1971, and the Commonwealth Prime Minister's Conference is being held in Singapore. Myself and Charlie C are downtown from Tengah for the evening, in the Orchard Road "Pig's Bar" (the Hilton).
We chat to an English civilian at the bar, who turns out to be a diplomat from the High Commission, and he is looking for some UK expats to attend a reception at the Presidential Istana. Sounds good--drinks, food, girls etc.
On the day we roll up with invitations, dapper in our tropical lounge suits, and have a high old time, circulating and getting to chat to Ted Heath, Lee Kuan Yew et al. All as advertised--drinks, food, girls.
Gravitate eventually next to a group which has AOC FEAF, his ADC, the Tengah staish.....and our CO. Grinning winningly, we start having a good conversation with the AOC, who is in official-reception-chat mode. Charlie and I, who are both ex-minor-public-school, can at least "talk proper" and have half decent social skills.
I remember answering the AOC (truthfully) that we were "aviation engineers" when he asked us what we were doing in Singapore, when our CO starts to twig and thankfully gets a twinkle in his eye and starts to smile. Still grinning winningly, we sidle gracefully away.
At the end, the AOC spots us and invites us to guest at the Changi OM "as it's near to where you are at Payar Lebar". Our CO, by now highly amused, gently suggests the Tanglin Club as an alternate, so off we go for an hilarious couple of hours getting pi**ed.
The next working day, the CO calls us in. Still greatly amused, he congratulates us for not embarrassing the AOC or the staish, and "gently suggests" that we keep absolutely schtum about the evening.
I wonder if today's crop of hoccifers would have the good heartedness to act as he did!