Recent Posts - page 2

  • ‘Margaret’ and Me

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    In the early ‘seventies the heavy demand for divers to work on the North Sea gas and oil platforms exceeded supply.  Wages were high.  So was the diver mortality rate. Confronted by a harsh environment and difficulties not previously encountered… Read More ›

  • “Water, Water, Everywhere. ….”

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    A reminder to never again take a valuable resource, like water, for granted with a tale of a long-ago visit (nominally, as the, “Associate Manager – Asia” for the Australian Financial Review) to a country that, then – the late… Read More ›

  • Vale John Whitehead

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    Death seems intent on proving itself to me to be life’s last ‘Great Adventure’. On the weekend of October 4th & 5th 2025, yet another of my closest – and longest lasting – friends died.  John Whitehead was a man… Read More ›

  • Dive ‘Talk’ 3 – Visual

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    A continuation of the two earlier pieces on underwater communications, “Dive ‘Talk’ 1 – Manual”, and, “Dive ‘Talk’ 2 – Accoustically Speaking.” Flags: Flown from a vessel tendering to divers, or from a tethered surface safety float – especially when… Read More ›

  • If – by Rudyard Kipling

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    I always tried …. “If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If… Read More ›

  • The Cell Door Saga

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    On Tuesday, 13th April, 1999, John Lippmann, the late, Bob Ramsay, Grahame Weir and myself settled down in the former Billiard Room at Raffles Hotel, Singapore, for a quiet little drink as a prelude to the start of the following… Read More ›