“I’ve still been coming here twice a week, which I love coming. Yeah, I do like coming here because it’s something … what am I trying to say? It’s something positive in my life coz where I come from. I’ve gotta try and do more positive things, plus I’ve been doing a lot on my flat coz it needs a lot of work and money’s a little bit scarce at the moment, so I can only do stuff every month when I get paid … I buy bits and pieces for the flat. My garden is quite big, so I’ve been doing now … I’ve been trying to make a post … some posts … sticking in some posts to make a fence. At the front of my house it’s open, so people tend to throw stuff in my garden. There’s a bus-stop right outside my house, so there’s always a can there. People throw their dog poo … you know when they put it in a bag, they throw it in my garden, so it really bugs me that does, because I would never do that. There’s a bin there. I leave my bin outside. They don’t even use … some people do, but I even think that’s a liberty putting it in my bin, they should put it in their own bin.
I’ve even started applying for jobs because my probation finishes next month, after two years … fourteenth of the fifth. Yeah, my probation text me the other day and said … I asked her … so that’s finishing soon. So I dunno what’s gonna happen if … coz I don’t know how long people can come here for. Is there a certain date or … it’s just up to … I would still like to come here until I … I’m ready to go back to work, I think, after probation. What’s her name, May said she can go on ‘Indeed’ and she can help me do that coz I’m not that great with computers.
So yeah, life’s going alright. It’s better than it has been because I’ve made the effort, and I’ve kept away from certain people. I’m not taking drugs like I used to. It has been hard, yeah. I have messed up a couple of times. I’ve told this to Chris. You know what, every time … sometimes I see people and they say oh, go and have a drink and that, then it goes … then they start taking drugs, so I’ll start doing it with ‘em, and that’s the only time. I have been in my flat before … for the last four months and I haven’t done nothing, I just stayed on my script and that’s coming down a little bit, not as much as I want it to, but I couldn’t function without it. I do need it. I wanna start cutting down because I don’t want no more dependency. It’s just like being on drugs really. I know you’ve gotta have it, but there’s a time when you need to start reducing and getting it out your body because that methadone, it gets in your bones. It’s really hard to get off. If you don’t do it the right way or if you’re using on top of it, which I was … I haven’t been lately, but if you just stay on your script and reduce yourself properly, then you can do it. It’s the only way. Yeah, it’s the only way to do it. You’ve gotta do it right and stop taking other drugs.
But yeah, that’s why I came here. It has got a bit better. Lately it’s got much better coz I just really have had enough, you know, I just don’t want that life and think that you’re gonna go to prison and things like that … no. I’ve just done my DRR, which went ok … Drug Rehabilitation Requirement. The DRR, remember I used to go to court every month to see the judge. He used to … he praised me a couple of times because I was doing quite well.
I like doing the cooking, as you know. I don’t mind doing anything, especially in this weather now … doing the garden and the poly-tunnels. I enjoy all of it. I enjoy everything here. We play table-tennis, that’s quite fun. We have a laugh here and I’ve made some good friends. That’s the thing you should be doing … making new friends who ain’t taking drugs, because that’s my downfall. It’s always been my downfall. I always mix up with the wrong people, but I’ve said it’s enough now because I don’t wanna lose what I’ve got now.
I enjoy doing it and I like doing it. When people say oh, that’s lovely, it just gives you a little boost dunnit. It’s a nice feeling. [Why] It’s because I enjoy it. I like doing it. [Because you know what you’re doing] It’s mostly that, yeah, and it’s just good to cook for people. That’s what I like. I just like doing it. I don’t understand … I don’t know what words it is, it’s just … maybe because I can do it, and I like doing it. I know how to get around a kitchen, which is a good thing coz you know, not everyone can go in a kitchen and cook a plate of food. To cook for many people as well, it’s not easy, but coz I know what I’m doing, it’s makes it a bit easier. Yeah, and people like the food, so it just gives me a little boost.
I like eating around the table with people as well. That’s nice. Like when them two blokes came in and you chat with them, and you can see what their lives been through and they’re doing well, ain’t they. I’m gonna be there one day. Life’s short and it goes so quick dunnit.
The hour what we get off, we have the food, we have a chat, then we play table-tennis. I like all that. I’ve always done things like that, so it brings back good memories, you know. When you’re in a rut and you’re taking drugs you don’t do things like that, you don’t hardly eat anyway, so doing this is like getting back to normal. So all this is helping me. That’s why I do come here and as I said, I don’t have to come here but all I’d be doing is sitting at home. I might be doing something to my home but it’s something like a day out, coming here, and as I said, it’s all good people, and I’m still learning things … learning to keep clean. This is good way of staying clean, you know, coz I could be back in Vauxhall and, you know, seeing someone and then something happens, so that’s why I come here so I keep away from certain people. Yeah, it’s just a nice place to come.“
A window into LandWorks 