Hester has to say that if there's one characteristic she can't tolerate it's unpunctuality. Nevertheless she must confess she was left feeling a little like Cinderella following a recent night in town.

Certainly some of Bermuda's nightclubs were a bit overzealous in their time keeping on Saturday night -- or rather Sunday morning -- when the Island switched to daylight savings time.

Hester somehow ended up in the Oasis nightspot for the latter part of the evening. No, it is not the sort of place she normally frequents, but The Kennel Boys are one of the best live bands on the Island and they are so nice and wholesome.

Vodka and tonic in hand, yours truly was just about to wade into the crowd for a spot of light pogoing (although at her age Hester desists from stage diving) when she realised that the band were winding up their set.

Time certainly does fly when you're having fun but Hester was sure the clock hadn't struck three -- the normal hour for The Kennel Boys to leave the building.

It seems the powers that be decided that the clocks were to go forward by one hour at 2 a.m. precisely. As a result, Hester's evening was brought to an all-too-sudden close at two on the dot -- which was now three if you see what she means.

Hester only hopes that, come October, the club will keep to the same rule and put the clocks back an hour at 2 a.m., giving everybody a chance to retrieve their lost hour back.

Ironically, while on a recent flight back from New York, Hester decided to pass a few idle minutes reading some tourism blurb about the wonders of the Island.

Imagine her surprise when she read in the promo that it was possible to "dance until dawn'' in Hamilton's nightspots.

Perhaps Tourism Minister David Allen should pull this false literature immediately or force all bars to change their name to 24/7.

Speaking of Mr. Allen, Hester recently spotted our tourism maestro driving out of Miles Market to turn right onto Pitts Bay Road.

The problem was your correspondent was attempting to drive into the entrance at the time -- and had full right of way.

Obviously not realising who was in the other car, Mr. Allen pulled right out, forcing Hester to slam on the brakes. Our tourism supremo then sped off into town without so much as a wave of thanks or friendly toot of the horn.

Not the sort of thing that boosts the Island's image surely? And from a man who insists we all play our part for tourism by being polite and considerate to visitors.

Mr. Allen's driving habits aside, Hester is glad to reveal that our reputation as the friendliest of people is known world-wide.

But that doesn't mean our Immigration Officers are not prepared to ruthlessly enforce the rules to the letter when dealing with our overseas visitors.

Hester hears of one arriving family who were greeted at the Airport recently by a smiling official who kindly asked if he could inspect the pair's return air tickets.

Our happy holidaymakers had just flown in from a certain island currently being consumed by floods, mad cow and foot and mouth disease and plagues of locusts and were looking forward to their stay.

Already soaking up the spirit of Bermuda's friendly atmosphere and sense of fun, one of our guests quipped: "Actually we don't have any return tickets -- we're staying here for good, thanks.'' Hester is not sure whether a full body search ensued but the she understands the officer's stern look produced said tickets pronto. There are some things that you just don't joke about.

Hester is always reluctant to take a swipe at her sisters in the media but, well, has anyone else noticed the lovely Charmaine Burgess acting a little confused lately? Perhaps the problem stems from the fact that telecommunications company Cable and Wireless seems to be in the news a lot lately.

The VSB In-action news anchor has read out several reports about the company in recent weeks and quoted live on air comments made by the company's spokeswoman in response to reporters' questions.

And the always-anonymous spokeswoman at C&W? None other than the very busy Ms Burgess who spends her working day on Church Street before nipping off to Barker's Hill every evening for her nightly television appearance.

Sometimes the poor girl must wonder whether she's coming or going.

Finally, Hester received a letter this week from a confused sailor putting a poser to Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown.

Hester's correspondent writes: "We were wondering if there was any truth to the rumour we heard yesterday or if someone was playing April Fool with us.

"Is Minister Brown thinking of putting the up-linked GPS (General Positioning Satellite) units previously destined for the taxi industry on commercial fishing boats, so that we can now track the movement of every fishing boat?'' Hester thinks the good doctor should come clean.