Crawl Again Baby
My nineteen-month-old niece Bean can walk – she’s been able to since she was nine months old! Tonight, though, she decided to go back to crawling – not baby crawling but crawling aunty-style. We’d been...
View ArticleThe Tale of the Table and the Tortoise
At work today I had a ‘ticcing fit’. I lost all regular speech but my vocal tics continued. Much to my surprise and that of my colleagues a strange story emerged. Here’s my Tourettes-generated fable:...
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Push Button Baby
Fat Sister, King Russell and Bean popped in earlier. I had my Telecare pendant on because of a brief gap in my support. The pendant was round my neck and I’d totally forgotten it was there. Bean...
View ArticleHappy Bean Day
It’s been a very sunny day, and this morning was particularly warm and glorious. Fat Sister, King Russell and their two-year-old daughter Bean came over first thing and we sat in the garden enjoying...
View ArticleThree Trees One Cuppa Soup
From my bedroom window I can see three majestic trees, their silhouettes looming large in my familiar and treasured view. Right now it’s the very end of dusk and they’ve almost vanished into the...
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Playtopia and Beyond
Playing and making are the two big passions in my life, and they always have been. Play is a fundamental part of children’s lives and it’s very individual for each person, but sadly some children don’t...
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Biscuits and Beckett In Brooklyn
A week ago today I did my last performance of ‘Not I’ in New York. We were there for two weeks as part of The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival. There wasn’t a suitable space for the show at...
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Smiling Our Way To Revolution
Leftwing Idiot’s good friend Si had symptoms of COVID-19 and started self-isolating over a week before the lockdown began. It was touch and go for a while, but he seems much better now. A lot changed...
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In Praise of Monkey
My family had cats for pretty much my entire childhood so know about the benefits they can be bring, and how individual their personalities are. But until Monkey Cat moved in eight months ago I hadn’t...
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In Praise of Podcasts
Last night I wrote a post while I was in intense pain and struggling to sleep. I wrote to help me focus on what I was feeling and to find a way through. To some extent it worked, and with the...
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Monkey’s Bunk
As I type this from my bed, Monkey is curled up by my side. He’s not actually in bed with me, but in his own bunk, less than an arm’s length away. After months of resisting, I’ve finally given in and...
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Sticky Swine
As we enter the second week of work on my bathroom, I’m really excited about all the development. But there’s one change that I was less prepared for – saying goodbye to the bathroom pigs! Regular...
View ArticlePhil Mitchell Half Term Saviour
It’s half term week and families across the UK will be looking for ways to keep everyone entertained. In non-pandemic times the Touretteshero team travel a lot and, in the process, we’ve developed some...
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Monkey’s ‘Safe’ Place
Monkey’s made himself very much at home here on the spaceship. He’s been here for over a year now and has developed close relationships with the whole team. He goes to Erik for play time and Leftwing...
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The Phantom Scoby
Leftwing Idiot loves Kombucha. I do not. Kombucha is a non-alcoholic fermented drink that’s popular in North America, which is where he discovered it. It’s been growing in popularity in the UK too,...
View ArticleI Wish
While I was working on a post last night a stream of tics burst into life, so I decided to record them on my phone in case they were interesting. Here’s what emerged: “I wish I was a duck-face, I wish...
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Ask a Silly Question
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...
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Introducing Tickles - Maria Bradley
As you probably know, for the last couple of months we’ve been sharing the ideas and creative projects of artists supported by our Young Artist Development Programme. Today it’s the turn of Maria...
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A Card for Us All
Every year since Touretteshero began, we’ve created a Christmas card inspired by a festive tic. We’ve had some amazing guest artists including Jim’ll Paint It, Amber Anderson, Ben Connors and Richard...
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Sounds Like Care
Joyce has been supporting me for around seven years now. She started as an agency carer but when that agency stopped supporting people in my area, she came to work for me directly. Joyce is amazing –...
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