My old mate Victor... we go back to '83 - you and Mike Smith were ace salemen flogging cinema advertising in jeans and T-shirts - you defied the suits, always a rebel. Never a dull moment mate - we played guitar, we drank and smoked and partied till dawn. We blagged our way into celebrity parties because you were a Celebrity in your own right and who could argue with that? We climbed the fence and wandered around Luna Park after dark just because we could - never grow up. I remember that cold winter when your beautiful flat in Vaucluse caught fire while we went to the offie for more booze. Still we laughed. You were mates with my brothers Adam and Pete, and my Uncle Ray - the Blue Moon Blues Club in the Cross was your baby for a while too. With Paul and Julia we went Camping, surfing and hungi cooking in the mud at Seal Rocks ...and much, much more. Thanks for making the 80's such a rock 'n' roll decade for me Vic. I'll miss you mate.

we were together each day,speaking, texting or skype....... the longest we have ever spent in 20 years without speaking is 3 days.....it has now been over three weeks...i am lost without you and love you so much.....we were supposed to be at the rodeo......love you Victor babe...xxxx

today we would be going together to the rodeo to photograph.........missing you so much......mornings are the hardest, then the afternoons, then.........xxxxx

my darling Victor, I can still not breathe, nor sleep nor function...I am missing you so very, very much, you were my world.....love you for ever babe, lubba you, spleep well xxxxxx

i am missing you sooooooo very much today....so many thoughts, my heart is broken, I hope you knew how much I loved you....Mary xxxxx

some more photos of us together....I will put in your stories, your films, everything.........love xxx

wow....missing you so much today...this photo you sent me when I was having chemo and was too sick to come over

Today i have driven 9 and a half hours in a car, crying most of the way with all our things from the house......I know you were in the car with me and I feel that you are home.......this is the first time alone without anyone since you died....it still doesn't seem real...Mike Crome sent a card and so many birthday messages for you on email, I'll post them shortly......I have your stories and films...i will never let your memory die.....you were my world, love you darling xxxxx

Today was really hard for me........I went in and gathered up all our things that meant so much.....just when I finished the skies opened up and again cried......Alla and I went to dinner and celebrated you.....I miss you so very, very much....I am still now, missing you......my heart aches.......i love you always, forever babe.......wait for me, no matter how long it takes for me to reach you...xxxxx

Sorrow continues in my heart but I know that you would expect us to make the most of your Birthday, just as you had made the most of your life. Alla and Mary will be there in Armidale to blow out the candles for you. As for me, I shall sing Happy Birthday in hushed tones and drink a toast to you. Much love, Petra xoxo

Today would have been your 56th birthday...we were going to go to the rodeo together soon and do what we did best, go out to dinner and celebrate....for you it was never a birthday but a birth week....so many beautiful birthdays we had together....20 celebrations and just shy of your next.......love you always, Mary xx

There are so many memories of Victor. Some of the beautiful ones involve his cooking. His amazing candlelit dinners at Mum's place where he would cook an Italian feast. His four hour baths after a day at swimming in Wollongong. His sense of humour, calling me Latrine because it rhymed with Christine. We will miss you, we will miss your beautiful songs and amazing stories. Love you Creene xxx

When Victor passed away I received many, many calls from our friends, all expressing their shock, their disbelief and their sadness at the news. I asked many what their favourite memories were, what would best describe their understanding of Victor. The responses that were often repeated ranged from exuberant, fun, extremely intelligent and a little difficult at times. I would like to add theatrical. There was, however, one word that was continually repeated and that was that Victor was a ‘character’ in the true sense of the word. I would have to agree and it was perhaps this quality that I adored and loved the most about Victor. I believe that people can love many in their lives but there is always one true love of your life and Victor was the love of mine. Victor and I spent 20 years together. When you live with someone for that long, you definitely get to know him well. I agree that difficult was a good adjective to describe Victor at times, and I used to joke with Victor that the words Wendy Whiteley used to most aptly describe Brett Whiteley could be quite easily applied to him…’a difficult pleasure’. Victor quite delighted in this description, smiling with his cheeky grin. He liked to push the boundaries and had no time for convention or authority. He was his own man. I loved Victor’s gentleness the most. We could communicate by a glance, know what the other was thinking. He was a true romantic full of surprises. ‘You and me in the universe forever together babe’ was his favourite phrase he would whisper to me. I would receive flowers for no reason only to say ‘I love you’. He would leave me cards full of kisses and hearts, he would write me love letters and love poems which I cherish to this day, his last text to me last week, ‘Be still my heart of hearts’ . Yet he was cheeky. He would write a two page letter to explain the reason why he couldn’t possibly do the dishes as promised as it was such a beautiful day outside and he needed to go for a bounce and do some Op shopping. He would always find a trinket or something a little odd. Victor delighted in the unusual and our house was filled with such items, everything had a story behind it. Victor knew the names of all the old ladies working in the Op shops from Hornsby all the way to Glebe and I say this without exaggeration. I remember being amazed. He would introduce me to them when I would go with him and they would chat and laugh. He loved to charm and they were charmed. This is one of the other qualities I loved about Victor, he would treat everyone the same, from the prince of Thailand who he met when he was president of the Thai Association at Sydney University to the old ladies in the Op shop. He didn’t care for pretence. He also had the gift of persuasion and the love of fun. I remember waking with a fright one morning when I found his long ponytail resting under my chin, him grinning. There were times when I’d arrive home to find that his hair was blue, and another he was bald. We lived in a little run down place on top of a building in George Street, Sydney; his English College was the building next door on the 9th floor. Victor would arrive to work by swinging up on top of the water tank to the roof and hopping through the window of the classroom in the next building, thrilling the students when the class in full swing. I’ll never forget it, he would wave good morning, cross the floor and make his way to his office. They soon got used to it and waited with anticipation for his arrival. One thing Victor loved was an entrance and to test people’s boundaries. I suppose what comes with a love of the unusual is an inquisitive mind and Victor had this. He was highly intelligent. Victor was the entrepreneur. In our time together he was the promotions manager in a newspaper, the Ad Man, had his own column in the local Sydney paper, ‘On the Street’, taught in various English schools, opened his own College, Central City English College which ran for four years and he could even count the French ambassador and his family among his students. He was a gifted teacher. His favourite times at the College would be when it was raining outside, he could hear laughter from the classes inside and he was able to sit in his office and strum his guitar, socialising with the students during the break. Victor was a musician and an artist. He would practice the guitar around seven hours a day, sometimes strumming all night. He wrote his own songs and we sang them together. He played at open mic nights and would always have a delighted audience, as he was quite the entertainer. He was passionate about music and I can say without hesitation that this was one of the most important things in his life. He was also a writer and has many short stories. He never did finish the grand novel that he had been working on for ten years but his children’s poems were accepted by Weldon publishing. We also had ‘Shop’ where he sold his art. His most famous customer who loved his drawings was Keanu Reeves. I quite delighted in that, Victor didn’t realise who he was at the time. Victor’s proudest achievement would have to be the day he graduated as a mature age student from Sydney University with a triple major in Philosophy, Thai Language and Art History and Theory. He graduated again from NSW University with Honours in Art History and Theory and then attained his RSA Certificate for English teaching. We used to have a joke that whoever had the most qualifications was the smartest, I guess he won. Victor on occasion would talk about Armidale and how he was born here and how he hoped one day that we would move here. Time passed and with time comes changes. Victor was able to fulfil his dream and would proudly refer to himself as an Armidilian. It is said that home is not where you live but where they understand you, so I would have to say that I was always at home with Victor even though I remained in Sydney. We spoke everyday, told each other we loved each other with every call. I only saw him a month ago and our last call was planning my arrival again for his birthday next week. It brings me some comfort that our last words to each other were ‘I love you’. I will end with a poem that Victor and I both liked. It rings too true for me now as I have lost my best friend, I am numb, my heart is broken. Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Vic - I came by this tribute page by some act of god. I haven't had much to do with you since our youth at Bankstown High. Today by accident I found at work that your Mum's name had got a quote from my company for a hospital bed in 2004. Its crazy - two days ago I googled names and found out you were gone. Today I found out just how close we lived in Sydney's South. I will always remember Vic as being an attractive intelligent man - we'll all be meeting again one day. From the Boys at Bankstown High - fly high mate!

my love, my best friend, I miss you with each breath

Amanda Chapman

13 years ago

I too came upon this tribute page serendipitiously but there could not be any other Victor but this Victor who was a lovely part of my life in the seventies in Sydney. I still have a photo of him on my wall. A beautiful free-spirited and gentle young man with a gorgeous sense of humour in those youthful days; someone with whom I had shared so much fun and some happy times. I have always wondered what became of Victor. I was saddened to find his name here but delighted to read the tributes and to now he had achieved so well as a mature age student and gone on to do wonderful things with his life. The stories about Victor are so Victor hoping through windows and climbing walls at Luna Park. From Mandy in Sunshine Beach who knew Victor from Artarmon and Amco advertisement days

I visited vic in Hong Kong for a couple of weeks and in that time we managed to be on television in the newspapers and recorded an album in a recording studio. Life was never dull when living with Victor

Victor died two days after I left his home in armidale. I spent a couple of weeks with him and have known him for over thirty years. He was a life long love and friend and I will miss him dearly. You are in peace now Victor All my love Sylvia remember Alister Zout aka v. kaigh