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No school tomorrow….

6th January 2009 by Helena 5 Comments  

So I was watching the Murray-Nadal final when my mobile phone (on silent) vibrated. There was a message from an unknown number. “No school tomorrow” it read. This was good news. Jet-lag had set in and getting up at 6.30am was not a great prospect. But who was this mystery bringer of good tidings?

“Great,” I replied. “Are you sure?” I was hoping the response would give me some clue as to who it was. It came within seconds. “Yes,” it read.

Rupert and I congratulated each other on our good fortune and then continued to watch the tennis. Then my brain started working. Why was someone from a French school sending me messages in English? None of the mothers speak to me in English, the teachers are all French. There was only one thing for it. I called the number.

“This is Angela,” said a voice. Angela is staying with us. Angela has a blackberry. Olivia and Bea have been taught by my friend Mo to use a Blackberry. They don’t like school.

blackberriesalign-right.jpg

I was not sure whether to be furious or rather proud of their high-tech skiving attempt. Whatever else it made us laugh and brought back memories of tricks I used to pull, like putting the thermometer on a hot light bulb before showing it to my mother. That seems rather old-fashioned in comparison.
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Children, blog --> Tagged With: school, tomorrow

5 thoughts on No school tomorrow....

  • sharyn g says:
    6th January 2009 at 8:35 pm

    HIGH TECH HOOKIE! HOW CLEVER??
    HOWEVER re you going to keep up with them if they were able to pull this off now? I can’t wait to hear the stories once they are old enough to date boys. They will lead you on a merry chase before they are grown. LOL!!!!!!!!

  • mimi says:
    7th January 2009 at 11:47 pm

    Brilliant! I loved this one! In boarding school, we used to put blotting paper in our shoes, which made us faint and got us a day off. After one day in the infirmary, with infirmary food, we were ready to face school again.
    And you know what, now I’m a teacher and there are days when you’d give anything for that text that would say “no school” and would’nt question the source!
    Bless their little hearts. mimi

  • margaret says:
    8th January 2009 at 1:08 pm

    Mimi, why would blotting paper make you faint? Or am I being thick and you will tell me to write it out 100 times!

  • mimi says:
    9th January 2009 at 12:17 am

    Margaret, not sure, but honestly, it did, we thought it was something to do with drawing blood away from your heart?? Anyway, it was an innocent scam, but we were innocent, non-tech kids! mimi

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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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