The last few days have been busy– preparing for and preforming my stand-up show here in Portland, and running a children’s event yesterday. Today was a day off, and as the weather was beautiful, Leftwing Idiot, Lily and I decided to head to the coast.…

While touring our show Backstage In Biscuit Land a couple of years ago I had a difficult experience at a comedy festival. I wrote about it here and have thought about it on and off since.

At almost exactly the same time, I was asked to do some stand-up for the Unlimited Festival – a biennial celebration of Disability Arts and Culture at the Southbank Centre in London.…

Yesterday we flew for the few hours it takes to get from New York City to Portland. This is our first time in the state of Oregon and we passed over snow capped mountains and dense forests on the way. The city’s nestled in an extraordinary landscape with ribbons of trees extending into the outskirts.…

We’re off to the US tomorrow, first to New York to give a talk at BRIC in Brooklyn and then on to Portland to work with Boom Arts. I’m really excited to be heading back to North America.

Before starting Touretteshero I rarely left the country, and air travel was something I found incredibly stressful.…

Word is reaching us that an enigmatic (and noisy) masked figure will be brining her hotly anticipated new comedy show “Stand Up, Sit Down, Roll Over” to Portland in Oregon in the not too distant future – from May 4th to be exact.…

I’ve written a fair bit recently about my wee troubles. I’ve been going to the toilet all the time. It’s frustrating enough during the day, but at night it’s horrible and adds a whole extra dimension to my sleeplessness.

When I had my bladder scanned recently they found it was twitching and moving about without me asking it to (much like every other part of my body).…

When I was at college I used to find seminars really stressful. When I wasn’t worrying about the noises and movements I was making I was battling to stay awake. Dark, warm rooms and the hypnotic whir of a projector would leave me fighting to keep my eyes open.…

Dear Jacqueline Wilson,

I’ve got a confession to make: I, a thirty-seven-year-old woman, spent the Easter weekend watching the CBBC adaptation of your book Katy (a retelling of the What Katy Did stories). I’m sure I’m not the only adult who enjoys your writing – who wouldn’t love your vibrant, believable characters who speak directly to us about their lives and worries?…

Joyce was supporting me today and we got chatting about theatre. She’s not a regular-theatre goer but she did come to the Brewing In The Basement cabaret night we held at The Barbican Centre last November.

Joyce, who’s Jamaican, said she was keen to go to the theatre again, and I remembered there’s a new show at the National Theatre about the Jamaican tradition of Nine Night.…

Almost exactly three years ago the children’s organisation Kids Company suddenly closed. A couple of days later I was introduced to Rachel who’d worked for them as an occupational therapist. She’d lost her job out of the blue and was looking for work she could do while she searched for a more permanent post.…