Earlier today I saw this brilliant post on A Little Bit Different. It details a list of ten things that people with Tourettes and their families often hear but would rather not.

It’s a great list and if you have a friend, family member, student or colleague who has Tourettes it’s a must-read.…

Yesterday the organisation I work for had its Annual General Meeting (AGM). Like all AGMs there was all the formal business to get through, but there was also a much more relaxed and celebratory element too. We had delicious food and a treasure hunt all round the adventure playground.…

We’re five days into December and Christmas is just around the corner. I thought now might be a good time to remind everyone of last year’s fantastic festive animation. Please do share this with anyone you think needs their day brightened by Captain Bin – among others.…

Over the last few weeks I’ve been experiencing a strange new phenomenon, which I’m calling Sophie Fits.

During almost all my recent ‘ticcing fits’ I’ve talked about Sophie, both my old friend (and former support worker) Sophie who recently moved to Cuba, and more bizarrely Sophie Dahl former model and granddaughter of the well known children’s writer Roald.…

Yesterday I wrote about the arrival of a new piggy, bringing my collection up to eight. I keep these colourful, squeaky pigs on display in my living room.

I love the pigs but find them extremely over-stimulating. They make me instantly and inexplicably excited and my tics overreact wildly.…

On Friday, much to my delight, I had a fit free day – a whole day without a ‘ticcing fit’. Tradition dictates that I get a ‘piggy’ as a reward – a squeaky rubber dog-toy shaped like a pig.

I already have seven pigs – Pink Piggy, Black Piggy, Mystery Piggy, Blue Piggy, White-Van Pig, Neon Piggy & Green Piggy.…

This year everyone seems to be talking about it being ‘Black Friday’ today, and I don’t remember ever hearing about this before.

For anyone still in the dark, Black Friday’s the day after Thanksgiving in the United States and it’s often thought of as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.…

Every so often Leftwing Idiot goes off to host comedy disco nights with our friends Cassetteboy (there are two of them). In an effort to avoid losing his voice half-way through a show, he’s started doing vocal warm-up exercises from a CD.…

This time last month I was celebrating my second ‘Fitiversary’ with friends in a local restaurant. Any regular readers will know my ‘ticcing fits’ play a significant part in my life. They also featured in my TEDx talk at the Albert Hall in September when I shared a ‘sonification’ of two months’ worth of fits generated by actual data about each fit.…

I settled into bed last night chatting happily as usual to the lamp-post I can see from my window. Then, as I lay down, I spotted something else familiar and my tics responded immediately.

“Oh there you are cartoon star.”
“Where’ve you been cartoon star?”…