I have been away for the election with a group of my most intellectual, politically-minded girlfriends.
Because we are women, we were able to multitask and, as well as solving all the political woes of our lovely country, we could also drink cocktails and play endless rounds of Mexican train - a mentally challenging game that involves dominoes and making train noises.
It was much more exciting than the election, as the only surprise on that front (surprise implies something good, though, doesn't it?) was the reappearance of the Winston First party.
Honestly - that man is like one of those irritating birthday candles that you can't blow out.
For more fun than elections, there are loads of treats coming up.
Three-time Grammy nominee Toni Childs (think Stop Your Fussing , Zimbabwe ...) with the gorgeous husky voice is giving a concert - "Unplugged and Intimate" at the Moonlight Stables on December 10 with proceeds going to the New Zealand Thyroid Association.
You can get a ticket from Wine Tastes in Beach St.
The Arrowtown Entertainers are putting on their annual Christmas pantomime - Jack and the Beanstalk this year starring all the essential elements - a dame, a love affair, baddies and all our own superstar local children.
It is on December 9 and 10, and costs $20 for a family ticket.
It may be time for me to start kidnapping a few nieces and nephews ... going alone to a pantomime would be a bit tragic.
It is hard to believe it is nearly Christmas and, as usual, the supermarket's Christmas piped music mix and the petrol station's painted windows greetings do not send me into a frenzy of Christmas cheer.
Instead, I want to escape it all with a jolly good book.
The one I have just loved is not at all jolly, but good?
It is sensational.
This year has seen a load of great books, but I think I have truly just read the year's greatest.
I know that a lot of you are Elliot Perlman fans - he wrote the fantastic Seven types of ambiguity and also Three Dollars.
This Australian barrister does not seem able to write a bad book and his latest novel, The street sweeper, is no exception.
This book focuses on three characters - all good people, fighting the same problems of powerlessness and struggling for survival.
Their stories are all interconnected, although they take place in so many different places and across times - from the Holocaust, to the horrors of the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s right through to modern-day New York.
The main theme of the book is history - what is it we mean by history?
How do we record it?
How do we go about being heard and remembered?
Corruption, poverty and poor education make it almost impossible for those people to be heard.
This novel explores the way some people have managed to get their message across and be remembered forever.
It sounds confusing, but it is just out-and-out terrific - you just have to admire the skilful, subtle way Perlman ties all the stories and characters together, reminding us what a very small gap there is between us and every other human on the planet.
I loved it.
It is definitely time for the Christmas booklist, so please send me in your top recommendations for 2011.
