Amongst the post I collected on my way in after work this evening there was a small oblong, package for Poppy – a cardboard envelope wrapped in plastic. The detail of the packaging is relevant only because it was what my tics chose to focus on and go bonkers about.

My hand clamped hard onto the package as I took it to Poppy, and I started singing dramatically and uncontrollably ‘It’s a cardboard envelope.’ I kept on repeating this time after time, long after Poppy prised the package out of my hand.

The contents didn’t really live up to the hype – it was a card reader from the bank (of which Poppy already has several). We carried on with our evening, my envelope tic quickly forgotten.

Or so we both thought! Poppy went out for dinner with a friend and I hung out at the castle. She came in a few hours later, after I’d already gone to bed. The moment the key turned in the lock my tics sparked back into action with the same song, ‘It’s a cardboard envelope, just a cardboard envelope!”