http://helenafrithpowell.com Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:10:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I am hoping I have hit the low point. After yet another night of no sleep, a bean-bag exploding all over Amanda's flat and no response from my high-powered contact, I was told the ballet class I wanted the girls to go to was full. I did what any normal balletomane would ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/how-low-can-you-go So the international conspiracy to keep me awake has now reached ridiculous proportions. I leave the hotel room next to the mosque to move into my friend Amanda's flat while she is away. But now instead of the mosque I have the combination of four cats and the insomniacs on ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/the-act-of-a-madwoman When a publisher first wrote to me offering me a book deal after my first Sunday Times column, I assumed it was a vanity publisher, keen to make a fast buck. This morning I had an email that I read four times before I was convinced it wasn't my best ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/happy-ever-after "What is the hardest thing in Abu Dhabi?" Olivia asked the other day as she stood by the pool at The Club, tucking into an ice cream. "My stomach?" suggested Rupert. "Not having anywhere to live?" I ventured. "Eating an ice-cream," said Olivia. "It melts before you can eat it." I look forward to ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/poor-deprived-children During the rugby world cup last year I had an idea for a book called 'How to seduce Jonny Wilkinson and other routes to happiness'. It was a book looking at what makes women happy, how we can be happier and so on. Obviously I have no idea how to seduce ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/pink-nail-varnish-and-other-routes-to-happiness My friend Amanda sent me an email with an attachment describing three guinea pigs looking for a home. “Very cute four week old guinea pigs looking for a home,” it reads. “We like to stroll around, squeak all the time for food and we love to cuddle. All we need ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/guinea-pigs-looking-for-a-good-home Today I made a most remarkable discovery. To understand just how remarkable we need to go back in time more than thirty years to when I was a little girl and playing with my some conically-shaped weights that belonged to my grandfather. I can’t remember how old I was, possibly ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/flat-thumb-thin-thumb As I stood at the reception desk at the British Club Kitty's words went round in my head. Kitty was Rupert's formidable grandmother. "If you don't ask, you don't get," she used to say before she became a victim of the NHS superbug. So I asked the stranger next to me ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/talking-to-strangers-2 Today I substituted flat-hunting for the Marina Mall. The children chose their school bags; Olivia went for Pucca, Bea for High School Musical and Leo, you guessed it, Spiderman. We also invested in a portable DVD player which we should have done at the beginning of this trip. Anyway, I ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/who-was-napoleon So we have settled into some kind of a routine here. This is our average day. 4.30am get woken up by the muezzin (call to prayer). Spend next two hours lying awake worrying about not getting back to sleep, when to get my nails done, what is happening to Max and ... http://helenafrithpowell.com/uncategorized/our-routine