“It’s a learning curve. If I was bitter and angry, I wouldn’t be on the resettlement wing and coming out here. I’ve come through the whole system, not one nicking, haven’t even said ‘boo’ to a goose…
When I actually get released in December, I leave on the Friday and I start work on the Monday… My shining star is I’ve got work. A lot of people don’t have work to go out to. As soon as you say you’re an ex-convict, “next”, that’s the way it goes, but fortunately I can turn my hand to anything, so I can pretty much walk into any job I like…
I’ll know more next week because I’ll go and see my mate when I am on home leave… but trying to fit everything into the time you have at home isn’t very good… so, I’m going to spend 20-30 minutes having a cuddle with the dogs. Then I think I’ve got a list of jobs that need doing. I know I’ve got to do these things because my partner doesn’t know how to do them. It’s just basic little things like fix the computer and sort out her TV and everything…
On my home leave next week, I’ve got all this to do, I’ve got my work to sort out, I’ve got to see how much I’m getting paid, how much the tender was put in for this job, make sure everything’s correct. People say “why don’t you do that on your next home leave?”, I said “because my next home leave, I’ll have even more things to do”. It’s not just a quick visit home. It probably would’ve be easier to stay in prison rather than go home because I wouldn’t have so much to do…
This week has been like a month… I can’t sleep at night. I don’t know, I can’t describe it. It’s hard to describe really. I’ve been regularly, 11 o’clock, go to sleep, snoring in 10 minutes or so, once you’ve had your little toss over and turn over. Now, I know what 2 and 3 o’clock looks like, regularly now, over the last two weeks because I just can’t … I’m thinking “where did I put that in my shed?”, “when I do that, I need that” and “I think I put that there”. If I ask my partner to go and look for these things, she’s “oh, he’s asking me to do something”. It’s easier for me to sort it out in my own head before I get my home leave, and then when I get there I know where everything is, I know what I’ve got to do…
I’m just not going to go home and put my feet up… I’m going home to do jobs on the house that I should’ve done anyway and thankfully I’ve got an extra day, so that’s allowed for my travelling. So, that’s given me a bit more time to get more things done…
But because of my horrible sleeping pattern over the last two weeks, on Tuesday, I didn’t get to sleep until about three in the morning, I actually got some paper out this time and I’m trying to design a new shed, because I’ve got to pull down the one that’s there and I’m thinking will I have time. I’m trying to work out if I’m going to have time to build another one in time [on next home leave]. That’s how bad I am. That was my main concern. Never mind the fact I’ve got all these other jobs to do, my main concern was will I have enough time to build my shed and she’s going “you’ve got to pull it down, never mind bloody building one”, I said “yeah, but I can do that as soon as I get home”, she said “but you want to spend some time with the dogs and that” and I’m thinking “oh my god, she’s got a list of jobs for me”. I want to do my shed…
I’ve done the majority of my sentence now, there’s only a little bit to go and I think this is going to be the hardest because it’s the shortest…”
A window into LandWorks 