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A great weekend

2nd January 2011 by Helena 1 Comment  

There are times when pictures speak louder than words…..

But let me tell you about it anyway. WHAT a weekend. Three days of tennis and a drinks party with Rafa and Federer as guests of honour (along with Soderling, Tsonga, Berdych and Baghdatis). I met them all. Rafa even put his arm around me. And just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, he took his top off. Not at the party. On a practice court where he was hurling serves at his coach. I was standing about three metres away from him. I’m not sure I have fully recovered.

Rupes got to play in a clinic with Federer whom he says was charm personified and I played in one with Berdych, who was great. Leo and I went to every single match and we cheered for Soderling (being proper Swedes). We were in a minority and every now and again one could hear “Heja Soderling” ring out from the little man across the stadium. I was very proud of him.

Oh, and for one of the Rafa matches Leo and I were in the royal box. Actually in the front row of the royal box. I thought at the time, “this is as good as it gets”. The only downside was that when he took his top off he was shielded from our view by the umpire’s chair. But who am I to grumble…..?

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2011


Filed Under: Abu Dhabi, Sport Tagged With: great, weekend

One thought on A great weekend

  • Michaela says:
    5th January 2011 at 3:30 pm

    Lucky you! Did you have time to watch some tennis as well? Very distracting with all those hunks around.

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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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