Doing time, being a quitter, arson and the rest.
I am now in my second week of my new job at the prison. There is so much to take in - the nurse side of things is fairly straightforward, but there is so much that goes with working in a prison that may take a while to get used to. The wings look just like you see on TV - its like the set of Porridge or something.
Its fairly entertaining though. It is a young offenders prison, so they are all lads aged 18 to 21, serving less than 2 years or in the last 3 months of their sentence. They call me 'miss' which is very odd, and they don't have first names - we have to call them 'Smith' or 'Mr Smith'.
I am now on day 15 of not smoking. I'm using patches, which may be the best invention ever. It is in no way fun, but the patches make it so much easier than would have imagined.
The house opposite us is for sale, and is empty. Some local kids are using it as their base from which to experiment with arson... The wheelie bin, shed and bits of the garden has been alight over the last couple of weeks, and someone broke in the other day. Its a little too close for home for comfort.
I have been trying to organise lots of fun stuff, especially now I have a proper income. We saw McKellan play Lear at the RSC, which was fab. Am going to Glastonbury, which I am so excited about. Next month we're going to see Derren 'scary' Brown and there are tentative plans to actually leave the country and have a proper holiday!
Because I do 12.5hr shifts at the prison, I only work 3 days a week. So to fill in my time off, I have signed up to do an OU course that starts in May. Its just a 10 credit short course, the idea being that it will help me suss out whether topping up my diploma to a degree is something I could do with the OU. I am also joining a gym and am (to my slight embarrassment) really enjoying having time at home to do houseworky things (I know, I'm a freak).
We inherited a sewing machine from Kit's nan. I am contemplating attempting to make something, but am aware that my crafty history is not good. The knitting experiment resulted in numerous scarves and hats and then ended abruptly with half a tank top. We'll see.
Liz xxx
Its fairly entertaining though. It is a young offenders prison, so they are all lads aged 18 to 21, serving less than 2 years or in the last 3 months of their sentence. They call me 'miss' which is very odd, and they don't have first names - we have to call them 'Smith' or 'Mr Smith'.
I am now on day 15 of not smoking. I'm using patches, which may be the best invention ever. It is in no way fun, but the patches make it so much easier than would have imagined.
The house opposite us is for sale, and is empty. Some local kids are using it as their base from which to experiment with arson... The wheelie bin, shed and bits of the garden has been alight over the last couple of weeks, and someone broke in the other day. Its a little too close for home for comfort.
I have been trying to organise lots of fun stuff, especially now I have a proper income. We saw McKellan play Lear at the RSC, which was fab. Am going to Glastonbury, which I am so excited about. Next month we're going to see Derren 'scary' Brown and there are tentative plans to actually leave the country and have a proper holiday!
Because I do 12.5hr shifts at the prison, I only work 3 days a week. So to fill in my time off, I have signed up to do an OU course that starts in May. Its just a 10 credit short course, the idea being that it will help me suss out whether topping up my diploma to a degree is something I could do with the OU. I am also joining a gym and am (to my slight embarrassment) really enjoying having time at home to do houseworky things (I know, I'm a freak).
We inherited a sewing machine from Kit's nan. I am contemplating attempting to make something, but am aware that my crafty history is not good. The knitting experiment resulted in numerous scarves and hats and then ended abruptly with half a tank top. We'll see.
Liz xxx