16/9: When you've used up sixteen of your nine lives.: Vic Baxter

By Vic Baxter

16/9: When You’ve Used Up Sixteen Of Your Nine Lives

Near misses and a few direct hits. Brushes with mortality. Enjoy!

It would seem fitting, as my toe in the water of the world of writing, to describe a number of events which could have precluded me from telling my story.

Mercifully, for me, they didn’t, leading to the birth of this ditty.

I hope you enjoy it, that it stimulates your thoughts as to what a lottery life can be and perhaps allows reflection on you and yours as you forge forward.

It is also my intention that this yarn be a forerunner to a suite of further offerings which shall include, but not be limited to, some the titles listed below, which shall also be found on www.lulu.com quite soon.

With every good wish,

Enjoy!

Vic Baxter

From Under An African Sky: Rip snorting yarns and rumbustious tales from a childhood in Africa, over a decade in the oil industry and ensuing years in a number of amazing countries!

Ticklish Tales from Non-Tourist Destinations: A look back with laughter, spanning fifty years and almost as many countries, including the Americas, the four corners of Africa, the Caspian, the Middle East and parts of Europe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781470951344

Book preview

Dedications

Dr Linda Mary Sutherland

The love of my life

Ali and Laura Baxter who have taught me so much

Encouraged me along the way

And given me so many reasons to get up in the morning, eat, sleep, breath, adventure and…….

put pen to paper

☺

Acknowledgements

Daisy White for having me on three writing retreats

www.sussexwritingretreats.co.uk

Guiding me - supporting me – encouraging me

www.daisywhiteauthor.co.uk

Lisa Brace for mentoring and challenging me

www.lisabrace.co.uk

Preamble

Over the years I have attracted a number of accolades which I hope I have taken in good spirit.

Not all of them, I believe, were meant as compliments  ☺

A sprinkling of these follow:

Vic has used up 16 of his 9 lives! ~ George McNeill – Year 2000 on the Motorola Project.

If this Lone Ranger ever joins the US Cavalry he’ll be lethal – Don Keith, Head of Underwater Operations, Shell Expro – Aberdeen, 1985.

Vic takes complex concepts and explains them in simple terms - Jeremy Daly MBA., Sloane Fellow – CEO ASCo – 1996.

Would Vic really appreciate the finer points of the Club? – Dr John McKinnell, Shell Expro – 1989

That’s the last we’ll see of him - Davie Bogue to Sid Sweeney onboard the Castoro Sei – 1986.

Watch out guys, he’s on his way back to the barge! – Jan Oudehengle, St Martin’s Place, London, 48 hours later – to Davie Bogue and Sid Sweeney.

He’d make a great boss but a terrifying employee - Steve Smith – Shell Oil, 1986.

Do I really need another adventure with this guy? – Jimbo, 1968.

They really are scraping the bottom of the barrel now – Two Helicopter Landing Officers on the heli-deck when he fell over – Fulmar Alpha 1987.

With a KAI rating of 128 how do we get the best out of this guy – Terry Morgan, Head of OD – Shell Expro, Shell Mex House, London –