For the first time in a long time I feel optimistic about a political event. A thoughtful, principled politician, who, as an MP, has worked tirelessly for social justice for over three decades, has just been announced as the new leader of the Labour Party.…

The last few nights have felt a bit like time-travel for me, but it’s a sort of time-travel that I’m not particularly excited about.

Until four years ago I used to tic in my sleep. According to Fat Sister and a number of my friends, sleeping tics were very similar to those I had during the day, but gentler.…

When I was about twenty my flatmate, Laura, read a book called ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat’ by neurologist and writer Dr Oliver Sacks. When she finished it she suggested I should read it too.

It was the first time I’d read anything about neuroscience and I was fascinated by the accessible anecdotes and case studies Sacks described.…

Sometimes my tics suddenly pluck a word out of obscurity and through tone, pronunciation, and obsessive repetition, turn it into something surreal.

Today, “mottled” was in for this treatment.

It’s not a word I’ve ever given much thought to, let alone said.…

This evening Harriet and I went to meet Leftwing Idiot, Fat Sister, King Russell and their friend Gareth in a bar near the Castle.

I’ve met Gareth loads of times, but it seems that one of my tics from our last encounter has had a big impact on him.…

The story of the geranium is now practically legend, but because I haven’t mentioned it for a while I thought I’d briefly re-cap.

Once upon a time, four years ago, a mysterious visitor named Annie The Wolf brought a tiny plant as a gift for Leftwing Idiot.…

When I woke up this morning my first tic of the day was:

“Morning sun, your light is brighter than Stephen Hawking’s mind.”

I opened the blind a few minutes later and solar-centric tics continued:

“Window, are you wearing sun cream?”…

The summer’s whizzing by and I can’t believe it’s August already. My tics on the other hand are fully aware of the new month. This morning as I was getting ready for work all this popped out:

“August is the month of mottled light, scorched roundabouts and Dick Van Dyke.”…

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Sophie, an amazing young artist who has Tourettes. She shared with me some images of an incredible creative project she’d undertaken in response to her tic. I was blown away and really keen for other people to see it too.…

I’ve lived at the castle for almost four years now, and in all that time my bed’s been in exactly the same place. My view from it has remained the same, too, except for the subtle changes brought by the seasons.…