Page 110 - Demo

106a lightweight pale khaki type formal uniform. Luckily, we had a crew in Singapore and so I was able to get them to bring me one back. I filled all the details of my sizes in on a form and sent it to Singapore and they brought it back when it was made, probably a few days later. The scheme worked and it fitted. Doing it that way saved a fortune as we had to pay for our own uniforms although we did get an allowance. We set about selling Buffavento and the Scottish system came to our aid. The solicitor suggested we should ask for bids around %u00a310,000 and he did the advertising. Remember, we had bought the house for %u00a35500 and so this was a large mark up. It showed the housing inflation at that time,but we had also done a lot of improvements. Bids had to be in by a certain date and if accepted they were legally binding. We got one bid from an English lady who wanted it as a second home, but the solicitor said that she might not have realised it was a legally binding bid and if she walked away there was actually not much we could do. We then had a visit from an architect from Aberdeen who also wanted it as a second home, but he did not put in a bid. The weekend before bids closed on the Monday, we were down in the Crown Inn having a drink with friends when the architect came up to us and asked for another look round. And so, later when we had finished our drinks and gone home he came round with his wife and they had a really good look around. They looked in all the places that there might have been problems and then asked if we would accept %u00a310,000. I told him that he would have to put in a formal bid through our solicitor. We needed everything cut and dried before I was posted and so an informal type bid did not appear sensible. He said that his solicitor was shut on Monday and so he would not be able to do so. I said that that was his problem and we sent them on their way. I am not sure that without the Dutchcourage from the Crown that I would have been able to do so. The more I think about it now, I think that they were trying it on. They would drop the price later and we would be more or less forced into accepting