Finance Minister Eugene Cox is certainly not one to have his words of wisdom interrupted, particularly during his annual moment in the limelight - presenting the Government's spending plans for the coming 12 months.

But while the holder of the Island's purse strings managed to wade through his mammoth monologue in the House of Assembly last Friday with only the odd slip-up, Hester can reveal Cox Sr. had an altogether more testing time during his post-Budget Speech press conference.

No, it wasn't the pack of baying hacks that were trying to interrupt the financial whiz-kid's flow with taxing questions on tax - but rather one of several Cabinet colleagues who attended the media meet as ‘a sign of support' for their Finance Minister.

On four separate occasions, Mr. Cox had his train of thought derailed by an annoying bleep coming from the mobile phone of none other than Transport Minister Ewart Brown - the very same Minister who put in a challenge for Mr. Cox's job during Arthur Hodgson's ill-fated bid for the leadership of the party 18 months or so ago.

Is the ambitious doctor plotting another political move upwards? Watch this space.

@EDITRULE:

Then again, from what Hester can gather, it wouldn't have mattered a jot had the Finance Minister been gagged throughout his Budget delivery, such is the malaise on the Island for all things fiscal.

One poor Royal Gazette hack, sent out with a photographer earlier this week to get some Budget reaction from the man on the street, returned to the office some time later without having even opened his notepad.

Asking a dozen or so members of the public for their reaction to last Friday's events in the House on the Hill, the intrepid hack received the same stock answer - “I don't really know or care”.

@EDITRULE:

Never a keen follower of sports, Hester has not exactly been lapping up media coverage of the Olympian goings-on in Utah over the past few weeks.

But one news item that did grab her attention concerned the popularity of red roses at the winter Games on Valentine's Day last Thursday.

Apparently the crimson blooms have been selling like hot cakes, with a dozen stems, decoratively packaged in a cobalt blue vase with a ribbon showing the flags of the nations taking part in the Games, proving popular.

But the biggest seller was a simple arrangement of a dozen roses - served up plain without any packaging - for a “pricey” $95.

And the cost of the same dozen flowers at any Island gas station on Valentine's Day? No less than $120. No wonder Hester was not greeted by a fleet of florist delivery vans pulling up outside her door last Thursday morning. And no wonder our visitors are staying away in their thousands.

@EDITRULE:

While the flowers might not have been flowing chez Hester on the most romantic day of the year last week, your columnist did manage to steal away for a romantic weekend break at one of the Island's top hotels.

And it seems romance was obviously on the minds of management at the South Shore resort - the temperature was so cold that snuggling up to a warm body was not an alternative but a must.

Hester was finally forced to telephone reception and was informed that, in an effort to save cash, the hotel's heating system had been switched off - in the middle of February!

Staff did promise to deliver a portable heater to Hester's suite but even this failed to materialise. One hour and another phone call later the heater was downgraded to an extra blanket. And all this from a four star resort.

Tsk tsk. Perhaps a weekend watching winter sports in Utah might have proved warmer - as well as cheaper - than staying at home.

@EDITRULE:

Hester had to laugh at the grief currently being dished out to new New York Mayor and more-than-part-time Island resident Michael Bloomberg. One US newspaper even plastered a mugshot of the ever absent multi-millionaire on a milk carton as if he were a missing person following reports that Mr. B was taking another break from his duties as the Big Apple's chief bureaucrat in Bermuda.

Hester cannot confirm or deny whether UBP MP and dairy don Michael Dunkley is planning a similar stunt whenever Jennifer Smith takes a well deserved break.

On Mike's return to the Big Apple, it was reported that he was tanned - casting doubt on whether he was really in Bermuda, given the Salt Lake City-like temperatures that wracked the Island over the weekend

@EDITRULE:

Spotted in The Daily's classified section this week: “Experienced Bermudian Sitter Required”. Judging from the amount of “sitting” that goes on on Warwick's Middle Road, St. Monica's Mission and various other locales across the Island, Hester wonders if this post really needed to be advertised.