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Pain or a needle…?

4th February 2009 by Helena 8 Comments  

Yesterday evening Olivia fell down some steps at the music school chasing Bea. Being Olivia everyone thought she had broken her  arm in about seven places. We rushed off to hospital and the doctor thought the same.
“I will get you an injection of pain killer,” he said.

A nurse showed up with a syringe filled with liquid. The plan being to inject said liquid in Olivia’s back thus relieving the pain. I didn’t like the look of it, but then I have always had an almost pathalogical fear of needles. Olivia didn’t much like the look of it either.
“I’m not having that,” she said.

50ml_disposable_sterilized_syringe.jpg
“What about the pain?” asked the doctor.

Miraculously it seemed a little better.

Two hours and six x-rays later we discovered there were no broken bones.  “You can go to school tomorrow,” said the doctor.

“I don’t think so,” said Olivia. “A sprain is very bad, even if nothing is broken.”

She is at home watching TV while I am pack to go to Goa to interview the author Amitav Ghosh. I can’t wait to see India for the first time. I just hope the children stay out of hospital while I am away. Actually it was Olivia’s first time. “Bea has been lots of times,” she pointed out to the doctor. “But it was mainly my fault. Like the time I dropped a torch on her head from the top bunk.”

Yesterday after almost six years Bea got her revenge.
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Children, Travel, blog --> Tagged With: needle

8 thoughts on Pain or a needle...?

  • Ella says:
    4th February 2009 at 12:03 pm

    Here the truth about how terribly serious this is (from a mail Olivia sent me) “I am in much pain!! but daddy is being very nice and looking after me! I am off school and for the next few years…

    Lots of love
    Olivia xx”

  • Ella says:
    4th February 2009 at 12:05 pm

    Here the truth about how very serious this is (from a mail sent by Olivia this morning telling me all about it)
    “I am in much pain!! but daddy is being very nice and looking after me! I am off school and for the next few years…

    Lots of love
    Olivia xx”

  • Ella says:
    4th February 2009 at 1:55 pm

    Just to let you know how terribly serious the situation is, here from a mail Olivia sent me this morning
    “I am in much pain!! but daddy is being very nice and looking after me! I am off school and for the next few years…

    Lots of love
    Olivia xx”

  • jose says:
    5th February 2009 at 2:01 pm

    Hooray for the trip to India, Helena, I’m sure there’ll be more than flashy cars and tennis stars to report on and tho’ I love the kids’ blogs they seem to be filling in for what’s going on in the background like your work scenario for example. Bon voyage
    and bon blogging!

  • Amber Lee says:
    5th February 2009 at 11:37 pm

    Take plenty of pictures of India! I own a sari and think it’s the prettiest piece of clothing I own.

  • mimi says:
    6th February 2009 at 12:00 am

    Ah sweet! A friend who nursed in Dubai told me that women in labour there screamed so much that they used to give them loads of pain-killing injections. Hope Olivia is better now, and I think she’s right, sometimes a sprain is more painful than a break.
    Have fun in Goa, mimi

  • snusmormor says:
    9th February 2009 at 3:33 pm

    Just to let you know how serious this is, from a mail Olivia sent me.
    “I am in much pain!! but daddy is being very nice and looking after me! I am off school and for the next few years…

    Lots of love
    Olivia xx”

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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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