by Emil Rem | Aug 14, 2025 | Analects
I met Hazel on my first trip to Cyprus. Thin as a twig, white-haired, she strode along the promenade in front of my hotel in Pyla, a seaside village on Dhekelia Road. Her beige McGill University cap matched her shorts. Hazel drew my attention by annoyingly outpacing...
by Emil Rem | Aug 7, 2025 | Analects
What was I thinking? I had got myself lumbered, training as an accountant at £600 a year ($1,200), with two weeks’ unpaid study leave to pass my exams. I was 18 years old, a high school failure, scraping into a CPA programme by the skin of my teeth just before its...
by Emil Rem | Aug 6, 2025 | Analects
Being bachelors, Joe—my boss—would regularly take me out for late-night supper. Calgary, being a sleepy town, only had one place serving food at that hour: Chinatown. The only restaurant open until 4 a.m. was the Golden Inn. Joe, a real estate mogul worth hundreds of...
by Emil Rem | Jul 24, 2025 | Analects
A rarity in the interviewing world once asked me, “You seem unsure of what you are. One minute you say you’re a writer, another minute an author. Which are you?” The question haunted me, as I was dissatisfied with either title. At the age of five, I was parcelled off...
by Emil Rem | Jul 17, 2025 | Analects
“How did you get from mistakenly entering Canada Immigration in London to sitting here in front of me in Calgary?” By now, the lunch-hour crowd had thinned at La Petite Pâtisserie. My time was also running out. Mike shrugged apologetically. “These days, it’s hard to...
