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I need a Ferrari

2nd April 2007 by Helena 3 Comments  

An eventful weekend, which began with me driving into the back of someone while gazing at a Ferrari.

I don’t know what it is about red Ferraris that get me so excited, maybe it’s genetic. Cars normally leave me cold. Anyway, there we were, me and the children, at a roundabout in Beziers bored after a long day’s shopping looking for exactly the right piece of gym kit and dance shoes.

Suddenly I spotted it, about four cars ahead in the lane to the left of us.

Dangerous“Look,” I yelled. “A Ferrari.”

The children all flew out of their car-seats and pressed their faces up against the window.

“Get closer,” they commanded in unison. “I want to show them Leo’s jacket,” said Olivia (Leo has a Ferrari jacket, bought for him by my aunt along with a remote-control Ferrari that probably cost more than our car before she stopped speaking to me).

Two cars moved and now we could just about hear the Ferrari revving seductively. We had opened all the windows despite sub-zero temperatures and even turned Take That off (a rare occurrence). I was so keen to get up alongside this demi-god of cars so that I went straight into the car in front.

The driver was a woman; her husband was sitting next to her peacefully reading his newspaper (at least until we crashed into him). He stormed out of the car, carrying said newspaper, which I thought he was going to hit me round the head with.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“Sorry,” I said. “I was looking at the Ferrari.”

“Oh,” said the man following my gaze. “That’s alright then, no damage done.”

“Sshh,” said Bea. “We’re trying to listen to it.” The sound was divine and dangerous; like a big cat getting ready to pounce.

The Ferrari sped off and I felt a terrible longing deep down inside. Olivia must have felt the same.

“I need a Ferrari,” she announced.

Knowing her, one day she’ll have one. I hope she lets me have a go now and then.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, France, blog --> Tagged With: ferrari

3 thoughts on I need a Ferrari

  • Marianne says:
    2nd April 2007 at 12:16 pm

    I once had a blind date with a man who drove a red Ferrari. I found him in the Sunday Times personal column, and in the ensuing email correspondence, he debated whether to meet me in his red Ferrari or his red Bentley. I was driving my beaten up but much loved old Renault. However, my conclusion at the end our date was that the cars were actually compensating for something. Definitely not worth crashing my car for at any rate.

  • Elle says:
    2nd April 2007 at 8:01 pm

    Glad to hear I’m not the only one getting excited by a Ferrari. I sometimes have to pretend I do it for my son but it’s really me. I always have to look inside as well and am secretly disappointed if it’s not driven by a man with big hands and a gorgeous face.

  • Sally Lomax says:
    3rd April 2007 at 2:56 pm

    I’m SURE she’ll let you have the odd drive!

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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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