The cover chosen by Telstra for issue 17.

My favourite of the three covers that were sent. Thanks to the Nexba boys for wearing their suits into the ocean at Manly beach. What a great shoot. Big thanks also to photographer James Evans who risked his camera's life and lens to get the shots.

And the third cover. Shot by Clair Negri in WA. She told me afterwards that, when the firefighters told her that they were moving inside the burning building to train, she asked if it was possible for her to go inside too and continue shooting. They laughed and informed her that if she tried both she and her camera would melt.

Marion got to the studio for our shoot after doing some television work. She should have been tired but was an absolute legend. We didn't finish shooting and recording until about seven but that smile was genuine the whole time. We also did some shots with eggs where we got her to break the egg high up over a bowl and the photographer, Paul Seusse, timed the shot so the egg yoke was captured in mid-fall directly in front of Marion's left eye. It worked so well as a cover with the Smarter yellow but was deemed 'a bit yucky'. Still, the chillies cover also looked pretty good. Also no one was hurt during the 'Marion please throw a pan full of chillies around whilst looking at camera and giving us a big smile' part of the session. As I said. Legend.

While we were recording the interview I had to ask the Woman's Weekly test kitchen staff to please keep the noise down so it didn't ruin the sound. There was a very testy moment when cakes needed to come out of the oven and we still hadn't finished recording. Whispers got quite hissy. I was very aware that there were some very sharp knives around. And a lethal looking whisk. The lady who's cakes were in mortal danger also looked like she could take me armed only with a spoon. Eventually I had to give and the cakes, slightly darker than they should have been I was told, were absolutely silently removed from the oven. They are more like ninjas than cooks in the WW test kitchen.

What a great guy Ryuji was. Asked by the editor, Stuart Ridley, if he would mind pretending to skate he spent hours on a trampoline faking a jump with the photographer lying on the ground calling '1, 2, 3, jump' over and over again. We then headed to a nearby skate park and Ryuji did it all again. Photographer Tim Levy showed a proper skater at the park the shot below and asked if it looked like Ryuji was jumping for real. The skater looked carefully and then chuckled and nodded... 'Yeah, that looks real.'

This was one of the few shots I wasn't at. Probably a Good Thing too as I may have pointed out to everyone that perhaps standing on a post holding up an umbrella surrounded by storm clouds was possibly not the smartest thing to do. Many thanks to Janine and photographer Yianni Aspradakis for going above and beyond on such a challenging day and getting such a great shot.

Mmm, this was a good shoot. There was sweets and cakes. Lots of them. They gave us some to taste. My word they were good! Stuart, Yianni and myself all bought lots more to take home. I ate all mine on the train. I see what you did there Gena.