Hi Marcus, thank you for your reply. I don't have an issue with the timing of your responses. Perhaps I'm "old school" but I find waiting for a reply somewhat romantic in a way. In our crazy world of instant gratification, sometimes it's nice to receive something out of the blue that I wasn't expecting. I also am not someone who commits to something if I'm not 100% sure I can continue with it and writing to you directly is one of those things. I would love to have the time to write letters all day & night but unfortunately my reality is that I'm a single mum, raising 3 children on my own, studying and working so my time for myself is very limited. For that reason, I'm very grateful for Between the Bars. I can come here and learn, share and communicate and get back to what I'm actually supposed to be doing.

I'm not sure how popular BtB is in Australia but I'm pleased you're hearing from people from all over the world. I initially came here to review the site for a university assignment but I enjoy all I find here and plan to stick around for as long as they will have me. I noticed recently that BtB is listed under the list of 'prison blogs' on the Wikipedia page which is available in many languages around the world so who knows where you may get contacted from as time goes by!

You've said here your life isn't easy and you want to hear from others to relieve yourself of the madness in your environment. I guess what I see in the blogs I read, and the replies I offer to many blog posts is that, it's not all that different for each and every one of us. Of course I don't mean to demean the difficulties of living in prison, I realize I can never understand that horror unless I lived it myself, but my point is that we all face our own challenges, we all want our existence to be acknowledged in the world and to be appreciated for who we truly are. That is why this site is so profoundly important. It connects us through our similarities rather than excluding us from each others worlds (which is the physical reality). I am very grateful for the gift BtB gives us, as I'm sure you are.

It's interesting that you ask for pictures of my part of the world, because I recently asked the administrators of BtB if we could add images to our posts and I'm pleased to say, it is something they are currently working on for us :) When I can do that for you through the site, I most definitely will.

I am sorry that I'm not in a position to write to you directly but I will keep reading & commenting on your posts if I find they relate to me or think I have something constructive to add. Thank you for your advice; they are words to live by :)

Don't stop sharing! & Take care!!

Nicki