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Happy Birthday Bea

27th October 2009 by Helena 3 Comments  

birthday party

Today was Bea’s ninth birthday. I took the day off work to be with her and do all the things she wanted to do. This included being hurled around in some simulator machine that literally had us upside down and to each side and all over the place. Apparently it went on for two minutes, it felt like several hours. The contrast between that and the blissful Yoga Nidra I had just come from could not have been greater.

Following my near-death experience on the cartoon roller-coaster came the search for a pink MP4 player. After two hours we settled on red. Then we had the party.

I have always thought there is far too much food at kids’ parties so I went minimalist. Two pizzas and a birthday cake. No coke or sprite; just fruit juice and water.No one complained about the food or lack of it, and we still have half a birthday cake.

As for the actual party, well I’m not sure how much the guests enjoyed it but Bea had the best time ever. There was a karaoke machine and once I introduced her to ‘Iiiiiiiiiii will always love youoooooo’ by Whitney Houston there was no stopping her. She sang it again and again and again.

She lost all interest in the presents and the bowling (which we never got round to) and the cake. It was only the promise of a manicure (pictured below) that got her away from the microphone.

IMG00051

After the party we went for a walk. “Thank you for the best day ever Mummy, and for inspiring me,” she said hugging me and kissing me. “I am going to be a singer, that’s all I want to do, if I can’t do that I will feel like I have failed.”

Bea sings

Not many people would call my rendition of that song inspiring. In fact I remember when it first came out I drove all my girlfriends mad on a skiing trip singing it endlessly, but perhaps when Bea makes it to number one they will all forgive me.

Maybe a number one hit will be her nineteenth birthday present?

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Children, blog --> Tagged With: birthday, happy

3 thoughts on Happy Birthday Bea

  • mimi says:
    28th October 2009 at 12:28 pm

    Sounds like a lovely mother/daughter day.
    I totally agree with you re party food, it’s ridiculous, and you’re brave to buck the trend. But you’ve been proved right.

  • Lloyd says:
    28th October 2009 at 1:44 pm

    so you have 2 rock stars

  • Arthur says:
    29th October 2009 at 6:21 pm

    Bea looks very glamourous holding her microphone. What is her voice like?
    I agree about the awfulness of wasted food, but What I really detest is that everyone seems to expect a present at the end of the day. Happy b’day, Arthur.

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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. Helena is also working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in spring 2021 as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

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

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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