SPECIAL GUEST:

Mick Fleetwood

Love that Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac by Mick Fleetwood is a leather bound signed collector’s book, $790

A limited edition of 2000 copies worldwide with 50 copies only in New Zealand, available exclusively from Hedleys Books Masterton and in their pop up at Karen Walker Playpark Newmarket.

Details at 06 378 2875 or buy online at [www.hedleysbooks.co.nz]www.hedleysbooks.co.nz

 

FRANCESCA RUDKIN: Movies

Borg vs McEnroe starring Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf, and Sverrir Gudnason

Francesca’s verdict: 3.5 out of 5

 

Menashe starring Menashe Lustig, Yoel Falkowitz, Ruben Niborski

Deep in the heart of New York's notoriously secretive Hasidic Jewish community, Menashe, a good-hearted but somewhat hapless grocery store clerk, struggles against tradition to keep custody of his only son after his wife passes away.

Francesca’s verdict: 4 out of 5

 

NICI WICKES: Food

It's time to talk Christmas and recipes for the the Christmas table!  Let's start with a gorgeous pavlova with roasted plums! The recipe and audio are on our page or for or more inspiration visit  http://www.niciwickes.oom/  or her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/niciwickes

 

TARA WARD: Screen Time

Dancing with the Stars NZ is back for 2018

 

The big winner at last week's NZ Television Awards, Jean is a Kiwi drama worth another look (TVNZ On Demand)

 

New Australian drama Sisters lands on TVNZ on Demand (from December 11)

 

Series 5 of Vikings is on Lightbox now

 

PAUL STENHOUSE: Technology

Facebooks’ new - rather controversial - Messenger service for Kids

Kids from age six to 12 are being targeted with a new “kid friendly” messenger service.

Safety has apparently been built in from the get-go, with parents explicitly approving  contacts the kid can contact. 

It’ll be ad free, in-app purchase free, and will only collect “little data” about the usage.

The fear - it’s getting kids addicted too early in life.

It’s part of Facebook’s strategy to hit 2 billion people. It’ll launch globally by the end of the year.

 

Alexa is coming to New Zealand! Hurray!

Reports suggest it’ll be Early 2018. Get set for great times with your new best friend!

The Google Home is already available in New Zealand.

Apparently.. according to reports.. The NZ Herald, TVNZ, Newstalk ZB, Sky News Australia and Air New Zealand skills will be available.

 

BOB CAMPBELL: Wine

Bob's best buy: Grant Burge 2016 Barossa Ink Shiraz $18.99

I tasted it in a line-up of Aussie reds – it was a stand-out wine in terms of value. It’s a classic and traditional Barossa style with masses of plum, dark berry, liquorice and chocolate/mocha flavours. My daughter once described a similar wine as “a big cuddly red that puts its arms around you” which just about sums it up. There is nothing subtle about this wine – It’s a truly blockbuster style with plenty of everything, especially flavour and alcohol. If you like red wine offering heaps of bang for your buck this Shiraz delivers exactly that.

 

I did a search online and could only find it on sale at Glengarry’s Auckland stores but it’s the sort of wine that you could find on supermarket shelves. If it isn’t there it should be – supermarkets would sell truckloads of a wine like this, even at its full price of $18.99 which seems rather cheap to me.

 

This is a classic match for rich, smoky-flavoured red meat from the barbecue, in fact it is exactly what I plan to drink with the butterflied leg of lamb I plan to cook tonight on a new charcoal barbecue that my wife bought me for my birthday. It was a brave move on her part to buy me a barbecue. A bit like me buying her a hat, which I did once, and it was a disaster. I prefer slow-cooked meat such as lamb shanks with bottle aged Shiraz that’s 10 years or more old. The savoury richness in the wine seems to perfectly match the melt-in-your-mouth richness of braised lamb or beef, or even duck for that matter.

 

The wine is so approachable now that I’d find it hard to justify leaving it for five or ten years, but wines like this big, rich and intense Aussie Shiraz can certainly become mellower and more interesting with bottle age. A few friends and I charted a boat for a few days fishing offshore and it was my job to supply the wine. I ratted through my cellar and put together a case of big Aussie Shiraz that were at least 15 years old and really needed drinking. The wines were fantastic! Much better than I’d imagined. That experience encouraged me to buy some more.

 

Bob’s website is http://bobcampbell.nz

 

MIKE YARDLEY: Travel

Hallstatt, Austria - For more tips on dipping into this pin-up Austrian village, Mike's article is on our website[www.newstalkzb.co.nz/lifestyle]www.newstalkzb.co.nz/lifestyle

 

CATHERINE RAYNES: Books

Code name Suzette by Anne Nelson, Allen and Unwin $33

Drawn Out  - A seriously funny memoir by Tom Scott, Allen and Unwin $45

 

ANDREW DICKENS: Music

U2 'Songs of Experience' -  Andrew's verdict: 7 out of 10

So this is U2 tamed. The songs are tempered by a sense of growing mortality.  That the road is coming to an end. Not the anti-Trump fire and brimstone I was expecting. Musically it feels like an album made with radio play in mind.  To that end, Ryan Tedder’s hand is obvious in it.  The passion is oddly missing. But the thing about U2 is that they didn’t need to steal other people’s tricks to make hits.  They used to make new tricks up.  So if it was a new band coming up you’d say this was a good step up, but for U2 it feels like the start of a slide down.