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A Tiger in my gym

5th February 2012 by Helena 3 Comments  

A week ago today I spotted a rare and beautiful creature in my gym. Many women have sighted him before me, but it still felt very special. It was none other than the ‘casually sweaty Tiger Woods’ creature, former world number one golfer and reason that millions of women (and probably men) watch golf now, even though they had never heard of the game before he bounced on to the scene.


We had a deep and meaningful discussion. Me: “Hi Tiger, good luck today, I really hope you win.” Him: “Thank you, I appreciate it.”
He didn’t win, some English bloke no one has ever heard of did, but he played well, and cut a fine figure in his grey sweatshirt and grey shorts (not that I was gazing) with his two bodyguards (I want that job).

Sport seems to dominate my life at the moment. If I’m not spotting Tiger in the gym, I’m on the tennis court. I have become utterly obsessed with tennis. I play it, and then I read about it, at the moment I am going to bed with Rafa’s autobiography every night. Failing that I watch other people play it and then talk endlessly about it. “Can’t you just have an affair like every other women in town?” Rupert asked me the other night as I described my new serving motion.
As I write I see my ical alarm flashing ‘Man U at home’. It is almost time for Chelsea versus Man United. I have been in constant touch today with my old friend Floss who first introduced me to Chelsea when I was 17. She has two children (boys) whose middle names are Stamford and Gianfranco. If only Torres had been playing for us when Leonardo was born he might have been Fernando.

I think one of the things that is so compelling about sport is that it is truly unpredictable, well, apart from Chelsea’s bad form, but as Floss said today, we are delusionally optimistic. On the outside I am saying ‘of course we will lose’ while secretly hoping for a Torres hat-trick. But the point is, we have excitement and unforeseen outcomes, much like a soap opera, without having to sit through 15 hours of Season One. And the heroes are just as good looking, especially in their gym kit.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2012

 

 


Filed Under: Chelsea FC, Sport, blog --> Tagged With: tiger

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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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