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You just can’t get the staff these days…

28th August 2007 by Helena 2 Comments  

BeforeI have a new ironing lady. She is around four foot tall and very pretty but she refuses to do the sheets or put the clothes away. If I ever complain about the quality of her ironing she shoots me a stern look and tells me to be quiet.

My new ironing lady is Olivia who since we went to England has discovered money and is now obsessed with earning it. So at the end of a long summer holiday I have put her to work. She gets five euros a week for doing all the washing and another eight for all the ironing.

AfterShe is not doing a bad job, her work ethic is impeccable. But she does keep trying to re-negotiate her rate upwards. ‘The Countess de Money’, a friend of mine nick-named her in England. When I suggested the other day that she might like to become President of France when she grows up she asked “how much money do you get?”

Bea, not wanting to be left out, asked me what she could do to earn some money. I told her she could be in charge of making sure there are no toys lying around the garden and that all the towels are hung up by the pool and there are no clothes left on the ground there.

I watched from my sun-lounger (amazingly comfortable, why I haven’t spent more time on it is beyond me) as she rather grumpily tidied up her brother’s shoes, Rupert’s socks, the pool toys and empty cups left lying around.

“I’ve finished,” she said after half an hour. “Can I have my five euros?” I told her she had to work for a week.

“Why does it have to be a week?” she wailed, before adding. “And what do you do all day?”

Good question.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, blog --> Tagged With: staff, these

2 thoughts on You just can't get the staff these days...

  • snusmormor says:
    28th August 2007 at 10:27 pm

    It would be cheaper to pay Rupert €2 to pick up his own bloody socks!

  • Jackie Hosking says:
    30th August 2007 at 3:26 am

    Hi Helena – we must be aligned at the moment – you Cinderella, me Rapunzel – very whimsy.

    I want an ironing lady – I used to be an ironing lady – now I never, ever, ever iron…NEVER!!

    My six year old has just discovered money. He deliberately drops his stuff all over the floor so that we’ll pay him to pick it up. It all evens out though at dinner time – no money, no dinner!!

    Jackie 🙂

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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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