I'm looking forward to a week of peace and quiet now that my sister and Loud Nephew have finally gone back to England.
Their departure on Friday had to be rescheduled when my sister, who has been rather cheaply and poorly built (I suggested she sue the manufacturers), developed a problem that looked like puppies fighting in her bra.
It sounds kind of funny, but it was very scary.
Her heart rate zoomed sky high and was leaping erratically, making her body shake all over.
The brilliant staff at Wakatipu Medical Centre and the St John Ambulance and Lakes District Hospital managed to get rid of the fighting puppies look and restored her to us in more or less showroom condition. Phew . . .
While she was getting her "heart attack fixed", as Loud Nephew called it, I cheered him up by letting him cheat madly at Caddyshack minigolf and teaching him to wind down the window when Brian Dagg was taking his sheep for a constitutional along the back road and shout "I love eating lamb chops!" to them.
He thinks life in the Wakatipu is non-stop entertainment, so finding a Japanese couple in full wedding regalia in the phone box outside the Arrowtown library only served to reinforce that belief.
He wondered if they had to find a very small vicar to marry them in there, but I said I thought they were just in there for a photo.
Having him in tow meant that I could watch Up without feeling like a bit of a sad sack at a kid's movies sans kids.
What a gorgeous animated movie, and the odd thing is that all the children laugh and all the adults cry. Steal a child and go and see it for yourself.
I also managed to see the photography exhibition Nadene Milne has put together in Arrowtown. Get along and have a look at it - we are so lucky getting work of this calibre in the district. I've bought a Lotto ticket so I can buy the amazing quail photo if I win.
Everyone is having babies now that it is spring. Well, not me, although SOME people might think so.
Kate Egerton was at Bonjour Cafe on Sunday morning in a beautiful red dress with her beautiful big tummy, being showered with presents which is what happens at a baby shower.
I tried not to feel annoyed when Anna Brown walked in, looked at my less beautiful big tummy and asked who was having the baby. The not-feeling-annoyed attempt failed.
The annoyed thing was a lot to do with two very nearly overdue assignments that were eating away at my conscience.
They both involve a lot of very boring sitting-at-a-desk reading, which is much harder to do when you have Wesley the Story of a Remarkable Owl by Stacey O'Brien and Roma Tearne's new novel Brixton Beach whispering sweet nothings at you and trying to lure you into bed.
Ever strong-willed, I did what I had to - a lousy rush-job of the assignments. Since then, I have been blissfully holed up with my books.
Wesley was given to Stacey O'Brien as a brand-new owlet. She raised him and chopped up mice for him and loved him like a baby.
In return, he tried to force-feed her with mice and mate with her. Honestly, males . . . It's funny and disgusting and I am pretty convinced an owl is not the pet for me.
I've been a Roma Tearne fan ever since this infuriatingly talented young artist, novelist and filmmaker wrote Mosquito.
Brixton Beach is her third novel, and is once again partly set in Sri Lanka, where she was born. Alice Fonseka starts life in Sri Lanka where the civil war tears her happy childhood to shreds. She and her family leave for England to try to change the bad luck that has dogged them.
I have to admit I haven't finished it yet and, if it weren't so nearly my deadline, I would be reading it now - it's brilliant and I am so involved in their lives that I can't bear not knowing what's going to happen next.
Don't forget, it's the Arrowtown Flower Show in the hall today - they have a brilliant plant and jumble sale and all the cleverest gardeners in the district are showing off their treasures.
I think Audrey Taylor and Evelyn Caldwell are judging. I must whizz off and try to bribe them so I can win the best trillium section. Come along and see if my bribe works.
> Please do email me on miranda@queenstown.co.nz with your book recommendations - I am SO sorry about my recent slackness.
