Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Earth by John Boyne 

It’s the tabloid sensation of the two well-known footballers standing in the dock, charged with sexual assault, a series of vile text messages pointing towards their guilt. As the trial unfolds, Evan Keogh reflects on the events that have led him to this moment. Since leaving his island home, his life has been a lie on many levels. He’s a talented footballer who wanted to be an artist. A gay man in a sport that rejects diversity. A defendant whose knowledge of what took place on that fateful night threatens more than just his freedom or career. The jury will deliver a verdict but, before they do, Evan must judge for himself whether the man he has become is the man he wanted to be. 

The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour and Jude Dobson 

This is the astounding true story of one of the last female special operations agents in France to get out alive after its liberation in WWII.  
Born in 1921, Pippa Latour became a covert special operations agent who parachuted into a field in Nazi-occupied Normandy. Trained by the British, Pippa was lauded for her fluency with languages and her coding ability - attributes she put to remarkable use when she posed as a teenage soap-seller, often selling her wares to the German soldiers and sending back information via code to England. 
 
Incredibly brave - Pippa knew she could be instantly shot if her cover was blown - she concealed her codes on a piece of silk that she threaded through a shoelace and wore as a hair tie. She bicycled around the region, often sleeping rough and foraging for food. 
 
During her time in Normandy, Pippa sent 135 secret messages conveying crucial information on German troop positions in the lead-up to D-Day. Pippa continued her mission until the liberation of Paris in August 1944. 
 
For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats during WWII. 
 
Now, for the first time, her story can be told in full. 

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The Lie  

A father and daughter are on their way to dance camp when they spot the girl's best friend on the side of the road; when they stop to offer the friend a ride, their good intentions soon result in terrible consequences (in cinemas). 

The Fall Guy  

After leaving the business one year earlier, battle-scarred stuntman Colt Seavers springs back into action when the star of a big studio movie suddenly disappears. As the mystery surrounding the missing actor deepens, Colt soon finds himself ensnared in a sinister plot that pushes him to the edge of a fall more dangerous than any stunt (in cinemas). 

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Thank you, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story 

Follows the history of Bon Jovi, featuring personal videos, photos, and music that provide a look at Jon Bon Jovi's life and the band's journey from New Jersey clubs to global fame (Disney+). 

The Dry 

After living it up in London, Shiv returns home to Dublin, where she must navigate new relationships, family drama and her own questionable life choices, all while trying to stay sober (TVNZ+). 

Food Rescue Kitchen 

A new heartwarming New Zealand show that sees six top chefs create a three-course meal for the community out of rescued food (ThreeNow, Three at Saturday, 7pm). 

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"Crisp, clear days sets the stage for cracking autumn adventures in Sydney. If you’re planning a fresh fling with the Emerald City, here’s a roundup of some winning picks to rev up your city-break, from bucket list classics to seasonal treats and in-the-know gems."

Read Mike's full article here. 

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This year marks the 10thanniversary of the Fashion Revolution movement, a week-long fashion activism campaign. 

The campaign was prompted by the collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, killing over a thousand people and injuring around 2,500. 

It aims to bring awareness to the way fashion and clothing are created and consumed, promoting sustainability. 

Kate ‘Ethically Kate’ Hall joined Jack Tame to discuss the campaign and this year’s Fashion Revolution Week. 

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Do you want something to think about? Something that sets fire to your garden? 

Go and visit your local Botanic Gardens, they’re everywhere in Aotearoa! 

I know… we are really lucky in Christchurch. 

Best Autumn performers: liquidamber, smoke bush, Japanese Maple, ash, sycamore, poplar, birch and even some willows. 

To me, all these autumn colours remind me that our planet has been on the re-using bandwagon for 3.8 billion years,and the display is absolutely dazzling! 

This is the time forDahliaflowers. 

Dahlia Joal Jay Jay. Photo / Supplied 

Julie’s pick of the bunch – it just about hurts your retina! 

Talking about bright colours: a YellowGinko biloba(the maidenhair fern tree); ancient gymnosperm 

When leaves form a carpet, it looks pretty impressive. Oh… use male trees only as females smell!!! 

Here’s a great native; always providing colour, so needed in winter too. 

Pseudowintera colorata – pepper plant 

Sequoiadendron giganteum, the giant redwood from the USA. Yes you’ll need to wait a few weeks for it to grow massively, but you’ve got to think “long-term” in this game. The bark is lovely and soft. 

This particular one (in Christchurch botanic gardens) has been host (for many, many years) to one of our most rottenest pest weed in the garden: Poison Ivy!! 

But have a look how stunning this turned out to be… as long as someone takes the time to control that ivy! 

And then, for folk with a decent-sized and shallow water feature (a lake or “lakelet”) this caught my eye a long time ago when visiting the Okefenokee swamp (on the border of Georgia and Florida) 

ATaxodium distichum(Swamp Cypress) can live in water and has pretty knobbly knees or pneumatophores that allow the roots to breathe air above the level of the water. 

These swamp cypresses also take a long time to age, but their Pneumatophores will show quite quickly when the tree(s) start to settle 

One word or warning: don’t fall over them, keep an eye on where they are, otherwise you’ll end up pretty wet. 

Sometimes you encounter a tree that you’d never expect in Aotearoa: 

The Wollemi Pine! (Wollemia nobilis) 

This Conifer species belongs to the Araucaria Family of trees (Araucariaceae) and was considered extinct in Australia some 2 million years ago. 

It was re-discovered in 1994 in a canyon NW of Sydney. Fewer than 100 mature specimens still exist and propagation and planting of new trees in suitable habitat is aiming to save this species from extinction. 

Your Botanic Gardens are involved in exactly this kind of restoration of endangered species! 

And collaboration is the key to these projects – even gardeners can be involved! 

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BOB’S BEST BUYS 

Wine:
OTU (Otawhero Estate) Chardonnay, 2023 Hawke’s Bay $20

Why I chose it:  
- Discovered it in a recent blind tasting 
- Excellent wine from a challenging vintage (La Nina, wet) 

What does it taste like?  

- Silken texture with grapefruit, green apple, lemon curd and a touch of whipped cream. 

Why it’s a bargain:  

- $20 or less 

Where can you buy it?  

- New World

- Devonport

- Shop around 

Food match? 

- Versatile 

- Seafood pasta dish 

- Creamy chicken fettucine 

Will it keep? 

- Drink up 

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The NZ International Comedy Festival is kicking off next week, and to kickstart the shenanigans Chris Parker will be hosting the annual Comedy Gala. 

The kiwi comedian has cemented himself as one of the country’s favourite comics, having done everything from stage shows and stand-up to podcasts and books. 

He’s just returned home from the Melbourne Comedy Festival where he did a total of 22 shows alongside line-ups, a podcast, and various other gigs over the course of a month. 

He told Newstalk ZB’s Jack Tame that there’s a lot of people, and a lot of kiwis looking for something familiar. 

“I’m doing sort of customer service, sort of trying to figure out where my audience is,” Parker said. 

“And I’m like, ‘oh I see. They’re mostly kiwis who are feeling homesick and want to hear an accent again.” 

The set he performed at the Festival was titled ‘Give Me One Good Reason Why I Shouldn't Throw My Phone Off This Bridge’, a title he said was a dramatic reaction to being on his phone too much. 

“I keep sort of having those like, ‘what if?’ moments. I don’t know if you feel like whenever you’re driving over the Harbour bridge and you’re just like, ‘what if?’” Parker asked Tame. 

“I have that with my phone every morning, or I just want to crush it, you know? Just because I’m just done with it.” 

Parker appreciates that he built his audience through social media, but he does worry about the impact social media and technology has on those who use it, their attention spans, and the way they connect with others. 

“When we first had the internet, which is such a joyful place where we talk to men in their forties in chat rooms, and now it’s sort of dissolved into this, you know...” 

“This actually unpleasant place,” Tame chimed in. 

“It’s very interesting,” Parker agreed. 

This is the crux of the show, he explains, the relationship and dependence we have on social media, Parker even saying that he might go cold turkey on it. 

He compares the assortment of media consumed in one moment to canapes at an event, a chiropractor video next to world news next to a pasta recipe similar to a bao bun, a prawn twizzler, and a burger all on one plate. 

“That’s a lot of different stuff to be consuming in one moment.” 

Speaking of canapes and events, Parker rejects the notion that hosting the Comedy Gala is a rough gig. 

“I am, you know, a serial showoff,” he told Tame. 

“So, all I’m gagging for is the stage time, and I get more than anyone else! No other acts, it’s me for an hour.” 

The awards are a beautiful thing, he said. Being able to see his colleagues at their best in a four or five minute act, six if they go overtime, it’s wonderful. 

“It gives a real gauge on how we’re going as a country in terms of our, you know, comedic landscape, which is like, we’re sharper and funnier than ever." 

“We werestormingMelbourne,” Parker revealed. 

“They were getting angry at how good, at how funny New Zealand was.” 

In Parker's opinion, this is an amazing time for New Zealand comedy, and while we do celebrate it, we could be better.

"Please go out and support live comedy."

"Stop watching comedy on your phone, get out, put your phone in the bin, get out of the door and go take a punt on a comedian that you've never heard of before."

The International Comedy Festival begins May 3rdin venues across Auckland and Wellington, with select shows occurring around the country. 

‘Give Me One Good Reason Why I Shouldn't Throw My Phone Off This Bridge’ will be touring New Zealand from June 20th, visiting Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, Auckland, Wellington, and Rotorua. 

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The TikTok clock has started, and TikTok is saying it's not even looking at it. 

Parent company ByteDance posted overnight that it doesn't have any plans to sell TikTok.Reuters is reporting that a source says it would prefer to just shut the app down in the US, their algorithm is their secret sauce, so selling the app would be selling the algorithm.

Get ready for a showdown. TikTok's CEO says the law and the US Constitution is on their side.

The US says it has concerns TikTok could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans, which TikTok strongly rejects. To complicate matters, 60% of Bytedance is owned by investment Firms including large (and likely influential) US investors. 
 
Meta's pumping billions more into AI 

The company had planned to spend up to $37 billion this year but now says it could be closer to $40 billion.They certainly have the cash though, profit was $12.4 billion for Q1, more than double Q1 last year. 
A staggering number of people are dependent on Meta, with Zuckerberg saying at the earnings call more than 3.24 billion people use one or more of its apps every day. WhatsApp is a big driver of that usage. He also made a plea to shareholders to trust that the money will come at some stage with AI & Metaverse products, just as it has for Reels and Stories which initially didn't make any money. 

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This dessert is an easy French classic and any fruit can be used really – feijoa, peach, plum, prune or the original, cherry. I’m only using raspberries as I’ve recently been late-season raspberry picking! Serves one 

Ingredients: 

Butter 

½ cup fresh raspberries 

1 medium egg 

2 tablespoons caster sugar + extra 

1 tablespoon plain flour 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

¼ cup milk 

Cream to serve 

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 180°C and generously butter a small ovenproof dish. 

Scatter raspberries into dish. 

Whisk egg with the 2 tablespoons sugar, add flour and whisk until smooth. Whisk in vanilla and milk. 

Pour batter over fruit, dot some butter over the top and bake for 20 minutes or so until just set in the centre and golden. 

Serve with a final sprinkle of sugar over the top and drizzle with cream. 

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Although the ANZAC services in Wellington may be bigger, there’s a reason Kevin Milne sticks with his local services. 

There’s just something about the things that happen in small towns that really appeals. 

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On Wednesday this week the former Green party co-leader James Shaw will address parliament as an MP for the last time. And in a moment when his party is reeling from a combination of scandal and tragedy, his valedictory marks the end of an undervalued career.  

Many of the politicians who join our so-called minor parties are idealists. They’re not like some Labour or National MPs (more than a few of whom I reckon secretly dream of becoming Prime Minister). They join because they really intensely believe in the political philosophy or kaupapa. And in the case of the Greens, it’s my view that sometimes activism comes at the expense of more pragmatic strategy.  

Ahead of his valedictory address, I went back and looked up James Shaw’s maiden speech in parliament from back in 2014.  

What stuck out to me was how much he talked about overcoming political divisions and tribalism, working together, reaching across the aisle to make connections and compromises with politicians in different parties.  

That might sound like bland political speak, but actually, politicians in New Zealand don’t talk about compromise all that much. In the U.S, Republicans and Democrats often talk about working across the aisle —even if that’s bollocks, these days— but the way New Zealand’s system is structured, usually the only compromise we see for really big legislation is between coalition or support partners in government together.  

As an MP, James Shaw did not achieve everything he wanted. Our biggest-emitting industry doesn’t pay for its emissions. Tax reform never got done. But it’s interesting to reflect on what big legacy changes have and haven’t survived the change of government.  

The Māori Health Authority, Three Waters, Auckland Light Rail, Te Pūkenga, the Oil and Gas ban; so much of the last Labour government’s policy and work programme has been scrapped.  

But one big piece of work has endured. Despite ACT’s continued opposition, the Zero Carbon Act has survived the change in government.  

Why? I’d suggest a major part of the reason is the way James Shaw went about crafting that legislation. He didn’t charge ahead by himself. He very deliberately worked across the aisle. He developed a close relationship with National’s then-climate spokesperson Todd Muller and worked to gain the support of every MP in parliament, but one. The whole purpose of the legislation was that it would survive the changing winds and ups-and-downs of politics over time. And here we are.  

I think there’s a good argument to be made that the single most significant piece of enduring legislation from Jacinda Ardern’s time in government, was a piece of work developed by an MP who wasn’t even in her party or Cabinet.  

The Zero Carbon Act is a victory for compromise. A victory for putting aside differences and uniting around common goals. And although James Shaw’s style and strategy may not have always have been appreciated by everyone in his own party, the result speaks for itself. 

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Musical trio Khruangbin is well known for their blend of classic soul, dub, rock, and psychedelia; the group emerging in 2010 and going strong fourteen years on. 

They’ve played 18 tours to nearly half a million people, selling out iconic venues such as Red Rocks and Radio City Music Hall, the latter twice. 

Two weeks ago, they released their fifth albumA La Sala,and just last week they took to the stage at Coachella. 

They have a music-forward approach to their craft, and the group’s drummer DJ Johnson told Newstalk ZB’s Jack Tame that it’s been that way since the start. 

“The music always comes first,” he said. 

Johnson said that the music determines everything that happens in the backend, album titles being one example. 

“We’ve been asked like, ‘what’s the next album gonna be called?’ And it’s like, well, we don’t know yet because the music doesn’t exist yet.” 

They’ve described the album as a creative homecoming of sorts, bassist Laura Lee telling Tame that while the band has grown and evolved, touring the world and playing stadiums, it's nice to strip everything back. 

“The amount of voices and opinions and, you know, tugs and pulls in various directions have grown, and I think there was a desire to just get back to square one.” 

A La Salais free of collaborations, guests, and features, and although they are proud of the collaborations they’ve made, Lee said it felt like so long since they’d made music just the three of them. 

“As we were getting back to that place, we realised that the creative was in less, and not in more.” 

Johnson said that while it does have the same kind of magic as when they were first making music, the growth and evolution they’ve gone through has impacted it. 

“We went back to more or less the way that we used to approach the material when we first started, but with a renewed sense and a maturity in which we’re approaching it. 

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Taylor Swift has released her much anticipated eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department, the release catching her fans by surprise with the addition of 15 unknown songs.

Two hours after the initial release of the album The Anthology was released, Swift saying in a tweet that she'd written so much tortured poetry over the last two years and wanted to share it with her fans, hence the double release.

The BBC described the album as 'vulnerable but vicious', which Estelle Clifford had to agree with.

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The Sympathizer 

Near the end of the Vietnam War, a spy who was embedded in the South Vietnam army flees to the United States and takes up residence in a refugee community, where he continues to gather intelligence and report back to the Viet Cong(Neon). 

Baby Reindeer 

Dealing with a female stalker, a man is forced to face a dark, buried trauma (Netflix). 

Painting with John 

At an undisclosed location in the Caribbean, artist John Lurie hones his watercolour painting techniques while sharing his reflections on life (Neon). 

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Abigail 

A group of would-be criminals kidnaps the 12-year-old daughter of a powerful underworld figure. Holding her for ransom in an isolated mansion, their plan starts to unravel when they discover their young captive is actually a bloodthirsty vampire. 

Origin 

Based on the life of Isabel Wilkerson, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, as she writes the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Over the course of the film, Wilkerson travels throughout Germany, India, and the United States to research the caste systems in each country's history. 

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How long does the average person live? How will that impact their retirement? 

How much money do you need to live comfortably when retiring? When do you start saving? How do you start saving? 

Economist Ed McKnight joined Jack Tame to dive into how to save to make your retirement work. 

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My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes 

Anna Walsh had a dream life - according to everybody else. She lived in New York, had a long-term boyfriend, and had The Best Job In The World working as a highly successful beauty PR. So why did she decide to take a flamethrower to the lot? Because now she's back Dublin, living with her parents. She's undeniably forty-eight, with no partner, no job, and no direction. Anna's lost her purpose. She needs a new challenge to help her fall back in love with life again. When an opportunity arises to solve a PR crisis in the tiny town of Maumtully, Anna leaps at the chance. But will the appearance of an old love interest derail her plans? 

A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci 

Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. And he quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial.  

Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a fractious and unwieldy partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth. Yet DuBose is also aware that powerful outside forces are at work to blunt the victories achieved by the Civil Rights era. 
 
Lee and DuBose could not be more dissimilar. On their own, neither one can stop the prosecution’s deliberate march towards a guilty verdict and the electric chair.  But together, the pair fight for what once seemed impossible: a chance for a fair trial and true justice.  

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"The humming Hurunui township of Amberley is on a roll. 40 minutes’ drive from Christchurch, Amberley’s population has surged by over 50% in the past decade and is projected to double again in the next ten years. Straddling SH1, this embracing country town exudes a hearty welcome, with its boutique shopping offerings and a fantastic Farmers Market every Saturday morning, abuzz with producers and artisans. With a long and proud rural history, Amberley is a rich commercial cradle for the region’s growers and producers."

Read Mike's full article here.

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The importance of leading well during times of change(of which there is a lot of at the moment!) and the importance of leaders looking after their own wellbeing as part of leading well. 

A recent study interviewed 20 CEOs from leading companies in the USA. It showed that really effective leaders helped improve team and individual performance and helped the organisations do really well. 

On the flip side, leaders who were burnt out or stressed passed this onto their team. They tended to be closed off to new ideas, create a negative psychological climate, and make decisions based on anxiety and avoidance. 

This highlights the need for leaders and organisations to make sure leader’s mental wellbeing is a priority. Leaders should consider this as a core part of their job and actively schedule it in. 

It’s helpful for leaders to make sure they have good social connections outside of work and ideally a peer network across their business that they can talk openly with as they’re often not able to share everything with their team. 

Important to be predictable in their role and part of this is managing their own emotional expression, but what do they do with the “residue” of this? Getting professional coaching/supervision can be really helpful in this domain. 

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Let’s concentrate on the N, P and K. 

Nitrogen is the stuff that makes plants green; this molecule provides the building blocks for Chlorophyll. If you have plants that are valued for their leaves and green stems (grass, lawns, lettuce, ornamental trees and shrubs) they will need more N than say P or K. 

Plants with important roots (carrots, parsnips, potatoes) and other underground organs that will grow as they explore for “food in the dark”; they need a little bit more P (Phosphate) to do just that. 

And the K (Potash) is for reproduction. 

Plant reproduction is of course mostly through flowers, which are pollinated and hence become fertilised to produce seeds and fruits which, when deposited on soil, will yield new seedlings. 

That means that flowering plants and fruiting trees, shrubs, vines and berry bushes, really appreciate an extra dollop of potash, just to keep the cool stuff coming. 

But in Autumn temperatures are going down and most plants, trees and shrubs will slowly stop growing to prepare for winter. They simply don’t need a lot of fertiliser at all – in fact many of them slowly stop taking in these food molecules. 

Generally speaking: if you would fertilise plants in autumn the plant may try to create some more new leaves – roses (and quite a few other plant species) would do that in late summer and autumn. Those soft, new leaves will be very susceptible to frost damage. 

Not advisable! 

Right now, a lot of shrubs and trees are trying to prepare for winter by storing the N, P, K and such valuable macro or micronutrients before they drop the leaves. Those nutrients are “stored” in the twigs, stems and woody parts; the leaves will discolour to reds, oranges and yellows, 

Those autumn colours literally look like deficiency patterns – mind you, they look beautiful! Just visit Central Otago. 

One thing I would fertilise from now on is the compost bin!! If I use the Seaweed Tea, its nutrients will encourage tiny critters and bacteria, fungi etc., to develop in the compost. That results in a much quicker decomposition and more fertility when you use that compost in spring. 

Another good use of fertiliser is for Cymbidium orchids! These plants are often grown in warmer areas (out of the frosty zones) and will appreciate a high K (potash) diet in autumn and winter so they can produce a heap of flower buds in late winter. 

Similarly certain bulbs would like a bit of slow-release food, to develop their own flowers or even more bulbs. Think about Garlic and shallots! Winter is often their growth time. 

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Meta is out to kill ChatGPT 

Mark Zukerbeg admits that Meta isn't known as an AI leader but doesn't want it to be that way for long.

They have released their Llama 3 models which are monumental steps ahead of Llama 2.  
For the sake of scale, Llama 2 was trained on 2 trillion tokens, Llama 3 was trained on 15 trillion tokens. Simply, it's going to know more and be able to connect more dots than before.

Meta has made the small and medium versions of Llama 3 available to external developers but hasn't yet confirmed when the large model will be made available.

You're going to see more AI on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. You'll see prompts for replies generated by AI. The AI Assistant will be more prominent.

For the first time, Meta's created a standalone chatbot for desktop, outside of its product frameworks. Meta.AI looks just like ChatGPT but is totally free. 
 

The Swifties were divided over the album leak 

What do you do when a hotly anticipated Taylor Swift album is leaked in a Google Drive folder before launch? Do you listen? Do you wait for the official release? It's the ethical questions that had Swifties debating online this week. The leak has turned out to be the real album, but not the surprise 2am album, making the The Tortured Poets Department a double album. 

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For those who are taking Anzac Day off next week and are looking for something to make over the long weekend, these could be worth a try. 

Ingredients: 

½ leek, diced and gently sautéed 

1 cup cauliflower florets, finely diced 

20g butter + 50g butter 

4 heaped tbsps. plain flour 

300mls milk 

Pinch white pepper 

50g hard cheese (cheddar or machego are good options) 

1 egg 

extra flour for coating 

¾ cup breadcrumbs 

Method: 

1. In a pot, melt the 20g butter on a low heat, add the leeks and cook until softened. Add in cauliflower and cook for 3-4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. 

2. Melt the 50g butter then add flour and stir to form a paste. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes, then slowly add the milk, stirring or whisking until there are no lumps. Increase the heat slightly and stir until the sauce is a thickened and the flour has completely cooked – you shouldn’t be able to detect any flour when you taste it. 

3. Add the pepper, cheese, leeks and cauliflower and stir to combine. Taste to make sure it has enough seasoning. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool completely. It will be very thick once cooled. 

4. Set up three plates, one with a beaten egg, one with seasoned flour and one with breadcrumbs. 

5. Begin to shape the croquettes by rolling tablespoonfuls of the cooled béchamel into small sausage shapes. Roll each one in flour, then egg, then in the breadcrumbs and set aside. 

6. Fill a medium sized pot with enough cooking oil to come halfway up the pot and turn it to medium heat. Focus and do not leave the pot for a minute! 

7. Once hot enough (small currants will form on the bottom of the pot but it will not reach smoking point), begin to cook the croquettes, 3-5 at a time by lowering them into the oil with a slotted spoon. If your oil is not hot enough they will sink and melt, instead of floating and frying, so trial one first. 

8. Fry in batches until each is golden brown all over (turn them if you need to but they often do it themselves). Remove and drain on paper towel and serve immediately. 

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When you reach 75 years of age, in order to get your drivers licence you have to do a health test. 

The test includes a cognitive test to check for dementia, and a general health test. 

Kevin Milne went to sit the test earlier in the week and suffice to say he was a bit nervous.

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How did she do it?  

How could it be? 

Tell me how —HOW— does the most famous popstar in the World right now keep anything secret? 

I get it. It’s not a nuclear code. It’s not a secret access key for a banking system that would make a keen hacker trillions of dollars in an instant. But that Taylor Swift, in the digital age, with however many hundreds of millions of fans Worldwide following her every move, can press a button and drop 15 songs, having secretly recorded them and prepared them to be published simultaneously on streaming platforms around the World, tells you one thing: Taylor Swift’s lawyers really know how to write an iron-clad NDA. 

Is Taylor Swift worth the hype? 

I’m not a Swiftie, per se. I didn’t go to Australia for the Eras tour. But I also hate it when people sneer at other people’s music tastes. Music tastes are so subjective. Who am I to say that what I’m listening to is any better or worse than what you prefer?  

Any reasonable person cannot say that Taylor Swift is not two things: an incredibly talented songwriter, and an incredibly hard worker.  

Taylor’s been teasing something new. She’s made mysterious social media posts. Finally, yesterday, all was revealed: The Tortured Poets Department, a surprise double album. As the internet melted down with reactions and analysis, I searched the 31 songs on Spotify and cranked up the beats. 

It was good. It was fine. Personally, I still prefer her early stuff. But even though I couldn’t name the ex-boyfriends most of the songs are apparently about, I enjoyed listening to the lyrics and found myself gently tapping along as I fixed dinner.  

And I’m noticing this weird phenomenon with Taylor Swift. Even though I’m ambivalent to her music, like an ocean current, I find myself still getting swept along in the hype. 

I get it. I think we all do. We all have an artist for whom at some point in our lives we’ve been desperate for any flicker of something new: a magazine cover, a single, an album, a World Tour. For me, for about five years, it was Kanye West. For you, someone else, I’m sure. It’s the Beatlemania thing. There is something primal, something is our cells, a zeal, some magic, some uniquely human quality that loves to be caught up in the fever of a crowd, to share in the collective idolising of that little dot under the brights on stage. 

It doesn’t happen with authors or artists. The closest you might get is Lionel Messi on a football pitch. And although I wouldn’t call myself a Swiftie. I’m here for the Swiftie hype.  

But is she worth it? A miserable sod might suggest no one’s worth it.  

But given she has built one of the largest and most influential fan bases in the history of music, she has produced the highest-grossing tour of all time, she’s the first musician to become a billionaire solely from writing and performing, and she’s shattering all manner of streaming records, I’m gonna side with the wisdom of the Swiftie crowds.  

Is Taylor Swift worth the hype? Of course she’s worth the hype! 

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Released right as summer died, ‘Gothic Summer’ is the sixth studio album from Australian pop duo The Veronicas. 

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Jess Origliasso said the album was very metaphorical. 

“The whole theme of Gothic Summer is that it’s basically exploring social commentary on what we think is reality versus how we create our reality.” 

The duo’s other half, Lisa Origliasso, told Apple Music the album is about the highs and lows of life, “Finding beauty, empowerment and self-love in the shadows and darker parts of life’s experiences.” 

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Day One by Abigail Dean 

Marty seems to do no wrong. Trent can’t seem to get things right. When they are thrown together by tragedy, their futures may be defined by one What really happened on Day One?  
Stonesmere is an English seaside suburb defined by poignant traditions passed from generation to generation, and the bonds of small town community spirit. But when a lone gunman disrupts a school assembly, he sets of a chain of events that throws this close-kint town into turmoil. 
 
Marty is a golden girl, albeit one sometimes in the shadow of her father’s accomplishments and the care of her mother—an outsider who became a beloved teacher. Meanwhile, Trent’s home life is in the only child of a mother forever on the lookout for the boyfriend who can remake their lives, Trent longs for Stonesmere’s stability. But he and his mother only pass through.  
 
In the wake of the violence in Stonesmere, Trent is transfixed by the news coverage of his former home, and his sense that something doesn't quite add up. As he dives deeper, he falls under the spell of a slick online media personality and the conspiracies he peddles. As Marty fumbles to play the part of the grieving good girl, she becomes the focus of these conspiracies—and Trent’s attention.   

The Hidden Storyteller by Mandy Robotham  

The war is over. But there are still secrets to be found amidst the ashes…  
Hamburg, 1946. 
 
The war is over, and Germany is in ruins. Posted to an Allied-run Hamburg, reporter Georgie Young returns to the country she fled seven years prior – as Chamberlain spoke those fateful words – to find it unrecognisable. 
 
Amidst the stark horrors of a bombed-out city crumbling under the weight of millions of displaced Europeans, she discovers pockets of warmth: a violinist playing amidst the wreckage, couples dancing in the streets, and a nation trying to make amends. 
 
But when she joins forces with local policeman Harri Schroder to solve a murder case he is working on – a woman with the word traitor engraved into her skin – she soon discovers that the darkest secrets of war haven’t been left in the past. And once again she is pulled into a world she hardly expected to see again… 

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Friends Like Her 

In a quake-torn Kaikoura town, best friends' lives spiral downwards when a surrogacy pact disintegrates, revealing dark secrets and strained loyalties amid a calamitous backdrop (Three from Monday at 8.40pm and ThreeNow). 

Franklin 

In December 1776, Benjamin Franklin is world-famous for his electrical experiments, but his passion and power are put to the test when he embarks on a secret mission to France, with the fate of American independence hanging in the balance (Apple TV+). 

Fallout 

In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits. Based on the video game series of the same name (Prime Video). 

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Civil War  

In a dystopian future America, a team of military-embedded journalists races against time to reach Washington, D.C., before rebel factions descend upon the White House. 

Late Night with the Devil 

In 1977 a live television broadcast goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation's living rooms. 

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"It’s entirely understandable that on arrival in Waikīkī’s sun-kissed playground, you will soon surrender to the dazzling arsenal of holiday indulgences along the glitter-strip. Whether you’re stuffing yourself sinfully at the Cheesecake Factory or marinating in Mai Tais, decadence flows freely in Waikīkī. It has worked its monopolising magic on me, far too many times! 

"But without wishing to sound like a virtuous try-hard, on my latest visit to Waikīkī, I made a personal pact that I would off-set my culinary and cocktail indulgences, by working-out for those rewards. I duly explored a plethora of nature experiences in close proximity to the holiday mecca, to counterbalance the inevitable binging and boozing. And it fast became an eye-opener about the ravishing outdoorsy treasures, string around the south-eastern coastline of O’ahu."

Read Mike's full article here.

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What is cryptosporidium and what does it do? 

- It’s a parasite found in the gut of infected people. Also, animals such as cats, dogs, cattle, and sheep. 

- Basically, it’s a nasty ‘stomach bug’, if you get infected it causes a nasty stomach infection. 

- Gives you painful stomach cramps, really smelly diarrhoea, and nausea. 

How do you get it and can we treat it? 

Infected people or animals pass it on through infected poo, we basically swallow the parasite: 

- Contact with infected people or animals 

- Drinking water becomes infected 

- Food after food preparation with hands that are contaminated. 

- Swimming in shared water such as swimming pools, paddling pools, or infected beaches, rivers. 

Generally, we don’t treat it, antibiotics generally don’t help. We advise things such as Panadol and medication to stop stomach cramps. It’s really important to keep fluid levels up so you don’t become dehydrated, especially children. 

What do we do to prevent it? 

- It’s really important not to spread it or catch it! 

- The basics: don’t spread it, wash hands for 20 seconds with soap and hot water then dry: 

-After going to toilet 
-Before you prepare food.
-Have contact with animals, after gardening, caring with someone with diarrhoea, or changing babies' nappies 

Other thing to note:

- The parasite hangs around in your body for 14 days after your symptoms clear up. 

- Don’t  swim in swimming pools for 14 days after an infection – you can spread it for up to two weeks!! 

-Also, when signs go up at beach or river not to swim, don’t. Means there’s a sewage leak and you can contract cryptosporidium. 

-Certainly, if you are concerned contact your general practice or medical centre. 

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Repair Cafes have become increasingly popular across the country, 233 of them popping up in the last twelve months. 

What is a repair cafe? 

-A free event where people bring in their broken or damaged belongings and local volunteer experts do their best to repair them. 

-Generally happens once a month in a community or as a pop-up event. 

Why they are great 

-Promotes sustainability 

-Encourages the development of repair skills (which we need to preserve - too many skills, like simple sewing, are being lost) 

-Cost saving 

-Community building 

-Education/awareness 

-Empowerment (community & individual resilience) 

-Innovation/creativity 

-Circular economy: keeps resources in the local resource pool 

Where people can find them: https://www.repaircafeaotearoa.co.nz/ 

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Despite the nice week or two in Canterbury (noticed the Temperatures in the high twenties, this week?) there comes a time when we’ll be filling the Ultra-Low Emissions Burners again.

Some of our native birds will either be looking to get autumn food, while others will depart for better climates. Migration is a clever option.

There are a few ways in which we can keep an eye on our birds’ movements: the expensive trick is to catch birds and attach a transmitter to their body that bleeps every now and then and sends a signal to satellites indicating the longitude and latitude, time of day and speed of flight. Expensive technology, but pretty cool to work with.

Our team in Canterbury, led by Peter Reese, is doing it the simple way: catch the bird (in this case a Harrier), put a standard metal band around one leg and on the other leg a much larger, coloured tag with a (three-digit) number that can be seen from quite a distance through a pair of binoculars.

We re-capture some of the birds, often in the place where they were banded originally. But the clever trick is that anybody with binoculars might be able to contribute to the research.

That is a rather safe way of assisting with the project. You see, Harriers have very little sense of humour.

You can imagine that their strong, curved beak will be their ace attack system…
Maybe.

I found that they would love to smack you with their extremely sharp talons, a great scientific word for long, pointy nails.

So far we have only started a year or so ago; the hypothesis is that these harriers move north when the snow starts falling in the South Island – maybe they do exactly that!

But it would be nice if people could keep their eyes peeled and report tagged or banded harriers when they see one, or when they find one on the side of the road, bowled over by a car.

Either fill in an online reporting form, write, email, or ring the National Banding Office (DOC). They will need to know the following details:

• Band number
• When the bird was found the bird (date if possible)
• Where the bird was found
• If the bird is colour banded, the position of each colour band (note which leg it was on and the position
•The condition of the bird

Seeing it’ll be school holidays, it might be a good idea to get kids to observe Harriers (and other birds) and become real-life ornithologists.

Or maybe just Nature Nerds!

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Gmail knows your inbox is overflowing with subscriptions and is trying to help 

So it wants to help. It seems they're testing a new feature which adds a "Manage Subscriptions" area. There you will be able to see who is sending you the most emails per quarter. Marketing folks get ready... early screenshots show you'll be able to see who sends you less than 10, 10-20 and 20+ emails per quarter.

It's estimated that Google blocks nearly 15 billion undesired emails daily. You can see why they want to deter folks from sending things that they'll filter out anyway! They already have the one-click unsubscribe feature which is brilliant. They've also recently started requiring companies who are "bulk senders" —who send more than 5000 emails a day— to adhere to new requirements proving they own the domain they're sending from and that the email being delivered has been authorized to be sent by the service sending it. 
 
Yet another product goes to Google's graveyard 

Google One VPN is now dead. Google Podcasts was also killed a few weeks ago. It's so commonplace there's a website to memorialize these dead products: killedbygoogle.com. It's up to 295 entries. 
 
Spotify will let creators manipulate songs 

According to WSJ, Spotify is developing tools that would allow users to “speed up, mash-up, and otherwise edit” songs, and save them for listening. Some TikTok creators have made pitching up or speeding up songs part of their signature look. The idea is that if you do the editing on Spotify, Spotify knows about it, and can make sure the artists get their appropriate royalties. On TikTok these remixes become "original audio" of the creator and it's unclear if the money makes its way back to where it should. 

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In 1999 the British Post Office introduced a faulty piece of accounting software, the consequences of which would see over 900 subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted for theft, fraud, and false accounting. 

Some lost their businesses, jobs, and homes, and many were left financially ruined. Others were convicted and sent to prison, some dying while they waited for justice. 

The case has been highlighted in the ITV dramaMr Bates vs the Post Office;the prosecution of Post Office subpostmasters being described as ‘Great Britain's worst miscarriage of justice’. 

Alan Bates, a former subpostmaster, has been leading the charge and this week gave a strong witness statement at the public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal. 

He told Newstalk ZB’s Jack Tame that the outpouring of support from across the nation has been absolutely wonderful, and they may need to engage it going forward. 

“Some of the, if you might call them, the baddies in all of this might be trying to get away scot-free,” Bates said. 

“We have real concerns that they need to be held accountable for their actions in all of this, and often that fails to happen in so many of these big scandals with big firms.” 

Bates told Tame that he’s never really struggled with accounting, so when the Horizon system was introduced to his own Post Office, he could see it was lacking from the outset. 

“Once problems started occurring, it was pretty obvious what was the root cause of it all.” 

He’s worked with computer systems before so he could not only see the issues with the programme itself, but with the stances the Post Office was taking on it. 

Bates said they could never give him an assurance over the accuracy of the system, and they kept swearing no one else could access it, despite it being a network system that anyone could access if they had the right codes. 

“They just terminated me, given me three months' notice and walked off with the investment.” 

Bates professes to be something of a stubborn man, telling Tame that he knew his stance on the system was right and so he dug his heels in on it. 

“We started meeting others over the years, and then we found out we weren’t the only ones, and they weren’t the only ones, and we sort of grew from there.” 

In Bates’ opinion, a lot of this whole event has been about controlling the narrative, which the Post Office with its significant resources was able to do for ‘donkey’s years’. 

“It wasn’t until we got them in the court, into the high court, and we got the judgements, the outstanding judgements from Judge Fraser, that the narrative changed.” 

“They started losing their footing in all of this, and we started to take over.” 

The most important thing in all of this, Bates told Tame, is getting the financial redress for the victims. 

“They’ve been waiting far too long.” 

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Autumn brings one of my all-time favourite fruits: quince. Lumpy and bumpy, rock hard and astringent when raw, this fruit transforms upon cooking to something fragrant, soft and utterly divine. 

This recipe is a derivation of the Persian dish khoresh, referring to a stew, and the quince pair beautifully with lamb. 

Serves 2-4 

Ingredients: 

1 large onion, diced 

500g lamb, cubed 

1 tbsp turmeric 

2-3 cm cinnamon stick 

½ tsp cardamom powder (optional) 

100g yellow split peas, pre-soak these for 1-2 hours 

2-3 tbsp lemon juice 

1-2 tbsps sugar 

2 quince, peeled, quartered and cored 

2 tbsp bloomed saffron (optional) 

Salt and pepper to taste 

Vegetable oil 

Water 

Method 

Heat some oil in a pan and sauté chopped onions until softened and beginning to brown. Add the lamb along with the spices and fry until browned on all sides. Add in split peas and just enough boiling water to cover. Lower the heat and simmer for one hour or until meat is fully cooked and split peas are tender. 

Whilst the meat cooks, sauté the quince quarters in a clean, lightly oiled pan over a medium heat until golden brown. Set aside until the meat is tender, about 45-50 minute mark, and add them then. 

Once the quince has been added, season with lemon juice, sugar, saffron (if using), salt and pepper to taste and cook without stirring for the final 10 minutes or so. 

Serve with rice. 

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Truancy has been a hot topic over the last few weeks, the Government announcing their new guidelines and targets. 

Kevin Milne has been reading up on the subject and has come to the realisation that it’s a significantly bigger issue than he thought. 

He thinks it’s time to stop trying to score political points and set about fixing the problem. 

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Tuesday was one of the most statistically significant days of my life. 

I’m sure I’m not the only one who spends a lot of time on the Statistics New Zealand website but just in case you have more exciting things to do with your time, you might have missed the latest population estimates. 

According to Statistics New Zealand, the median age for New Zealand men is 37.1 years old. That means half of men are older and half are younger. 

I was born on March 4, 1987. That means on Tuesday April 9th, I turned 37.11 years old, I moved from one side of the ledger to the other. This time last week, when we were last speaking, I was in the younger half of Kiwi blokes. Today, I’m in the older half. I know, I know… you might as well sign me up to a Ryman Village right now. 

The truth is I do feel older. Or at the very least, I’m conscious of having an aging body. I’ve got an arthritic hip and deteriorating eyesight. Hair grows in weird places, springing from my shoulders, nostrils, and the outsides of my upper arms. When I catch myself in the mirror as I get out of the shower, it’s as though gravity has grown a few percentage points stronger. Wibble-wobble. 

One of the flaws of the human condition is that most of us only appreciate our youth as it starts to fade. We lament being ID’d until the day we’re not ID’d. For some reason, having a dicky hip has made me really want to climb more mountains. I’ve always been big on sunblock if I was spending a long time outside, but it’s only now, as the wrinkles and sunspots gather on my face, that I’ve started to block up every day in summer, regardless of whether I’m spending much time outdoors. For the first time in my life, I proactively take anti-inflammatories before playing social sport. 

Statistics New Zealand can give you all sorts of milestone numbers. It can tell you I’m old for a first marriage. It can tell you I’m already older than most first-time Dads. It can tell you that statistically speaking, I can expect to die on the 25th of June, 2073. 

Of course, I know that’s not quite how life works. I’m at the age and stage where you really appreciate that life isn’t fair. No one is guaranteed any amount of time on this mortal Earth. Sometimes it’s the most full-of-life, the five-plus-a-day, Low BMI, not-one-cigarette-evers who for whatever reason, fate cruelly picks out. I‘ve said it to you before; aging is a privilege. 

I remember once reading somewhere that 27 typically marked the physical peak for men. I felt old when I turned 28. I remember staring down 30, looking back when I turned 35, and thinking I should have better appreciated just how youthful I was. 

I’m sure this will be the same. I’ll look back at 37.11 and laugh at my youthful naivety. Except that it doesn’t change the facts. Short of a mass exodus or a national fertility crisis, I will never again be in the younger half of New Zealand men. Once you’ve crossed the Rubicon, there ain’t no going back. 

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‘Ohio Players’ is the 12thstudio album by the Black Keys, with fourteen tracks and a run time of 44 minutes. 

The intention behind the album was to create something “fun”. Something that not only sounded fun, but was also fun for the band to create. The album’s title seems to be a nod to that ideology, the band’s members coming from the state of Ohio, but also a reference to the 70’s band of the same name. 

Music reviewer Estelle Clifford thinks this may be the most poppy songs they’ve put together, the album filled with feel good, energetic music, the kind that makes you feel like you’re at a live gig or festival.

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Scoop 

Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatization gives an insider account of how the women of Newsnight secured Prince Andrew's infamous interview (Netflix). 

Ripley  

A wealthy man hires down-on-his-luck grifter Tom Ripley to travel to Italy to urge his vagabond son to return home; Tom's acceptance of the job is the first step in a life of deceit, fraud and murder (Netflix). 

Alone Australia 

Ten brave Australians are dropped into the most brutal terrain of New Zealand's South Island to face the ultimate survival test and merciless forces of nature for a cash prize (TVNZ+). 

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Redundancies and restructures galore are taking place across every sector at the moment, and these changes can have a significant impact on mental health and wellbeing. 

Change is always difficult, but change within a business can really set off people’s flight or fight instincts and add to their worries and anxiety. 

Businesses have to be careful in how they handle this change, as doing so badly can increase the harm their employees suffer and open the organisation up to increased risk. 

Dr Dougal Sutherland has some tips for what to do when change is occurring. 

For individuals: 

-Focus as much as you can on the aspects you can control throughout the process 

-Try not to get sucked into worrying about the problem, focus instead on the aftermath 

For organisations: 

-Really emphasise wellbeing in the workplace, you need to look after everyone involved 

-staff who are affected 

-staff who are “unaffected” but may be suffering from “survivors' guilt” 

-managers who have to deliver the decision 

-HR people who support the managers and staff 

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On Call by Ineke Meredith   

It's all in a mad day's work: the good, the bad and the crazy. From a man who swallowed fishhooks to a patients playing pranks, emergency operations in the wee hours, constantly being mistaken for a nurse, and holding hands through silent goodbyes, this is a book about the strange, messy, intense world of surgery.

When Ineke's parents in Samoa fall ill, she is torn between her roles as a surgeon, a daughter, and a single working mother. Are the sacrifices of a life in scrubs worth it? Laugh-out-loud and sobering in equal turns, On Call is a memoir from inside the operating room and everything it takes to survive. 

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr 

Clayton Stumper might be in his twenties, but he dresses like your grandpa and fusses like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution. 

When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton’s life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. So begins Clay’s quest to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth, secrets that will change Clay—and the Fellowship—forever. 

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"Despite being ravaged by devastating wildfires last August, the Valley Isle of Maui continues to shine with unparalleled scenery and golden hospitality. Maui would love to see you. From hidden beaches in every shade to the dramatic peaks of West Maui and Haleakalā, Maui’s elemental brilliance is seductive. Also known as the East Maui Volcano, Haleakalā is a colossal, active shield volcano that constitutes more than 75% of Maui’s landform."

Read Mike's full article here.

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BOB’S BEST BUYS 

Escarpment Gris 2023 Martinborough $30 

Why I chose it:   

-I like it very much and respect Escarpment as a top producer. 

-It’s a wine that spans the seasons. 

-It is genetically the same grape as Pinot Noir, but it is “gray” instead of red-skinned (“Gris” is French for gray). Pinot Blanc is even paler (“Blanc” means white in French). 

What does it taste like?  

-A smooth-textured, bright, fresh wine with flavours that resemble pear and green apple. It has a hint of sweetness balanced by refreshing acidity. 

Why it’s a bargain:  

-It is an interesting wine that is well made, by a top producer who offer it at a fair piece. 

Where can you buy it?  

-Wine Hub, Christchurch, $26 

-NZ Wine Boutique, $29.99 

Food match?  

-Blue cheese combines sweetness and acidity with the saltiness of the cheese – delicious! 

Will it keep?  

-Good for 3 or 4 years, possibly more with careful storage. 

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It’s time to start thinking about winter and looking after your soil. 

We all know that garden soil thrives when you add Organic material (compost!!!) to the soil. Just like the Sea-food soup it enriches the Fertiliser amount and that helps no, not just the plants, but certainly the tiny live-stock in the soil that feeds the plants through the roots: Photosynthesis is the way a plant feeds itself. 

It allows the microbes and beneficial fungi to work on the mulch – it simply breaks the mulch down and turns it into a kind of slow-release fertiliser that will benefit the plants when everybody “wakes up” in spring. 

Chipped prunings from your fruit trees, hedges, severed dead branches and twigs, old fallen fruits, berries, and husks are all ready to be recycled according to the law of “Circular Economy” which runs the planet and your garden. 

My most wonderful tool in the garden is our Hansa C7 Chipper Machine; it works its bottom off at this time of the year. 

Everything that goes through it will turn to mulch and everything that once lived will turn to compost, even Coffee grounds! 

There are lots of articles that warn gardeners against using coffee grounds in the garden, so we’ve decided to have a go at that stuff (our son-in-law owns a French bakery that also brews a decent cup of coffee – plenty of brown grounds in serious quantities). 

Information around this topic: 

Acidity (pH): After brewing, the grounds are almost pH neutral: between 6.5 and 6.8 (higher than Hydrangeas that need a lower pH to flower blue! 

Nitrogen: Just 2%; not a great deal – still need N on the soil in spring! 

Other nutrients: Phosphorous, Potash, Calcium, Magnesium all in rather small amounts and Manganese, Zinc and other micronutrients also in very small quantities – certainly not an “over-dose”. 

So, it looks as if these coffee grounds really don’t produce a heap of “plant food”; instead, they “feed” the microbes that deliver “Glues” that are brilliant at producing great soil structure. 

What about effects on plant growth? Any negative effects? 

Robert Pavlis (a Canadian who writes an interesting blog called Garden Myths) led me to some publications around Testing caffeine for allelopathic effects. 

The findings show that if you use huge amounts of coffee mulch it could certainly stunt the growth of bacteria, fungi, seedlings and even plants! (Does that surprise you?) 

However, after 6 months the trend totally reverses, and the plants grow better than before. 

And here’s Julie’s observation: 

Since we used the grounds as “mulch”, the blackbirds (her worst enemy that toss mulch out of the garden and onto the paths) have ceased vandalising the borders and raised beds. 

No more mess of ornithological origin! 

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Microsoft is unbundling Teams from Office globally 

Once again, thanks EU! It comes six months after it uncoupled the two products in Europe in a bid to avert a possible EU antitrust fine. Rivals say packaging the products together gives Microsoft an unfair advantage. 
I'm all in favor of unbundling - because all these services are starting to offer the things the others do too, but usually not as well. Slack is great at instant messaging, but now you are also effectively paying for its video and audio meetings and collaborative documents. Google's bundle includes email, calendar, docs, video meetings. Zoom now offers add-ons such as an email and calendar service, IP phone system and virtual white-boarding.  
 
Amazon's stopping its "just walk out" service at supermarkets 

Amazon Fresh will now have smart carts, which allow customers to scan items as they go. Amazon says this is better for the customer because they want to  view their receipt as they shop, and know how much money they saved while shopping. It also reduces a massive overhead of installing the cameras and sensors the technology relied upon AND the extensive human review process. 
According to The Information, 70% of the sales had to be manually reviewed in 2022, which was far, far higher than the 5% Amazon had hoped for, which needed a team of over 1000 people.  
It's also a good example of where it looks like the AI is doing all the heavy lifting, when in reality most of it was people in India watching the cameras and effectively being the cashier, just remotely.   

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Shortland Street has been running for an impressive 32 years, and Jayden Daniels played one of the most popular characters in its entire run. 

After graduating from Toi Whakaari in 2014 Daniels picked up the role of Curtis in 2015, using that role as a stepping stone to enter the screen industry proper. 

He starred as Gabriel in the 2023 filmEvil Dead Rise,and Cyril inWhina,the biopic of Dame Whina Cooper. 

Daniels' is now making the switch from screen to stage, going back to his roots and theatre training with Auckland Theatre Company’s production of TheEffect. 

The play follows two people who meet during a clinical drug trial and fall in love, asking the question of whether the love is real or just a side effect of the medication, written by multi-award winner Lucy Prebble. 

“There’s love, there’s sorrow,” Daniels told Newstalk ZB’s Jack Tame. 

“She writes it way better than I’m explaining it now.” 

A majority of Daniels’ training was theatrical training at drama school, but since he’s been working on screen since his graduation there’s been a bit of an adjustment. 

“The whole time I’ve been trying to pull down, be smaller and more subtle,” he said. 

“If I’m on screen, I can drop right down and talk to you like this,” Daniels lowered his voice in example. 

“Whereas on stage I’m having to project. Even if I’m talking to you close, I have to be big and loud.” 

“That’s been a challenge for me.” 

Daniels has worked in both mediums, and while he used to think he had a preference, he’s recently discovered that theatre has a lot to teach him. 

The techniques he can rely on when acting for camera aren’t applicable to stage performances, as audiences can’t hear softspoken voices or see the minute expressions on actors’ faces. 

And while he doesn’t prefer one over the other, he told Tame that there are benefits to working in theatre. 

“You can take more risks in theatre. You’re rehearsing for a very long time, which is a luxury in acting, especially on screen.” 

“I feel like I put a lot of pressure on the product on screen because you get there, you don’t have long to shoot the scene and its done. Whereas here you can try this, it didn’t work, I’ll just throw it to the complete other end.” 

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Io Capitano 

Longing for a brighter future, two Senegalese teenagers embark on a journey from West Africa to Italy. However, between their dreams and reality lies a labyrinth of checkpoints, the Sahara Desert, and the vast waters of the Mediterranean. 

Monkey Man 

A young man ekes out a meagre living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he's beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, he discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city's sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him. 

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This sticky cake is studded with tangy feijoas and has a chewy caramelised coconut topping added halfway through cooking and it’s just gorgeous. 

Makes a 23cm cake. 

Ingredients 

1 cup pitted dates 

1 cup boiling water 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

130g butter 

½ cup white sugar 

½ cup brown sugar 

1 large egg 

1 ¼ cups plain flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

Pinch salt 

½ cup dessicated coconut 

1 cup peeled and diced feijoa 

Coconut topping: 

1 cup shredded coconut 

1/3 cup brown sugar 

1/3 cup milk 

50g butter 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C. Grease and line a 23cm round baking tin.

2. Cover dates in boiling water and leave to soak for 5 minutes then add baking soda and blend to a chunky paste in a food processor.

3. Cream the butter and both sugars until pale and creamy then beat in the egg and beat for one minute more. Add the date paste to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in coconut and feijoa chunks until combined. Scrape into baking tin, gently smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes. While it cooks make the coconut topping by combining all ingredients in a small pot over a low heat until melted together.

4. At 30 minute mark, gently spoon the coconut topping over the cake, in an even layer. Continue to cook for a further 25-35 minutes until topping is golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen the topping from the tin and leave for one hour before gently turning out and cooling fully.

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Over a decade ago Kevin Milne wrote a book about his life. 

Going about his daily life, he keeps an eye out for copies of this stunning work of literature, which this time led to something of an humiliating situation for him. 

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As the words spilled out of my mouth, I realised it didn’t make for much of a pitch. 

“I’ve got a show I want us to try.” I’d told my wife. 

“Oh yeah. What’s is about?” she asked. 

“Well... err... it’s about a scandal in Britain involving lots of post offices and an accounting dispute.” 

“Post offices?” She said. 

“Accounting? Riiight.” She said. 

Yes, it’s fair to say I hadn’t pegged ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’ on an expectation of sex scenes, car chases, gunfights, and Hollywood heartthrobs. 

I’d actually only been vaguely aware of the Post Office scandal before the TV show was aired in Britain earlier this year. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s now routinely described as the greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history. 

In short, Britain’s Post Office —arguably once Britain’s most trusted institution, and surely it’s most British institution— directed all of its subpostmasters, the people running the little village post offices you see all over the U.K, to use a new software system for balancing their books. 

But the software underpinning the system was faulty, meaning try as they might, subpostmasters routinely ended up with shortfalls. 

Despite thousands and thousands and thousands of complaints, the Post Office refused to accept there was anything wrong and they forced subpostmasters to make up the thousands of pounds in shortfalls with their own money. Most egregiously, between 1999 and 2015, 900 subpostmasters were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting. 

That number alone makes you spin. A handful of people being charged with stealing might be one thing. But 900! It’s remarkable there were any subpostmasters left. 

The legal efforts to overturn convictions and get the Post Office to take full responsibility and pay compensation has been a long, painful affair. The story has been covered by British media. It’s been raised in parliament. But it took a TV drama to really rattle the cage. 

It mightn’t have been much of a pitch, but within minutes of starting Mr Bates vs the Post Office, my wife and I were locked in. It was compelling. She had tears rolling down her cheeks and even I felt a bit misty-eyed (although I was naturally careful not to let her see me). 

I don’t know that I’ve ever watched a show and so desperately wanted it all to be resolved. And I cannot think of many TV dramas that have had more of an immediate impact. 

Immediately after it aired, the government announced legislation to overturn the wrongful convictions of hundreds of subpostmasters. More than a million people signed a petition calling for the former Post Office CEO to be stripped of her CBE. King Charles formally revoked it shortly thereafter. More than a billion pounds has been earmarked for compensation. 

I realised as the final credits rolled that of course, it wasn’t really a story about the Post Office and accounting. It was a story about power. About class. Mr Bates, David, vs The Post Office Goliath. 

And in an age where so much entertainment is fast and snackable, and we all have so much competing for our attention, it was a great reminder about the extraordinary power of really good storytelling. 

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In Beyoncé's own words, “this ain’t a country album. This is a Beyonce album.” 

Cowboy Carteris Beyoncé's eighth studio album, presented as a broadcast by a fictional Texan radio station, Dolly Parton, Linda Martell, and Willie Nelson all acting as the radio DJs. 

The album features a total of 27 songs resulting in a lengthy hour and 19 minutes total. 

While primarily being a country album, elements of blues, soul, rock, R&B, and folk are incorporated into its overall sound. 

While Beyoncé was born and raised in Houston Texas,Daddy Lessonsfrom her 2016 albumLemonadewas the first time she’d used the country influences of her upbringing in her musical career. 

It was met with a fair bit of pushback, the experience resulting in the creation ofCowboy Carter. 

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Ten Seconds by Robert Gold 

After a tense birthday celebration in Haddley, journalist Ben Harper watches his boss, Madeline, get into the car that has come to collect her. He walks home, never imagining that by the next morning, Madeline will be missing.  
To find Madeline, Ben will have to return to the now infamous murder case that made her journalism career over a decade ago. A case which, Ben quickly discovers, was never as simple as it seemed. 
 
But time is of the essence, and soon it's not just Madeline's life on the line . . . 

The Long and Winding Road by Lesley Pearse 

Lesley Pearse didn't publish her first novel until she was 48. Now she has sold over ten million books around the world and is a constant presence on the bestseller chart. A writer of heart-stopping stories, Lesley's books are filled with heroines struggling to make it in a difficult world. Yet this description could apply to Lesley herself. In this, her first ever autobiography, she tells of growing up in an orphanage after her mother's death, her racy twenties in London during the swinging sixties and working as a bunny girl and dressmaker. Packed full of Lesley's signature warmth, wit and poignancy, this is the story of a woman and a writer fighting against the odds to achieve her dreams. 

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Nomadic living is becoming more common with the rise in living costs, people travelling round the country house sitting to save money. 

Kate “Ethically Kate” Hall is one of these people, and joined Jack Tame to discuss how it works, the pros and cons, and how to keep sustainable while you do so. 

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This weekend will see two tax changes come into effect for property owners. 

One is impacting those who use the likes of Airbnb or Bachcare to rent out their property, and the other impacts those who rent out an investment property. 

What are the changes and what effect will they have? Enable Me’s Nadine Higgins joined Jack Tame to run through it all. 

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"From time-honoured tourist haunts to hidden treasures and trending head-turners, Melbourne impresses in all seasons. But if you’re planning an autumn city-break in the Victorian capital, here’s a round-up of some top recommendations to thread into your schedule."

Read Mike's full article here.

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The Garden City is becoming more and more the home of that Aussie sap-sucking pest we knew so well in Auckland, and it shows in the number of people that contact us on talkback radio. 

Until recently, this species was a North-Islander – it slowly spread further and further south: Nelson, Blenheim, Golden Bay, further south along the west coast and also down the east coast of the South Island: Kaikoura, Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. 

I’ve seen them in Akaroa a few years ago, so they have been hanging around the warmer Canterbury spots for a while. 

I reckon this is a nice example of climate change in action. 

Damage to a large range of garden plants: 

They suck sap from a wide variety of host plants, often climbers (Wisteria, Passionfruit vines) and Perennials (salvia, Hydrangeas, Camellia, you name it!!). 

Sap-sucking is their big impact on garden plants – sometimes they debilitate their host, pooping honeydew all over the place and that creates a deposit of sooty mould, like with so many sap-sucking insects in the garden. 

The damage starts as soon as the little fluffy-bums appear on the scene (in mid-Spring). 

Now, these are the Passionvine Hopper control tricks for Autumn: 

Currently they are adults, with quite cute moth-like wings that are partially see-through. These jumpy sapsuckers are impossible to hit with chemical sprays. 

The female hoppers mate and lay eggs on thin twigs or branches and also on the tendrils of growing vines (such as Passionfuit vines): 

Easiest thing to do is to find those egg-laying sites and prune them off in late autumn - early winter. Chuck them in the Ultra Low Emissions Burner and they won’t hatch next spring. 

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The US government has released AI rules for its agencies 

 Say hello to the "Chief AI Officer" - every US government agency will now need to have one. 
Agencies will also be required to establish AI governance boards to coordinate how AI is used within each agency. They must mitigate the risks of algorithmic discrimination and inform the public about how the AI is used. They will be required to submit a report each year detailing every system which is used. Any government-owned AI models, code, and data should be released to the public unless they pose a risk to government operations. 
Kamala Harris says: "This is to make sure that AI is used responsibly, understanding that we must have senior leaders across our government, who are specifically tasked with overseeing AI adoption and use." 
 
Self driving "Robotaxis" are coming to NYC's streets 

 At this stage, they will only be permitted if they have a safety driver behind the wheel as they test their software on the "country’s most challenging urban environment". 
NYC is letting other cities be the testing ground, only allowing companies who have tested their cars elsewhere to be permitted. As part of the process, they'll need to supply crash and "disengagement" data. 

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Mr Bates vs The Post Office  

The extraordinary story of the greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system (TVNZ+, from March 31). 

Renegade Nell 

A historical drama about a quick-witted and courageous young woman framed for murder, who unexpectedly becomes the most notorious outlaw in 18th-century England (Disney+). 

The Couple Next Door 

A British drama about a young couple who develop a fast friendship with their new neighbours when they move to an idyllic suburb, only for the relationship to take some unexpected and sinister turns (TVNZ+). 

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Wicked Little Letters

When the residents of Littlehampton start receiving letters filled with obscenities and hilarious profanity, Rose, a rambunctious Irish immigrant, is accused of the crime.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Godzilla and the almighty Kong face a colossal threat hidden deep within the planet, challenging their very existence and the survival of the human race.

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Originally from Australia, screenwriter Gavin Strawhan is behind some of New Zealand’s biggest TV shows. 

Shortland Street, Outrageous Fortune, Nothing Trivial,andMercy Peakare just some of the entries on his extended resume, but now he’s turning his focus to the page instead of the screen. 

Set in rural coastal New Zealand,The Callis Strawhan’s debut novel, the novel growing from a story Strawhan was told years ago by a detective. 

“She had given out her number and the girlfriend of a guy in a gang had started ringing her late at night and giving away little tips of information, especially if they had a domestic.” 

Although he's been working in screen and television for over thirty years, he told Newstalk ZB’s Jack Tame that this was what he wanted to do growing up. 

“I took a very long route via television to get back to what I wanted to do.” 

Strawhan went to university for biology, swapping to drama and English after going out with an actress. He wrote for a theatre company years later, before going on to get a job as a trainee script editor onNeighbours. 

“So, you know, these things are going in weird directions.” 

The process of writing a novel is rather different to working in a writer's room, Strawhan telling Tame that while it's an exciting environment, it’s also exhausting. 

“When Covid came along and the production I’d been working on shut down, it was my opportunity.” 

There was no network to pitch an idea to, and he didn’t have to come up with an ending or have everything locked down. 

“I just got up every morning and wrote two or three thousand words, and then I’d go for a walk and then I’d come back and edit what I’d written. 

“It was just so lovely,” he told Tame. “I really enjoyed it.” 

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Every mouthful of this tastes like a hot cross bun only better! It’s crunchy and creamy, sweet and spicy. 

Serves 4-6  

Ingredients: 

½ cup currants or raisins 

¼ cup rum or brandy 

Squeeze of fresh orange juice 

½ tsp cinnamon + extra for dusting 

Pinch nutmeg 

Pinch mixed spice 

200mls cream, whipped 

1 packet store-bought meringues 

2-3 fresh plums, sliced 

2 tbsps glace orange or lemon peel, chopped finely 

Small handful mint leaves 

Method: 

Simmer currants or raisins with rum, orange juice and spices for 3-5 minutes until they plump up. Cool. 

Take a large platter and dollop the whipped cream on it. Roughly crush the meringues and sprinkle these over the cream. Scatter over plum slices, chopped peel and cooled currants. Dust with a bit more cinnamon and scatter over mint leaves. 

When serving make sure that each serve gets a bit of everything. 

Notes: 

Use pears or feijoa if you can’t find fresh plums. 

For a dairy free alternative, use coconut yoghurt instead of cream.  

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Music and love often go hand in hand, many of the most well-known songs covering the topic. 

While there’s plenty of modern pop songs that do the feeling justice, Kevin Milne believes that they’re not the most romantic. 

He’s been taking a look back at the stage shows of the 50’s and 60’s and can’t help but think they top the charts. 

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25 years. 

If Sam Bankman-Fried was to spend his full sentence behind bars, he’d be in his fifties by the time he was released from prison. Still, it could have been worse. The maximum potential sentence faced by the so-called crypto king was more than a century. 

Like many, I’ve marvelled in the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried. It’s an extraordinary story. The son of high-profile professors, he made a fortune in crypto currency faster than any human had ever made money before. $NZ 43 billion with his dual crypto-currency companies, FTX and Alameda Research. Companies which turned out to not be nearly as independent from each other, and from each other’s balance books, as they legally should have been. 

But what is really extraordinary about the Sam Bankman-Fried story is that we fell for it. 

Not you or I, necessarily —even though I’m firmly in the crypto demographic, I’ve never heard anyone sensibly explain what it actually does. It just seems like speculation for the sake of speculation. No different to gambling for the sake of it— by we, I mean the world. 

Looking at it now, it all just seems so obvious. 

Bankman-Fried, like however many characters before him, perfectly played the part of an uncouth, slobbily-dressed, beanbag-sleeping tech bro. I say characters because —come on— the whole wearing sneakers, shabby socks, and poorly-fitting t-shirts despite billions of dollars in net worth, while meeting a former President – this has become such a cliché for so called tech geniuses. 

He suckered the world with his image. And he suckered the world with his money. How many celebrities took a buck, or a few million, to shill for something they didn’t really understand? How many politicians chose not to ask too many questions, but gladly received the campaign donations he passed on their way? 

It remains to be seen how much investors will actually get back from Bankman-Fried’s fraud. But following the case, what is clear about his $NZ13 billion fraud is not that it was the work of a tech genius, but that it was the work of a simple conman. The fraud was not breathtaking in its complexity, it was breathtaking in its simplicity. A good old fashioned ponzi scheme. 

For all of the hype, then. For all of the fuss. For all of the big promises about crypto’s future and the blazing path of a brilliant young billionaire who’s genius sucked in titans of industry and some of the most powerful people in the World, we are left once again with an old pearl of wisdom: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

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Estelle Clifford reviews Gossip's first album since reuniting in 2019, Real Power. 

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The Hunter by Tana French

It's a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is going to die.

Private Equity by Carrie Sun

When we meet Carrie Sun, she can't shake the feeling that she's wasting her life. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Carrie excelled in school, graduated early from MIT, and climbed the corporate ladder, all in pursuit of the American dream. But at twenty-nine, she's left her analyst job, dropped out of an MBA program, and is trapped in an unhappy engagement. So when she gets the rare opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world, she knows she can't say no. Fourteen interviews later, she's in. 

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Mike Yardley spoke to Jack Tame about his time in Coolangatta, in southern Gold Coast.

For more tips on tripping the sights and treats of the southern Gold Coast, Mike's article is here.

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Dougal Sutherland discusses a recent survey by Umbrella Wellbeing showing the large number of employees who feel that their mental wellbeing isn't being prioritised, and the risk that poses for businesses. 

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A few days ago, we celebrated our Autumn Equinox; that was on Wednesday 20th March at 16:06 to be precise. 

It really has nothing to do with this story, apart from the fact that you'll notice quite a few good-looking holes in your lawn around this time of the year. It shows you that life-cycles either come to an end or change from one phase to the next.

A good example is the mess made by starlings in my lawn: hundreds of sizeable holes per square metre really stands out. 

Autumn rain has finally made the soil quite wet; Grassgrub larvae (juveniles) are moving upwards in the soil to avoid being drowned and starlings literally probe the soil for tasty grubs. I'm not that worries: these starlings provide a gratis pest-control service. 

On soils where there are few plants (think of those "naked" vertical clay banks) you'll often find medium-sized round holes with an opening that looks "counter-sunk" in shape.

This is the job of our native tiger beetles. When they are larvae they create these tunnels into the soil and block the entrance with their head, while waiting for suitable prey to walk past. 

From now on, you'll notice that the holes are open - the larvae will finalise their juvenile stages underground and emerge in late spring as fast-moving adult beetles.

And from now on there will be critters that come out of the soil, especially after good rain events. Earthworms will move up easily to grab some organic material from the surface of the soil and to drop some casts off on top! These worms are recyclers and literally live off of the dead plant material (and other natural waste, such as animal droppings). This planet is perfectly designed in and around our soil. 

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The US Government says users who purchase Apple smartphones are "locked in" to the Apple ecosystem. Within the ecosystem, all your devices and services are meant to interconnect effortlessly.

Apple says it will seek to have the case dismissed, and if unsuccessful, will fight it vigorously. 

The Justice Department estimates that Apple's share of the US smartphone market exceeds 70%. 

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Escaping Utopia

TVNZ's new three-part documentary series takes us behind the scenes of Gloriavale and reveals what it's like to live in - and leave - the extreme religious community. (Begins Sunday on TVNZ1 and on TVNZ+).

Palm Royale

This new comedy drama features an all-star Hollywood cast and follows a woman in the late 1960s who will do whatever it takes to be admitted into an exclusive Palm Springs society (Apple TV+).

Obituary

A dark Irish drama about an obituary writer who is being paid per article. When work dries up, she decides to take matters into her own hands (TVNZ+).

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Brooke Ligertwood, also known as Brooke Fraser, returns home to New Zealand to perform a one-off concert with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. 

Brooke sits down with Jack Tame at Roundhead Studios to discuss what she has been up to. 

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With a recession just announced, it's important to get the most out of every dollar without compromising on the quality of your food. Here are some things you can do to stretch the weekly meal budget:

Ingredients and food items that will save you money:

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Kevin Milne spoke to Jack Tame about his love for the stage songs of the 1950s & 60s. 

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Just before 6pm Friday local time, Kensington Palace published a rare video of Catherine, Princess of Wales. Having taken a few weeks to process and digest the news in private, and having taken time to tell her children, she announced to the World she is being treated for cancer. 

Apart from that, we don’t have a huge volume of information. We don’t know much more except she says she received the diagnosis after tests following abdominal surgery in January. She has begun receiving preventative chemotherapy. 

First of all, hearing those words is a shocking and affecting experience. For anyone who has had friends or family with cancer – and I would suggest that’s most of us – it snaps you right back to your own experience. At a really basic human level, I think many of us feel a real sense of empathy for what Kate and that family must be going through. 

Personally, I found my thoughts drifting to the issues of the last few weeks: The internet conspiracies about Princess Kate’s health and whereabouts and the now-infamous doctored family photo. 

I also found myself trying to imagine all the complicated dimensions that being a prominent royal adds to this situation. You would think that the privilege of that position will afford Kate the very best medical care. But at the same time, there is an extraordinary level of public attention that will come with this experience. Even before this announcement, medical staff in the U.K were trying to illegally access Princess Kate’s health records. That’s tough. 

And finally, my thoughts settled on Kate’s health in the broader context of what the Royal Family is going through right now. Both Princess Kate and King Charles are now being treated for cancer. It must be a huge stress on the family... and I am acutely aware that Prince William is sitting there in the middle, trying to support both his father and his wife as they are undergo their treatments. 

I think everyone will be wishing them a speedy and full recovery. 

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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

The Spengler family returns to the iconic New York City firehouse where the original Ghostbusters have taken ghost-busting to the next level. When the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must unite to protect their home and save the world from a second ice age.

Road House

2024 remake available on Prime. Ex-UFC fighter Dalton takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse, only to discover that this paradise is not all it seems. Starring Connor McGregor and Jake Gyllenhaal. 

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Bill Ryder-Jones was guitarist/vocalist for the West Kirby Merseyside bandThe Coral,who were successful in releasing 5 top 10 albums in mid 2000s, starting out as teenagers. 

His latest solo album is complete with classy hooks and rousing choruses, and his closely mic-ed voice is fragile, delicate, even on the edge of croaky, giving the impression he's sharing intimacies directly with the listener. 

Featuring lush pop hooks and even school assembly choirs of kids - the songs sound triumphant and powerful and happy even if most of them are dark, sad and of lost love. 

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Sisterhood by Cathy Kelly-In just one night, at her own 50th birthday, her world has imploded. Her mother has kept a secret hidden all her life. And it changes everything. Before Lou can take another step, she needs to get to the bottom of the shocking truth that alters who she really is. 

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger-A body of a wealthy landowner, Jimmy Quinn, is found shot and assumed murdered by many. His body is found floating half naked in the Alabaster River. The investigation is thrown into the lap of Brody Dern, a returned honored veteran, the sheriff, who bears many internal and external scars from the war. 

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"Basking in the world’s largest lagoon, fortified by the world’s second-largest barrier reef, and boasting extraordinary biodiversity, New Caledonia’s natural good looks and succulent subtropical balm is just the beginning of the sweet seduction. Unlike Fiji or the Cook Islands, New Caledonia has not established the same holiday getaway familiarity with Kiwis. It is still somewhat under the radar. But you can fully expect your great expectations of South Pacific holiday indulgence to be delightfully smashed."

Read Mike's full article here.

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4 sustainable things to do this autumn 

Collect leaves for your compost: gather these from parks, ideally not in car parks (can be contaminated). Put them into your compost, store in a dry place and add them slowly over the course of the year. They're great carbon for your compost!

Get your winter clothing out & donate what you can (autumn is a good time for this as the second-hand stores want autumn/winter clothing, NOT summer stuff as they cannot store it). Wash it properly, hand wash woolen knits, store them in vented places to reduce the risk of moths.

Freeze/store/save your autumn/summer produce: e.g. freeze your abundance of tomatoes, turn it into tomato sauce or chop them in meal sized portions to freeze. This reduces your reliance on canned tomatoes during winter.

Consider how you're going to heat your home: do your curtains need to be replaced? Set timers on your heat pump, find second-hand heaters, consider adding things like wool underfloor insulation.

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Leafcurl on stone fruit: peaches, Nectarines, plums, peachcotts, peacherines, apricots, etc always a sad sight on the leaves – it manifests itself in Spring and Summer – after flowering. 

The leaves become distorted and discoloured (pretty yellow and orange coloration); when infestations are serious the number of leaves that drop off can be substantial, causing a reduction in photosynthesis and hence the ability of the tree to “feed itself”. 

In spring the answer to “cure?” it will always be: “You’re too late!”… Right now, in late summer/Autumn you are still ahead of the 2024 infection game. 

Taphrina deformans is the fungus that causes this leafcurl. Note how “deformans” is quite aptly chosen as a name, as it deforms the shape of the leaves quite obviously. 

The disease becomes active at bud-break: when the leaves and flowers come out of the buds in spring. The spores of Taphrina deformans are already settled on those buds, making infection quite easy. 

Those buds are initiated by the trees in autumn, which is just a few weeks away. 

What to do? 

First of all prune your stonefruit right now – after the last peaches, nectarines etc etc have been harvested, pruning can be done. Doing it this early has another advantage: you avoid bacterial diseases in the cooler months (late autumn/winter is a dodgy period for bacterial infections!) 

Pruning now also reduces the amount of tree to spray in April. 

Around mid April, when the leaves are falling off the deciduous stone fruit trees, the new buds for the next season are formed. Taphrina deformans will then be invading those new buds and overwinter on those buds to infect the trees again in spring. 

First thing to do is to remove all fallen leaves from under the trees. That reduces infection chances. 

Next thing is to apply a double dose of copper spray (copper oxychloride, liquid copper, or copper-sulphur mixtures, available form garden centres) on the remaining leaves and on the branches/twigs/buds of the tree. 

Don’t worry about “burning the rest of the leaves off: they were going to fall anyway. 

Use a “sticker” if you can, to increase coverage and stickability 

Do this again a few weeks later and ensure good coverage of all parts of the tree. 

This autumn spray exercise is the most important preventative thing you can do to avoid Leaf curl. 

If you still get some infected leaves in spring there is no point in spraying with copper fungicides as that will burn those leaves quite badly. Best thing to do is to remove and get rid of infected leaves as much as you can – especially fallen leaves. “Getting rid of them” does not mean COMPOSTING them!! 

Fertilising the tree in spring allows it to make new leaves and get some resistance to the infection, especially when you use Seaweed Tea and such marine-originated liquid fertilisers. 

During the period when fruits grow and expand, check for fallen leaves that show signs of leafcurl, and get rid of them. REMEMBER “Getting rid of them” does not mean COMPOSTING them!! 

Autumn is the time to start controlling leafcurl on stonefruit for the next fruiting season: 

Some people use Lime sulphur; that’s OK too as a winter clean-up; seeing the trees are getting to dormancy this Lime Sulphur won’t harm the leaves either; but I think that lime may not be a great material for apricots as it has the ability to raise the pH levels. 

A last smack of Copper spray before budburst should “mop up” the last surviving spores before the flowering and fruiting season begins again. 

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Why I chose it: 

- Difficult vintage (Cyclone Gabrielle) 

- Be guided by vintage ratings but be aware that there are many exceptions 

- Sorting machine takes a photo of every grape and rejects sub-standard fruit. 

What does it taste like?

A rich and flavoursome chardonnay that will be appreciated by fans of the “big and buttery” style. Slightly toffee-ish, mouth-filling wine with enough richness and flavour to handle a mild butter chicken curry. 

Why it’s a bargain:

I’d buy it if it was $40 

Where can you buy it? 

Wine Collective Direct $33.31. Paritua Winery, Hawke’s Bay $25 

Food match?

Roast chicken, most seafood 

Will it keep?

Drink up 

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The "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" would ban TikTok in the US, unless it is sold to a non-Chinese owner.  It passed the House 352-to-65. 
The Senate Leader hasn't decided when the bill will make it to the floor for a vote. There are concerns over free speech restrictions and presidential overreach. 
The driving factor according to the White House: Chinese ownership of ByteDance poses grave national security risks to the United States, including the ability to meddle in elections. It's particularly concerned that the Chinese government could meddle in the algorithm that serves up content. 
Financial Analysts are concerned it could prompt China to retaliate against American's firms' business activities in China. Disney has a theme park, Tesla gets almost of a quarter of its revenue from China, about half of Amazon's third-party partners are from China. But remember, Platforms like Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China. 
TikTok is not going down without a fight. It has called on its 170 million US users to phone and write to their representatives. 
In 2020 the company created a deal with Oracle to separate US user data from the rest of the world, and host that in the US. Arguing this is a breach of the first amendment is likely to be the company takes its lobbying. 

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Apples Never Fall- (TVNZ+) In Apples Never Fall, recent retiree Joy, played by Annette Bening, suddenly disappears. Police are quick to suspect her husband, Stan, a former tennis coach played by Sam Neill, and the mystery forces the couple's four adult children to reevaluate their parents' seemingly perfect marriage. 

Girls5Eva- (Netflix)A '90s girl group with just one hit record gets a second chance at success when a young rapper decides to sample their song. 

The Gentlemen- (Netflix) When cannabis mogul Mickey Pearson plans to sell his profitable marijuana empire following his retirement, it stimulates an array of wrongdoings in the name of greed. 

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Eight events deep into the fourth season, Team New Zealand is vying for the top spot in SailGP. 

This month the race is returning once more to Lyttleton Harbour in Christchurch, giving the kiwis the home-water advantage. 

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have been on the team since New Zealand sailed onto the scene in season two, and the growth they’ve witnessed in the scene is impressive. 

“It’s great for our sport to have a league that’s there,” Tuke told Newstalk ZB’s Jack Tame. 

“To see then the growth of the whole SailGP brand, of the teams individually, viewership numbers all around the world... it’s pretty impressive.” 

Last year was the first year that a leg of the competition was hosted in New Zealand and the support the team received from local fans was amazing, Burling said. 

“Seeing how many people down in, in Lyttleton and Christchurch, you know, got behind us, and it sold out in minutes I think.” 

“It was crazy.” 

Burling and Tuke have been sailing together since 2008 and in those sixteen years they’ve experienced the growth and development not only of SailGP, but of sailing as a whole. 

“The intensities just keep going up,” Burling said. 

Since every team has the same type of boat, winning comes down to the way they use it and the skill of the sailors. Mistakes are costly and events are becoming tighter, with a lot coming down to the fifth race. 

“Everyone’s starting to push the margins harder and harder." 

The competition’s timeframe has also aided in its growth, occurring yearly as opposed to every three or four years like the America’s Cup or the Olympics. 

“The unique thing with the, the GP format is we get such limited time training,” Burling said. 

“We’re having to develop the whole time during these events.” 

While this is great for strengthening the abilities of the racers, it makes it somewhat tricky for newcomers as they don’t have the same level of experience. 

“Getting to grips with everything is the bit that takes time.” 

Burling and Tuke are co-CEOs of the team, which means they not only have to focus on growing their skills on the water, but also growing the business. 

“It’s like any, any start-up business where yeah, it’s not necessarily about those mistakes but how you learn from then, and then grow going forward,” Tuke told Tame. 

Their partnership extends even further than SailGP and Team NZ, the pair establishing the Live Ocean Foundation together out of their deep concern for the health of the ocean and the life within it. 

The charity is partnered with Team NZ, the pair seeing the platform that SailGP could be for connecting new audiences to what’s happening just below the surface. 

It’s a busy year in sailing, with SailGP, the Olympics, and the America’s Cup all taking place, America’s Cup occurring not long after SailGP finishes. 

“We’re incredibly lucky as a sailing team,” Burling said. 

“We get to, you know, practice our trade at the really high level in two sporting competitions, essentially.” 

The America’s Cup is kicking off in August, which means it’s too early to have an idea of how it’ll shake out just yet. Boat launches in April will give the first insight, Burling told Tame, but even then, you can’t be sure how they’ll develop over the coming months. 

“Keep pushing as hard as you can and hope you’re faster than them and racing better at the end.” 

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This dish magically transforms pumpkin from side dish to star performer and I can’t get enough of it. 

Serves 2-4 

Ingredients

750g crown pumpkin (can use butternut), cut into wedges, skin on 

2 tablespoons olive oil 

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses 

1 teaspoon smoked paprika 

½ teaspoon sea salt 

4 tablespoons pumpkin seeds 

Handful parsley, chopped 

Sunflower cream 

½ cup sunflower seeds 

2 tablespoons lemon juice 

1 tablespoons tahini 

¼ cup olive oil 

½ teaspoon sea salt 

Method

Heat oven to 180 C. Line a tray with baking paper. Mix oil, pomegranate molasses and paprika and rub/brush this all over the pumpkin. Lay out on prepared tray, sprinkle with salt and roast for 45 minutes or until pumpkin is soft and cooked through. You can cook the pumpkin for longer and it will only intensify the flavour. Toss in the pumpkin seeds in the final 5-10 minutes and they will toast and puff up. To make the sunflower cream, cover sunflower seeds with warm water and soak for at least 1 hour. Drain. Blitz drained seeds with remaining ingredients in a blender until it is smooth and creamy. Add water if needed to get a creamy consistency. Taste for seasoning and add more lemon juice and/or salt to taste. Serve warm pumpkin drizzled with sunflower cream and scattered with parsley and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Nici’s note: Use kumara or cauliflower in place of pumpkin if you like. 

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Goodbye Julia 

Winner of the Freedom Award at Cannes Film Festival, this Sudanese film sees a married former singer from the north seek redemption for causing the death of a southern man by hiring his oblivious wife as her maid. 

Ricky Stanicky 

Twenty years after creating the imaginary Ricky Stanicky, three childhood friends still use the non-existent pal as a handy alibi for their immature behaviour. When their spouses and partners get suspicious and demand to finally meet him, the guilty trio decides to hire washed-up actor Rod to bring him to life. However, when Rod takes his role of a lifetime a little too far, they begin to wish they never invented Ricky in the first place. 

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Is it a miracle to find that one life partner? Or do we underestimate how many people we could have a successful marriage with? 

Kevin Milne ponders whether getting to know someone in a non-romantic setting is the secret to a long-lasting relationship. 

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A sister to her previous album, Norah Jones has released her 9thstudio album ‘Visions’. 

The album consists of a vibrant and joyful twelve tracks, celebrating the rollercoaster of life, feeling free, and wanting to dance. 

It's a stark contrast to her previous album, 'Pick Me Up Off The Floor', released early in the lockdown of 2020, foreshadowing many of the dark emotions that period invoked.

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The Women by Kristin Hannah 

An intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.  
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. 
 
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over- whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost. 
 
But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam. 

End of Story by A. J. Finn 

“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.” 

So writes Sebastian Trapp, reclusive mystery novelist, to his longtime correspondent Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. With mere months to live, Trapp invites Nicky to his spectacular San Francisco mansion to help draft his life story . . . living alongside his beautiful second wife, Diana; his wayward nephew, Freddy; and his protective daughter, Madeleine. Soon Nicky finds herself caught in an irresistible case of real-life “detective fever.” 
 
“You and I might even solve an old mystery or two.” 
 
Twenty years earlier—on New Year’s Eve 1999—Sebastian’s first wife and teenaged son vanished from different locations, never to be seen again. Did the perfect crime writer commit the perfect crime? And why has he emerged from seclusion, two decades later, to allow a stranger to dig into his past? 
 
“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” 
 
As Nicky attempts to weave together the strands of Sebastian’s life, she becomes obsessed with discovering the truth . . . while Madeleine begins to question what her beloved father might actually know about that long-ago night. And when a corpse appears in the family’s koi pond, both women are shocked to find that the past isn’t gone—it’s just waiting. 

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Career progression seems to be on the back burner for many kiwis. 

Randstand’s latest Workmonitor report found that employees are prioritising flexibility and mental health over career progression. 

Over 27,000 people were surveyed, a thousand of whom were kiwis. 

Dr Dougal Sutherland joined Jack Tame to talk about this new data and offer some tips for businesses who want to proactively address these new priorities. 

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"Situated on the largest island in the archipelago, Grand Terre, New Caledonia’s bustling capital proudly flaunts its oh là là influence as a French overseas territory, where European chic mingles with laid-back Melanesian charm, set amid coconut palms in the swagger of a sea breeze. If you want a tropical island getaway with a little Parisian panache and the best baguettes in the South Pacific, you’ve come to the right place."

Read Mike's full article here.

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I remember Jack telling me he’d harvested his tomatoes in February and was pleased with the crop. 

I reckon that —especially in the North— tomatoes can go on and on and on; here in Canterbury they grow well into autumn (April, May) until the frosts start to play havoc. 

In my tunnel house I carry on harvesting them till June, sometimes July! 

This is what they look like in February/March: 

The green tomatoes are still on the plant. 

These will easily ripen as long as you water and fertilise the plants with a fruit-fertiliser (sufficient Potash – K). Keep trimming the laterals and keep tying up the vines to the stakes. 

Each week I do a thorough harvest of all the tomatoes that are ripe or almost ripe. 

Pink Berkely Tie-Dye is quite lovely coloured and firm, great for fried tomatoes with eggs. 

My biggest crop is F100 (sweet cherry tomatoes) that come in red and Brown-ish hues; The original F 100 is really long-lasting on the plant and keeps going the longest. It’s my standard variety that is best represented in the tunnel house. It’s also the basic tomato for roasted tomato sauce, creating the Bolognese for decent Italian meals 

Another good general processing tomato is “Tigerella”, this one goes on till May at least – sometimes well into June. 

Roasting them is a piece of cake; olive-oil over the top, plus some onions, paprika and later, basil. Not too high in temperature (150 is usually enough), blitz them when done, if you like, and freeze them in ziplock bags and you’ll have tomato sauce for the year. 

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With everyone talking about mortgages and interest rates, it's easy to forget that property is just one part of your overall wealth plan and strategy. 

Hannah McQueen joined Jack Tame for a chat about the considerations people should have towards long-term wealth creation and what homeowners should be preparing for once the housing market has settled again. 

And, if you're not interested in property, how to choose your investment strategy while the markets are down.   

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Xtra says there are 260,000 email accounts which will need to start paying. 

From May 16th, 2024 Xtra Mail will be $9.95 a month, or $5.95 a month if you're a Spark customer with broadband, a monthly mobile plan or a landline (That works out to be $71.40 per mailbox per year, almost $18 million a year for all those customers). 

So where to from here? What are your options? 

If you choose to go somewhere else, Xtra says it has a free email forwarding service.Free services are available from Gmail or Hotmail/Outlook, you may get ads or your data may be used for targeting ads.Microsoft Outlook has the option to go "premium", which is an ad-free experience for $3 a month, or you can bundle it with a Microsoft 365 subscription for $129 a year, or $179 for a family plan. 
 
A .nz domain name is going to be about ~$20 a year, then you need to pay for a mail service on top of that. Fastmail is an option for US$2.50 a month, there are also offerings from Proton Mail (Swiss based), Hey (US based) or Zoho (India based).Google Workspace is US$6 per user per month, and Microsoft 365 is NZ$9.70 a month. 

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Curb Your Enthusiasm 

The final season of the long-running show sees Larry David star as an over-the-top version of himself in this semi-improvised comedy series that shows how seemingly trivial details of day-to-day life can precipitate a catastrophic chain of events. (Neon) 

James Must-A-Pic His Mum a Man  

Imagine being tasked with finding your mum the love of her life in front of the nation. That’s exactly what comedian James Mustapic sets out to do in his new show James Must-a-pic His Mum a Man. Alongside his mum, Janet, the 2023 Celebrity Treasure Island winner will vet potential candidates in the reality/comedy series, ensuring hilarity ensues along the way.(TVNZ+) 

The Regime  

The Regime is an American political satire television miniseries from HBO starring Kate Winslet, depicting a year within the palace of a crumbling authoritarian regime. (Neon) 

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Named by IndieWire as one of the best actors to have never received an Academy Award nomination, Guy Pearce has had quite the prolific career. 

The Aussie actor has stared in over 400 episodes ofNeighbours,L.A. Confidential,Memento, andThe Time Machine, but his breakout role was inThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desertback in 1994. 

He’s returning to kiwi cinemas in a week’s time withThe Convert,the third collaboration between director Lee Tamahori and producer Robin Scholes. 

The film is a historical drama, depicting pre-colonial Aotearoa New Zealand and Māori Culture. A lay preacher arrives at a British settlement in 1830s New Zealand, his violent past is drawn in to question and his faith is put to the test as he finds himself caught in the middle of a bloody conflict between Māori tribes. 

Pearce plays preacher Thomas Munro, telling Newstalk ZB’s Jack Tame that he found the script very raw, moving, and fascinating. 

“It was just very emotional, and I could really see myself as that character.” 

The film is set in a New Zealand context, but the content translates to an international audience, Pearce telling Tame that no matter what the narrative is the idea of a white colonial man taking over or delving into indigenous culture is something that people in many countries can relate to. 

The Convert is more than a two-dimensional depiction of colonialism, director Lee Tamahori aiming to take that narrative and make more of a human story, centring connection and compassion regardless of culture, history, and background. 

For Pearce, the crux of the story was his character’s development. 

“We’re finding a character who’s been traumatised and is looking to find himself and in, in discovering this other culture, he is, he is allowed to then find himself and he therefore owes this other culture.” 

“His life was the crux of the story in a way,” he told Tame. “Certainly for me, selfishly, it was the crux of the story.” 

This project wasn’t the first time Pearce met Tamahori, but it was the first project they’d worked on together, and Pearce said it was beyond his expectations. 

“To witness that wonderful, brilliant intelligence, inspirational kind of outlook that he has, to witness that on a daily level and to be a part of it, and to, you know, he’s so joyful.” 

“He’s got such a beautiful kind of energy, and an inspiring quality that you just want to be around him.” 

Pearce has had an extensive career, and his success means that he can now be discerning in the projects he chooses to be involved in. 

“I just do the things that move me, you know. I’ve always done that.” 

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How To Have Sex  

Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday - drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives. 

20 Days in Mariupol  

As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities. 

Quick mention  

The Oscar’s are on March 11th - we can watch them on Disney+ in NZ. 

Red carpet 11.30am and ceremony 2pm. 

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Late season peach or nectarine crumble is just the best! Make these individual fruit crumbles, they’re fabulous! 

Serves 2 

Ingredients 

2 large peaches or nectarines, halved, stones removed 

1-2 tablespoons golden syrup or maple syrup 

¼ cup rolled oats 

2 tablespoons brown sugar 

1 tablespoon plain flour 

2 tablespoons butter 

Small handful of nuts – almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts – chopped 

Yoghurt, cream and/or ice cream. 

Method 

Heat oven to 180 C and grease a small ovenproof dish. 

Place fruit in dish, cut side up. Generously brush the fruit with golden syrup or maple syrup. 

Mix together dry ingredients and rub in the butter. Add the nuts. 

Fill the holes of the fruit with crumble. Scatter over any leftover crumble. Drizzle in a little water – just enough to cover the bottom of the dish. 

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until fruit is lovely and soft and the crumble is golden. 

Serve with yoghurt, whipped cream and/or ice cream. 

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