A couple of years ago I was in Portland, Oregon performing at a festival. We were over there for a couple of weeks and had an incredible time. This was partly because of the place and the people, but also because cannabis is legal in Oregon.…

While Bean is very curious and asks lots of questions, one thing she’s never asked me is why I use a wheelchair, she’s always just accepted my chair as part of me.

Since she was tiny, I’ve tried to find books or toys that include disabled characters because I want the things around her to reflect her world and family.…

My niece Bean was four at the weekend. She’s been enjoying telling me her new age, and I’m continuing to enjoy watching her grow in independence and chattiness.

The pandemic’s meant that Bean and I haven’t been able to hang out together as much as either of us would like.…

As a child I loved Lego and it’s younger sibling Duplo. I was a proud member of the Lego Club – in fact 35 years on I still have my membership badge!

And I still love it, but as a dyspraxic with Tourettes, the fine motor control required for more grown up Lego projects has always been in scarce supply for me.…

Tomorrow I have a phone appointment with the pain clinic. I’ve been under their care for a few years since I began experiencing chronic pain probably caused by the long-term impact of my tics, and being a wheelchair user.

I haven’t had an appointment in quite a while because my pain is generally manageable thanks to a mix of medications and other approaches.…

It’s early Friday evening and London’s bathed in gentle sunshine and I’ve just had some spontaneous interactions with girls which were simultaneously blissfully mundane and soul-enrichingly exceptional.

Claire and I went to meet Bean and Fat Sister in the park after nursery.…

I’ve just had the best bath!!!!

No exaggeration – I’ve haven’t had a better bath in my whole life!

Better even than the shared baths my oldest friend and I used to engineer by rolling in mud at each other’s houses, better than the luxurious ones scented by bath bombs.…

Yesterday I wrote about feeling sad and frustrated with myself after a tense day at work. Mostly I feel positive about my body and brain but unusually, yesterday, I felt less good about being neurodiverse.

As well as writing about how I felt I also tried to draw a map of my thoughts and feelings.…

It’s Friday evening and I’m exhausted and sad. Ines, my support worker, is changing my sheets in the other room, Gogglebox is on in the background, and I’m fighting back tears, and have been all afternoon and evening.

As a warning to you, I’m not feeling very proud of, or positive about my neurodiversity at the moment, and I’m feeling annoyed and worn out by my own behaviour.…

Last year I wrote about an approach to help manage challenging situations that I’d been introduced to – it had as its acronym: STOP. I created a drawing to go with it to help me and my support team remember it.…