Near disaster

Posted on June 29, 2010 by helena

Just had this note from our tenants at home…

‘The house is OK but we had a serious fire here yesterday and had to evacuate the area. The hill opposite the house (to the north) was affected with the fire coming over the top from the other side and then travelling along this road towards Gabian. It even crossed the road in a couple of places. All very worrying at the time. Horrible black landscape now.
The fire services disconnected the electricity & therefore water etc but all working again today. However, all the phone lines have burnt down. The cables are molten and some of the wooden poles have been burnt down. Who knows when it will all be reconnected as it looks like a big job.’

I can’t bear to think about our lovely home in such peril. It seems there is a fire every year now. We don’t get there until the end of August, maybe some of the grass will have grown back by then. I have been dreaming about walking up that hill to Julia’s lookout (as we have named the top of the hill) for months and looking out at this view….

The ultimate abusive relationship

Posted on June 27, 2010 by helena

I am watching England v Germany as I write. I have decided that supporting England is like the ultimate abusive relationship.

They do just enough to keep you interested by changing their shirt colour and beating the Netherlands once every few years and even Germany once or twice. You think all the years of suffering was worth it as you get a few minutes of pure bliss.

But then suddenly they can’t even beat the USA and you wonder what on earth happened. Or you sit and watch as the commentator says; “If Waddle misses this England are out of the World Cup.” And of course he does miss. And you never forget that phrase.

Germany has just scored. It is one-nil. And still we watch in the vain hope that there will be a miraculous turnaround and our boys will do something to keep us in the relationship for another four years…..

OK, it’s now two-nil. Porca Miseria.

The difference between girls and boys

Posted on June 21, 2010 by helena

During the car journey back home from Oman we asked the children what they had done that morning.

“We woke up,” said Bea, referring to herself and her friend Polly, “we went for a bike ride up to breakfast and then we had breakfast. We had cut up banana, mango, pineapple and then we ordered waffles. We had an orange juice too. Then we were hungry again and had some more bread.”

Olivia told us that she and her friend Charlotte did much the same, but for breakfast they had “orange juice, some fruit, some cereal and then we ordered bacon and eggs”.

And Leo and his five-year-old friend Max? What did they do? “We woke up,” Leo told us proudly, “and then we played with our willies.”

If you ever wondered what the difference between girls and boys is, there it is. And it doesn’t change.

Popping to Oman for the weekend

Posted on June 20, 2010 by helena

One of the advantages of living here is that you can pop to Oman for the weekend, which is what we did last week.

We drove from Abu Dhabi over the border to the Musandam Peninsula and the exclusive, gorgeous Zighy Bay resort.

Arriving there from the city through a mountain track populated by goats was extremely exciting and romantic. The resort itself has a feel to it a little like a small Spanish village from another era, with sandy tracks the children cycled up and down and wooden huts.

Listening to the sea was glorious, the waves crashing against the beach and hundreds of little crabs scuttling around like over-sized demented spiders.

It was so lovely to see the children outside, cycling around, playing and swimming. They had three friends there and the six of them roamed around in a pack, in total safety, and ordered room service endlessly (eating for kids under the age of 12 was free).

There was a classic line from Bea when she told me off for being caught topless by her young friends; “Mummy, you only have one life and there is no point in spending it naked”.

The four of adults played tennis (once we got Leo and Max, the new Rafa and Federer off the court), read books and watched the England game which was undoubtedly the low-light of the weekend.

Having said that possibly the only thing that was more painful and irritating than witnessing England’s sad performance was watching my husband flirting with a Brazilian woman sitting next to us. What is it about Brazilian women that sends men mad? You just have to mention the word Brazilian and they start salivating and behaving like fools.

As there were no men for me to flirt with I went to bed at half-time hoping that by the time I woke up England would have scored. They hadn’t, but neither had my husband, so I suppose I should be grateful for small mercies.

Happy Birthday to my first-born

Posted on June 14, 2010 by helena

I was a stepmother before I was a mother, to the lovely Hugo and Julia, who were still little enough to really mother and look after.

“This is perfect,” I used to say to Rupert. “Two beautiful children and I still get to keep my figure.”

Then something took over that made me want to have my own beautiful child. And so 11 years ago today, at around 8am English summer time, Olivia was born. Here she is on her first birthday, doing what most babies do, eating the packaging her present came in.

Actually she was not called Olivia when she was born, she was called Holly. I had just seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s for the 104th time and was inspired by Audrey. I should probably have called her Audrey.

Olivia was one of the names we liked, but my best (and only) friend in the village we lived in also had a daughter called Olivia. At the time I could not envisage moving, so it seemed too complicated to have two Olivias.

Then we moved to France and Holly became an impossibility. In French it sounds like ‘to bed’ so I changed her name by Deedpoll.

This morning my beautiful, elegant and very tall Olivia lay in my arms as I kissed her happy birthday and I remembered how her whole little body used to fit on my chest just in between and slightly above my breasts, her favourite sleeping spot. Now of course she wears my clothes, plays piano beautifully and tells me how everything in the world works.

She is a most accomplished, graceful and lovely girl, and I’m very proud of her. Happy Birthday Olivia.

One night in Bangkok

Posted on June 9, 2010 by helena

So I finally get a good night’s sleep, in Bangkok. Probably not what most people come here for but it made me happy. We are here for three days; Rupert is writing a cover story for the Travel section about it.

I did not pack any red clothes, nor any yellow ones. In fact I’m not sure I own any yellow clothes, but it is Olivia’s favourite colour so maybe she should stay away for the time being.

So far the only evidence of any troubles has been the burnt out shell of the Central World shopping centre. But we did have a wobbly moment on a rooftop restaurant last night when we heard some football fans chanting and wondered if the red shirts had come back to town.

I love Bangkok so far. We landed yesterday morning and managed to fit in a massage, tailor-made clothes, very cheap shopping, lots of eating and even a trip on the hotel boat to the other side of the river where honeymooners sat listening to Thai music over dinner.

There is also something extremely serene about a Buddhist country, even if things were less than peaceful a few weeks ago.

Today we have to onerous task of investigating the spa here at the Mandarin Oriental and dinner on a boat this evening.

But for now I am going to breakfast; gorgeous Japanese green tea and tropical fruits. And I look forward to a good night’s sleep again tonight…..

My strategy for Gaza

Posted on June 4, 2010 by helena

Living in the Middle East I see a lot more news about Gaza than I did in France. Here it is a huge story. And of course there is only one ‘right’ side from here.

I am becoming increasingly pro-Palestinian. Obviously I do not condone terrorism or extremism in any form, but having heard about (and seen) the effects of the Gaza blockade, for example, or listened to my friend and former Telegraph man in Jerusalem Tim Butcher tell me the horrific stories of the Israeli bombardment in 2008, I feel very strongly that the people of Gaza need and deserve some good news.

It was heartbreaking to hear that aid destined to alleviate some of their suffering was cruelly snatched away last week with the yob-like attack of the humanitarian flotilla by the Israeli army.

Among those on the flotilla was the Swedish author Henning Mankell whom I have interviewed. He would never have been part of anything violent, however passionately he believes in the Gaza cause. The Israelis have got it badly wrong this time.

I hear the Irish are now sending a flotilla. I think every country across the globe should do the same. What will the Israeli army do when faced with thousands upon thousands of ships all bound for Gaza carrying food and peace activists.

I suppose they might go nuclear on them, but if there were some American ships among them they might think twice…..