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Should we stay or should we go?

12th September 2008 by Helena 2 Comments  

MaxThis is the conversation the children and I had in Suda’s car yesterday.

“Are you all happy to continue our adventure, or would you prefer to go home?” I asked.

“I’m happy to continue my adventure,” said Olivia.

“Abu Dhabi is my best village ever,” said Leo. “I want to go back to the Emirates Palace hotel.”

“I would like to rewind my adventure,” said Bea. I knew what was coming. I turned around to see her bottom lip trembling and then the tears came. “I miss Max,” she wailed. “I want to go home and see Max.”

“But darling girl,” I said. “We’re going to see lots of really interesting things, like India and Oman and the desert.”

More tears from Bea. “There’s nothing more interesting than Max,” she said, looking wistfully out of the window.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: Abu Dhabi, Travel, blog --> Tagged With: should

2 thoughts on Should we stay or should we go?

  • Natalie says:
    13th September 2008 at 5:46 pm

    I know just how you feel. Its so trickey starting out somewhere new – and with children even tougher. We stayed in a hotel for a month or so when we first came to Canada, and then rented somewhere for a while and with my children aged 7 and 4 at the time I could of quite easily headed home at any given moment. My son was the same as your Bea and said that he wanted to go home and I did feel bad – however long term we have all benifited from the experiance – It really was the right decision! Hang in there and I wish you all good luck

  • helena says:
    14th September 2008 at 6:18 am

    Thanks Natalie, that gives me hope! I do think whatever else they (and I) are learning a lot more than they would in our tiny village in the south of France. This is a whole new world.
    Hx

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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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