I wanted to write since I was yay high, but didn’t get round to it until I was 60. Having completed the second chapter of my first book Chasing Aphrodite, I hit a mental block. The chapter completed was about a Filipina caretaker sitting beside me on a 150 km bus...

“Old Collins won’t like that.” It was Gary, my colleague at the accounting firm of Collins Barrow, Calgary, Canada. He was staring at the 5,000 piece, all-red jigsaw puzzle spread across the coffee table in my office. “You’ll be accused of wasting precious chargeable...

Yahya Sinwar was born in Khan Yunis refugee camp in 1962 to a family who fled from Ashkelon during the 1948 Palestine War. At the age of 27, Sinwar was given four life sentences by Israel for the killing of “collaborators”. He spent 22 years in prison before being...

“Not another museum!” my boys chimed in together. “It’s not a museum. It’s a modern-day cathedral, still being constructed. A masterpiece in the making,” I pleaded. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day in Barcelona. “Can’t we go to a beach or park instead?” Our...

Years ago, I attended a meeting held by The Forum Group. Their pitch was directed at those dissatisfied with their lives. For $600, you were promised a course that would turn your life around. The facilitator, uncannily dressed like a Mormon, in a smart black suit and...

“Where are we?” Laura asked. “I don’t know,” I answered in bewilderment. “But you booked the trip, remember? Our hotel was supposed to be overlooking the Bund and the Oriental Pearl Tower.” “Well, I did ask for a hotel in Pudong in that area. Our travel agent must...

Calgary was booming. Collins Barrow, Accountants were desperately short of team leaders. Being of British heritage, the firm decided to recruit from England. They handed the task over to Pat Cashion, their youngest partner. He was in his late twenties, when the...

The Rock Hotel balanced itself precariously on its perch halfway up a hill, on Europa Road, as narrow as an alleyway. Its squat, sparkling-white structure sprawled across the hillside exuding an image of the white cliffs of Dover—appropriate, being Great Britain’s...

“What do you mean you detected a fraud at the hotel?” the senior partner of Collins Barrow, Chartered Accountants of Calgary, Canada exclaimed incredulously. “We’ve never found a whiff in 20 years.” Twitching, I let loose a dry cough. “Z-tapes, sir. As part of our...

The 2 essential lessons I’ve learned in life (and please don’t tell my wife) are: You cannot be an accountant if you can’t add. The difficulty of getting fired. On a cold, rainy January morning I entered the portal of Hale and Company, Chartered Accountants of...