Yes, I know I forgot to mention any books last week - thanks for all the reminders that this IS a book column.
My only excuse is that my computer did its usual nervous breakdown when our annoying children come home and do their strange things to it.
James Doyle had selfishly gone on holiday without worrying how my computer and I were going to get along without his constant technical doctoring skills; these young people of today.
By the time I had solved the problem alone (actually having to ring our daughter in Spain) and had pulled the plug out of the wall and replugged it in (why do I always forget that is how to fix everything electronic?), I had to do a very rushed job on the column.
Annoying or not, I wouldn't be without our boys for anything.
This week has been so stressful with all those poor families waiting to hear the outcome of the coal-mine disaster. It is hard to comprehend the level of pain those wives and families and friends must be feeling now that the horrible news they have been dreading has arrived.
What an absolute tragedy and I wish there was some way of undoing it all and giving them back to the people they love.
It all serves to make every parent I know love their children all the more when things like this happen, so I guess there is some good in disasters.
I am considering pleasing my children by going along to the Vudu baking course. I really went in there to buy their beautiful calendar with the recipes that have earned Vudu Cafe Magazine's top regional cafe award.
Oh hummingbird cake ... mmmm ... the recipe is in the calendar, but Vudu know that everyone wants to see how this beautiful thing is made, hence the course.
And the Tin Goose Cafe have put out a recipe book as well, edited by Wakatipu wondercook Jenny McLeod! Sounds to me as if a lot of Wakatipians are going to be waddling around this summer.
They'll have to work all that cake off.
Susan Stevens is calling for volunteers to help paint the seats on the about-to-be opened Gibbston Trail, so if you want to be one of those annoying grandparents who point out examples of their handiwork around the district, get along and help, and in 50 years you can say "Look here, young whippersnapper, I painted this - see where I painted my initials underneath?".
Christmas is coming and I am frantically trying to get life tidy before then. Is that why Christmas was invented?
I have some lovely woofers - Alex, from France, and Irina, from Russia, who seem to have been here helping me for a couple of months already.
They are a true delight and I particularly love their odd English - "Fishstick" for fishing rod leaps to mind.
It's fun getting all the emails from woofers - one young couple from Taiwan told me they want to come and stay with us because "they work hardly and enjoy it". Not the sort of hard workers I had in mind.
Lost in Translation full of lovely English manglings, such as shampoo instructions "Use repeatedly for severe damage" or "Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar".
I've never seen a version of this with English disasters in other languages so if you have read one, please do let me know.
I am so furious to have missed the bookstall at the Anglican fair last week.
I met my friend Cath, who was wearing her special bargain-hunting, very holey jersey that makes stallholders feel sorry for her and give her better prices. She is a VERY good bargain hunter and within seconds had found an almost brand new juicer and magimix and loads of other things while I was still drooling over Alice Gallaway's plum cakes.
And Geoff Bradley made sure I went home with at least one more historical society calendar. There were lots of bargains - something about rainy weather makes people less sure they need to take home a carload of other people's jumble, but they still made over $10,000 - well done!
And all that without the world's most compulsive bookbuyer seeing the bookstall?Mark Hill's sculpture exhibition has opened at The Hills - go and see these elegant, sinuous, twisted ribbons in front of the clubhouse - honestly, it would be nice if there were SOMETHING those Hills weren't good at.
I'm from a huge family and even with some desperate scratching around, I can't think of any one of us with any particular talents. My mother does a bit of painting, which makes for disappointing Christmas presents, but that's about it. My husband says I'm the most amazing speller he knows, but as he is severely dyslexic, I hardly think he's in a position to judge that.
Freedom is totally engrossing . One of the reasons I love reading is that I love that opportunity to snoop around in other people's private lives.
Patty and Walter have a perfect, peachy marriage on the outside, but dig around a little and they are just as dysfunctional as all the rest of us. Freedom is all about our freedom to make personal choices and how everyone's freedom to choose can't really work - sometimes these freedoms collide and something has to give. It's a pretty depressing look at our world, but fascinating for all that.
The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson. The Man Booker is often awarded to very heavygoing books. This one is still a slow read, but more because the writing provokes you to stop and ponder along the way.
It is very funny in bits, and desperately sad in others.
Male friendship is the main theme and the three very different heroes are struggling to make sense of their lives. Julian, who is not Jewish (but feels Jewish) and not widowed gets mugged at the beginning of the book.
He's a spineless, pathetic sort of man - a bad father, hopeless at relationships and wants what he thinks everyone else has. He's careless and callous and the perfect catalyst for all the stories that spin off him. I know there are people who will start this book and give up, but it is worth persevering - there's a lot to think about.
On a cheerier, cherrier note, summer is coming and when I called in to see Mrs Jones at Cromwell (the last fruit stall as you are heading to Queenstown), she gave me a handful of cherries. Mrs Jones REALLY knows her cherries as she grows about a thousand tonnes of them each year and this cherry expert tells me we are in for a bumper year.
Have a great weekend and don't forget the Nokomai Christmas fete is on this weekend if you feel like a little southern voyage to do some Christmas shopping.
