Arrowtown book buyer Miranda Spary continues her regular column about her recommendations for a good read and life as she sees it ...
There's nothing new about a naughty night in Queenstown, but there's a very new, naughty knight here now.
Arise and shine, Sir Michael Hill.
Lucky for him that the Queen is so busy this week that her representative did the honours with the sword near our newest knight's neck.
Given his extreme interest in living as long as possible, he might not have been too keen on a stressed pensioner (does the Queen get the pension?) waving one anywhere near his head. Congratulations, even though we all know that Lady Hill is, like all wives of great men, fully responsible for the honour.
I met a great man last week - my new editor.
Neal's a clever chap in so many ways, but still he stubbornly refused to agree to my spending two months in London on full expenses covering the royal wedding for the Queenstown Times. What a pity. I had such great plans.
But just as good as a royal wedding is a Wakatipu one, and my darling's beautiful goddaughter, Hester Wallace, is getting married today.
She's not just beautiful, but is also such an amazing golfer that even the famous clique all-male golfing group lets her play with them.
Congratulations Hester and Kevin.
Mother Penny organised a great hens' lunch and Jenny McLeod played chatshow hostess interviewing us all about Hester.
Jenny is great with words but I was anxious to be near her when we were taught to make big, floaty crepe paper flowers.
Jenny's skill at those sort of things means even I was able to look adequate. Well, almost.
What culture gluttons we are all being this week - Hamish Keith's talk on Tony Lane's work, the NZ art scene and how to understand art was funny and simple and downright terrific. Dorothy Brown's was overflowing with locals wanting to hear this stroppy, passionate genius.
The Festival of Colour started with a bang - I haven't met anyone who didn't love the sold-out world premiere of Rita and Douglas in Memorial Hall.
I couldn't believe Passing Wind didn't get a bigger audience.
Linsey Pollak is an Australian comedian-musician whose hour-long show is all about making wind instruments from the most unlikely stuff.
It wasn't just the children who were spellbound by the music he could make with garden hoses and camping chairs, but the adults as well.
If you look up his website, you can see parts of his show online as well as instructions on how to make your carrot into a clarinet.
The strange thing is, I really want to, and so did everyone else at the show.
It was impossible to believe that the music he played was coming out of a carrot - exquisite.
Goodbye to dear Eeon Ryan - our lovely Arrowtown wasp man.
The Arrowtown Hall was packed with people grateful to him for all the work he has done.
The only ones celebrating his passing will be the wasps.
Summers just won't be the same without getting Eeon round for a spot of wasp mass murdering.
And two exciting resource consents are in the offing for Arrowtown - our historic town might be getting petrol again. So 21st century.
How long is it since we stopped being able to buy fuel here?
This is wonderful news and I can't wait for them to open.
As well as that, Scotty Stevens is planning to restore the beautiful little Dudley Cottage down by the Chinese village and make it into a tourist info centre.
This Sunday is Cath Hanna's "Gently Used Clothing Sale" at St Peter's Church Hall in Church St, Queenstown.
She has convinced even more locals to sell those clothes that weren't quite the right size or colour or whatever for them.
Get along and take advantage of other people's mistakes. Or if you are a bit of a mistake-maker yourself, go and see Cath at Motogrill and she will help you sell them.
It's been such a busy week that there's only been one solution - hide away and read more books.
I struggled through Tea Obreht's very well-reviewed The Tiger's Wife.
It is about a doctor whose grandfather dies while she is visiting orphanages in the Balkans during the war there. It's beautiful writing, but it is a complicated story.
I am going to read it again when I have a less busy week and can give it my full attention.
My big pile of "to reads" is growing bigger and bigger.
Jilly Jardine handed me Tilar Mazzeo's The Secret of Chanel No 5, which is the history of the world's most famous perfume.
She asked me to read it for her in case it wasn't any good!
I would say no to anyone else, but Jilly? ... Anyway, it's pretty intriguing - Coco Chanel was quite a girl and her No 5 still sells at the rate of two bottles a minute globally.
If anyone wearing it sees me this week, can you tell me so I can have a sniff? I couldn't remember the smell and the only negative aspect of the book is the author's tendency to describe the fragrance ad nauseam.
And if you see any of the following people on Tuesday next week, do be sure to give them a big hug and birthday wishes.
April 19 is the birthday of four of my favourite people - our son Fred, who's turning 21, Cath Hanna, Jane Taylor and Paul Fish, who are all not turning 21.
