Made it through the weekend and got to the exercise yard for half an hour yesterday afternoon. Walking round a piece of tarmac the size of a school playground surrounded by a 30 foot wire fence topped with razor wire, still beats being stuck in a cell for 23 hours. There were about 30 guys altogether, some seeing how many press ups they could do, the rest either walking round or sitting on the floor chatting. Freezing cold, but determined to stay outside until we were called in. Sean says it will be better to start pestering them tomorrow about my categorisation, that way they will have had a least one full weekday to do the paperwork. He also mentioned a small blue book you can get on the internet that has all kinds of stuff in it about making sure you get categorised quickly and loads of other really useful information. He couldn't remember what it was called - I must ask the wife to have a look for it.

Managed to phone home yesterday and held it together. The kids were great, but I need to see if I am being moved from here before I even think about letting them visit. This is the last place I want them to see me if I can avoid it.

The noise here during the night is unbelievable. It seems the officers ignore most of the cell call bells so people just bang, shout and yell. They also seem to be able to have ongoing conversations with their mates on other wings by shouting through the windows right through the night. Luckily I have never been one to have trouble sleeping so despite the steel bed and the noise, still get off quite easily – Sean seems amazed. I’ve told him to stay in charge of the TV. I am getting by better with the radio and my notebook, I never did follow TV anyway.

When you are locked up for such long periods four tea bags don’t go very far, so I am now leaving them in for shorter periods and reusing them. It turns out I will be given a ‘canteen’ sheet tomorrow and this will show a credit for the money I brought with me, less the £4 for the biscuits I was given on arrival and the £2 phone credit which has now run out. Canteen is what they call the prison shop, so I have to put on the form what I want from their list and it gets delivered to the cell later in the week. The main thing I need is phone credit but it may take more than a week for them to approve the phone numbers I submitted on the phone sheet. They have given me one free letter which they will put through their post system, so I’ll use that to write home. Better get some stamps as well as phone credit, never thought to bring any with me.

This place feels very dangerous. I did use the shower this morning and that seemed OK. I am sure, or certainly hope, some of my fear is unfounded. Nevertheless this place is the pits. Lets hope for some good news tomorrow.