'Gabs,' She said in a dreamy tone, 'do you know anyone who might like We met models, photographers, high class prostitutes, designers and
a job here over the summer? Mr C is looking for two girls to work.' the independantly wealthy; never as friends, always as servants.
No sooner had she said it than I'd grabbed that idea with the full force There's nothing like scrubbing model vomit off the toilet bowl after a
of my imagination and my heart followed. Summer in the south of wild party that you weren't invited to to make you realise that you
France and, as Hill continued to tell me, an apartment and a car as aren't friends. We didn't care, in the evenings we'd drink beer on our
well as paid work. patio and watched the sun fade over the sea.
Paid work to pay my bills back home, to pay for the ticket I'd need to One month into our work Mr C approached me with an idea. His
buy on credit and to pay for the life I would continue to live. It was a favourite client was coming down, as she had every year for the past
tall order but a fire had been lit and I could hardly stand still on the decade, from Switzerland to St Tropez and needed a nanny. Nannying
embers that fell from it. is a few steps up the ladder from cleaner so I
Five weeks later my friend Lili and I arrived
in St Tropez; the hotspot for Mediterranean
Millionaires and Hollywood Somebodies.
“
gladly accepted.
There's nothing like
It was a wonderful time. I felt bad that Lili was
scrubbing model vomit still cleaning but for me this was perfect. I'd
People bustled, Europeans, all bronzed and push the pram through the olive grove until the
well dressed. Nobody was overweight, not a
off the toilet bowl after
baby slept and then pull out my book. Music
single person. We must have stuck out like the
a wild party that you
drifted up from the beach parties, not
foreigners we were. Lili was decked in her disturbing, just perfect for a calm summer
usual attire, a short tartan skirt, cheeky t-
weren't invited to to
afternoon.
shirt and platform heels. I, as usual, tried to
disguise my bulky figure in black, creating (or
make you realise that
One of these days I saw my new boss striding
trying to create) an optical illusion of sorts.
towards me. She was a beautiful lady, not
you aren't friends.
Neither of us had dwelt on little details so it
was to my great surprise that our apartment
”
someone you would ever want to mess with but
rather amicable all the same. She stopped just
short of the carriage and said something
was beautiful and our rental car complimentary, just as we had been completely unexpected.
promised.
She had booked her regular private jet/ helicopter combination to
That week we started work as cleaners in some of the largest houses Brussels and wanted me to come. I smiled, and made way for yet more
I'd ever seen. There is something about being staff that you never reckless abandon.
know until it's you. The humility and invisibility of servitude are
cripplingly debasing at times and yet somehow we felt priviledged.
I ducked my head, as we all do when entering helicopters and saw
St Tropez fall away beneath me, just an ordinary girl, given an extra
ordinary opportunity n
69
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