In 2002 Nicolaides had published Concierge Confidential, a collection of fictional short stories based on his experience of having worked for seven years as chief concierge at Melbourne's Rydges Hotel.[2] He lived in Thailand from 2003 to 2005, working as a teacher in the northern Thai city Chiang Rai. Nicolaides later also lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, and wrote an article about the country as he perceived it, for The New Statesman.[3]