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Money, money, money

25th April 2010 by Helena 3 Comments  

I have decided that the point of being rich is not how many designer handbags you can buy, although of course that is a perk, but that it makes your life much easier in many ways.

If you are rich, you can employ someone to do all those things that make your life tedious, like deleting the spam comments on your blog, or getting the internet connection at home fixed, or organising your annual car insurance or calling the plumber.

This may not be a mind-blowing revelation, but I have come to realise that we may never be able to leave Abu Dhabi because to a much lesser extent we have that here.

As I write my driver is collecting the home entertainment system box we have had mended. My housemaid or ‘bonne‘ as the French rather more charmingly call them, is buying vegetables in the supermarket to cook our lunch with. I am at work, relaxed and zen, even though it is press day.

The thought of going back to a life where it was just me doing all that stuff is horrible. I just can’t imagine it. In fact it’s a miracle I am as well-balanced as I am after 25 years of ironing.

My mother finally arrived this morning after a week’s delay thanks to the unpronounceable volcano. It is so lovely to see her. I just called to see if they are all OK.

“We can’t do anything right now, because we are playing luxury hotels and Mormor (granny in Swedish) is playing with us and is going to have a luxury suite,” Olivia told me.

So you see, we don’t need to be rich at all, we have everything we could possible need anyway.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010


Filed Under: Abu Dhabi, Money, blog --> Tagged With: money

3 thoughts on Money, money, money

  • jacques says:
    27th April 2010 at 12:30 am

    No idea why rubbish comments like the one above stays on your blog sometimes for days. They are a real nuisance.
    But speaking about money, maybe there will be some left for me?
    Jacques

  • Patrick Cameron says:
    29th April 2010 at 4:47 am

    Dear Helena,
    On my blog admin I have to approve any comments and any like this I can just send to junk.
    Much love,

    Patrick

  • Amber Lee says:
    30th April 2010 at 8:48 am

    That sounds like an absolute fairy tale. A bonne to buy my groceries, my most hated chore? Magical.

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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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