As regular readers will know, verbal communication gets extremely tricky for me during a ‘ticcing fit’. I almost always lose the ability to speak and have to switch to a blinking system in order to communicate.

That being said, I do occasionally say some things during a fit, but they’re never very useful or relevant. Sophie Dahl often crops up, and I make one noise that sounds like the word vol-au-vent, but that’s about the extent of it. Normally my speech comes back towards the end of a fit, and it’s always frightening if it doesn’t.

Traditionally King Russell is best at interpreting these unusual sounds and turning them back into intelligible language. He’s got a real knack for this that goes well beyond what most other people can achieve.

So I was particularly impressed with Leftwing Idiot this afternoon when, during a fit, I blurted out:

“What’s the bear Mr Fish?”

He looked at the clock and said, “It’s just gone 5pm. You did want to know what the time is, didn’t you?”

And he was right – one blink for ‘Yes.’ Somehow he’d managed to make the connection my brain was making with the children’s playground game ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’

Perhaps he’s not an idiot after all.