“It’s all over when Boris Johnson sings.”

Recently my tics have started to interfere with my speech in a new way. There are times when I start a sentence and it finishes up as a tic. This can be confusing and frustrating as well as funny.

My friends and family usually know, without having to ask, if something’s a tic or not.…

This afternoon I hung out with my friend Gurpreet and her two and a half year old son Owain.

Owain loves Tourettes. He laughs, joins in and says “Again” after every tic. Owain’s enjoyment of the tics is the most joyful reaction I’ve ever experienced.…

This morning I overheard a conversation between Fat Sister and a friend of ours who’d stayed the night on the sofa in the living room. He’d heard me screeching and called out to my sister in the kitchen:

Sofa Mate: Are you OK?…

“Care Bears the Movie 10.”

Thankfully, this film doesn’t exist, but it made me wonder which film has the most sequels. Any ideas?

In Camden earlier a passing man shouted:

“Tourettes! You have Tourettes! Good luck.”

This evening a colleague and I took a group of six young people we work with to an event at the local Town Hall. As we walked there I warned them that other adults or young people who didn’t know me might look at me or laugh because of the noises I make.…

When I’m out and about on my own, strangers tend to react differently to me from when I’m with friends, but this is not because of any change in me or my tics. When the unusual noises and movements I make are interspersed with clearly normal conversations, other people are less likely to be afraid of me because they can see and hear that I’m not mad and that I’ll know if they’re laughing or talking about me.…

“Think of a number between 4 and 10.”

“Divide it by 10.”

“Rape it up the wall.”

“A Spanish dog on a horse’s leg…”

“…I could get you that for a fiver.”