I’ve got 99 problems and 4 of them are catering. – The Moon (Noel Fielding)

[catherinem]

I probably don’t have as many problems as the Moon but certainly I have more than 4 catering problems. My first catering problem is now in the process of being solved, it’s a rather nasty tic that involves biting my forearm, thinking about it is making want to do this particular tic, but hopefully HRT going well I should have kicked this auto cannibalistic tic in favour of something more suitable in time for World Vegan Day (November 1st).

Yesterday I had my first HRT (Habit Reversal Training) session, and yes I took the train this time! The session went well my therapist is lovely, I think we will get on fine. The first session involved basically just getting to know each other, talking about my tics and in particular those that are the most bothersome for me, so together we complied a list of the worst of my tics talked about the urges that come just before the tic and the feeling that I get after the tic. The first tic she thought would be the best to work on first of all is the biting tic, it has quite a long urge leading up to the tic then my right arm and mouth attract to each and BITE and my mouth holds on until I feel pain. This tic was also chosen as it’s a tic I’ve recently acquired, so we’re operating a kind of FIFO (first in first out) system that anyone who’s worked in catering would be familiar with. The way we’ll beat this tic is that when I feel the urge to do the tic, I sit on my right hand until the urge has gone. We were also talking about how the urge feels on a scale of 1 to 10 and strangely enough as the session progressed the uncomfortable score went down. So far I’ve performed this tic about 5 times today, unfortunately I’m not too hot at typing with just my left hand so I’ll have to let you know how I get on!

The second catering problem I have is cat food. (cat food????!!! You ask) Is it just me who has the urge to dip her finger I the cat’s fishy (yuck) dinner and have a bit or have a nibble on a chickeny biscuit (containing a whole plethora of animal nasties). Yuck it doesn’t bare thinking about. An unfortunate urge for a vegetarian.

The third catering problem involves me in my kitchen with these various hitting tics, life in the kitchen can be a bit scary, I will try Claire and Linnea’s suggestion of using my blender to do some of my cutting up. (Pete’s just made me a sandwich, bless, thanks Pete xx).

The fourth catering problem involves the open-mic night I’m organising, I need to know how many people are coming so I can make sure I’ve got enough food for everyone. This me to a tee, I aim to be hostess with the mostess and I want to make sure that everyone is happy and well fed. I’m also worried about playing, (You know who you are) I need to hear or at least see the chords for the song you’ve written. I’m nervous yet looking forward to this event. So I’ve you’re in Coventry in the Earlsdon area on the 30th October please pop into the Spencer Club and join us.

Meanwhile I’ll have a listen to the relaxation CD that my HRT therapist has given me and put on my Policy Officer hat and do some research on the government’s spending cuts that were announced yesterday. So I’ll be back.