Kevin’s been looking at a new tattoo trend: getting a sound wave of a friend or family member’s voice tattooed on your body. 
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It’s more than four years since I live streamed a major sporting event.
I was living in New York and it wasn’t being broadcast on cable TV, the only way to watch the 2015 Cricket World Cup legally was to spend about a hundred bucks on a package that upon reflection wasn’t all that different from Spark’s Rugby World Cup system.
At first I was a bit sceptical. I wondered how well the streaming would work and whether I’d get to see the games I wanted.
But it was fantastic. I could not only watch games, and choose which commentary team I wanted to listen to. I could get up in the morning after missing an entire match, and choose from a whole range of different highlights packages. Did I want the one-minute highlights? If it was Afghanistan vs Ireland, maybe that would suffice. The 10 minute highlights? The half an hour highlights? I could watch whatever I fancied whenever I fancied. I could pause games when I needed to pop out for a beer or let me mates in the front door. And Before you knew it, my place with its live streaming set up became an unlikely hub in Spanish Harlem for anyone who wanted to watch a bit of cricket.
It’s maybe because of that experience that I take live streaming for granted a bit. Of course, I watch Netflix and TVNZonDemand. I live stream sport on Sky’s digital platform. Sometimes there are minor technical glitches. Sometimes the picture quality’s imperfect for a few seconds. But largely, it’s great. In my experience, the convenience of streaming far outweighs any issues. If you added up all the stuff I watch on a screen over the space of a month, I reckon I stream at least 10 hours of content for every hour I watch on regular TV.
But I get it. We Kiwis are hopeless when it comes to change. And for anyone who’s a bit uncomfortable with streaming technology, or anyone with an old TV, or anyone who lives in a place where broadband coverage is a bit average. I can understand why you’re a bit anxious. Easy for me living in Central Auckland or indeed Manhattan, to be perfectly comfortable with a brave new streaming World. But what about the folks tucked away in a remote corner of Golden Bay?
There are a couple of things I’d note.
Firstly, we’re on the cusp of introducing 5G. Before you know it, every device in your life is going to be digitally connected and internet enabled. It’s often pulled out as an example, and I’ll believe it when I see it, but it should only be a couple of years before your toothbrush is telling you when you’re coming down with a cold. As it stands, I already use my phone to live stream video over 4G. Last year I was organising a stag do at the top of the Rotorua luge when we all took a few minutes to gather around my phone for a couple of minutes of the Black Caps tearing through a batting attack. It’s fantastic.
The second is that by investing big-time in sports rights beyond the Rugby World Cup, it’s in Spark’s interest to improve broadband availability around the country, especially in rural areas. Spark wants customers. Sport is not only a new revenue stream. It’s a great hook to bring people over to the company for the core services Spark provides. It will be commercially untenable for Spark to deny services to a large part of country.
We are witnessing a massive in the way we follow sport and consume media in this country. Spark’s new cricket deal is far bigger deal than their Rugby World Cup package. But you needn’t look too far overseas to know this has been on the cards for a while.
You can whinge. Or you can embrace the benefits, and get used to it.

Andrew Dickens has been reviewing Emeli Sande's new album Real Life. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE

Book reviewer Jo McCarroll is reviewing:Three Women – Lisa Taddeo The Giver of Stars - Jojo MoyesLISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE

Sun-toasted and sultry, it’s one of the Caribbean’s hidden gems. Santa Marta is not just the oldest city in Colombia, but South America’s oldest city. It doesn’t instantly arouse you with the breath-taking good looks of Cartagena, but it’s laidback beach vibe, historical pedigree and revivified colonial quarter offer stimulation galore. My ebullient Viva Expeditions guide, Claudia, led me through the city staples, which starts with a visit to Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino. This stately 17th-century hacienda is where the great liberator, Simón Bolívar, spent the last days of his epic life.
Bolívar was a guest of the hacienda’s Spanish owner, Joaquín de Mier, who was a staunch backer of Latin American independence. The hacienda, which produced rum, honey, and sugarcane, has been transformed into a museum that commemorates El Libertador through a series of Bolívar-themed exhibits within the hacienda and monuments that dot the expansive grounds. The hacienda is worth a visit alone for its evocative rooms preserved in period style, which include a chapel and the room where Bolívar died in 1830.
Now doubling as a formal homage to the legend who liberated six countries from Spanish colonial rule, the impressive white-marble memorial is composed of three monumental statues that depict Bolívar in different stages of his life. The hacienda’s grounds are also graced with the lush 22-hectare Jardín Botánico. is a relaxing place to stroll. Adjacent to the hacienda, the eclectic Museo Bolivariano triumphs the work of Latin American artists; don’t miss Alejandro Obregón’s portrait of a withered Bolívar shortly before his death.
From there, Claudia whisked me to the heart of town, where we popped into Museo del Oro. It’s not quite the Aladdin's Cave that you'll find in Bogota, but Santa Marta's gold museum showcases an impressive collection of artifacts and gold from regional tribes, in the former Customs House. Somehow this pre-Columbian gold and ceramics withstood the avarice and bloodlust of the Spanish conquest. I drooled over displays of exquisite jade, copper, and gold work fashioned by the Tayrona and Nahuange, between 200AD and 1600AD.
Lording over the heart of town, the glinting white edifice of Santa Marta Cathedral beckons like a wedding cake, with a romantic aura and reputed to be the oldest church in Colombia. It's a melange of varying architectural styles, but its lofty belltower and stout altar dome underscore its time-honoured grandeur. The remains of Bolivar were buried here until he was reinterred in his birthplace of Caracas in 1842. Legend has it that his heart is still here, hidden in an urn in the cathedral walls.
Lover’s Square gives you an authentic taste of Santa Marta’s personality. Dramatically rejuvenated after decades of decay as a seedy enclave for prostitutes and drug dealers, romance suffuses this made-over square. You’ll see newlyweds posing for pictures in the park’s centrepiece, an ornamental, whitewashed gazebo. Loved-up young things kiss amid potted flowers under burnished street lamps, salsa spills from nearby bars and even elderly couples are spurred into action, with impromptu salsa performances.
Pedestrianised Calle 19, which runs east from the square, is studded with characterful bars, cafes, and restaurants, elegantly painted in a cheerful palate of pastel hues, that increasingly cater to a hip, discerning crowd. The area also abounds with tantalising street food, where backpackers swap stories over arepas. I also soaked up the carnival atmosphere of Plaza Bolivar. With its shoeshine boys, street vendors, mustachioed men playing board games, and couples making out, Plaza Bolívar is your quintessential Latin American square, backed by the elegant mustard-yellow city hall.
The new malecón (boardwalk) funnels south from the gritty port area, to the spiffy new marina, where there is also a small beach. Claudia warned me not to swim here – the water quality isn’t...

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There has been a general call out to drastically cut our consumption of meat to halt climate change. That's because a lot of tropical forest, especially in the Amazon, is being cut to graze more cows.
In the industrialised counties, meat production has moved to industrial factory farms. These are very energy intensive, produce toxic waste, the feed is grown on intensive agriculture monocultural giant farms, and then there is the awful animal rights issues.
This has even happened in NZ, with palm kernelate being used as supplementary feed. But it gives cheap meat because all these downsides are not factored into the true cost of this meat
What can you do if you want to eat guilt free meat?
* Eat less meat anyway and save it for a treat
* Top standard is only organic and especially regenerative once this becomes more available
* Find out more about where your food comes from and try to eat from local producers
* Make those processed meats, bacon ham etc. a special treat and not a staple
* Give up on factory food, who wants meat from animals tortured and living on antibiotics
* Make free range your minimum standard
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Beneficial Plants
This is a good weekend to get into the garden and plan ahead for crops and fruit - and pest control. 
Passive biological control is always a good strategy: Instead of having to spray against the various pests on your plants, why not let the natural predators and parasites do it?The animals you’d want to attract to your place are insectivorous birds, of course, but birds can only do so much. They are often quite omnivorous and will eat a range of insects: pests as well as Beneficial insects!How about getting some specific parasitoids on board; small parasitic wasps that will lay their eggs inside the nuisance caterpillars, in mealybugs, scale in sects and aphids. These parasitoids need to feed as adult insects before they can mate and lay their eggs; Flowers with just the right mix of pollen and nectar will do nicely: it fattens up the parasitoids and keeps them in perfect condition.Here are some of the flowers that will attract them:
Phacelia (blue Tansy); it’s great for predatory hover flies that devour aphids. Sow the seeds now, but watch out if this plant is getting a bit weedy in certain environments.Another excellent flower – this one’s to grab the attention of parasitic wasps - is Buckwheat. A nice small plant with white flowers; it fits in empty spaces and under fruit trees, in berry gardens and productive vegetable gardens.Flowering Umbelliferous plants attract a wide range of beneficial insects: leave your parsley go to flower and “seed”, carrot flowers, Queen Anne’s Lace and such nice umbels of flowers, are usually full of parasitoids and predators too.
Similarly: try some dill and fennel.The mixed seed packets (Kings Seeds etc) that benefit “pollinators” will also benefit the beneficials.Finally: there are a heap of native flowers that seem to be attractive to the beneficials
Hebe is such a flower, but also Manuka and Pohutukawa. Not something you’d sow and utilise within a few weeks or months, but worth thinking about for long-term planting to facilitate free pest control!
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BOB’S BEST BUYS
Wine: Rapaura Springs 2019 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough $18.99
Why I chose it:

Marlborough Sauvignon one of the heroes of the generally excellent 2019 vintage
I’ve just spent 3 days chairing the NZ International Wine Competition where Sauvignon Blanc was one of the more exciting categories
The best wines are just starting to appear on wine shop shelves
Rapaura Springs is a consistent high performer making one of Marlborough’s best wines and certainly the best value wine.

What does it taste like?

It’s a big, rich and powerful Sauvignon in a love it or hate it style that is sometimes described as “sweaty”. The French call this character “box hedge” and if you crush some box hedge leaves you get the exact aroma.
The wine tastes of a lot more than box hedge with plenty of passion fruit and capsicum characters. I love it.
It has deliciously mouth-watering acidity which makes the wine fresh but not too acidic.

Why it’s a bargain:

Serious Sauvignon under $20 are as rare as a Kakapo in Queen Street

Where you can buy it?

My local New World has it for $14.99. I found it at Glengarry and The Good Wine Co for $13.99 which is an even better but. If anyone’s planning to buy a case I recommend buying and tasting one bottle first.

Food match?

This is a pretty robust Sauvignon that will match most seafoods and white meats. I particularly like it with roast chicken (I cook a pretty mean chicken drumsticks layered with thinly sliced lemon).

Will it keep?

It will certainly offer pleasure over the next 2-3 years but it probably won’t improve much in the bottle. Ready for drinking now.

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It’s Microsoft’s turn to show off their new devices
The Surface line has had its annual refresh. There’s now the Surface Pro 7, Surface Pro X, Surface Laptop 3 but the surprise is that Microsoft is once again making a phone.
Meet the Surface Duo.
It’s a phone with two folding 5.6 inch screens. It opens like a book with a 360 degree hinge in the middle making an 8.3 inch screen. It sounds similar to the Samsung Galaxy folding phone - which flopped because it kept breaking - but this is two screens.
The big difference this time around with a Microsoft phone.

It’s not running Windows! It’s running Android. They’ve realised that people want apps to choose from and getting developers to build for their platform is too hard.
It’s got some of the Surface engineering love. The 360 degree hinge is another piece of great innovation. 

Also surprising: you can’t buy this phone yet. It’ll be on sale this time next year. They want to get developers to tweak their Android apps to use dual screens so are giving them plenty of time to do that.Drone delivery just took another step forward..
The FAA has approved UPS to create a drone airline. 
The first use will be a drone delivery network for hospital campuses. What that means exactly is unclear... but it’ll no doubt be just a test case for so much more ahead.
Each drone will be able to fly beyond a pilot’s line of sight, will able to fly at night and will able to carry over 25kgs of stuff. 
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Catherine the Great: Helen Mirren stars in HBO’s sumptuous new historical miniseries about the later years of Russian Tsarina, Catherine the Great (Neon, begins Wednesday 9 October).
Keeping Faith: the second season of the popular Welsh drama about a small town lawyer whose husband mysteriously disappears (UKTV, begins Monday 7 October).
Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK: Drag superstar RuPaul makes the trip to London in search of a British queen with the most charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent (TVNZ OnDemand).
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