So we want to have a cook-up at the weekend with Mother – get her to help us with something we don’t normally make and something fiddly or special or a little bit expensive that it’s worth making when there’s 4 of us. The Mister has chosen duck confit. No-one’s sure where to start – will have to ask the Internet. However, as a backup I fired a quick email off to Nikau owner … he’s got nothing to do right? … waiting for the renovations to be complete … and right away he emailed back with some great instructions! Thanks Paul!

It does all sound very grown up, curing and submerging and twice cooking on stove top and oven … methinks this will not be a low salt weekend!

I’m not that taken with iPhones, it’s the finger print thing plus my uneducated assumption that it costs a fortune to use it for the Internet which is why, again, I’d assume you get a phone like this. And then the Mister sent me a link to this iPhone customisation website! Might be changing my mind …

Parents are coming to stay this weekend and last time they visited in the winter they brought their nice warm hats to keep heads and ears warm around town, including a visit to my office in their hats … when people were there! So I emailed Father to hint tell him to bring a different hat this time … it was a bit mean really … I was just joking.

However, now being retired, they had plenty of time to get out hats this morning and play NZ Next Top Model to send me a whole lot of photos to choose something that wouldn’t embarrass me! They’re so funny and I *am* mean!!