It wouldn’t take a very detailed reading of this blog to discover that I haven’t been very well for the last few months. I’ve been adjusting to life with chronic pain, nausea and fatigue. It doesn’t sound like fun, and there’ve definitely been times when it’s felt miserable and lonely.…

Last week I wrote about how I was coming to the end of a very long and enjoyable audio book. I asked what I should listen to next and was overwhelmed with suggestions – thank you to everyone who recommended books and podcasts for me to try.…

For the last few months this blog’s been dominated by posts about pain and fatigue. Keeping a balance of funny, serious, poignant, political and practical posts has always felt important to me, but it’s hard to maintain an equilibrium when my body feels as badly out of balance as it does at the moment.…

Years ago I was into drawing the connections between different objects in my room. I’d map them, usually using myself as the starting point.

Tonight as I lay in bed trying to sleep, the coiled ball of pain that sits in my back felt like the starting point of a new map so I started to draw it.…

Over last few months I’ve spent much more time in bed than I would’ve liked. On-going issues with pain, nausea and fatigue mean I need to rest a lot.

Listening to audio books is something I’ve been doing a lot recently.…

There are just two weeks until we bring the Barbican’s Pit to life with amazing activities and performances for children and adults, celebrating creativity, diversity and bottom-up change.

Brewing In The Basement has a sensational line-up of radical artists all set to mix things up.…

My niece is five months old now and she’s amazing company. We hang out together most days and I absolutely adore her. It’s amazing watching her grow and develop. But as the months pass I can feel myself getting strangely competitive.…

I’ve written a lot recently about how I’m adapting to experiencing chronic pain.

While this isn’t straightforwardly related to Tourettes, I’ve started to appreciate that my motor tics have put a lot of physical pressure on my body for a long time, so it’s probably not surprising that as I get older the cumulative effect of this could start to have longer term physical implications.…

I’ve been struggling to get comfy at night for the last few months and I’ve been resorting to precarious piles of pillows to help me reach the ever-elusive pain-free position.

Then, a couple of weeks ago after a particularly bad night I had a sudden realisation – I should call my Local Authority’s occupational therapy team.…

My Gran loved all sorts of sayings, like, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”, “Let the dog see the rabbit” or “A watched pot never boils.”

But she particularly loved sky-based sayings: “There’s enough blue sky to make a pair of sailor’s trousers” or “Red sky at night, shepherds’ delight, red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning” (which I still consider a reliable weather forecast).…