The new theatre season at The Princess Hotel in Hamilton will get underway this week with the romantic comedy Wrong for Each Other, by Norm Foster.

Directed by Carol Birch, the comedy stars Helen Coffey and Nick Moore. The play will take to the stage on Thursday, January 28 and will run every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights until March 3.

Tickets for The Gazebo Lounge performances can be booked through the Canadian Pacific Princess Hotel at 295-3000.

Theatre tickets are $25, dinner/theatre tickets $60.

*** The Bermuda National Gallery's Film Series will this week feature the Australian film The Wide Sargasso Sea.

The film is about a plantation owner who fears that she is losing her sanity as her marriage disintegrates in Jamaica during the mid-1800s.

The film will be shown at City Hall on Tuesday, January 26. Doors open at 6.15 p.m. and the film gets underway at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $2.50 for Bermuda National Gallery members and $6 for non-members.

*** Members of the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard who are interested in displaying their pieces in the Open Members Show will have to act fast.

Tomorrow is the deadline for artists to bring in their pieces of art.

The Open Members Show is a juried show, that has no theme, but is open to all exhibiting members.

*** A former local meteorologist's article about Bermuda and the 1997 Atlantic hurricane season has been published in a recent issue of a top weather magazine.

The Royal Meteorological Society's Weather magazine carried the four-page article by former Serco Aviation Services' forecaster Jimmy James in its December, 1998 issue.

Lt. James, who is now serving in the Royal Air Force's Mobile Meteorological Unit in Southern Italy, focused mainly on Hurricane Erika in his piece.

He noted that 1997 was a quiet year overall for the Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico region as there were only seven named tropical storms of which only three became hurricanes.

This compared to 1996 which featured 13 tropical storms and nine hurricanes and 1995 which was also busy.

Lt. James features Hurricane Erika which started September 3 and became a hurricane two days later. By September 8 Erika was a category three hurricane and was bearing down on Bermuda but it turned, making its closest approach to the Island some 583 kilometres east-south-east.

By September 16, Erika was extra tropical and despite being long-lived, it had spent all its life over the open sea.

Lt. James then turns his attention to Bermuda's unusual rainfall during 1997 when the Island received 1771.6 millimetres of rain -- 27.5 percent more than the average annual rainfall of 1389.3 millimetres.

Distribution was particularly uneven, he continued, with there being some very dry months and some exceedingly wet ones.

The topic of rainfall, concluded Lt. James, is a matter of very intense discussion on an Island of 138 square kilometres upon which some 60,000 people are crammed and most of them depend upon what comes off their roofs for all domestic water resources.

*** Developers of the Diversity Institute of Bermuda have applied to incorporate the innovative training programme.

Ernestine Degraff, Cummings Zuill, Stephen Emery, Kathryn Hykes, and Colette Lundy published the notice of incorporation in the Official Gazette.

The course -- which is run jointly by the Bermuda College and NTL Institute of Applied Behavioural Sciences in Washington, DC -- aims to foster greater understanding among individuals from different backgrounds.

The institute establishment was one of the goals for 1999 promoted by Sir John Swan during last year's Commencement ceremony at the Bermuda College.

A business management institute and four-year programme were also listed as potential developments for the school this year.

*** An appeal has gone out from the Hands of Love Ministry for some used computer equipment.

"We are not asking for the earth -- if one of the companies out there which is buying new equipment, for example, would give us a computer they are no longer using, it would be a real boon to us,'' said Fern Wade, who runs the ministry from its Camp Hill headquarters.

Two other buildings have been secured which the Hands of Love Ministry hopes to make operational next year. As the ministry grows, the need for administrative discipline grows with it.

Ms Wade said that companies had, in the past, contributed computer equipment to the ministry. "We've had three donations, which were very much appreciated, but the equipment was outdated,'' she said.

Ms Wade said that the ministry did not need anything very sophisticated.

"Ideally, we'd like a machine with a printer,'' she said. "I have the financial statements to do, which would be easier with a computer, and we would also use the machine to keep track of supplies and furniture.'' The charity, which is charged with feeding families in need, has been helping out people on the streets for seven years.

Last October, it moved into its new premises. The ministry is not government-funded, but relies on the generosity of Bermuda residents.

"A computer which one of our big Bermuda companies might not have much use for could help us transform the administrative management of the ministry,'' said Ms Wade.

Anyone who might be able to help is asked to call Fern Wade at the Hands of Love Ministry at 238-7368.