new term this week that caused her to realise the years have crept up on her.

With many students venturing off to further their schooling overseas Hester felt it an appropriate time to share the term with others in her age bracket.

sexile sex isle n 1. : when you (or, more likely, your child) are exiled from your room because your roommate is having...well, shall we say, a conjugal visit.

Hester wonders what's been going on at the personnel department of Bermuda College. Perhaps to maintain the high intellectual standards of the College's staff, the department is now requiring job applicants for certain positions to submit university transcripts along with their CVs.

A recent recruitment ad for a communications manager (after eyeing it with interest, Hester's not quite sure if it's a move up in the world) stipulated that the applicant have at least five years relevant experience, but they still had to supply official transcripts of their academic record (where would Hester be now if similar demands were made of her?) What she would like to know is if Bermuda College grades count.

With all this talk about reducing the number of MPs to as few as 20, Hester can't help but wonder who shall stay and who shall go. She has a few ideas, but cannot be certain -- except maybe in the case of one PLP MP from St.

George's South. With all of the heckling that goes on between the two sides of the House and numerous outspoken MPs, Hester must admit that Arthur Pitcher seems, well, a bit passive; in fact, of the few times that Mr. Pitcher has shown up, she can't actually recall him saying anything. And the fact has not gone unnoticed by St. David's Islanders: Hester was in deep East End country this weekend and the residents, many of them his kin, voiced dissapointment with his lack of vitality.

Life really is a beach in Bermuda, especially when you own it. Hester understands that to be the case for a principal of the Beach who is said to have laid out a cool $1.5 million, no mortgage, for a house he bought last week. Hester will drink to your health, as you seem to be doing well in the other departments. Cheers! All political parties can be excused when they engage in hyperbole about their leaders, but Hester thought that Progressive Labour Party flack, oops, public relations officer, Corey Butterfield was stretching things a tad in yesterday's Bermuda SUNshine tabloid when he compared Premier Jennifer Smith to Nelson Mandela.

Some of the comparisons may even hold water. After all, the PLP and the ANC both won elections after decades without power. But to claim that Ms Smith has had a tougher time in some ways than the Nobel Prize winner is pushing it, even for a great admirer of Madam Premier like Hester.

To be sure, criticism in Bermuda can get tough for anyone, but even being a talk show victim of De Silver Fox pales in comparison with spending decades in Robben Island.

Hester also takes issue with UBP MP Kim Young who out of a clear blue sky started talking about increasing the age of retirement. Well, Mrs. Young, Hester is still quite a ways off from that day, and although she may well need to work to pay for the prescriptions she may need from you at that time, please allow her to dream fairytale dreams to the contrary.

At any rate, if this is something that will have to be looked at 20 years down the road, well, Mrs. Young, we'll take a look at it then, when you might be Mrs. Old.

Hester got a sneak peak at the Outlook on Tourism published in today's Royal Gazette .

While she is all in favour of Bermuda being kept up to date on the latest happenings in the all important tourism industry, she couldn't help but wonder at the headline on page 3 of the newsletter, CHIC in Cancun. For there was Tourism Minister, David Allen , posing with a group of people wearing a rather snazzy safari shirt.

After wondering if Mr. Allen's shirt will be on display in the House of Assembly now that the new dress code has been approved, she read on and learned that the headline actually applied to the Caribbean Hotel Industry Conference. Very clever.

Nelson Mandela: On Easy Street?