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While the cat’s away….

13th January 2007 by Helena 1 Comment  

At last...My husband is away at the moment. Most women might take this as an ideal opportunity to don matching underwear and go out in search of excitement. Not moi. For me it’s an ideal opportunity to stay at home, wear my old pyjamas and go to bed early with a good book. There is nothing (well, almost nothing) quite as exciting as the prospect of a long, hot bath with lots of nice smelling bubbles, clean sheets and a bed filled with things I have been longing to read all week, such as a New York Review of Books article I’ve been trying to finish since November (why do they make them so LONG?), Elle Magazine and Life of Pi.

The problem with having a husband and children is they’re time-consuming. I’m sure if you asked the average mother what she misses most one of the answers would be “time to myself.” Time to paint my nails, put on a face pack, weed the garden, write a letter, watch Desperate Housewives; whatever. Obviously not all at the same time, good as we are at multi-tasking. The fact is though that once you have children you’re no longer your own boss.

Anything can happen at any time. You no longer even dictate when you sleep. If one of them feels like interrupting your night, they do. And if they want to get up at 6 am, well bad luck. If you have more than one child of course there is the added unpredictability of when they might suddenly decide to murder each other.

This lack of control even extends outside the home. I just dropped the children off at school and was having a nice chat with Bea’s teacher when Olivia decided to pat the teacher’s stomach and interrupt our conversation with the question: “Are you pregnant?” Bea’s teacher is a man.

I may have to take to my bed to recover….

copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, Family, blog --> Tagged With: while

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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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