MQTT newbie troubles

Just as a follow up I am testing with a pico wifi, eMQ as the broker, I see random errors with this code on the device:

var server = "ubuntu.home"; // the ip of your MQTT broker
var options = { // all optional - the defaults are below
  client_id : getSerial(), // the client ID sent to MQTT - it's a good idea to define your own static one based on `getSerial()`
  keep_alive: 60, // keep alive time in seconds
  port: 1883, // port number
  clean_session: true,
  username: "stephen", // default is undefined
  password: "*****",  // default is undefined
  protocol_name: "MQTT", // or MQIsdp, etc..
  protocol_level: 4, // protocol level
};
var mqtt = require("MQTT").create(server, options /*optional*/);

mqtt.on('connected', function() {
  mqtt.subscribe("test/espruino");
});

mqtt.on('publish', function (pub) {
  console.log(JSON.stringify(pub));
  console.log("topic: "+pub.topic);
  console.log("message: "+pub.message);
});

var WIFI_NAME = "****";
var WIFI_OPTIONS = { password : "****" };

var wifi = require("EspruinoWiFi");

function getPage() {
  require("http").get("http://www.pur3.co.uk/hello.txt", function(res) {
    console.log("Response: ",res);
    res.on('data', function(d) {
      console.log("--->"+d);
      mqtt.publish("test/espruino", d);
    });
  });
}

function makeid()
{
    var text = "";
    var possible = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789";

    for( var i=0; i < 5; i++ )
        text += possible.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * possible.length));

  console.log('makeid: '+text);
  return text;
}

function postIt()
{
  var msg = "MSG: " + makeid();
  mqtt.publish("test/espruino", msg);
}

wifi.connect(WIFI_NAME, WIFI_OPTIONS, function(err) {
  if (err) {
    console.log("Connection error: "+err);
    return;
  }
  console.log("Connected!");
  wifi.getIP(function (err, res) {
    if (!err) {
      console.log(res.ip);
      mqtt.connect();
    } else {
      console.log(err);
    }
  });
  getPage();
  ts = setInterval(function() {postIt();}, 20000);
});

It seems to randomly add \xD0\x00 to the message.

Console.log

 1v91 Copyright 2016 G.Williams
>
=undefined
Connected!
192.168.1.226
Client connected
Response:  httpCRs {
  "headers": {
    "Date": "Tue, 04 Apr 2017 19:19:23 GMT",
    "Server": "Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)",
    "Last-Modified": "Fri, 15 Nov 2013 15:42:26 GMT",
    "ETag": "\"d-4eb390b887c80\"",
    "Accept-Ranges": "bytes",
    "Content-Length": "13",
    "Connection": "close",
    "Content-Type": "text/plain"
   },
  "httpVersion": "1.1",
  "statusCode": "200",
  "statusMessage": "OK"
 }
--->Hello World!
MQTT connection accepted
{"topic":"test/espruino","message":"from server","dup":0,"qos":0,"retain":1}
topic: test/espruino
message: from server
makeid: gRQRa
undefined
Uncaught Error: Field or method "topic" does not already exist, and can't create it on undefined
 at line 1 col 88
...lish",c),a.emit("message",c.topic,c.message);else if(d!==f.P...
                              ^
in function called from system
 at line 2 col 28
  console.log("topic: "+pub.topic);
                           ^
in function called from system
MQTT unsupported packet type: 0
[MQTT]0,13,116,101,115,116,47,101,115,112,114,117,105,110,111,77,83,71,58,32,103,82,81,82,97
makeid: sJZwi
{"topic":"test/espruino","message":"MSG: sJZwi\xD0\x00","dup":0,"qos":0,"retain":0}
topic: test/espruino
message: MSG: sJZwiÐ
makeid: kL0LJ
{"topic":"test","message":"","dup":0,"qos":0,"retain":0}
topic: test
message:
Uncaught Error: Unknown Timeout
 at line 2 col 149
...ACK)if(clearTimeout(a.ctimo),c=c.charCodeAt(3),0===c)a.conne...
                              ^
in function called from system
makeid: GJTbH
{"topic":"test/espruino","message":"MSG: GJTbH\xD0\x00","dup":0,"qos":0,"retain":0}
topic: test/espruino
message: MSG: GJTbHÐ
makeid: pUTU1
undefined
Uncaught Error: Field or method "topic" does not already exist, and can't create it on undefined
 at line 1 col 88
...lish",c),a.emit("message",c.topic,c.message);else if(d!==f.P...
                              ^
in function called from system
 at line 2 col 28
  console.log("topic: "+pub.topic);
                           ^
in function called from system
MQTT unsupported packet type: 6
[MQTT]101,115,116,47,101,115,112,114,117,105,110,111,77,83,71,58,32,112,85,84,85,49
makeid: 6QAbL
{"topic":"test/espruino","message":"MSG: 6QAbL\xD0\x00","dup":0,"qos":0,"retain":0}
topic: test/espruino
message: MSG: 6QAbLÐ
makeid: demXD
{"topic":"tes","message":"","dup":0,"qos":0,"retain":0}
topic: tes
message:
MQTT unsupported packet type: 7
[MQTT]116,47,101,115,112,114,117,105,110,111,77,83,71,58,32,100,101,109,88,68
>