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86thing and rushing to work. It was many years before I got over the initial butterflies when the phone rang unexpectedly. After Christmas we explored various parts of Scotland and Paul and Philip used a metal detector to find bits and pieces at Culloden Moor and elsewhere. Paul made a film of all this. Tigeribu was a fine place to live but the owner missed it as soon as we rented it and decided that she wanted us out for the whole summer. This was obviously impossible for us and as there were no other houses to rent in Findhorn, we looked to buy one. A cottage called Buffavento came on the market and so we put in a bid for %u00a35500.Chapter10The Military Salary had just come in and that meant quite a big pay rise. Before this, married officers got a marriage allowance which amounted to a fair proportion of their pay. In other words, they were paid more than single officers. This changed at about this time and I can only assume that this was how we raised a %u00a3500 deposit. The system of house buying in Scotland was that you put in a bid that was legally binding before a certain date. At that point the bids were looked at and the winning one selected and that was that. The local Solicitor also acted as an estate agent and as an agent for Nationwide. And so, he suggested that we went for an endowment mortgage with the Nationwide as I had 2 life assurance policies at that time. When I filled in the form I got to the %u201clength of mortgage%u201d bit and asked what I should put down as it was a very old house and mortgages were not easy to get. He said leave it blank and see what they come up with. I did and they came up with 15 years. Hence, I had to alter the term of the assurance policies.We moved in in February 1972. The details of the sale included the cooker but one day the vendors called us round and said we would have to buy it. We confirmed with the solicitor that it was included in the sale and so refused to pay more. They then took it with them but it was