Yesterday, her 106th birthday, the Albury resident stayed true to her word, greeting the same reporter for her latest milestone.

As that journalist I couldn’t believe how she had managed to keep her biological clock ticking.

Miss Macken’s lips were still polished with lipstick, her neck adorned with pearls and her spirit still that of someone half her age.

“I’m pleased to see you — well not really,” she said yesterday.

“You don’t want your photo taken when you’re 106.”

In the past year Miss Macken has moved into the new Albury and District Nursing Home on Logan Road, but not much else has changed — except for her love of Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

At her 105th birthday, Miss Macken said he was her favourite out of the 25 prime ministers she has lived to see but she began to question that affection after he awarded a knighthood to Prince Philip.

I had hoped, that in the past 12 months Miss Macken might have figured out the secret to her longevity.

But just as she told me last year, she said “if I knew I’d patent it”.

Miss Macken surprises many with her age, her 82-year-old niece Lesley McClintock has even been mistaken as her sister.

“I don’t know if I’m getting older or if she’s getting younger,” Ms McClintock said.

Miss Macken is close to take the record for the oldest woman to live in Albury — it is held by Daisy Gill who died just short of her 108th birthday in 2012.

Miss Macken did not promise to see The Border Mail next year.