Many years ago when I was about 6 or 7, maybe younger, my family spent Xmas at my Aunty’s house in Manurewa and all I remember from that Xmas was getting a drinking bird for Xmas, but it only worked for a day. On boxing day it refused to drink and that was the last I saw of it.

My dad tried so hard to get it to work, but it just refused to drink.

A couple of weekends ago I was at a friend’s place and we were talking about toys from our childhood and Duncan the drinking bird came up. I said they should remake him coz I’d pay good money for one of those. She said you can get them, they’re around, so I Googled him, found him and bought one immediately.

Duncan took a few weeks to arrive from Australia – as with all things coming from overseas these days, he spent a while at the airport waiting for a courier to pick him up. But he arrived and I’m pleased to say after a bit of experimenting he works.

I think the problem on that dark and sad Boxing Day morning (I remember it being very grey outside, maybe even raining), was that it was just too cold for Duncan. The instructions say he works best in 25 degrees. This morning he was disappointing me again by refusing to drink, so I moved him in to the sun and 4 hours later he’s still drinking.