In the early hours of the morning I was woken by a ‘ticcing fit’. So far nothing unusual, except this time I could feel the sensation of the fit without being able to move about at all.

This feeling of waking up unable to move is one I’ve had a few times before.…

There was a gap this morning between my night support worker leaving and my Access To Work support worker – Bunny – arriving. This meant that for the first time since the 21st October, when my ‘ticcing fits’ started, I was on my own.…

I went to the Post Office in Peckham with Bunny earlier. As we trudged back through the rain, my Tourettes lifted our spirits with some rousing versions of William Blake’s famous poem, ‘Jerusalem.’ It was fun to start with, but two hours later when we were home and dry they were still coming strong.…

I had a ticcing fit this evening, facing the bookshelf in Leftwing Idiot’s living room. Although his shelves are full of books already, my Tourettes managed to add some new titles to his collection:

“Robert Kennedy I was a Bear, Taking the Blue Peter Badge Out of the Woman”
“Ruminations on a Rollercoaster”
“John Pilger: Bins and Barbara”
“Shark Theory 1900–1990”
“Aesthetics, Tourniquets and Tightropes”
“The Dictionary of Contemporary Ostrich Slang”
“Naomi Klein: The Horse Doctrine”
“Naomi Klein: The Shock Jockey”
“How to Wear a Tabard Pleasingly”
“A View of London from Your Mum’s Bedroom Window”
“How To Talk Rambo Down from a Balcony”
“How To Do a Drive-by Sky dive”
“William Blake and the Chocolate Factory”

Festive outburst
“Who’s headbutting Christmas?”

Last night Poppy and I decorated the Christmas tree in the Castle and this afternoon we had our end of year party at work – first for the kids and then for the staff. As we edge closer and closer to Christmas and the end of the year, I can’t help but reflect on the changes, challenges, and opportunities this year’s brought.…

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how – unusually during a ‘ticcing fit’ – I’d had a sudden and sustained burst of vocal tics. Bunny wrote most of them down but she couldn’t catch them all, so I decided that if I had another outburst like that I’d try and record them.…

This evening I went into town with Poppy to do some Christmas shopping. I haven’t been using public transport much recently as my ‘ticcing fits’ are hard to manage in busy places. However, the cost of cabs has been mounting, and as we were near Stockwell station we decided to travel by tube.…

I went for my long-awaited appointment with a Neurophysio at the National Hospital this afternoon. My consultant had referred me for an appointment back in July and I’d understood this was because (like me) she was worried about the long-term impact my tics were having on my body.…

Last night my friend Ruth’s documentary aired on BBC3 and she was absolutely amazing – articulate, funny and charismatic – just as I’d expected. The documentary was both thoughtful and thought provoking.

Even though I write about living with Tourettes every day, I found seeing and hearing Ruth describe its challenges on screen difficult, and at the end it left me feeling inexplicably sad.…

Tonight at 9:00pm on BBC 3, my friend Ruth will be making her TV debut in a documentary about her life, her singing career and her Tourettes.

It’s called, ‘Tourettes I Swear I Can Sing’ which is a bit of a lazy title.…