Every morning at 9 a.m., the bright yellow furniture store opens its doors to a line of customers waiting patiently outside. Staff dressed in yellow and blue polo shirts matching Ikea’s logo greet families as they shuffle through a revolving door the size of a car. Shoppers are welcomed by Read more…
Pascal and I have known each other since we were 13 and in Hong Kong. When you know someone for a dozen years, you’re not really worried about embarrassing yourself in front of them anymore. He moved to Montreal a couple of years ago and I moved to Ottawa last Read more…
In order of height from tallest to littlest, Andrew, Abraham, Casper, Charlie, and I were the closest of buddies from our days in high school. We each went our different ways shortly after graduation, but we always kept in touch and gathered twice every year for old times’ sake. Video Read more…
Adrian, a guy from my international management class stopped me as we walked into the exam room. He’s a tall, well-built football player – if I didn’t know better I’d have thought he wanted my lunch money! “We’re in matching outfits!” He pointed on his blue shirt and then my Read more…
When I went to New York City I really had no great expectations, I knew that I was only there for an afternoon today and gone by lunch tomorrow, nothing more than a stopover. I parked my car illegally in true New Yorker fashion – in front of a garage Read more…
You were in the bedroom cleaning out some of your late husband’s clothes into old brown cardboard boxes ready to donate them to the Salvation Army. Though he was killed in action in the Gulf War over two decades ago you could never really bring yourself to clean out his Read more…
If where I live in the eastern end of East Berlin is the deep east, Westphalia is the deep west of Germany. It is in fact, so far west, that although the mainstream culture and foods are generally the same as in the east, a lot of the special events Read more…
Let me paint you a picture, a dark yet vivid one, of what war is like. Close your eyes and imagine a smoke filled sky, a helicopter buzzes above you and its rotor blades let sunlight through to your face intermittently. You can feel the glow of the sun through Read more…
I got my driver’s license when I was 18 like any other guy who’s loved cars even since I could walk. I learned to drive in about three months and did my driving exam with a 5-speed manual Toyota Hiace commercial van. It was a hell of a van when Read more…
27 it feels like heaven, you’re still young but not so dumb. Having been in and out of several jobs in different insurance companies, you’ve managed to get promoted every time you jumped ship. In fact, you just jumped right into a new job that you thought would finally be Read more…