Once again, and for one day a year only, my “Happy Christmas” tic is in context so, Happy Christmas! Fat Sister’s gift from her employer, the NHS, is three fourteen hour shifts – including one today. Despite this she’s in good spirits.…

In the early hours of the morning I was woken by a ‘ticcing fit’. So far nothing unusual, except this time I could feel the sensation of the fit without being able to move about at all.

This feeling of waking up unable to move is one I’ve had a few times before.…

There was a gap this morning between my night support worker leaving and my Access To Work support worker – Bunny – arriving. This meant that for the first time since the 21st October, when my ‘ticcing fits’ started, I was on my own.…

I went to the Post Office in Peckham with Bunny earlier. As we trudged back through the rain, my Tourettes lifted our spirits with some rousing versions of William Blake’s famous poem, ‘Jerusalem.’ It was fun to start with, but two hours later when we were home and dry they were still coming strong.…

I had a ticcing fit this evening, facing the bookshelf in Leftwing Idiot’s living room. Although his shelves are full of books already, my Tourettes managed to add some new titles to his collection:

“Robert Kennedy I was a Bear, Taking the Blue Peter Badge Out of the Woman”
“Ruminations on a Rollercoaster”
“John Pilger: Bins and Barbara”
“Shark Theory 1900–1990”
“Aesthetics, Tourniquets and Tightropes”
“The Dictionary of Contemporary Ostrich Slang”
“Naomi Klein: The Horse Doctrine”
“Naomi Klein: The Shock Jockey”
“How to Wear a Tabard Pleasingly”
“A View of London from Your Mum’s Bedroom Window”
“How To Talk Rambo Down from a Balcony”
“How To Do a Drive-by Sky dive”
“William Blake and the Chocolate Factory”

Festive outburst
“Who’s headbutting Christmas?”

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how – unusually during a ‘ticcing fit’ – I’d had a sudden and sustained burst of vocal tics. Bunny wrote most of them down but she couldn’t catch them all, so I decided that if I had another outburst like that I’d try and record them.…

Tonight at 9:00pm on BBC 3, my friend Ruth will be making her TV debut in a documentary about her life, her singing career and her Tourettes.

It’s called, ‘Tourettes I Swear I Can Sing’ which is a bit of a lazy title.…

I was out at a local pub this evening with Leftwing Idiot and Poppy. While I was in the toilet, ticcing away as usual, a voice from the next cubicle said:

Voice: Are you OK?

TH: Yes, I’m fine thanks – I just have Tourettes.…

About six months ago, before my ‘ticcing fits’ intensified, I wrote about getting stuck on the floor on my own, which used to be quite a regular occurrence. Even though it was distressing I’d became fairly accustomed to it, and for the last few months it hasn’t been a problem because now I nearly always have someone with me, or close by.…

I’ve had biting tics since I was a child. They come and go, but even when they’re not happening that often they’re lurking in the background. They often flare up when I’m particularly upset, excited, angry or even happy.

But though they can be triggered by strong emotions, they’re still just tics over which I have little or no control.…