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Things I will miss about LA

10th March 2007 by Helena 1 Comment  

Farewell LAI am getting ready to leave LA and head back home. I can’t wait to see them all, it seems I’ve been away for months. But there are things I will miss about LA. Driving around in my red convertible listening to 92.7 Jill FM for example. And just an aside, why is it songs you haven’t heard for years sound so much better when you hear them on the radio than when you buy the CD?

I will also miss the service here. There is no doubt the Americans have that sorted, unlike the French, who hate serving you and don’t try to hide it. I also like the familiarity of the Americans. When you walk into a shop or a restaurant they smile and say hi as if you’ve been wandering in there for the last seventy years. And the new friends I’ve made here have been incredibly quick to accept me and hang out with me. In fact I’ve made more friends in LA in five days than I have in the Languedoc in six years. Maybe that’s because they know I’m leaving soon.

But most of all I will miss my satellite navigation system. It’s amazing. I key in an address and this rather feisty woman says: “Please fasten your seat-belt” and then we’re off. “Take a right at Wilshire Boulevard, then stay left on ramp towards Santa Monica”. Wherever I want to go, she has the answers.

Wouldn’t it be brilliant if life came with it’s own sat nav system? You’re about to leave your job and the feisty woman says: “Do not leave job now. Your boss may be trying to sleep with you but the next one won’t even notice you exist, it’s not a good career move.” Or if you’re about to buy a dodgy dress. “Do not make this purchase; you look like an over-grown meringue in it.” Or you’re planning to turn down a date. “Recalculate:You should date this guy; he is going to be the next Bill Gates.”

Sadly we only have our own sat nav systems which often fail us. Like mine did when I booked my ticket and decided to have an extra day in LA as opposed to going home because I thought I’d come all this way and wouldn’t it be nice to just walk on the beach. Not as nice as it would be to see my little ones.

The final thing I will miss is my luggage. I have yet to fly Air France and arrive at the same time as my bags.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Life, blog --> Tagged With: about, things

One thought on Things I will miss about LA

  • simon says:
    15th March 2007 at 6:28 pm

    Hels, I am thrilled to hear that you enjoyed the states and just a little annoyed that I haven’t been checking your blogs as I would have flown down to see you had I known that you were out this way. Those sat nav’s are great but I am surprised that you didn’t have one that you could change the voice. It is one thing to get directions but when it has a suductive tone to it you almost don’t want to leave your car.

    Each time you mention the snoots and what they are upto I feel kind of homesick and wish that I could be there to see them again. Please say hi to them all and Rupert too.

    Cheers,

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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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