The Last Hurrah.
Some men are born and die young, whilst others cross the Jordan: in their dotage, in their bed, unmourned, unfulfilled, unloved and unknown. This story is not of such an individual, but of one that quite simply, refused to lie down.
He had been blessed by fate, and the ability to both recognise opportunities, combined with a stubborn streak in his character to play life's cards as they were dealt.
So from where does the tale begin? In a rough bar in Hertfordshire in England is as good as any. He had been assigned to a new project in Vietnam and was currently in the process of
getting through the logistics of; medicals, visa applications and the other paraphernalia of current day expatriate mobilisation.
The job had been described in what euphemistically had been termed " challenging." In other words it was a c**k up. His predecessors in the new position had numbered three, all now banished unwept into the wilderness of a career graveyard. The site, a new petrochemical refinery 200 miles south of Hanoi had already sustained a number of industrial fatalities and a a safety record, not quite bordering on the last "War of Independence " as it was called in local parlance, but not exactly anything to be proud of either.
So, this was, at the current juncture, the twilight zone; this bar at home base, where he sat perched on a stool wondering what the future held. A new country, like a new woman always holds a fascination to those possessed of a fervid imagination. It was therefore understandable; that, a degree of equanimity had infused itself into his persona suitably reinforced by the imbibing of the genius of draught Guinness followed by multifarious Jack Daniels and coke.