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Glass half empty or half full?

19th April 2007 by Helena 10 Comments  

Top of the lineI had always thought of myself as a glass half-full as opposed to half-empty type of person. Until yesterday morning. Yesterday morning a parcel arrived containing two large packets of things I had never heard of; one called a Pinnacle Studio Titanium Edition (is there any other?) and a Pinnacle Podcast Factory.

“Great, someone has forged my credit card and bought all this stuff that I have no idea what to do with and AS IF I HAVEN’T GOT ENOUGH TO DO what with finding a commercial director for Liverpool Football Club (along with Bea’s bikini top, I don’t know which is the tougher search), looking after three children alone, writing my next book, ironing for Britain, keeping the pool clean, walking the dog, feeding the fat cat, emptying the dishwasher, making the beds, cooking the meals, doing the school run NOW I have to locate this bloody company which probably doesn’t even exist and try to get my money back and then I’ll have to send the stuff back which means queuing up at the post office, wasting yet MORE time which I don’t have. Gggggrrrrrrrr.

I found the company very easily and was about to call the switchboard when I noticed they have a press officer called Dan. The useful thing about being a journalist is not the money you earn (hence the headhunting as well) but you can get nice people in press offices to do things for you. Dan said he would sort it out straight away but was sure my credit card hadn’t been tampered with.

An hour later the mystery was solved. I had written a blog about the French election for a French website and won first prize for my entry. You didn’t know I was a hot political commentator did you? Well, neither did I.

So my lesson for the day is, as Brian would say; always look on the bright side of life..da dam…da dam.. da dam di dum di dam….or something like that anyway.

And if anyone knows what it is I’ve won, could you please tell me?

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Life, blog --> Tagged With: empty, glass

10 thoughts on Glass half empty or half full?

  • Debio says:
    19th April 2007 at 9:00 pm

    Good God – what no help yet…..?

    I’m so waiting to find out what this ‘package’ is.

    Who knows, I might just rush out and buy it – always assuming I can get the non-Indian version…!

  • aminah says:
    20th April 2007 at 8:12 am

    congratulations!!!!

  • michaela says:
    20th April 2007 at 8:31 am

    Hey, your French can’t be that bad then!

  • Jonathan Miller says:
    20th April 2007 at 8:52 am

    Where do we read this dulcet prose?

  • helena says:
    20th April 2007 at 10:36 am

    Good question – I can’t find the email I had anywhere, this is all I know from the PR girl at Pinnacle:

    This journalist has participated in a program where we were providing gifts. This is a program ran by France24 which THE French international TV channel. During the French presidential elections, they have asked people to contribute to their blog and to reward the best contribution, Pinnacle has provided a Podcast Factory and a Studio 10.

    So, Helena won without knowing it!!

  • Craig McGinty says:
    21st April 2007 at 11:28 am

    Hi Helena

    You have won two bits of kit one of which allows you to record and publish audio interviews (the Podcast Factory) and the other which lets you edit video you take into professional style film clips.

    I’m off to play with the ones that arrived in the post for me yesterday.

    All the best

    Craig

  • helena says:
    21st April 2007 at 1:36 pm

    Hi Craig
    Many thanks, have fun.
    Hx

  • Helena Frith Powell says:
    3rd May 2007 at 10:21 am

    […] So I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for my expert commentary on the Sego/Sarko debate last night (considering I am a prize-winning political commentator see Glass half empty or half full blog). Well here it is. Madame de Fontenay whom I interviewed for my book on French women was right. “She will never be president,” Madame de Fontenay, famed in France for her elegance and strict running of the Miss France beauty pageant, told me. “Her hair is all wrong.” […]

  • Semyasu says:
    26th May 2007 at 5:57 pm

    I wish we had Youtube when I was in school! I would propably could do series on Freaks who tough US! Ha ha ha!!
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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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