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Moustache? What moustache?

16th July 2011 by Helena 2 Comments  

When I was a little girl, we lived at a place called Home Farm, just outside Newbury in Berkshire. We rented part of a house on the farm. There was a lot to do in the English countryside; making houses with bails of straw, for example, and cycling around the lanes. But by far my favourite thing was hitting a tennis ball against a wall in one of the large barns. When the calves were there, they would watch if there was no food to eat, but otherwise I was alone.
I was mad about tennis even then. I collected a scrapbook of all the press clipping when Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in1977. I tried to get into the team at my school, Shaw House School for Girls. It was all going swimmingly until I told the captain, Agnes, how to deal with her facial hair problem. I’m not sure she thought she had a problem with facial hair and thus what could have been a celebrated school career was cruelly thwarted. I never even got to try out for the team.

This morning I was delighted to find that Leo has discovered the joys of hitting a ball against a wall. All the furniture downstairs was moved (it is too hot to hit outside) and there he was, blissfully practicing hie forehand and backhand. We even had  a little rally together, us against the wall. The wall won of course, it always does.

I am happy to announce that in addition to the wall, Leo has discovered the joy of playing tennis (we have played every evening since we got back), watching tennis (when I was ill with food poisoning this weekend he lay on my bed with me and watched four hours of tennis clips on Youtube) and learning about tennis (we get lessons from a website called Fuzzy Yellow Balls), as well as talking about tennis at every given opportunity.

This is all ideal for me, because poor Rupert has had enough. “My last wife was obsessed with golf, and you’re obsessed with tennis. Can’t I just have a normal wife?” he complained yesterday as I was telling him of my plans for Leo’s tennis-playing future. Clearly he needs to win Wimbledon, as soon as possible, and my plan is to recruit Rafa as his coach once he retires (just in case you have forgotten what Rafa looks like, here’s his picture).

So as long as Leo stays keen, I will always have someone to talk to, and I won’t ever have to hit a ball against a wall again. Once he starts school again in September I will also impress on him the importance of telling the school captain how fetching his moustache is.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2011


Filed Under: Children, Sport, blog --> Tagged With: moustache

2 thoughts on Moustache? What moustache?

  • Margarita says:
    18th July 2011 at 6:21 am

    Aww, that’s just adorable. Like mother, like son. It’s always such a good feeling to find out your kin has the same interests that you do.

  • cosmetic surgery poland says:
    17th October 2011 at 8:23 am

    nice article

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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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