Arrowtown book buyer Miranda Spary continues her regular column about her recommendations for a good read and life as she sees it . . .
Labour Weekend is a total misnomer for one of the most fun weekends of the year.
Even miserable Monday with the dreary, depressing rain was spent listening to a line-up of some of New Zealand's top jazz musicians in the Jardines' not-like-anyone-else's woolshed to raise money for Samoa.
Fundraisers take note - when you want to raise lots of money, make it FUN!!! Do it like the Jardines and remember it is fundraising, not fun-draining.
Briar Ross, Calder Prescott and others donated their time and talents to the cause, the Jardines provided the food, vino and venue, and Michael Williams and the Kitsons provided the auction prize of lunch and boat on Sydney Harbour.
There was fierce bidding for this Oz-style day or two of decadence, but the prize went to Eion Edgar, who very generously - and wisely - donated it to Dick and Jilly Jardine.
My darling was the underbidder, and as punishment for not winning, he was savagely bitten.
Not by me, I hasten to add, but by a very cute little terrier.
Oh, how we laughed - what a perfectly marvellous finale to a lovely afternoon.
Obviously, everyone had used up all their sympathy quota on Samoa, as he got none.
I do hope rabies isn't contagious . . .
And staying on the subject of animal love, we are now officially responsible for saving the lives of 12 of the ugliest oldest hens on earth.
I specifically said I wanted heavenly hens in our very beautifully restored Oeuf d'Or henhouse.
But old age or not, they have been churning eggs out non-stop since they got here.
Old chooks . . . mmm yes, old age is definitely worth celebrating, and Dale Dagg's arrival at the halfway point (halfway to old age, that is) was an excellent excuse.
There will be a lot of husbands annoyed at the dangerously high standard her husband Brian (the Speight's Southern Man who is going to have to become Eastern Man now) has set for 50th birthday parties.
I hadn't been to the Mt Soho winery before, but it's terrific and a great place for delicious local wine and food while you wait for a birthday girl to turn up and be VERY surprised.
And we were as well - we didn't know she had a silent mode!There's always so much going on in the district that it seems hard to catch up on the movies, but we were very keen to see Meryl Streep in Julie and Julia.
Please go - it is pure magic and everyone is loving this film about one woman's obsession with Julia Child.
We were all on such a foodie high afterwards that we just had to rush down to Saffron for a quick fix of deliciousness and then back to the cinema to see In the Loop - it is billed as this year's best British comedy, and it probably is.
Political satire in the same vein as Yes, Minister, and you have to try hard not to laugh too much and miss bits.
Books I have read this week have been less funny.
T. C. Boyle's Tortilla Curtain is a novel about a wealthy family in California living in a soon-to-be gated community.
It's also a story about some very poor illegal immigrants from Mexico.
Their lives collide in unpleasant ways and it seems there are no solutions for either side in the problems they face.
If you ask me, America causes Mexico way more problems than the other way round, but the American characters in this book don't see it like that.
My other great read this week is the mysteriously named Little Bee, about a Nigerian asylum seeker in Britain.
Chris Cleave, who wrote Incendiary, is the author, and I have been trying to get hold of his new book for ages.
Clare Doyle very kindly brought it back to NZ for me and I loved it.
No distributors here could help me source it, so I emailed Chris Cleave direct.
I discovered it's called The Other Hand here, and also discovered a truly great author's blog - his. He writes for the Guardian and is very entertaining.
Do make sure to look at his "My Wife and Other Mammals" effort.
And the responses, especially Nigel's.
Should be compulsory reading for all new parents, particularly those needing a massive antidepressant!
And lastly, and most importantly, Jill Egerton has become a GRANNY!!! Congratulations, dear Jill and to all those who made it happen.
