I noticed Poppy was rubbing her eye when we were in the park earlier. I her asked what was wrong and she told me that she’d got something stuck in it. My tics responded instantly with a barrage of questions about what the mystery object might be:

TH: Is it a grain of egg-fried rice?…

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.…

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.…

My arms are strong – probably from propelling my chair and because I do ‘reps’, hitting my chest hundreds of times a day.

People are often surprised at my strength, and a tight lid on a jar has rarely defeated me.…

You could say that pigs are like buses, you wait for ages and then three come along at once.

I’ve written before about my on going quest for piggies (rubber dog toys in the shape of a pig) and how I get one every time I have a full day without a ticcing fit.…