a collection of short literary or philosophical extracts
Not all ideas fit neatly into the pages of a book. When I see, hear or read something that moves me—a news story, a snippet of conversation, a musical phrase, a storyline or cityscape—I capture the thoughts it provokes by jotting them down. From art and sports—whether Wimbledon or the World Cup—to politics, love and war, all topics have the potential to spark my imagination.
Taking Chris to buy a suit for graduation, we took a shortcut through an alleyway that linked the downtown parking lot to the mall. Out of a large garbage container, a head popped up. It was a...
The biggest mistake of my life was teaching The Monster to play Gin Rummy. It was Nanny, my English foster mum who first taught me the game as a child. Recalling those days through adult eyes, I now...
If I had to join a two-hour-long queue, my favourite would be waiting in line at Lynden Pindling Airport in Nassau, The Bahamas, a day before Christmas Eve. Imagine a freezing, wind-swept desolate...
Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny was always in a hurry. In 2013, he gave up practicing law to run in the Moscow mayoral election against Putin’s favoured man. Navalny lost yet captured 27% of the vote....
Recently, a friend texted me “Just reached Anaheim. It’s flooded all over. My five-year-old will be so disappointed.” I replied “You will all remember this for the rest of your lives. After all,...
The Romantic Grocery and Gift Emporium stood on a pedestal of steps, four feet above the ground, in the heart of Pyla, a tiny fishing village on the coast of Cyprus. The Emporium would have had a...
Having written the first chapter of my book Chasing Aphrodite, I now searched for an editor. Two answered my call. The first was a 30-year-old blond, lissome beauty. She lived in the area and could...
Wes was the most charming client in my menagerie of accounting clients—a great charm causing me the utmost stress and anxiety. Accounting records were not handed over until almost the very last day...
Finally, I was free… at least for the summer. Laura had taken the boys home with her to the Philippines. I was left a bachelor. On my first Thursday evening alone, I rushed to my Scrabble club—a...
Talking of restaurants, Europe isn’t like back home in Calgary. Despite being branded “Cowtown”, you can find whatever cuisine your heart desires, from Uzbek to Indonesian. In Spain, it seems every...
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Emil Rem, an eccentric accountant becomes a writer of eccentric characters, in exotic locales—each chapter taking us on a trip into his fascinating twisted world. Born to a close knit, middle class Muslim East Indian family in Dar-es-Salam, Africa in the 50’s, he is then moved to Maidenhead England at the age of five. The next twenty years are spent shuttling between England and East Africa, wearing a St. Christopher’s cross one minute and attending church, to wearing a green armband and attending Muslim religious classes in Africa the next. Moving to Canada, marrying a woman from the Philippines and having two boys only adds further texture to his stories.
