Valentine's Day a mixed offering

Arrowtown book buyer Miranda Spary continues her regular column about her recommendations for a good read and life as she sees it . . .

Wasn't Valentine's Day marvellous? My darling wanted to spend it alone in Fiji with the person he loves most in the world - himself.

I stayed home and scrubbed behind the oven and repaired the roof.

And had a perfectly blissful husband-free five days. (The editor keeps going on about facts, so I better confess now that I didn't really do the scrubbing and fixing stuff but the bliss bit is true.) And even though I had a very busy time, I still managed to miss him a tiny bit.

The man I really missed a lot was Russell Everett, the local Fisher and Paykel repair expert.

He had selfishly gone off on a romantic holiday with lucky wife Marilyn without even a moment's thought for me and my broken dishwasher.

I tried not to sound too bitter and twisted when I asked if they had had a nice time.

The mean bit of me hoped they couldn't enjoy themselves knowing about my pain and anguish.

They seemed to have managed perfectly well though.

It's hard to pinpoint the highlight of my Valentine's Day, but Gus Watson's phone call was probably it.

I had asked him if his rooster would like to come on a mini sex holiday with my "girls".

Barely a day went past before the rooster arrived in a sack.

He is so handsome and huge that the girls look even more tragic and unkempt than normal.

And he was only out of the sack for 10 seconds before he was proving his readiness for action.

What a guy . . . the girls definitely had a Valentine's Day to remember!I even went on a date with Roger Tompkins.

I had no intention of going to the Bic Runga, Tim Finn, Dave Dobbyn, Che Fu concert but Roger's description of the fun I would have made it impossible to resist.

And it was fabulous.

Perfect weather and perfect company and I was amazed to recognise a lot of the music.

In fact at the end, even though I was wearing sneakers and jeans which my children say is a hideous fashion crime, I found myself right at the very front dancing and singing along with Cath Hanna.

I bet those whizzo rock stars were almost wetting themselves with excitement seeing us up so close.

And my date had even organised for us to go backstage and meet the stars.

They showed enormous self-control when we arrived and hid their excitement pretty well.

Thanks so much, Nicky T for lending me your husband.

The only sad thing about the concert was the small crowd, but given it was a Monday night and outside, I guess that's not too surprising.

There are always so many things on in Queenstown that even real treats like this can't always be fitted in.

And a lot of the great things are free, like the happy backpackers I spoke to who had been watching the concert from the top of Feehly Hill with a perfect view and perfect sound.