It’s Halloween and half-term, and that means it’s been a long but lovely day at work. In the afternoon at our Adventure Playground, the children gathered in a circle for juice and biscuits. I led a spooky game which was given an added twist by my tics.…

I’ve just read an interesting article in the New Scientist about some research into an aspect of Tourettes that’s very familiar to me. Researchers at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf have been able to simulate an element of Tourettes called echopraxia in people who don’t have the condition.…

If my tics get over-excited about anything, it’s lists. I don’t know what it is about them, but given the slightest opportunity to reel off an array of thoughts and ideas, my tics take over and chaos ensues.

This can cause trouble when I’m genuinely trying to make a list of things at work or to give directions to someone, but for me, it’s one of the most hilarious and unexpected features of having Tourettes.…

Yesterday afternoon Ruth, Claire and I took the train to Brighton. The rain slapping against the windows suggested it wasn’t a good day for going to the seaside but fortunately, by the time we arrived the sky was clear and Brighton was lit by a gentle wintery sunshine.…

I’ve prematurely announced the end of my biscuit tic several times before. I might be doing so again now, but as I reach 24 hours with only a handful of biscuits, it seems like maybe this time it’s really gone!

But although I’m not saying, ‘Biscuit’ sixteen times a minute I’ve certainly not gone quiet.…

The other day I touched on the frustration I’ve been feeling with my limited mobility, and how much I longed to go for a walk. My tics currently make this impossible as they make my legs move about all over the place.…

I’ve just finished watching Channel 4’s documentary ‘The Town That Got Tourettes’. It was about a group of young people in Le Roy, a town in upstate New York who suddenly developed severe tics.

I first heard about this cluster of cases at the start of this year, following a flurry of media attention.…

I had a wobble today. Not just the physical type (that’s a very regular occurrence) but a more noteworthy emotional wobble. In the last few days I’ve written quite dispassionately about my year of ‘ticcing fits’. I’ve got used to suddenly having my day interrupted by my flailing limbs and loss of speech, and as I described yesterday, it’s become much easier to manage all this.…

I’m writing this in a slightly unusual location – sitting on a train. Leftwing Idiot and I have spent the day hanging out with friends in Nottingham. Now, as we speed back to London through the dark countryside, it seems like a good time to reflect on our day.…

I frequently lose my speech when I have a ‘ticcing fit’, and when this happens I usually communicate by blinking – one blink for ‘Yes’, two blinks for ‘No’ and multiple blinks for ‘Ask a different question.’ It’s not a brilliantly reliable method of communication given how much I tic-blink anyway.…