Gosh, December already? Wasn't it just March a week or so ago? This year has been such a blur.
It's already that ever-out-of-sync Rocky Gully Ski Club's AGM on Sunday. One year we held the prizegiving ceremony for the annual RGSC ski races by drawing names out of a hat as it had got too late for the real races. Hope they do it this year as it's my only chance of a medal.
Spring went so fast that I only just managed to go to Five Rivers to see the peonies this Monday. Of course, they are all nearly over with this hot weather.
Local grower Jill Leydon at peonies2U.co.nz cleverly chills hers so if you want some for Christmas, contact her. She can also send big box-fulls to your friends all over New Zealand, and if you know someone going to London, you can send your chilly friends over there a big box of summer. I took my sister a boxful of peonies, lilies and roses last year, and I don't think I've ever given a more successful present.
And speaking of success - what a great Cure Kids golf tournament at The Hills last weekend.
Local organiser Josie Spillane was fizzing with excitement after they raised $72,000 for the charity. Some of New Zealand's biggest hitters in both the golf and business sense turned up to play two days of golf.
Michael Hill was flaunting the 22 carat diamond he is giving away in his world's best couple competition, and before he had time to object, I had squished it on to my podgy digit and got myself snapped with it and Mr M. Hill.
I am going to enter us in the competition, so hope we win. I would definitely have to give up housework and gardening - such a shame ... you just couldn't lift a finger with a ring that size.
I wish I'd had the ring on on Sunday. I was invited to very posh afternoon tea at Les Alpes with publisher Kunda Dixit from Nepal.
He was visiting Queenstown for the first time to attend a leadership course at Millbrook. Even though I would normally have great difficulty concentrating on anything when someone puts a plate of delicious French cakes in front of me, his stories kept me fully focused. And his photo essay on the Nepalese conflict, A People War, sounds amazing.
As always in December, there's loads on this week.
My hero Ken Follett is speaking at Northburn tonight - call Paper Plus for tickets, or you can see him at Queenstown Paper Plus at 11am on Saturday morning.
In case you have been living under a rock for the last few decades, he has sold over 100 million copies of his books, which include Pillars of the Earth and his latest one Fall of Giants.
It's a shame his Queenstown appearance clashes with the opening of the Gibbston Trail, also at 11am on Saturday, starting at Peregrine.
Bring a picnic to enjoy at the concert afterwards.
In fact, get along to the farmers market - there's a new one at Remarkables Park starting this Saturday and it sounds as if there'll be masses of produce good for stuffing a picnic basket with.
And don't forget Dorothy Browns on Tuesday at 11.30am. I can't imagine why people buy presents other than books when books are the perfect present for everyone. The stupider the person, the more important it is that they are given a good book.
And it is very important to tell the stupid people in your life exactly which books you would like for Christmas.
Of course, the event everyone needs to help them get into a Christmassy mood is a pantomime.
The Arrowtown Entertainers and Friends are putting on The Pied Piper at 7.30 on Saturday night, and again at 2pm on Sunday in the Arrowtown Hall. The other big trigger for my Christmas mood is a nativity play - does anyone know who's doing one this year?
I've read two amazing books about journeys this week, and what very different journeys they were.
One was The Leisure Seeker, by Michael Zadoorian, and the other was The Hundred Foot Journey, by Richard Morais.
Slumdog Millionaire - a young Indian boy who makes good. A famous French restaurateur discovers the boy's talent with food and sets him on an amazing career path.
It's a delightful, easy read and if you are any sort of foodie, this book will have you drooling and laughing all the way through. And it was nice to read in the acknowledgments that the author is mad about our own Kiwi foodie superstar, Peter Gordon.
The other book is also very funny, but funny terrible. Ella is a morbidly obese 80-year-old with terminal cancer. Her husband, John, has Alzheimer's. Together they set off in their campervan on Route 66 to visit Disneyland.
This is not a book for foodies - in fact, it couldn't be more different from Morais' book.
It's a trip no-one would want to take, but it's a terrific story.
My editor is letting me have a bash at some real journalism, to help out our hard-working Queenstown team this weekend, so that means I need stories.
If you know a good story, please email me at miranda@queenstown.co.nz right now.
