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Special guest blog from Rupert

5th December 2008 by Helena 6 Comments  

For anyone who has filled their car with petrol over the last year and baulked at the bill, I can set your mind at rest: the price was worth paying. Of course, that’s with the exception of the share taken by western governments, who fritter it on useless activities.

However, here in Abu Dhabi, where the oil is drilled, the proceeds are being put to good use. The other evening we went to a party to celebrate the country’s National Day. The United Arab Emirates was formed 37 years ago. It is quite strange to live in a country younger than oneself, although of course Helena pretends she is younger still.

As we stood on a balcony overlooking the Corniche we suddenly saw four microlights flying in formation, spraying fireworks like rockets. Then there was a roar from a barge in the bay and the fireworks began. Trying to describe fireworks is like trying to paint water, but here goes: huge circles of colour, sapphire blues, grass greens, gold and silver, then other rockets with lights that parachuted down into the water, roman candles throwing up yellow and pink sparks, other rockets with colours like the French flag, then the UAE flag, then more rockets and bangs and sparks like fireflies. At times it was as if the sky were filled with giants chandeliers.
All the while this was happening a simultaneous show was taking place opposite the Emiratres Palace Hotel. It was a firework display in Dolby Stereo. The children stood looking in awe, uttering the odd “Wheee” before collapsing either cold or asleep. The display went on longer than a firework show decently should. It was like eating a kilo of caviar or drinking a full bottle of Chateau d’Yquem.

For the first time ever, when the show ended, I felt like I had seen enough fireworks for the day. “That’s enough fireworks,” I said. And went inside to talk to our Pakistani hosts, who poured me a large whisky and discussed economics and the stock market with grave faces.


Filed Under: Abu Dhabi, blog --> Tagged With: guest, rupert, special

6 thoughts on Special guest blog from Rupert

  • Patricia Rodriguez says:
    5th December 2008 at 7:03 pm

    Dear Rupert,

    Never argue about a woman’s age. Helena IS younger than The United Arab Emirates.

    Sincerely,

    Patricia
    (Born in 1968, 35 years old)

  • sharyn g says:
    6th December 2008 at 2:17 am

    Dear Helena and Rupert,

    I wonder what your Pakistani hosts felt about the fanatical Islamic terrorists they are training and sheltering in their country even as they accept millions of dollars of US economic aid. I would really like to know this. We never seem to hear and can only imagine that the whole country is filled with terrorists intent upon bringing down the Western democracies. It makes it very difficult to accept the Pakistani economic immigrants who come to this country but are unwilling to assimilate their culture into ours. My forbears were Palatine Mennonites who came to Lancaster County, PA in the early 1700’s to escape religious persecution in Europe. They were only to happy to merge their culture with the German and Scotch-Irish economic immigrants that settled here for the fertile farm land and religious freedom. I really cannot understand Islam. Why would I, as a woman, want to be covered in a burka and kept from being a participating member of my country? How could any Father want that for his daughter? My Dad always encouraged my sisters and I to pursue our dreams as equal members of society. My “sisters” and I fought for the equal rights amendment and the freedom that goes with it.

    Also, Helena is only as old as she feels (as are we all) which puts her age at about 30. Your wife will love you forever if you tell her this.

    Sharyn G

  • snusmormor says:
    6th December 2008 at 10:35 am

    Now, now, to blame terrorism on Pakistan is a bit simplistic, isn’t it? That country is also a victim of terrorists attacks, I seem to remember there was one only yesterday? I think terrorism is born out of discontent helped along by propaganda. Prejudice against other nationals and religions is not going to solve the problem.

  • clare says:
    6th December 2008 at 7:56 pm

    Rupert
    I love your calm style of writing and describing.More please.
    Clare

  • Ghinch says:
    6th December 2008 at 11:52 pm

    Amazing isn’t it? You write a pleasant story about a firework display and get a rocket from an old banger.

    www,ghinch.com

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    28th March 2010 at 5:10 pm

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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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