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Mrs Sneeze

14th February 2008 by Helena 7 Comments  

MedicineI have been struck down with a horrible flu. I must have sneezed around 700 times during the last two days. I dread to think how many brain-cells I have killed. All around the house there are bins filled with tissues. My head hurts, my body hurts, my nose is as red as a traffic light (not a good look) and I feel miserable.

I once killed a cold in its early stages by drinking a bottle of red wine and then taking to my bed. As a cure it beats Lemsip and garlic cloves. One theory is that alcohol dries you up, so at least your nose stops running. Despite my efforts over the last two nights to drink as much red wine as I can the cold is still here, lingering and victorious. I hate it.

I have just sent off the proposal for my next book which is all about happiness. One of the theories I put forward is that we should count our blessings when we’re not ill and be jolly happy to be healthy.

Well, I will certainly try to follow my own advice, once this damn flu clutters off. You’d think it might have given me Valentine’s Day off. How can I possibly kiss my husband (who is looking after me very well) when I can’t breathe through my nose?

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: Books, Life, blog --> Tagged With: sneeze

7 thoughts on Mrs Sneeze

  • Graham says:
    14th February 2008 at 10:05 am

    Poor Helena.

    I sympathize. Mine lasted for three weeks. Not the sniffles, but the throat and the bronchal bits. If they ever publish The Guinness Book of Coughing, a page or two will be devoted to me.

    Everybody has had it or is due for it. Yesterday, a neighbours cat crossed my terrace and I’m sure I heard it sneeze.

    Relax, keep warm, take liquids. Good advice and possibly an excellent headline for Florida Vacations too.

    G.

  • Sharyn G says:
    14th February 2008 at 5:35 pm

    I had an upper respiratory infection that was heading into bronchitis for two weeks. After two different antibiotics I was finally on the mend. I drug my self around for so long in my weakened condition that I promptly caught a 36 hour stomach bug which meant that I couldn’t keep anything down except saltines and water. I wish people could take off and stay home when they are sick. There is a great big target painted on my back saying “germs enter here.” I hope you are soon feeling better!

    Sharyn

  • helena says:
    14th February 2008 at 7:59 pm

    Thanks all, I am feeling better, thanks to something my husband discovered which is a natural antibiotic made from grapefruit seeds, in French it’s Pepins de Pamplemousse. Am feeling much better and limited my red wine intake this evening to two glasses. Obviously I drank a bottle of white beforehand.
    Hx

  • Sev says:
    14th February 2008 at 10:48 pm

    Glad to hear you are feeling better. I agree about the red wine cure. Two days ago I began to feel really rough in the evening, so I drank a bottle of red wine and had a large whisky before bedtime. Woke up the next day feeling fine. All my friends seem to have been dropping like flies. So far I’m ok.
    It’s my birthday tomorrow and I thought we might go to Pezenas for lunch. Anywhere you can recommend?
    Sev x

  • helena says:
    15th February 2008 at 9:22 am

    Hello Sev
    Yes, if you like modern/trendy then go for L’Entre Pots 8 av Loius Montagne 0467900000 if you like tradtional French then Les Marronniers 6 av Verdum 0467901380.
    Happy Birthday!
    Hx

  • Graham says:
    16th February 2008 at 5:25 pm

    I would avoid L’Entre Pots. Possibly the rudest waiters in France – quite a feat. More interested in décor than food. Expensive and full of monolingual Brits who do not seem to mind being ripped off and talked down to. Good desserts though. Les Marroniers is better.
    G.

  • Lloyd says:
    19th February 2008 at 1:41 am

    Always found that Grappa was the best cure-all….Unfortunatly for me when in New York and I used Grappa, I would always wake up with the same girl, who closely resembled The Joker from Batman…….But please give it a try

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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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