Chris Parsons’ Blog

  1. website questions and answers 2 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Questions and Answers…

    Hello, I thought you may like to hear a range of questions that have been put to me over the last month and read my replies… Chris, is it true you are about to retire? No, it…

  2. christmas shop 2023 website 1024x668 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Twas the couple of months before Christmas!

    Hello, As news feeds from around the world deliver ever more depressing bulletins, there is one bright note singing out…. Its source – The LandWorks Wood Workshop. The crooner – Graham. The reason – He loves (loves)…

  3. cantstartafirewithoutasparkpicwebsite 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Can’t start a fire without a spark… (part 2)

    Hello, The messages just keep getting clearer. Like somebody is sending a sign. All around us feels fractured. Dave tipped petrol on himself. A desperate cry for help. I know… I’ve read the emergency service transcripts….

  4. flowersforwebsite 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Can’t start a fire without a spark…

    Hello, Sasha’s phone is ringing. She signals for me to listen in. “Hello, it’s the Mental Health team here. I can see it has taken a bit of time for us to get to you… Oh…

  5. randomcake 1 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Random Cake…

    Hello, “Man, I love cake”, is often the shout at around 10.30am, just before tea break. Cake, for high days, celebrations, anniversaries, you name it, a cake is here. Cream, fruit, sponge, chocolate, iced, parsnip, carrot…

  6. website pic circles 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Circles…

    Hello, “Chris, do you think stuff just goes around, is life just a circle of continuous events?” That’s an interesting lunchtime question (I like these, gets everyone chatting) and this from a man who often poses…

  7. Believe sign for website 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    You just have to be there…

    Hello, Building trusting relationships can, on the one hand, be deeply satisfying, on the other, it can be like sand slipping through your fingers. You just have to be there, through the ups and downs, just…

  8. An Oasis of Hope 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Sometimes it just goes wrong…

    Hello, Sometimes it just goes wrong. Even though everything is going right. Josh came here in the Autumn last year. It had taken months to get him to engage. He couldn’t deal with authority. Traumatised from…

  9. acceptance blopg photo 2 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Acceptance…

    Hello, I’ve been wondering for a while how to start this email. Best keep it simple… I guess over the last ten years (I will stop going on about it after this email) for me there…

  10. 10th plaque pottery website 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Day 3650…

    Hello, Day 3,637 Jimmy, one of the first cohort (then a day release prisoner), just sent the following text… “I know that I’m hard work but something that you said and done that hit home with…

  11. Australian Oak Leaf Lettuce 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    G’day…

    Hello, “Mate (Aussie accent), I’ve read your little blog thing for years and mate, all you do is moan. Why don’t you ever say how you would fix it?” Right-oh, good – always encouraging to get…

  12. wall 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Another brick on the wall…

    Hello, “Do you feel that, Chris? You know, the destruction of hope, the pervading sense that we just have to accept all this.” Oh dear, it’s Monday morning, and I had been quite hopeful of just…

  13. tile 1024x669 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Can it go on Grandad?

    Hello, “Alright, Chris, you a Grandad then”. “Er, no”. “Oh, sorry mate, they said you turned 60, my Grandad’s much the same age.” I start to do the maths, but give up…  accepting probably everything is…

  14. Orange trousers website 1024x576 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    Orange Suits

    Hello, “When do you get the orange suits, Chris, the offender jump suits the Government want us to wear? I’m not wearing one of those.” I answer quite simply… “We’re not going to have them here.”…

  15. blog book pic 3 1024x576 - Prisoner Training & Placements
    The Big Book of Blogs

    Hello, Seven minutes, that’s all it takes to get him from LandWorks to the train station, and he must have told me how bad the weather has been recently at least twenty times. My absurdly optimistic…