a rather embarrassing blunder involving the Premier and her chief-of-staff/chief-dresser, The Colonel . Hester is told he'd helped pick out a chic white suit for the Premier to don for a bunch of official hand-shake type photos of her and co. at Camden. Should have been a run-of-the-mill exercise. Alas, the upper part of the designer suit proved a tad more revealing than our Premier would have liked, as evidenced by the set of cheeky photos that emerged from the darkroom. Unfortunately, the lab technician who developed the saucy pics sent them on to our Leader without as much as a second glance; needless to say she was livid.

Hester's told the poor photographer who took them came in for a personal tongue lashing by Ms Smith while The Colonel, who also got an earful, was devastated by the faux pas. Hester hears GIS spent this week touching up the photos with every bit of modern technology available to them and they are now fit for public eyes! Hester's wondering what's going on at Bermuda's training ground for the hotel industry, the Stonington Beach Hotel. Apparently high-paid Bermudian management consultant Charles O'Brien who was hired to fix the money-losing Government-run resort's problems hasn't performed any miracles yet. Hester hears four chefs quit suddenly last week leaving the kitchen in a bind and adding to general manager Esan Frederick's anxieties.

Now Hester hears there are a few industry insiders who are incredulous that Mr. O'Brien is racking up thousands of dollars in travel bills at the taxpayer's expense. She can reveal Mr. O'Brien's latest travel schedule has him in NYC and Jamaica this week, and Chicago, LA and NYC again in November and December. This on top of Baltimore and Boston in September. The total bill: $2,550! Hester eagerly awaits his five-year-plan to re-position Stonington as Bermuda's premier training base.

Premier Smith has no plans for a Cabinet reshuffle until possibly after the Government's overhaul of the Civil Service -- the first since 1980 -- is finito, which Hester hears should be very shortly. Now if there is a minor reshuffle of Ministers, Hester can reveal with a degree of certainty that one post Labour Minister Paula Cox will not be getting is that of Transport Minister; she hears the esteemed Ms Cox cannot drive yet and has to walk, take cabs or hitch rides everywhere! A report in Hester's newspaper this week that "greedy employers'' may be taking advantage of the national pension scheme to slash in-house retirement benefits has workers buzzing Island-wide, especially at Shell, which is reported to have told staff at their East End HQ that they will scrap the company "gratuity plan'', which can be worth up to 105 weeks pay when employees retire.

Hester's well-oiled sources say Shell staff are obviously not too happy about it, but the money-saving moves are compounded by the perceived extravagances of the multi-national corp's management. Hester hears the company is subsidising English general manager John Vickerman's robust rent at Willoughby, that large stately white house on Bailey's Bay. She hears it's been rented to him and his family on a two-year-lease for well over $10,000 a month. Hester's sure he will retire well! Perhaps it has something to do with the Island's heated atmosphere at times, but Bermuda's bees are apparently more aggressive than Florida's, according to a bee inspector who came to survey the Island's 319 beehives in April at the request of Government. Department of Agriculture assistant Thomas Sinclair reports that while inspecting the hives, he and the Florida "apiary inspector'' were stung 200 times in just two weeks -- partly because they are not allowed to wear gloves while opening up the hives for fear of transferring disease.

Still, life could be worse...you could be a male bee. Males -- called drones -- spend their days flying around looking for a queen to mate with.

"If successful,'' Mr. Sinclair reports, "his life is ended as his genitalia is ripped out at the end of the mating flight.'' Er, unsuccessful drones return to the hives where they are fed and cared for by worker bees. That sounds like a recommendation for abstinence -- except when there is a nectar shortage, the drones are banished from the hive, presumably to starve to death. On second thoughts, Hester thinks the bees may be on to something...

She isn't one of the favourite Royals for nothing! Squeezing 23 public-good events into the space of barely three days in Bermuda, Hester can reveal the likable Princess Anne's whirlwind private visit came in the midst of a spot of troubling news. UK Police were yesterday investigating a mysterious break-in at Buckingham Palace itself, at Princess Anne's fourth floor office! No arrests have been made yet and it wasn't clear if anything was stolen from her desk.

Hester is sure that the Princess Royal will be taking a personal interest in this burglary -- at one of the best-protected homes in the world. HRH is president of the nonprofit group Crime Concern which encourages citizens to join neighbourhood watches. Perhaps it's time she staked out the Big Palace since the latest Royal crime is one of several breaches of security there recently.

P.s. The Princess' courtesy meeting with Premier Jennifer Smith at Government House yesterday was described as "extremely brief'', by Hester's sources.

Opposition Leader Pamela Gordon is scheduled to "receive'' the Princess today at Government House.

Now there's no denying this newspaper's former Editor David L. White has his enemies in local social and political circles, but apparently he is held in the highest regard by our American friends. Hester has learned her old boss's Vermont prep school decided to honour DLW this past Saturday with an award for "outstanding alumni''. Unfortunately in his eminent role as chairman of the National Gallery, he was unable to fly out Friday to pick up his prize, given the opening of the major new Acorean art show and preparations for Princess Anne's visit. Hester hears the prep school wouldn't hear of it and promptly made arrangements for DLW to fly up on the early flight on Saturday -- and then found a swanky private plane to fly him from New York City direct to Vermont in time for the shindig, at which, Hester hears, he gave a very well-received speech.

Flying visits: The Princess Royal is escoreted into Tuesday night's National Gallery fundraiser by chairman David L. White (centre) and Governor Thorold Masefield.