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A New York Proposal

9th May 2007 by Helena 1 Comment  

The Queen and her JokerSo it seems the Queen and I were in America at the same time. I wonder how different our visits have been. While I was recovering from a day of exhausting makeover treatments in my hotel room (actually I spent most of the evening trying to find a light-switch, why do they have to make things so complicated?) she was dining with the world’s most stupid person, sorry, president and a list of esteemed guests that included people like A. Jerrold Perenchio, chief executive, Chartwell Partners (who?) and other riveting A-list names like Joseph J O’Donnell, chief executive, Boston Culinary Group along with Clay Johnson III from the Office of Management and Budget. “Eat your oysters, Your Majesty,” he was probably telling her. “They were very expensive.” And just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, Margaret Becket shows up.

The only person on this list of “dignitaries” I can imagine she would have been remotely excited about meeting at the state dinner was a certain Calvin Borel who won the 2007 Kentucky Derby. At least she would have known who he was, unlike me, when I sat next to champion jockey Richard Dunwoody and asked him if he’d ever ridden in the Grand National.

“I’ve won it three times,” he said.

BradAnyway, my point is this. You’d think with being Queen you might be allowed to invite whoever you want to dinner. There were no names on that list that I would have asked for. And several were glaringly absent. What fun is a dinner at the White House without Brad Pitt, for example, or Dr McDreamy, or George Clooney? About as much fun as a trip in Upper Class without a Colin Frith look-alike. Talking of which, I am writing this from Premium Economy. Of course had I been upgraded I would have been asleep by now…….

But the upside is that I am sitting next to a nice young man who was stood up by his girlfriend the night before they were meant to fly out to New York where he was planning to propose to her and take her to Tiffany’s to buy an engagement ring for thousands of dollars.

He had the whole thing arranged; a suite at the Waldorf Astoria, limo from the airport, romantic dinners, unlimited shopping budget. But she chucked him on the phone the night before they were due to leave after five years of being together. Being a sweetheart he took his niece instead.

If any of you are interested in a New York proposal, let me know and I’ll pass on your details to him.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Love, Travel, blog --> Tagged With: proposal

One thought on A New York Proposal

  • Peggy says:
    9th May 2007 at 9:37 pm

    George Bush looks like a bellhop in a 40’s movie.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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