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The school photo

12th October 2007 by Helena 1 Comment  

There is nothing quite like a note telling you it’s time for the school photo to send mothers into a tizzy. Planning for this event started several days ago with negotiations to get Olivia to agree to wear a brown and white dress. There are two reasons she doesn’t want to wear it. One is that the first love of her life, a blond called Quentin, likes “cool” girls and two, Bea is wearing the same one and she hates being the same as Bea.

Last night they all had their hair washed and conditioned. They had an early night to ensure there were no unsightly bags. I had an early night too, just in case I am caught on camera.

This morning the first thing Olivia did was of course march into our room and tell me she was not going to wear that dress. Then Leo came into our bed and Rupert ruffled his hair.

“You’ve made me not lovely any more,” he wailed and burst into tears. Then he insisted on having a bath and starting the hair-care regime all over again.

Bea was a dream. Up and singing and ready to have her hair curled by 8am. “I’m not wearing that dress,” said Olivia for the 100th time. “I’ll take you off my screen-saver and put Bea on it instead,” I said. Rather underhand I know, but it did the trick. “You’re so evil,” she said marching off to find the dress.

I realise now having done the school run that I have gone for totally the wrong look. Most of Leo’s class-mates have gel-induced mohicans. Not his best friend Louis I am pleased to report, he has a rather sophisticated Great Gatsby look.

Leo

But I suppose the most important thing is the smile, which we have been practising. Olivia has adopted a rather cool “photograph face” as my stepson Hugo calls it. Whenever you got to take a photo of him he says; “Wait, I don’t have my photograph face on yet” and then breaks into a huge smile. Bea just looks enormously sweet and Leo looks like the Antonio Banderas cat from Shrek when he wants something, all big eyes and a pleading expression.

I will share the results with you when we get them but I can now understand why Linda Evangelista refuses to get our of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, blog --> Tagged With: photo, school

One thought on The school photo

  • Wendy says:
    12th October 2007 at 5:45 pm

    I can identify with this … Alicia (2 yrs 10 months) also should have had her photo take on Tuesday… but in the end it was cancelled…. arrggghh

    Wendy
    http://www.frenchhelpservices.com/blog

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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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