I 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