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One

Would you consider yourself stressed?

No. I'm not stressed.

I'm . . . busy. Plenty of people are busy. I have a high-powered job, my career is important to me, and I enjoy it.

OK. So sometimes I do feel a bit tense. But I'm a lawyer in the City, for God's sake. What do you expect?

My handwriting is pressing so hard into the page, I've torn the paper. Dammit. Never mind. Let's move on to the next question.

On average, how many hours do you spend in the office every day?

14

12

8

It depends.

Do you exercise regularly?

I regularly go swimming

I occasionally go swim

I am intending to begin a regular regime of swimming. When I have time. Work's been busy lately, it's a blip.

Do you drink 8 glasses of water a day?

Yes

Someti

No.

I put down my pen and clear my throat. Across the room, Maya looks up from where she's rearranging all her little pots of wax and nail varnish. Maya is my spa beauty therapist for the day and is in her forties, I'd say. Her long dark hair is in a plait with one white streak woven through it, and she has a tiny silver stud in her nose.

"Everything all right with the questionnaire?" she murmurs.

"I did mention that I'm in a bit of a hurry," I say politely. "Are all these questions absolutely necessary?"

"At the Green Tree Center we like to have as much information as possible to assess your beauty and health needs," she replies in soothing yet implacable tones.

I glance at my watch. Nine forty-five.

I don't have time for this. I really do not have the time. But it's my birthday treat and I promised my best friend, Freya.

To be more accurate, it's last year's birthday treat. Freya gave me the gift voucher for an "Ultimate De-stress Experience" just over a year ago. She's my oldest school friend and is always on at me for working too hard. In the card that came with the voucher she wrote Make Some Time For Yourself, Samantha!!!

Which I did fully intend to do. But we had the Zincon Petrochemical Group restructuring and the Zeus Minerals merger . . . and somehow a year went by without my finding a spare moment. I'm a lawyer with Carter Spink. I work in the corporate department on the finance side, and just at the moment, things are pretty hectic with some big deals on. It's a blip. It'll get better. I just have to get through the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, then Freya sent me this year's birthday card--and I suddenly realized the voucher was about to expire. So here I am, on my twenty-ninth birthday. Sitting on a couch in a white toweling robe and surreal paper knickers. With a half-day window. Max.

Do you smoke?

No.

Do you drink alcohol?

Yes. The odd glass of wine.

Do you eat regular home-cooked meals?

What does that have to do with anything? What makes "home-cooked" meals superior?

I eat a nutritious, varied diet, I write at last.

Which is absolutely true.

Anyway, everyone knows the Chinese live longer than we do--so what could be more healthy than to eat their food? And pizza is Mediterranean. It's probably more healthy than a home-cooked meal.

Do you feel your life is balanced?

Yes.

N

Yes.

"I'm done," I announce, and hand the pages back to Maya, who starts reading through my answers. Her finger is traveling down the paper at a snail's pace. Like we've got all the time in the...

 

In the wake of a major financial error, corporate lawyer Samantha Sweeting wanders out of her London office in a daze and boards a train that takes her to the rural town of Lower Ebry. There, barely knowing how to boil water, let alone clean, she finds herself mistakenly hired as a housekeeper and befriended by Nathaniel the Gardener. Rosalyn Landor's narration takes in the sweep of middle-class British accents, ably conveying a workaholic's stress and her subsequent discovery of relaxation and. . .Nathaniel. Throughout it all, Landor's rough-and-ready voice brings life to this wonderful addition to chick lit. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

 

"Light and breezy ... Samantha is eminently likable, and overworked readers will empathize with her glee at her first full weekend off in years."

 

"Sophie Kinsella is at the top of the chick lit game. Her plots are fast-paced and entertaining, with the perfect amount of realistic neurosis to accompany her quirky heroines."

 

"Perfectly amusing....The Undomestic Goddess is a genuinely funny, sweet book. Kinsella is a comic whiz who consistently delivers what her readers crave."

 

"A lovely romantic comedy."

 

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
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