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Guest Blog by our man on the golf course Ivor Shank

19th October 2009 by Helena 2 Comments  

As the world wakes up to a new Formula 1 racing champion in the shape of England’s Jenson Button – which is a bit of a blow to Abu Dhabi’s upcoming race in a couple of weeks – I bring news of another champion. Olivia the golfer.

She set out today to the Abu Dhabi Golf & Equestrian Club in confident mood. “I am going to win,” she said, in the manner of the great Walter Hagen, who once held a party to celebrate his victory in the Open the day before the final round. “And I am going to pick up the trophy.”

golfing olive

We wondered how we would break the news to her if she didn’t. She has not played much golf, and when she does, although she has a very elegant swing and expansive follow-through, as often as not she misses the ball altogether.

Dismissing all thoughts of failure, she stood on the first tee today and smote her first drive down the fairway to within 35 feet of the hole. Instructed by her caddy, her father, to take the Texas wedge (a putter) she knocked it to within 8 feet, and lagged it nicely for a par. So far, so good. But surely it couldn’t last?

In nonchalant mood, she strolled to the next hole, called for her 5 wood, practised a couple of times, then hit the ball straight as a die to within 20 feet of the cup. She looked on amused as her brother swished and missed his way to the green, where after tacking up and down a couple of times, he settled for an 8. This followed his 10 on the first hole.

Her first putt was a bit short, but the second stopped inches from the hole. She tapped in for another par, muttering to herself that she should have holed the first putt.

And that was that, two holes in eight shots. The end of her first tournament, and able to call herself a scratch golfer, for so far in her career she has not dropped a shot. At the awards ceremony in the club, she picked up her trophy, having established a club record, and beaten the boys to boot.

Then she went on to solve the Israeli Palestinian problem, turned water into wine, did her French homework and went to bed, for it had been a long day.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Children, Sport, blog --> Tagged With: course, guest, shank

2 thoughts on Guest Blog by our man on the golf course Ivor Shank

  • Cate Jumeirah says:
    19th October 2009 at 3:50 pm

    Playing golf is always far easier than French homework, as is turning water in to wine, come to think of it. Well done Olivia!
    Re Abu Dhabi F1 race, Helena, tell anyone that matters that the tickets are vastly overpriced. Boys in the office doing their sums today reckon it’s cheaper to fly to KL for the Malaysian than get similar seats at race in AUH.

  • Jennifer says:
    20th October 2009 at 2:06 am

    Oh, my, she looks like she takes no prisoners!

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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. She writes a beauty blog www.beautyorbeast.uk.

Her third novel, The Arnolfini Marriage, based on a romance that evolves around a van Eyck masterpiece came out in 2016. As well as contributing regularly for newspapers and magazines, writing short stories and studying for a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge, Helena is also working on a thriller called Welcome to Smullö that will be published in spring 2020.

Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and came out in paperback in April 2018.

Helena was educated at Durham University and lived in the Languedoc region of France for eight years, where the family still have a home. She lives between there and London 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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