Author Archives: Andy Ahmed
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat: The Sound of Pennies Dropping (The Penultimate Part)
I’d established in my mind that my girlfriend was a wonderful girl who constantly made me deliriously happy all the time we were together, but that severe tensions were growing on account of her dysfunctional family – none of whom…
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat 17: Missing All the Clues
She seems to endure a very stressful time whenever she sees her family and always returns having not slept or eaten which in her present fragile condition leaves her looking sallow and haggard, yet despite me not cutting her any…
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat 17: White Knight Syndrome
As my sweetheart set off for her homeland on New Year’s Day to deliver the final payment to the bent cops who were threatening to evict her parents, she instructed me to visit her workplace to find out the current…
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat 13: A Wave of the Magic Wand
A phrase I hear so often in Cambodia which drives me mad is, “Don’t think too much!” In hindsight, after reading over my memoirs, I guess I was somewhat guilty of over-thinking things at the expense of seeing the obvious….
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat 12: Up Close and Personal
I concluded the last memoir with a summary of the terrible situation befalling the cashier I was sweet on. Desperately clinging onto her virtue in a hostess bars where her staff were ripping off idiot westerners for fortunes, she was…
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat 11: The Look of Love
In the last couple of articles I’ve been focussing on the voluntary work I was doing, leaving my ‘love-life’ in abeyance. I guess it’s time to return to that topic now. I’m about five months into my life in Phnom…
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat 10: Volunteering Part 2
I’ve been recounting my attempts to ‘make a difference’ through seeking out worthy educational projects that help poor children. One I had immediate reservations about; the other seemed perfect, and in this entry I get rather carried away in my…
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat 9: Volunteering
Last time I explained the obstacles I was facing trying to get street children an education, and how I couldn’t support the activities of the NGOs I’d come across in those early days. I soon, however, began to uncover some…
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat 8: The Dilemma of Helping Vulnerable Street Kids
Last time I began to discuss my intention to provide an education to the deserving Riverside street-children selling books and flowers to tourists. Despite my background in establishing schools for streetkids in India and Nepal, I found Cambodia to throw…
Memoirs of a Grizzled Expat: Waking Up (The End)
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So about three months into our relationship the increasingly frequent and bizarre episodes that would befall my beloved, all of which required remuneration to resolve, suddenly made sense. She had been concealing a sickness from me – an addiction. Having…