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Restez Zen…..

5th October 2008 by Helena 2 Comments  

One of the most brilliant flashing motorway signs I ever saw was in France on the road from Paris down south. “Restez Zen” flashed above us in big neon letters as we sat in a traffic jam on our way home.

It is this attitude I am trying very hard to adopt as I come to terms with the fact that our dream apartment has fallen through.

There is something almost lyrical in the inevitability of it. We were due to move next week; we had organised the money (well, almost); I was just about able to cope with leaving the beach villa in Dubai as I thought we were going to have our very own kitchen; my stepchildren Hugo and Julia are coming to stay soon and I was relieved we weren’t going to have to put them on the floor in our hotel bedroom; it was five minutes from the school; every time we drove past it the children shouted “there’s our house”; it is a one-minute walk from the beach; it was all furnished thus saving us that hassle….the list goes on.

But the landlord has got wind of our contact leaving the country and wants to do everything by the book. So our contact has to stay on for another two months at which point his contract will be terminated and the landlord will be free to hike the rent up to a price we will not be able to afford.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, or as Homer Simpson says “forward not backwards, upwards not forwards and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom”. Or failing that: Restez Zen.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: Abu Dhabi, blog --> Tagged With: restez

2 thoughts on Restez Zen.....

  • margaret says:
    7th October 2008 at 9:27 am

    Oh bugger is what I would say…amongst other things, that are even more unsuitable to print.

    I’m so sorry Helena, what an absolute and utter pain. Dare I say, it is meant for a reason, and it wouldn’t have been perfect anyway, and you will find something better? No, I thought not.

    Stay optimistic, think Eric Idle, and something good will happen soon, it must!

  • jose says:
    8th October 2008 at 6:18 pm

    No wonder they have ski slopes to take your mind off the hassle
    of trying to live there. Hope the lure of fat salaries isn’t a rip off
    if they get a big slice of it back with every step you take, not to
    mention every place you rent. O.K so it’s not life in a sleepy French village but probably soon you’ll think there wasn’t much
    wrong with it – at least it’s real life.

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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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