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Birthday blues

16th December 2008 by Helena 8 Comments  

Happy Birthday to meToday is my birthday. So why am I not elated? I don’t know. I have woken up with a splitting headache and grumpy as hell.

“I think you must be in your forties by now,” said Rupert when he woke up, which didn’t help matters.

I suppose the fact is it is just like any other day; the remote control still doesn’t work, we’ve run out of milk, my amazon rating is crap and the bills still need paying. But there is the pressure of having to make it special. Or feeling depressed if it’s not special. And terribly sorry for myself.

What to do to make it special? An episode of Sex and the City I think. And maybe they will have bought a cake at work. Obviously I won’t be eating any. Fat and old is no way to go through life. Well, maybe just a sliver.
As George Harrison said: “All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.”

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: Life, blog --> Tagged With: birthday, blues

8 thoughts on Birthday blues

  • Jo says:
    16th December 2008 at 9:10 am

    Have a wonderful birthday Helena – have some champagne, get your nails done, buy a new lipgloss – and remember it’s a lot lot colder here in France so being tanned and warm is a much better look!

    Enjoy! Jo x

  • Anthony says:
    16th December 2008 at 9:30 am

    Dear Helena,

    You have a lovely family, a devoted husband, a successful life and more experiences under your belt than most people get in a lifetime. Celebrate your birthday and think of the phrase “in your forties” as a glass-half-full sort of thing.

    Happy birthday – I’m sure that your next year will be just as lovely as the previous ones.

    A

  • helena says:
    16th December 2008 at 9:33 am

    Thanks, I a beginning to feel less sorry for myself!
    Hx

  • Barbara says:
    16th December 2008 at 8:48 pm

    Drink wine, eat cake and burn it off with passion.
    Love bx

  • Patricia Rodriguez says:
    17th December 2008 at 5:23 pm

    Dear Helena,

    Happy belated Birthday!

    And don’t feel so sad please! You are 40 and fabulous! (Didn’t you learn anything from Sex and the City?!)

    Sorry, I’m a mum…I’m used to scolding people…

    You are a fabulous, talented, gorgeous woman…AND you changed my life…after I had the baby and was feeling the blues and looking like…well a woman that just had a baby…I bought your book and put it into practice and immediately felt fantastic about life and myself!

  • Elena says:
    23rd December 2008 at 3:09 pm

    Dear Helena,

    I can’t even imagime you being grumpy. your books bring so much pleasure and motivation and encouragement. When I’m down I just pick up 2 lipstics and a lover and somehow things seem better.

    Heartiest congratulations!! a bit late but nevermind – that’s not lost that comes at last! There is no time more fitting to say THANK U!

    Elena

  • helena says:
    23rd December 2008 at 4:08 pm

    Thank you Elena, what a lovely thing to say.
    Hx

  • Josephine says:
    27th December 2008 at 11:15 am

    Happy Belated Birthday Helena.
    I’m always glad to celebrate another birthday. Better to still be on the twig to do so. xx

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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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