Arrowtown book buyer Miranda Spary continues her regular column about her recommendations for a good read and life as she sees it...
Grrr ... I got edited last week. I hate that!
It seems that as soon as I start ranting and raving, the meanie with the red pen gets stuck in.
Even when it's something really important, like how fabulous Judge Kevin Phillips is.
So, I was over the moon to read Sarah-Kate Lynch's column this week where my favourite wise and witty columnist agreed with me (no wonder I like her so much) that our laws are giving way too much power to the very young and the very stupid and the very bad.
It was Mothering Sunday in England last weekend and my sister got a card from her 9-year-old son. He had illustrated it with all sorts of mother-friendly stuff, like guns and Spitfires, and inside were as many complimentary things as he could think of about her.
My own particular favourite was "You are not like Hitler - he was a vegetarian," but "You are as cool as an ace Spitfire pilot" was a pretty close second.
I may have to contact him to ask for advice on writing more pleasing things about our local lunatics.
Geoff Bradley hurried to correct me about his daylight saving strategy - he doesn't change his alarm clock by 15 minutes each week, but his watch.
This means he floats around in a totally different time zone from everyone else for four weeks each spring and autumn.
And Willy Roberts is furious with me for revealing his training secrets.
Jane Shaw still likes me, but I am not sure her new business idea is going to be all good. She is bringing her Provisions shop to one of the old miners' cottages in Arrowtown in an attempt to prevent global warming.
Instead of that huge wave of Wakatipians driving to Cromwell every Sunday to bring back her sticky buns and gingerbread, these treats will be available every day in Arrowtown.
Every day?
I'm going to be the size of a house.
Charlotte Montgomery, my most organised friend, got me tickets for some shows at the Wellington Arts Festival.
I won't mention the two where I caught up with some missing sleep, but I must tell you that Good Morning, Mr Gershwin was sensational, especially the shadow movie of the quite plump lady getting ready to be lovely for her date. Her primping and pruning routine was hysterical.
These two young Oxford graduates put on an hour-long cabaret act that has the whole audience laughing and singing for what felt like five minutes.
We were all devastated when it ended.
On to things Eastery - eggs and where they come from.
Patagonia are laying their own amazing version of them again and I have to keep popping in every day to try to buy as many of the dark ones with almonds as I can.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of other people buying them all up before I can get my hands on them.
The other place eggs come from is hens, and there has been quite a lot of drama in our henhouse with the demise of our big red rooster.
The new one that arrived (you wouldn't believe how easy it is to find an unwanted rooster) was a bit of a sorry sight: a little bit little, a big bit effeminate and very, very scrawny.
We watched worriedly as this wimpy little guy stepped into the pen with his eight new wives who towered over him.
We were expecting him to win 2010's Most Henpecked Husband award (even beating my husband!) but we got it all wrong.
Our boy has got those eight girls quivering in their eagerness to do exactly as he says.
Goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover, but it's hard to resist a good one.
Gayle Pettit lent me a beautiful book of works by surrealist artist Rafal Olbinski.
The cover image has a woman in a low-cut dress with an apron, showing a mirror image of her topless top half.
It's been sitting on our kitchen table all week and not a single man has walked in without picking it up.
Interesting.
Andrea Levy, of Small Island fame, has a fantastic new novel out: The Long Song (great cover, too, incidentally).
Jamaica's history of slavery just pre- and post-abolition through the eyes of Miss July, the daughter of a field slave raped by the white overseer, should be a gruelling read.
But Andrea Levy is a brilliant storyteller, and in this book, she has Miss July chatting away to the reader about daily life with all the funny and strange and terrifying and beautiful moments included.
A lot of great books have been written about slavery, and this is another, but written in a very new and fresh voice.
Thanks for all the feedback this week and keep those recommendations coming - they're fantastic.
