Happy funerals, sad films, emerald lawns and yoga

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

Being home in the Wakatipu again is pure bliss.

Even the saddest bits like going to Richard Doyle's funeral service made me feel happy to be part of such a caring community.

So many people appreciate the huge efforts the Doyle family have made to schools and clubs and all the other things that make a great town that there wasn't even standing room in the Arrowtown Hall.

The crowd was tearful even before Tom Maxwell's beautiful rendition of Hallelujah and Lily Borren's moving eulogy.

I am sure that if Richard was looking on, he would have been pretty chuffed.

This community is really amazing - there are always so many people doing wonderful things, and I was lucky enough to be invited to Jane Campion's premiere of Bright Star at Dorothy Browns.

The film is based on the life of British poet John Keats and the passionate affair between him and Fanny Brawne.

I kept wanting the film to stop for a minute so I could get a better look at all the beautiful sets and costumes, but also wanted it to end in a way that it didn't.

I complained bitterly to Jane at the end but as she pointed out, it was just what happened.

I guess even the most famous of movie directors can't change history.

Get along and see it - it's beautiful and tragic and if you read some of his poetry beforehand, you will enjoy it even more.

Don't read about his life if you want the surprise ending.

The characters are fabulous, even his ghastly, infuriating friend.

I'm trying hard to lose the "Delhi belly" I acquired from eating too much delicious food in India, and to this end I'm off on a weekend yoga retreat with Lance Schuler, one of the world's great yoga teachers.

I'm trying to lose 5kg in the next three days so I can keep my wobbly tummy out of my eyes when I am standing on my head.

My mean friend says amputation is the only way.

Our house is still getting bits chopped off as well.

Our friends came for dinner this week and their 8-year-old daughter, who was busting for a wee, went hurtling into the loo in our hall.

Only trouble was that not only is there not a loo, but there's not a floor either, so she fell in and wet her pants and was VERY annoyed.

I don't blame her.

I'd be pretty upset if I'd fallen into a hole on the way to the loo and wet my pants at a dinner party.

On the subject of wetness, has the Wakatipu Basin ever been this green at this time of the year before? Our lawn is still a thick, luscious emerald and needs cutting every few days.

The smell of cut grass and the perfume of the lime tree is quite overwhelming and I keep having to go outside to take great huge nosefuls of it.

It really is the smell of summer and I so wish someone could bottle it for those cold winter months.

The sudden heat this week has given me the perfect excuse for a bit of an afternoon liedown, and I am surprised to discover that I have chomped through quite a few books already.

I really enjoyed The Pirate's Daughter, by Margaret Cesair-Thompson.

If you've ever wondered where the expression "In like Flynn" came from, this historical novel based on naughty Errol Flynn's time in Jamaica will help.

I also seem to have read Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink, but I already knew all the boring old things he was going to say and I know he's right, but I probably won't change the habits I have spent nearly 50 years acquiring.

And I have just finished Say You're One of Them, which is a terrible, tragic collection of stories by Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan.

He writes from African children's point of view about some of the experiences and choices they have to deal with.

These are not experiences any child should have to face, from being sold into slavery by an uncle, or witnessing terrible violence.

This is not a comfortable read by any means, but truly moving and I got the very nasty impression that the stories are based on real events.

We are all so lucky to live here and give our children such a charmed start to life.

Reading these stories and having just been given a guided tour of Delhi's slums by street children and seeing the terrible footage from Haiti only serves to remind me how privileged my life is, where my biggest problem is eating too much, and my biggest decisions are about what fun things I should choose to do, or what book I should read next.

Slap me if you hear me complaining about anything!