Hester is pleased to report it appears local legal eagle Llewellyn Peniston has stopped running his practice from a popular Hamilton breakfast hot spot.

Readers may recall how loud Llew was berated in this column for holding court over a cappuccino, regularly firing off legal instructions and discussing client affairs down his mobile phone... much to the annoyance of regular patrons.

So has the homeless attorney finally found an office? Alas not. It now seems Llew has moved his practice to the driver's seat of his flashy Peugeot convertible.

Hester understands he was so engrossed in a conversation last Sunday lunchtime - no doubt working on another meticulously prepared defence - that he didn't even appear to notice two toddlers wearing bright orange T-shirts and their father who had just stepped onto the pedestrian crossing outside the Aquarium in Flatts.

Blindly driving past them and through the crossing, Hester has to wonder if he was working on a traffic case?

Although the possessor of the Island's most poisonous pen, it's rare that Hester comes in for any serious flak from the scandal-ridden subjects of her scurrilous gossip. Nevertheless, Hester feels obliged to make a public apology following the publication of last week's column.

No, it wasn't a newly appointed Minister's over-the-airwaves denial of her antics at a certain Front Street restaurant that have brought on the backtrack, but some correspondence from an obviously charming young gent who happened to win a brand new motor in a raffle.

Seeing an advert for the same model - "never driven" - in the classifieds shortly after, your columnist put two and two together and assumed that the lucky winner had put his prize up for sale - and drew the caustic observation in last week's column that some people were never happy with their lot.

This week the mystery winner contacted Hester with the following response. "As strange as this coincidence is, the car advertised was not mine. I'm actually very happy with it and have no plans of selling it. Just wanted to set the record straight."

Quite right too and something that Hester is more than willing to do publicly - as she always is whenever she gets her facts wrong. Isn't that right Renee?

And the champagne-swilling antics of our glorious leader(s) continue. Basking in the limelight at last weekend's Women in Public Life Conference celebratory dinner - the highlight of the event - Madam Premier was obviously in her element as she was toasted by such luminaries as Cherie Blair and First Lady Bernadette Christie of the Bahamas.

But toasted with what exactly? Hester's sources inform her that, shortly after sitting down, Madam Premier's reinstated right hand man, The Colonel, noted something amiss with the table settings.

He grimaced, he flung down his napkin, stormed off on a reconnaissance mission, before finally returning triumphantly with his trophy - a glass of Madam P's favourite tipple.

So while The Prem was more than willing to raise her glass of fizz at every frequently proclaimed toast, her companions had to swill down ... iced tea of all things - a beverage most of the esteemed guests were clearly ...er, unfamiliar with.

Oh well, Hester supposes they could always have eaten cake instead.

And finally... Hester's hack chums are continually complaining about the inefficiency of the boys and girls at Government Information Services. Phone in with a question and the official Government reply can take weeks to come back.

That's not the case when it comes to handing out information about themselves, it would seem. On Monday The Daily's newsdesk received a fax from GIS announcing that it had changed its name to the Department of Communication and Information - very grand indeed and an important fact that members of the public had to be told of immediately. So important in fact that the same memo was faxed through a total of three times to The Daily - and four times to ZBM's newsdesk.

So will the name change help DCI fulfil its mission statement "to proactively develop public awareness of Government activities..."? Hester suspects that Island media types will now start referring to it as the Department of Communication and Mis-Information.