Heaven

DAY 374 SATURDAY 27 JULY 2002

7.00 am

They have turned off the central heating today, which is all you need to know about the way North Sea Camp is run.

10.00 am

My first day out of jail for a year.

Mary picks me up and, as the press are waiting at the gatehouse, we avoid Boston. We end up in a field of cows, eating a picnic. Heaven, even if the press do get the inevitable picture. [32]

Over a lunch of turkey and ham salad, followed by Cheddar cheese helped down with a Diet Coke, Mary and I discuss her new responsibilities as chairman of Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

After a drive around the countryside, Mary takes me back to NSC just after five, as she is flying to Japan tomorrow, to address a conference.

On your first town visit, you’re not allowed beyond the environs of Boston (ten miles) and must return to the camp by 7 pm. Next week, assuming I’ve broken none of the rules, strayed beyond the ten-mile limit, had a drink or committed a crime (shoplifting the most common), I will be allowed to travel an ‘as the crow flies’ distance of fifty-five miles, which takes in Cambridge and Grantchester.

On returning to the hospital, I decide to pick up a phonecard and call Mary to thank her for all she’s doing. I go to the drawer by my bed to discover that my phonecards are missing. It’s a few minutes before I can accept that a fellow inmate has broken into the hospital and stolen all my phonecards (eight, worth £16). Don’t forget that I earn £11.70 a week. But when I check the window opposite my bed, I notice that it’s not on its usual notch. So now I know how the thief got in.

I’ll have to borrow a couple of cards from David, two from Stephen and two from Tony if I’m going to survive the coming week.