Will and I are in Cumbria for a few days, visiting his mum, Barbara, and generally having a break. We came up by train yesterday and instantly settled into the more gentle pace of life here.

Barbara’s house is lovely. The light travels right through from the front to the back, it’s super-accessible, and I felt very at home straightaway.…

Election campaigning is in full swing here in the UK as we speed towards polling day on May 7th. In the last few days lots of the main political parties have been launching their manifestos. They’ve been all over the news, and every time another slick political catch-phrase sticks in my ear, my tics respond with their own:

“A Better Yucca Plant, a Better Future”

“A Brighter, More Secure, Foreskin”

“A Manifesto With Balloons at its Heart”

“For The Common Bin”

“Policies for People Dressed As Unicorns”

I thought I’d go one step further and let my tics create their own mini-manifesto.…

Usually I leave my all terrain wheelchair at work and get in and out of it at the start and end of each day. This evening though Zoë and I carefully packed it into the cab and brought it home. This is because tomorrow I’m heading to Cumbria with Will to spend the weekend with his mum.…

Wow! What a glorious day! I could tell it was fine before I’d even raised my blind this morning. Since then the sun’s been beating down without interruption, bathing everything in a beautiful light.

On days like this I particularly value the incredible outdoor spaces we have at work.…

Last week I wrote about my annoying new “What about cats?” tic, but there’s some contention amongst my friends about how new it really is, with some claiming it’s been around for months.

I do have one tic that’s definitely new on the scene though, and I find it a lot less irritating:

“I’m a solid”

As well as enjoying it and the ideas it conjures up, I’m also enjoying the range of responses from my friends.…

A couple of days ago one of my tics took me aback and made me laugh with surprise:

“Scotch egg castle and the exasperated carrot.”

It wasn’t the content of the tic that made me chuckle but the fact that I pronounced ‘castle’ and ‘exasperated’ with a short ‘a’.…

I was hanging out with Poppy earlier when I suddenly started having a ‘ticcing fit’ that, without any reason or warning, was abruptly gate-crashed by whales. Fortunately Poppy had the presence of mind to press record on her phone:

“Whale cocks make the panthers jealous.…

I’ve had a new regular tic for the last few weeks: “What about cats?”

Unusually it’s been really irritating me. I don’t normally notice my own tics, particularly regular ones. They quickly become background noise – a constant, gentle reminder that I’m still alive.…

If you’re a disabled person with high or specialist support needs, or if your job involves long working hours, or if you work abroad, there’s something you need to know – your career, your ambition, your potential are about to be capped.…

Chopin and I have been hanging out all day, which has been lovely. I can’t believe it’s only a year since we started working on Backstage In Biscuit Land together.

This evening we created something else, something even more colourful, bizarre and spectacular than Biscuit Land itself – Easter bonnets!…