Arrowtown book buyer Miranda Spary continues her regular column about her recommendations for a good read, and life as she sees it ...
My darling is still smarting after a recent name change.
I'm feeling a bit left out at the moment.
Everyone I know is being a movie star or a TV star.
My friend Philly has been training like crazy for the Motatapu and not only has rock-hard thighs but also got invited to star in Jane Campion's new movie.
Sam Hanna and George Wadsworth Watts went over the hill to star in the latest filming for Annabel Langbein's fabulous food series.
George surprised Annabel by greeting her so enthusiastically her cocktail flew everywhere.
Even my old milk churn featured in the show, but I had to stay home looking after my darling who is still smarting after a recent name change.
A story in Life and Leisure features our gulet holiday and the caption makes my darling appear so metrosexual he has taken on my surname.
We knew the minute the magazine hit the newsstands as so many people rang to speak to this Mr John Spary.
To make amends, the editor invited us to a "sorry" dinner near St Bathans, which more than made up for it.
Especially as in the morning we went mushrooming and picked four enormous bags.
It's been years since I've done that and I'm aching to go again.
Dinner in St Bathans meant we missed the Memorial Hall Fundraiser (I hate missing anything) and it sounded like a terrific night of entertainment topped off with a whopping lot of donations including Helly Wilding's $100,000 - that's brilliant news.
Sunday was the Cromwell Races and we were picking up our Auckland friend Emerald, who was in a dither about what to wear despite our assurances it wasn't a big fashion event.
How wrong we were! Local fashionistas Mal Price and Emily Dickinson made it through to the finals, with Mal picking up best-dressed man sporting a slithery smooth stripey outfit and a smartly contrasting bristly chin.
The crowd just swooned as he strutted along the catwalk.
I swear one woman fainted.
The president and secretary of the Otago Racing Club showed up the top dogs at the ORFU by being fully hands-on at their event.
They do everything themselves and they do it fantastically.
No hiding away in the VIP areas for them - they were working all day.
No wonder the day was such a success.
Even I was successful - only losing $6 with my heavy betting.
Beautiful Jess Neame and lucky Stacy Coburn were there happy as clams as the Wakatipu's newest engaged couple.
Huge congratulations.
Next week is just as busy - St Joseph's have managed to lure Peta Matthias down to teach all us lucky locals how to cook Spanish tapas.
Call the school or Mooch to get your tickets - it's on March 14 at the Queenstown Resort College.
Don't miss out on tickets for next Friday's talk by Fiona and Neil Pardington at Dorothy Brown's and the exhibition opening next door.
Nadene Milne deserves huge praise for bringing so many top New Zealand artists to the Wakatipu - it's extraordinary for such a tiny place to get the chance to meet these creative giants.
I'm always fishing for compliments and my favourite compliments are about how magical the Wakatipu is.
I got a great haul last night talking to Xanthe Clay, who is the food columnist at the Telegraph, and Niamh Childs, who is the author of one of the world's top food blogs, "eatlikeagirl".
They were both having their first visit to New Zealand and raving about their time here.
Keep an eye out for their writing - there is sure to be plenty about their dinner at VKnow and lunch at Saffron.
They had never been in a helicopter before and I didn't like to tell them that if their first was in this part of the world, they were unlikely to match it ever again.
I've been itching to tell you about a new book that comes out this week.
It's called The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen.
My favourite bookshops in London are Daunt Books, run by a genius called James Daunt.
He only sells books he thinks are great.
In a recent interview with the weekend FT, he said this book was the best thing he had read in a long time.
He's right.
It's a first novel about a little girl whose mother has died and she lives alone with her father who belongs to a nutty religion.
She's very lonely and has no friends.
School is a bit of a battle until she discovers she can speak to God and get things done the way she wants. Unfortunately, the consequences aren't what she expects.
It's utterly charming and you won't want to put it down for a minute.
Jenny Mehrtens is at last getting to halfway - happy happy birthday for Tuesday, dear Jenny.
