I feel a bit like an oil-rig worker at the moment. Except that I have never been on an oil rig. I am literally hardly ever in one place for more than two weeks at a time.
At the moment I am enjoying an unusual stint on the oil-rig (that is, life in Abu Dhabi) before I head back to London to see the children, talk at one of their career fairs and go to the Christmas market. A couple of weeks ago I was in our house in France for half term.
It is odd, being in a constant state of motion. Almost always arriving back from one place or preparing to go to another. While either side of me my husband is here and the children are there. But I’m not sure it’s such a bad state to be in. For example, I never now run out of Bendick’s Bittermints. And I am also never exposed to the English or French winter for longer than I can stand. There is also something quite lovely about arriving in three places you’re very happy in, there are people to see, things to eat and shops to be visited. The most exciting part of course is seeing the children, and if boarding school has done anything it has made us all appreciate seeing each other much more. 
We have a lovely period ahead of us culminating with the children all coming back to Abu Dhabi for the first time since they went to boarding school. It will be fascinating to see what they think of it having been away for almost ten months. I can’t decide whether I want them to like it or not, because of course if they love it, I will wonder if it has all been worth it.
One effect of living in different places is that you are constantly weighing up one against the other, and trying to make sure you made the right decision. Which I guess is one thing you can never be sure of, even if at times you think you are.
Two weeks on, two weeks off
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. Helena is also working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in spring 2021 as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.
Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and in paperback in April 2018.
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