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A novel way to look at washing up

14th May 2010 by Helena 4 Comments  

I have just spent four hours in my kitchen, washing up, murdering cockroaches, preparing dinner (Sobu noodles with vegetables along with baked salmon which is marinading as I write) and baking a cake. Unlike a lot of houses here in Abu Dhabi, ours has a rather lovely, large kitchen. The reason most of them don’t is that the builders or rather the architects assumed no one of any significance was ever going to go into the kitchen. Appalling but true.

Every day bar Friday, my kitchen belongs to our lovely housemaid Schamanee. Her first question every morning is ‘what for the lunch, Madam?’ Her second question is ‘what for the dinner?’ Similarly every day except Fridays my gorgeous Volvo belongs to our driver Mohamed Ali. I rarely see it, as it used to ferry the children around and I am always in the office.

The last couple of Fridays I have begun to notice what a treat it is to be in control of my kitchen and my car. I drive to the supermarket listening to the World Service or Mika. Then I come home and put all my shopping away and start preparing lunch. The children sometimes come and chat to me, or shout at me, Rupert sits and reads the newspaper on the sofa.

Today a friend was over and we talked non-stop while I polished surfaces, chopped up vegetables and boiled noodles. It felt so good to be cooking again, almost to the point of being creative. And baking a cake made me feel like the perfect wife and mother, for at least 10 seconds. I pottered about in my Kath Kidston apron brandishing a J-cloth feeling remarkably zen and at peace with the world, apart from when I saw a cockroach that is, and I turned into a Jiff-murderer.

I know that for most people kitchen chores are just that, but I just want to put on record what a joy a task that involves no brain-power, is edible and leaves you with clean surfaces can be.

Obviously I have now had to take to my bed from exhaustion, but thankfully dinner is ready and tomorrow I go back to my normal routine…..Have a lovely weekend.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010


Filed Under: Abu Dhabi, Life, blog --> Tagged With: novel, washing

4 thoughts on A novel way to look at washing up

  • Cate Jumeirah says:
    15th May 2010 at 1:07 am

    Murdering cockroaches??? Us too, Helena, it’s the season, the wretched things are everywhere and they give me the heeby jeebies. Currently, contents of all my kitchen cupboards are sitting on the kitchen table as the shelves are scrubbed and fumigated. Off now to buy these disgusting but v effective trap thingies that lures them in but they get stuck on. Can’t believe we’re doing the same thing on the same day. So much for this luxurious life we’re all supposedly leading in the Gulf!!!

  • Jennifer says:
    16th May 2010 at 6:12 pm

    I’m not sure why I’m saying this, but your life sounds like a whole other world from mine. I’ve never had servants, and have never traveled outside of the country. It’s remarkable to me, not because I say to myself “Oh, she must be loaded!” but just trying to wrap my head around the idea of having people do things like that for me. It would feel so strange. I think I would feel a bit shy.

  • Phillip Vanderwarker says:
    17th May 2010 at 1:07 am

    A talented, charming, and beautiful lady, a devoted mother, and now…a domestic Goddess. Is there no end to her qualities. Apart from being married to someone else, I can find no fault in this amazing woman.

  • helena says:
    17th May 2010 at 1:19 am

    I’m going to hire you as my PR!
    Hx

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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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