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CHRISTMAS DAY
Christmas Day for those who are incarcerated can be su the last 159 days as a prisoner how perverse reality is
I go to work today, as every other day, and aery, only six prisoners report for sick parade; you have to be really ill to get up at 730 a and troop across to the hospital when the terees
At eight-fifteen I go to breakfast, and even though it’s eggs, bacon and sausage served by the officers (Mr Hocking, Mr Cah), only around forty of the two hundred inmates bother to turn up
On returning to the hospital, Linda and I unload bags of food from her car so I can hold a tea party for ives me a present, which is wrapped in Christ to anticipate what it , with a black cat grinning at er have to decide between a Caiveaway and a plain white object with a chip when I haveBovril
1000 am
Linda leaves overnor’s Christmas party Frankly, if over half the prisoners weren’t still in bed asleep, I could arrange for thees that the other prisoners do not have, in one respect they are right; I am lucky to be able to carry on with the job I do on the outside While everyone else tries to kill time, I settle down to write for a couple of hours
>12 noon
Lunch is excellent, and once again served by the officers, and shared with a half dozen old-age pensioners froe; tomato soup, followed by turkey, chipolatas, roast potatoes and stuffing, with as o on the plate I don’t allow— several officers have kindly coht (nine pounds in nine weeks)
After lunch I walk over to the south block and phone Mary and the boys All things considered they sound pretty cheerful, but I can’t hide the fact that I miss them My wife is fifty-seven, my boys twenty-nine and twenty-seven, and today I’raphs of young children anywhere from six months to fifteen years old Yes, they deserve to be incarcerated if they committed a crime, but we should remember it is Christuilty
As I walk back through the block, I notice that those not in the TV roo the day to pass I have so e that I invite a dozen inmates over to join me in the hospital
They all turn up, without exception We watch The Great Escape (somewhat ironic) and enjoy Linda’s feast — pork pies, crisps, sausage rolls, shortbread biscuits, KitKats and, most popular of all with my fellow inmates, a chunk of , but a choice of lemonade, Evian water, tea, coffee or Ribena
They laugh, they chat, they watch the film, and when they leave, David (fraud, schoolmaster) pays ne and shepherd’s pie parties ‘Thank you for getting rid of the afternoon so pleasantly’
DAY 161
BOXING DAY