Under Contract

After four days on the market the house is under contract.

The buyers are serious — they put down $8,500 in earnest money backed by an $85,000 down-payment. The sale is now contingent on a home inspection scheduled for Saturday (fingers crossed all goes well).

We have boxes arriving today so we can get a few things packed early and out of the way. Last week I made a trip to some friends’ house in VA Beach to store some goods and next week I’ll be driving to Indiana to store more things there. I had no idea there were so many things restricted or banned from import to Singapore.

Dutiable/Restricted Items

• New furniture subject to duty
• Prescription drugs
• Alcohol and tobacco products (highly discouraged, very high duties)
• Book and magazine publications examined randomly
• Video tapes, laser discs, cassettes and films are highly discouraged and if imported are subject to censorship

Prohibited Items

• Narcotics
• Chewing gum (not kidding)
• Guns, weapons, ammunition and firecrackers (violation punishable by death)
• Pornographic or politically controversial materials
• Hand-held radio transmitting devices
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