Inmate 357
Day 7 Friday: New Prisoners, and Exercise Yard Cut in Half
There was lots of rain that morning and it was rather wet plodding round the forecourt. I did more work on my 4 minute talk. It ended up lasting 7 mins but fortunately Inmate 356 was not too rude when I read it out to her!
Sun came out in the afternoon so we did the Floor 5 flat roof walk. We discovered that they had changed it and cut out one half of the figure of 8 we used to walk round saying that maintenance was needed. This meant that we had a greatly reduced (halved) area of going back and forth like a queue in an airport or Disneyland. Not so good I’m afraid.
There were new prisoners next door and we could hear them! It is hardly for me to judge them as I’m told I am so noisy myself. They are pretty faint anyway (especially without hearing aids in!). We went to bed and this time I didn’t take zop and ended up awake quite a lot. I do not do jet lag well!
Day 8 Saturday: Ten Pin Bowling, Cold Curry and All Inmates Are Confined to Their Rooms
We were up around 7 am and had tea and yoghurt. I had a shave (if one can call it that – neck only), a mini hair trim by Inmate 356 and I cut her hair at the back. We’ve been doing this for almost a year now thanks to COVID! We could almost go into business. After the haircut we had breakfast, watched the news on our phones, did our morning readings and Ps 90.
Next we did our exercises, had coffee and went down to the 5th floor reduced walking area. On our return Nurse Alice* was at our door to check our temperatures and symptoms. I then remembered more little anecdotes about Tyler* and put them into my speech for the upcoming wedding.
By day 8 we had so many water bottles we decided to do some 10 pin bowling with them and a loo roll.
Just before lunch there was an announcement into all inmates’ rooms that someone on a flight that had recently come into Covid jail had tested positive, so everyone had to stay in their rooms until the hotel was cleaned and those affected were removed to quarantine. Luckily we hadn’t planned on going anywhere (bar some exciting exercise).
Day eight was our future daughter-in-law’s hens’ Tea Party. Two bags from ‘Bluebells Cakery’ arrived full of quiche, sandwiches, cakes and macaroons and we had a FaceTime call to let us join in the party, until it got so noisy that we had to gracefully retire from the screen.
Tyler* and his happy little band of stag day mates staggered up Albert St to wave at us. All the passers-by saw them waving and then started waving at us as well. (Tyler* said later what we couldn’t see was that the people in the hotel were waving back at them too!) Eventually we were allowed down to the forecourt and finished 9,258 paces or 6.9 km (4.4 mi).
I then chatted to another young security guard called Natalie* who was guarding the lift at our level and she asked if we were okay being locked up. I explained (not wanting to miss an opportunity) that prayer helped a lot and gave us structure to the day. She understood. Eastern people understand better than Western people do. There was not much more opportunity to expand on theological concepts but she was nice to ask if we were surviving okay. We are and more than okay. Settling well into a relaxed and contented routine.
I tried to watch ‘The Second Marigold Hotel’ but the sound was no good for me so I abandoned the attempt. Inmate 356 however persevered.
That night we had a lovely (but cold) prawn curry. The meals continue to be of excellent quality but are rather chilly (and chilli!).
*Not their real name
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