I’m well known for my biscuit tics, hedgehogs are constant companions, and I talk incessantly about the sexual habits of sheep, goats and cats.

But what about bears?

This is a question my tics have asked many times a day for several months in a row, and it elicits a variety of responses from my friends and family.…

As regular readers will know, there’s been a bit of a backlog with my pigs (the pig shaped rubber dog toys I’m given by the Pig Fairy to mark a day without a ticcing fit).

I wrote last week about the arrival of the amazing Disco Pig but noted I was still expecting both 18th Century Pig and Grey Pig.…

What does Freedom look like to you?

That was the question that dropped into my inbox at the end of last year. It was in an email from a BBC team asking if I’d take part in Freedom 2014, a new season exploring what freedom looks like to different people from around the world.…

No sooner had I written about the piggies I was waiting for (my reward from the Pig Fairy for ‘ticcing-fit-free’ days) than one of the overdue three arrived.

The reason for the delay was clear – the Pig Fairy’s evidently a creative genius, and art on this scale obviously takes a long time.…

I wasn’t able to go to an event as I’d planned on Saturday, so instead I hung out with Poppy. She had some stuff to do at her house so I went round there with her. While she was working I sat in the living room with two of her housemates.…

It’s exactly a month since Boxing Day when the muscles in my hands mysteriously went into spasm and seized up.

There’ve been many times over the last 28 days when writing this blog has rescued me from feelings of desperation, when it’s helped me make sense of difficult experiences, and when it’s given me a place to share the practical solutions, support and friendship that’ve made a challenging time manageable.…

I’d been really looking forward to going to an event this weekend with Keir, but then three things happened that made it a bad idea.

First, Keir injured his back and wasn’t able to come. My friend Jess, who hasn’t supported me before, was up for taking over, so Leftwing Idiot and Will talked her through my support needs and care plan – I’m confident we’d have been fine if everything else had gone OK.…

Yesterday got off to an upsetting start. My hands were stiff and unresponsive and I felt utterly worn out, both because I hadn’t slept much and because of the on-going uncertainty about my hands.

Poppy comforted me when I broke down in tears and then helped me get washed and dressed.…

When, how and why I’m writing this post feels horribly familiar. It’s 3.10am, I’m typing slowly with one extended finger, and I’m writing because I feel freaked out and alone.

About an hour ago I woke up and discovered my hands had contorted back into their pre-Botox dystonic positions.…

It’s generally frowned upon to go around taking pictures in public toilets, but yesterday when Leftwing Idiot and I were on our way to a meeting I came across this in the accessible toilet. So out came the phone for a quick photo opportunity:

I’ve talked before about how important it is to leave the red alarm cord untied so it can be used from ground level if someone falls from the toilet and gets into difficulty.…