of Tourettes but just one of those days that doesn’t feel like it’s going right. Because I felt moody and unsettled I was particularly unpleasant to Leftwing Idiot, and this lead to a row.…

“Calm down Christmas time.”

“Do you think I’m a Christmas tree?”

“God hates Christmas.”

“Runner, runner, runner, runner, Christmas bean.”

….it’s July.

I’m very excited. I’ve just bought birthday presents for Laura and Leftwing Idiot. Laura’s birthday is next week but there are still two months before Leftwing Idiot’s. I suspect this will mean the “I’ve bought you a hat” scenario is likely to happen again.…

A letter’s just flopped through the door from my local Primary Health Trust (PCT). It’s about my request for Habit Reversal Therapy (HRT) which I’ve talked about before. HRT could help me develop strategies to turn some of my more damaging tics, like chest banging, into ones with less impact.…

I was talking to Laura on the phone on my way to work about the cuts to public services.

She asked if I was in the cab that Access to Work provides. I said, “Yeah, although I expect it’ll get slashed by 25% like everything else.”…

I have a new regular tic which I’ve been saying all this week. It’s, “I’m a baby”. I say this in the same husky voice as my, “Bye, bye” tics but with the addition of a slight northern accent. I’m not normally very good at doing accents but I seem to do them better if they’re involuntary.…

I’ve spent the day creating a sand and water-play area for one of the projects I work at. This involved digging a hole and then filling it with rubble, using a JCB.

The therapeutic benefits of JCB driving might not be immediately apparent, but I found it surprisingly calming.…