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The Raffle for Rafa

7th November 2009 by Helena 1 Comment  

Bea and Leo entered their first-ever tennis tournament today. The prize for the winner of the tournament was to play with Rafa and Federer when they come over for the Capitala Tennis Tournament at the end of the year.

Roger-Federer-wins

I realised very quickly neither of my two were in the running. They were (bless them) comfortably the worst players there. I think some of the nine-year olds would have beaten me. But there was one glimmer of hope….the raffle.

The raffle would draw two names who would also get to play the two stars, but it meant staying until the very end of the tournament even though we were being humiliated on court.

rafael_nadal

There aren’t many things that will entice me to hang around a hot, humid tennis court without a drink in sight. But the potential prize was far too big to give up on. Just imagine, I kept thinking, if we win. And we have more chance than most as there are two of them in the raffle. I mean whoever wins will have to be accompanied by their mother, right?

Finally after almost four hours, the moment arrived. As the first name was drawn out of the hat my heart sank. How stupid of me to waste a whole morning and to put them through all this hanging around. I never win anything and it seems genetically unlikely that my children will.

The first name was disqualified for not being there. Another name was called out – Patricia Wright. No one answered. Suddenly I realised it was Beatrice Wright they meant, I leapt to my feet:

“It’s you Bea, it’s you!” I yelled like the worst possible football mum.

Bea went to the front to be congratulated, beaming. She (and I) were on a high for the rest of the day, and will possibly remain high for another week. After the tennis we went to the cinema to see Michael Jackson’s This is It. A woman in front of us wept through the whole thing, the girls, who had heard Janet was in town for the Grand Prix, asked if she was his sister. She was not, she was just a bereaved fan. Sad as we are about Jacko’s demise, nothing could wipe the smile off our faces.

The lucky winner is asleep next to me as I write and has promised to practice her tennis before her big match. I am going to work out how to use my video camera and plan my outfit. I’m not sure which is more stressful. But I am extremely happy that my genetic predisposition for never winning anything has not been passed on to Baby Bea. As Rupes said, Napoleon would approve, he liked his generals to be lucky.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Celebs, Children, Sport, blog --> Tagged With: raffle

One thought on The Raffle for Rafa

  • xc says:
    3rd December 2009 at 10:03 am

    Your blog has some fresh ideas that I have never seen in others’. I can learn a lot from them.

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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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